Genocide denial hardly enlightening

Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: March 16, 2011  

In a high profile debate in Canadian daily Edmonton Journal, another Canadian Serb courageously defends the truth about the genocide at Srebrenica. Thank you Goran Simic for standing against the Srebrenica genocide denial and hatred.

Genocide denial hardly enlightening

Reprint from Edmonton Journal

Re: “Denying genocide should not be called freedom of speech,” by Srdja Pavlovic, Letters, Feb. 28.

After I read Srdja Pavlovic’s letter about Srdja Trifkovic’s denial of entry into Canada, after being invited to share his “genocide denial” ideas about Srebrenica, among other things, I could not resist the temptation to react for three reasons.

First, I am Edmonton’s writer in exile this year, and I feel obliged to share my thoughts on this issue. Second, I am a witness to the Bosnian war and have lived in a besieged Sarajevo for three years. Third, I am a Serb.

I believe every nation proves its maturity when it admits its own mistakes and cleans its own house. At present, many Serbian hard-core nationalists are preventing the process of reconciliation by denying the Srebrenica genocide.

As a history professor who is teaching students about facts and numbers, Trifkovic knows that in a span of a couple of weeks, about 8,300 people were slaughtered in Srebrenica by uniformed Serbs under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic. Regrettably, this is not the final number.

During my stay in Bosnia last year I was present at the discovery of new mass graves and the unearthing of human remains.

Considering his writing on the Yugoslav wars, I wonder why Trifkovic was invited to lecture at the University of British Columbia, and then at the University of Alberta?

Was he to enlighten us on new historical discoveries about the Yugoslav wars and the invention of genocide? Is his thesis about neo-Ottoman forces emerging in the Balkans a part of his genocide-denying strategy?

Or was his lecture tour designed to breathe life into the dark forces that wish to stop reconciliation in the Balkans?

As a Serb and a Bosnian as well as a Canadian, I will gladly organize a lecture for Trifkovic on these subjects if he is willing to speak to thousands of people from Srebrenica who lost their entire families in the genocide.

I will make sure he is granted the visa for Srebrenica.

Goran Simic, Edmonton

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/Genocide+denial+hardly+enlightening/4382385/story.html