This is a white armband, but what does it represent? Well, I'm going to tell you. In May of 1992, in the city of Prijedor, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb authorities issued an order over local radio that all non-Serb citizens, who are primarily Bosniaks, which is another term for Bosnian Muslims, to mark their houses with white flags or bed sheets and if they were to leave their houses were to wear a white armband to dehumanize them and to segregate them from the rest of the population. This measure of forced classification was a precursor to a vein of terror that would descend upon the city of Preador, a vein of terror that included the killing. of over 3,100 Bosniak men and women including 102 children.
The establishment of concentration camps. The establishment of rape camps. With 53,000 having to flee the city. In 2013, the International Commission on Missing Persons discovered a mass grave in the city of Preador that contained the bodies of 600 of our brothers and sisters encased in clay. To this day, local authorities in Preador have refused the requests of families of the victims to construct a memorial in their honour.
And so the 31st of May, has been designated as a day by local activists and survivors to commemorate the victims of those who fell prey to the terror that visited the city of Prijedor in 1992 and to raise awareness of the denial of war crimes and the refusal of local authorities to honor the dead. I would also like to say that the events in Prijedor were part of a much wider genocide against the people of Bosnia between the years 1992 through to 1995. A genocide in which, and this is a conservative number, 100,000 people were killed. 80% were Bosnian Muslims, who were killed not because they just so happened to be Muslim, but because they were Muslim. Last year, I surveyed my audience on Instagram, most of whom are under the age of 35, and I asked them. Do you know what happened in the Bosnian genocide?
70% said no. This is heartbreaking. We are failing our Muslim brothers and sisters.
We are failing the Muslim community because we are not keeping alive the history that has shaped us in becoming who we are today as a community. Can you imagine? Today we are witnessing live, real time, a genocide against the people of Gaza. In 30 years time, just imagine if someone puts on their social media, a survey, asking the youth, those under the age of 35, do you know what happened in Gaza? And 70% said no.
We would be mortified. To internalize the pain of our brothers and sisters today around the world, we also have to internalize the pain of our brothers and sisters who lived before us. And so this 31st of May, All of you, please get your white armbands ready.
Post them on social media. Let's create awareness and make it trend at White Armband Day Prijedor. Finally, I'll be pinning to this profile a video that I made last year.
The Bosnian Genocide Explained. Available in two videos. It's long for social media users. It's 20 minutes. But if you watch it from beginning to end.
It will take the viewer who has absolutely no knowledge of what took place in Bosnia to a firm understanding of what happened. Please watch it, share it, it's the least that we can do. Thank you.