Remembering Srebrenica Event

This evening Jayne Cowan and Adrian Robson attended a very moving Remembering Srebrenica event held at the Senedd.

It is 30 years since the Srebrenica Massacre and this event marked when over 8,000 people, mostly men, were separated and from their families and massacred.

The centrepiece of the event was the unveiling of the Memorial Stone which will be installed in the Temple of Peace garden in Cardiff. It is fashioned on the memorial stones at the Srebrenica Cemetery.

It was jointly unveiled by the First Minister and His Excellency Osman Topčagić, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UK.

There was also a commissioned Commemoration Poem and poet Abeer Ameer read an excerpt of her work. Other contributions to tonight’s occasion included memorial wreaths laid by the Senedd party leaders and an account of how a model of a replica memorial stone, to be used for education purposes, came about at very short notice as an alternative in case the real thing didn’t arrive in time.

The musical items were exceptionally performed by Elvir Solak and Ivan Šarić from Sarajevo National Theatre.

And amongst all the elements of tonight’s event, the most poignant contribution came from Ernesta Ibišević-Hajdarević. Ernesta recounted her experiences as a young girl in Srebrenica and her fears for her family’s safety in the war. We don’t think anybody present will ever forget her incredibly harrowing account.

On a related note, Jayne and Adrian enjoyed catch up with Adrian's former employer David Melding CBE who (as then Deputy Presiding Officer) led a delegation of AM’s to Srebrenica in 2015 as part of the 20th commemoration. David served as co-chair of Remembering Srebrenica Wales and Adrian knows from my time with him how strongly he valued his work for this cause. His final reflections in tonight’s event were, as always, very thoughtful.