Tolerance and respect for everyone was the message that emerged from a day of remembrance that recalled the start of a genocide 22 years ago.

By MORSAL BASHIR

Hundreds of people from Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered at Federation Square  on May 31 to remember the 3173 victims of genocide in Prijedor.

The event, known as White Armband Day Worldwide, was created to remember the victims  and call for action against genocide denial.

People of all ages held posters and handed out brochures, balloons and white armbands and the message was clear – genocide is real, and the time to speak out against it is now.

 On May 31, 1992, tragedy hit Prijedor, a town in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, when Bosnian Serb authorities used local radio stations to issue a decree that all non-Serbian citizens had to mark themselves and their houses with white.

White sheets were hung from doors and windows, and white armbands had to be worn when away from home, distinctly marking all non-Serbians.

This was the first day of an extended campaign that resulted in the ultimate removal of more than 94 per cent of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Prijedor. The violence involved in that campaign included concentration camps, executions and mass rape.

Now, 22 years later, thousands of Bosnians and Herzegovinians across several continents joined in large groups to commemorate those they had lost and to honour the survivors.

The Melbourne event featured a poster exhibition and a slideshow memorialising the victims and condemning the atrocities committed against them.

As event director Senada Softic read an account of the tragic loss of life more than two decades past, it was clear the grief was still fresh for many in the crowd.

“On this day, we as a community would like to honour a very special woman of courage [and] strength. A woman who has spent the last 22 years waiting to hear the news of her six sons and husband, along with over 30 members of her family … a woman who has forced herself to live long enough to find her loved ones and bury them,” she said.

The woman referred to is Hata Tatarevic, and 22 years ago last week, armed men entered her home and dragged off her husband and six sons. It would be the last time she saw them.

In a letter she wrote to the Australian Council of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Organisations, Ms Tatarevic told of the heartbreak she had felt in the decades since, as she searched grave after grave for any trace of her family.

In August last year, one such mass grave was found in the village of Tomasica, revealing her sons’ remains.

“I have searched every grave site, every mass grave found. With my bare hands, I have searched through pieces of clothing removed from the mass gravesite to identify their clothes. I still remember every item they had on them,” she wrote.

“I can now die, knowing that my sons and husband will have a grave site with their name.”

 For Ms Softic, the event was about remembrance, but also about sending a larger message.

“White Armband Day must serve as a commemoration for the victims, support for the survivors and a message to the world that peace and humanity must prevail,” she said.

“Tolerance and respect for all mankind.”