Under the U.N. Flag: The International Community and the Genocide in Srebrenica

Hasan Nuhanovic is visiting California for a lecture at the UCLA Human Rights Colloquium Series and joins us at UCSB to give a talk on the events surrounding the fall and genocide of the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in July 1995. Nuhanovic is a Bosnian Muslim who worked as a translator for the United Nations. As such he worked very closely with the Dutch Battalion (DutchBat3) tasked with protecting the unarmed population of Srebrenica. His mother, father and brother were all killed in the genocide after the Dutch Battalion refused to grant them, or any other civilians refuge within the UN compound, as mass executions by the Serbian forces were taking place.
Mr. Nuhanovic’s book, Under the U.N. Flag: The International Community and the Genocide in Srebrenica (2007) offers the first publicly available account of the terror and inhumanity experienced by those seeking sanctuary from genocide who placed their lives and their trust in the hands of the peacekeepers. Unarmed, starved and deprived of basic human needs the people of the ‘safe haven’ of Srebrenica placed their complete reliance on the promise of protection by the United Nations. This book is compiled from firsthand experience of the events by Hasan Nuhanovic as well as other survivors of the genocide. It provides a detailed chronology covering the days leading up to the notorious days in July 1995 when the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica began and the subsequent period during which the world media continued to propagate the message that nothing sinister was going on: it took the best part of six years before genocide was officially deemed to have taken place in 2001. This unique account is both an exhilarating read and a major work of historical reference. (amazon UK page; foreword)

The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a discussion.

**For more information, see this transcript of this March 2006 PBS/Frontline interview with Mr. Nuhanovic.**
In January 2000 PBS also aired a film, “Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave.” The companion website offers a overview of the film, which includes testimony by Mr. Nuhanovic. (I noticed that most of the links on the Resources Page are broken, however.)

The BBC has compiled a timeline of the siege (July 6-19) with embedded clips of news reports.

Gendercide Watch offers an excellent, relatively brief overview page: Case Study: The Srebrenica Massacre, July 1995 as well as a gallery of 14 photos.

Wikipedia’s Srebrenica Massacre page offers extensive background information and images.

Mr. Nuhanovic’s visit is sponsored by the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, the Global Studies Program, the Human Rights Council, and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

hm 2/6/10