'We forget quickly': Remembering Srebrenica 30 years on through the lens of Kristian Skeie

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'We forget quickly': Remembering Srebrenica 30 years on through the lens of Kristian Skeie  Photographer Kristian Skeie’s ongoing project documents life in the aftermath of the genocide in Srebrenica, capturing the quiet resilience of survivors and the enduring scars of Europe’s worst atrocity since WWII.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/11/we-forget-quickly-remembering-srebrenica-30-years-on-through-the-lens-of-kristian-skeie  Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, good morning, good morning.

00:30OK, OK, OK.

00:51This project is all about how people find strength in a way

00:54or how people manage to pull themselves together

00:56after having experienced the general side

00:59and then continue their lives afterwards.

01:02I think my work as well as many, many other people's work as well.

01:08What we do with photography and I would also put like film in there too.

01:12For example, for me, that's just another language in a way.

01:15You know, we not everybody will read long articles in a newspaper.

01:20Some people will, but it's easier to capture something

01:25if you have a photograph to go with it as well.

01:27And I think that that proximity in a way makes it even closer.

01:35Ramis Nurkic, he was an extraordinary man.

01:38He passed away nearly two years ago now.

01:40He's a survivor of the genocide himself.

01:43He lost several family members, but his family home is in a location very close to where one of the execution sites were.

01:53So after the war, he wanted to come back and try to find the remains of some of his family members that he had lost.

01:59Initially, he didn't find them, but he found a lot of bones near there.

02:03He realized that if he had this craving to find the remains of his family members,

02:09his idea was that surely others will have the same craving to find their family members.

02:15And he knew that around on the land that belonged to his farm, there were all these people.

02:20So it became a bit of an obsession for him.

02:22And then he would walk every day.

02:24He would then contact the Boston Institute of Missing Persons.

02:27And they would send people to him almost every week because they will have to identify the location.

02:32They will pick up the bones.

02:34And there is a programming place now where they're trying to identify who these remains belong to.

02:41He himself has found the remains of nearly 300 people.

02:45In 1995, when people decided, boys and men typically, to run away from Srebrenica,

03:00they went on this 100, 120 kilometer walk to Tuzla.

03:04So today, that walk takes place every year in reverse order.

03:09So it starts in Tuzla and it goes back to Srebrenica.

03:12And you end up back in Srebrenica on July 10th.

03:15And the commemoration is on the 11th.

03:17So it's like a three-day walk.

03:19So there are literally thousands of people doing this in terms of commemorating what happened.

03:24It's a lot of survivors, family, friends, anyone interested in this.

03:33Some years, there are many bodies.

03:35Some years, there are very few ones.

03:37I don't know exactly how many will be buried this year.

03:39I would imagine maybe 20, 30 maybe.

03:52Our memories are not very good.

03:53We forget quickly.

03:54And we have witnessed.

03:56We're witnessing that around ourselves just now.

03:58The current one in Gaza, for example, I can't claim to be the expert on it.

04:04Other than that, I don't think you need to be an expert on it to understand how wrong this is.

04:09It makes me think that this kind of work, not only my own work, but people who have done similar work,

04:14is more important than ever before.

04:16On one level, it's more important than ever before.

04:19But at the same time, you wonder if it's, does it make a difference in a way?

04:23Because it keeps happening every time anyway.

04:26A genocide is basically an idea that somebody have that this place will be better if you're no longer here.

04:34And to have this idea is just so fundamentally twisted that it's impossible to describe how to approach it in a way.

04:43So to remind people about this twistedness, surely will at least spread the word and remind us that we've got to find better solutions.

04:53And because we cannot have an idea that life on Earth is better if one part of the people are no longer here.

04:59You know, this is crazy.

05:01But that's what genocide is.

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