Srebrenica

On Monday night, Women in Black had our Srebrenica vigil in Belgrade. I was a bit scared and nervous beforehand (last year, tear gas was thrown at the vigil) and was happy to have my brother standing at my back. It passed without incident – someone yelled “ustasha” (which doesn’t make sense, my brother pointed out. Why would the Croatian fascists commemorate the massacre of Bosnian Muslims?) We had a police escort back to the office. It was my first police escort.

The following day, we headed to Potocare, Bosnia for the commemoration there. The 500 bodies identified in the past year were buried. It was hot, really hot, and we were all wearing black-not good for keeping cool, which lent itself to some dark humor, ‘how could they have gotten up the energy for a massacre. It’s too hot. . . no wonder those Dutch peacekeepers let the enclave fall –who could fight in this heat?’ Morbid, I know.

I’m sorry.