Human Rights Watch Archive Film Program Commemorates Srebrenica
NEW YORK, July 7, 2005 The Human Rights Watch Archives, housed in the Columbia University Libraries, presents a program of documentary excerpts and other film footage to commemorate the anniversary of the 1995 massacre of Muslim refugees in Srebrenica. The program will run through the month of July.
Log books at the Tuzla Center of the International Commission on Missing Persons. Photo by Iain Page, 2004
On July 11, 1995, units of the Bosnian Serb Army led by General Ratko Mladic overran the Dutch peacekeeping forces protecting Bosnian Muslim refugees in the UN “safe area” of Srebrenica and began the systematic execution of up to 8,000 men and boys. Many of them were rounded up, separated from their families and shot on the spot or in the neighboring villages. Others, who tried to make their ways through Serb territory, were captured later and executed or shelled and gunned down in ambushes.
Although some of the perpetrators have been since sentenced or are standing trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, these actions, the largest genocide in Europe since the end of the Second World War, took place amidst the silent neglect of most of the international community. The main architects of the slaughter still remain at large.
In line with its mission to preserve, maintain and make publicly accessible records related to human rights abuses, the staff of the Human Rights Watch Archives in the Columbia University Libraries has arranged this unique film program to mark these events. The films will run continuously on two individual monitors in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, within the intimate space of the Chang Gallery.
The program runs through July 29, and is open on Mondays from 12 – 4:45 p.m., and Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. until 4:45 p.m.
Contact: For further information regarding this event, please contact Csaba Szilagyi by sending e-mail to cs2316@columbia.edu.
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