Memorial Sites as Centers for Public Memory, Space, and Healing: The Case for the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center and Cemetery to the Victims of the 1995 Genocide

While the carnage wrought by armies and militias during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War may have ended, the conflict over human rights, remembrance, history, and memory continue to be waged in the fragile socio-political terrain that defines contemporary Bosnia i Herzegovina (BiH). This painful contradiction is most apparent in the ongoing communal and national battles over the existence of the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center and Cemetery to the Victims of the 1995 Genocide (SPMCC). Specifically, I explore the contested memories of the SPMCC and the claims, in the forms of mnemonic lenses, made by Srebrenica’s victims and perpetrators. This includes identifying the constructive and destructive aspects of Srebrenica’s memorialization in a community where the genocide’s survivors and perpetrators live alongside one another. I therefore review the SPMCC’s opportunities and challenges in connecting the site’s violent past to its tentative present, including whether it contributes to a more tolerant and peaceful BiH.