Writing – Capucine

While trying to decide what we could produce all together, it came out that the most striking thing
is our difference of point of view. For me, it is difficult to exchange about very precise facts or
ideas linked to Srebrenica’s genocide because my knowledge of the subject is very limited.
Therefore, the most interesting is to talk about this question: “how come such important historical
facts are not well known in some regions of the world?”
It is also a very weird feeling to meet people my age who are from a country that experienced such
violence so recently, and where the history is still being built, and the facts not always recognized
by the local and international politics. In my imagination, as a western European, war is something
very far from my everyday life, both geographically and timewise. This exchange is enriching and
necessary to realise that this is not the case. War is still happening, and everywhere. Some
fundamental questions were raised. For instance, the discussions of this morning brought up the
importance of words: commonly, the events that took place in Srebrenica are called « massacre ».
Exchanging with the Bosnian group enabled us to understand the importance of naming it
correctly, according to the UN’s definition: a genocide. This is probably a capital step in the
process of writing history, because events first have to be defined before they can be remembered
for a better future.