FEMYSO calls for international action to secure sustainable peace in Bosnia & Herzegovina

As the voice of Muslim Youth in Europe we call for immediate action to avoid grave consequences in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH).

As an organisation we find it a complete dereliction of duty that numerous governments and multilateral institutions have remained silent in response to recent actions taken by Republika Srpska to cause division and escalate tensions in BiH.

The Dayton agreement signed in December 1995 provided a basis for all actors in Bosnia & Herzegovina to operate in a manner which prioritised peace. However, Republika Srpska officials are actively undermining the agreement, stoking tensions in order to meet their ambitions for a mono-ethnic state.

FEMYSO President Hande Taner said “FEMYSO is mandated by our Member Organisations to commemorate Srebrenica every single year, having spoken to local voices in BiH, we are deeply concerned that Europe is sleepwalking into another situation which could see a repeat of this devastating event which saw 100.000 perish and 1.1 million displaced only a few decades ago.”

FEMYSO echoes demands from Bosnian civil society and calls for the following actions from European leaders:

– Punish Milorad Dodik and his partners for violating the Dayton Agreement;
– Actively support actors who work on a multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina;
– Avoid language that equates the actions of aggressors to the victims of said aggression;
– Take all necessary actions to prevent a conflict that would inevitably spill over to other countries in the Balkans and in the wider region.

FEMYSO remains committed and stands with all who call for peace in our region, and denounce all those that seek to divide and destroy our societies with their poisonous language and actions.

END

Notes:   

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.    
  2. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org.

Remembering Srebrenica: Our Demands as European Muslim Youth

Brussels, 11 July 2021 

FEMYSO commemorates the gruesome Srebrenica genocide on Muslim men on boys in 1995 and honours all the victims. We at the FEMYSO family send our heartfelt condolences to all families and friends of the victims, and remain committed to our fight against the root causes of this massacre. 

It is exactly twenty-six years ago on this day that the worst human massacre took place on European soil after World War II. It was a crime solely driven by a hatred for Bosnian Muslims and enabled by a blatant institutional failure of UN Peacekeeping forces. Human beings were singled out for their faith, whose name sounded ‘Muslim’ while not being religious, to suffer great inhumanity and in the end, to be brutally murdered. Men and boys were separated from their families, women and girls were subjected to rape and torture.  

The brutal murder of more than 8000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica however does not seem to have left a necessary mark to #NeverAgain. As we see the spike of mainstreamed and normalised Islamophobia amongst public and political speeches, rapidly disseminated by traditional and social media, and finally implemented by legislations, we must remain ever committed to fight this injustice while protecting all racialised minorities. 

This is why at FEMYSO, we call for: 

  • Mandatory education of the Srebrenica genocide in history classes 
  • National and EU wide commemoration events by national and EU authorities
  • Mandatory education about anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia 

We will continue our fight against any form of racism and our work for a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe. 

 

#WeRemember

 

[End]   

Notes  

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe. 

Help the People of the Balkans Now

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) calls for immediate support to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Eastern Croatia that have been suffering from the biggest natural catastrophe in a century. 

 

For the past week, floods caused by the torrential rains in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, resulting in significant human and material damage in the affected areas, including 43 people killed. 

 

Over a million people have been affected and thousands have had to leave their homes. According to the Bosnian government, a million Bosnians have been cut off from clean water and 100,000 buildings destroyed. In the Republic of Serbia, 24,352 people were evacuated and 2,260 damaged. Floodwaters triggered more than 3,000 landslides across the Balkans, damaging entire towns and villages and disturbing land mines leftover from the region’s 1990s war. 

 

The populations of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia now face the threat of the spread of infectious  

diseases and a clean-up effort that will cost billions of euros. 

 

In the name of FEMYSO’s Member Organisations from the region, FEMYSO encourages you to act in solidarity with the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. People must be provided with basic goods, and many organizations are working on the ground and need urgent help. 

 

You can help in several ways, by providing either a financial support or donating goods directly. Our member organization, AKOS, is hosting displaced people in its center, Misbah and are delivering food directly to people in need, together with government organisations: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.778104362222070.1073741851.222626677769844&type=1 

  

You can help them to reach more affected people by donating money to: 

  

Transakcijski račun: 1410010001749560 

Bosna Bank International dd Sarajevo 

Devizni račun:1413065310095117 

SWIFT Code : BBIBBA22 

IBAN:BA391410010001749560 

http://www.akos.ba/o-akos-u/donacije