- Regular Forums continue on the first Monday of every month (or the second, if the first falls on a Bank Holiday) from 7 pm to 9 pm at our usual venue, The Boardroom, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, W1 (in association with the Centre for the Study of Democracy).
The next meeting will take place on 5 September 2005, and will be announced in the usual way on the Bosnian Institute website (www.bosnia.org.uk) and in invitations sent by e-mail or post to friends of the Institute.
- On 9 May 2005 one of our best attended recent forums saw a discussion on ‘Genocide, truth and the survivors’ introduced by Tilman Zülch, co-founder (1970) and president of the Society for Threatened Peoples, based in Luxemburg. Zülch was active throughout the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia in alerting the world to genocide and 'ethnic cleansing' in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosova
The forum was preceded by a reception celebrating the publication of Bosanci/Bosnians, photographs by Paul Lowe, essay by Allen Little, Saqi Books in association with The Bosnian Institute, £18.99.
- The forum on 6 June 2005, on ‘The significance of cultural heritage in the post-war recovery of B-H’, was introduced by Amra Hadžimuhamedović, who chairs the Commission to Preserve National Monuments set up under Annex 8 of the Dayton peace agreement and is a leading authority on the architectural heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina. She presented an extremely informative and challenging survey of the present situation in B-H in respect to cultural heritage, its preservation and restoration, stressing also its vital importance for social, economic, political and even spiritual renewal.
- On 4 July 2005 a discussion on ‘Bringing life back to Srebrenica’ was introduced by Abel Hertzberger, of Werkgroep Nederland Srebrenica, who is involved in the Civil Presence Project, under which international volunteers offer practical and moral support to returnees to Srebrenica. He gave a fascinating insight into the practical difficulties faced by Bosniak returnees to Srebrenica, and into the strategies adopted by his volunteer organization for improving the quality of life in the town through practical measures - e.g. in the sphere of reconstruction, income generation, health and social care, cultural activities for children - that can benefit all its inhabitants, thus fostering interaction between returning Bosniaks and ‘Serbs of good will’, themselves often refugees from elsewhere.
This was preceded by a reception celebrating the publication of Raw Memory: Prijedor, laboratory of ethnic cleansing, by Isabelle Wesselingh and Arnaud Vaulerin, Saqi Books in association with The Bosnian Institute, £14.99.
- In the context of ‘Srebrenica Now’, an exhibition and programme of events organized by Bridging Arts, a debate chaired by Paul Reynolds took place on 9 July 2005 under the title: 'Ten years after genocide’; participants included Jan Willem Honig, Maria Kett, Eva Klonowski, Emir Suljagić, Ed Vulliamy. This was followed by a book launch for Postcards from the Grave by Emir Suljagić, Saqi Books in association with The Bosnian Institute, £12.99.
