Brčko, 25 February 2013
Following on from his successful presentation last year in Brčko’s Gymnasium, Outreach representative Almir Alić today returned to this beautiful town on the banks of the Sava river to talk to students at the ‘Agricultural and Medical’ high school.
The students’ interest in the Tribunal was such that they continued to ask questions long after the time allotted for the lecture had been surpassed. They were eager to hear about ICTY cases involving the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide, and even went as far as to have Almir give them a potted history of the Tribunal’s entire lifespan, commencing with its establishment by the Security Council on 25 May 1993.
At the presentation’s conclusion, Almir asked the students whether they saw hope for the future in the former Yugoslavia. The young people all agreed that even though there are still those who would “poison young peoples’ minds” and in spite of certain “politicians [who] are not interested in the people” they were determined to “look to the future and never go back to the tragic past”.