Every major media around the world has reported that senator Obama on his second day in the Middle East visited the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. And this is his second visit to the memorial in the last few years. The Holocaust didn’t take place in Israel or at the time of atrocities of the second world Palestine, but Israelis have made a strategic move to have the memorial in Jerusalem. Every time a dignitary from another country visits Israel, they pay respect at the memorial.
What can dignitaries who come to an official visit to Sarajevo do to pay respect for the victims of genocide and aggression during the Bosnian war in 1992-995? Thirteen years after the war in Bosnia is over, there is still no significant monuments or a museum in Sarajevo for official visitors to see. There is a memorial in Potocari, Srebrenica, but that is far away from Bosnian capital and it is a memorial for events that occurred in one city.
There needs to be a central place in Sarajevo, whether that is a museum or memorial, or both, where the Bosnian government can take their guests to teach them about Bosnian history. This memorial should also be a reminder of the past genocide against Bosniaks for the past several hundred years. There has to be a plan, in plain sight, in the center of Sarajevo for such a memorial to remember all the Bosnian victims of genocide and aggression.
CNN had a tremendous amount of coverage of the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. Among other stories, CNN ran the story about thousands of raped woman in Bosnia —link, story about Ratko Mladic—, and many others. This is a single event where the whole world is reminded of the tragedy caused by aggression and genocidal planning and practices ca used by Milosevic and his proxies. Imagine having the same reminder of genocide every time a world dignitary from the world visits Sarajevo.