How little I knew about Bosnia before I went there was very scary.
I had heard that 200,000 people had died during the wars of the 1990s just as democracy was finally coming to South Africa. This was to be my second exposure to the Balkans having visited Kosovo a few years back.
I visited Bosnia - Herzegovina from the 9th April for 9 days accompanied by Victor Cervati. I was invited by Svetlana Broz, a courageous and outspoken woman and granddaughter of Tito of Yugoslavia. I had met her eight years before in Cambridge, MA, USA. Svetlana heads an NGO called Gariwo which promotes what she calls “civil courage”. She wrote a book called “Good People in an Evil Time” about those who during the ethnic conflicts acted with humanity and compassion towards the “other”.
Gariwo had arranged the translation of my biography (sponsored by Norwegian embassy) into the Bosnian language (the only language other than the original English that it has been translated into) by Zeljka Vojinovic herself a remarkable person and a widow from the Bosnian war. We were assisted with transport by the OSCE, sponsored by the Dutch embassy and hosted by Mayors of Sarajevo, Tuzla and Bihac.
We travelled across Bosnia and Herzegovina after the first days in Sarajevo visiting Tuzla, Mostar, Srebrenica and Bihac with a very well organised and delightful team from Gariwo. There was massive media coverage of the visit, public launches of the book which were given away free, and lectures to university students. I arrived a nonentity only to become a celebrity a couple of days later. Several staff members of Gariwo had spent 3-4 months preparing for the visit. Virtually, everybody we met had lost relatives in the conflict. Many experiences during the visit will stay with me forever – graveyards, genocide sites and personal encounters. I am sure there will be future opportunities to do healing of memories work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The day after our arrival we were taken to see the tunnel which was the only lifeline during the siege of Sarajevo in the early nineties - a few short years after it hosted the Olympic games. It is not easy to get your head around what it was like to live in a besieged city in modern times especially during a bleak European winter with little food and without heating or electricity and daily shelling and sniper firing.
We went to Mostar famous for the beautiful Old Bridge Through international financial aid (notably from Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands and France) managed by the World Bank, UNESCO established an International Committee of Experts to reconstruct the old bridge and the old town of Mostar. Work on the foundations has started in June 2001, and work on the reconstruction, in line with 16th century building methods, was finalized in 2002.” ) destroyed in the war and now rebuilt. It was accepted at a meeting in Durban, South Africa, as a world heritage site. Tragically whilst the bridge has been built the town is characterised by an “apartheid” reality where people live apart and children go to separate schools.
Tuzla is a town which is lead by a remarkable Mayor Mr. Jasmin Imamovic, who has a high level of popularity and a moral vision for the town, indeed for the country. During the war young people gathered in a local square on the day that Tito's birthday is celebrated as the Day of youth on May 25 1995. The square was shelled and scores of young people, mostly between the ages of 18 and 25 were killed. Each gravestone included photos of the dead – many of them teenagers with most of their lives still unlived.
From Tuzla we travelled to Srebrenica a place that is known throughout the world because of the act of genocide that took place under the noses of Dutch UN troops although the place had been declared a safe haven by the Security Council. Our visit was filled with tension. The mayor told us that everything was fine and that former residents were returning. A few minutes later the local leader of another political party told us the exact opposite of everything the mayor had said – indicating that people were leaving the town and that there was widespread despondency.
We visited the genocide site at Srebrenica and were shown around by Hassan, himself a survivor of the act of genocide which took place there. Both his twin brother and his father were killed there. He told us that working as a guide there and telling the story was something he could do for his brother and father. To conceal the genocide victims were buried in hidden graves and later dug up and reburied. This has lead to a huge challenge to verify the identities of remains which have been uncovered.
At the launch of the book in Srebrenica, I said that this is place renowned throughout the world as a place of great pain as well as shame for the whole world as WE ALL failed to protect the Bosnian Moslems who had fled here for protection. Shortly after I started speaking a group of young men walked out and continued walking up and down outside the venue in an agitated manner. They were overheard saying that if they had something they would throw it. At the end of the meeting we were asked to make a rapid exit from the town.
I was struck by the emotional reaction of those who feel indicted by simple statements of truth and who respond with great anger. However even here there were signs of hope. I had asked the audience what kind of society they dreamed for their children and grandchildren One young student said that she was not waiting for the future, she was already living her dream every day.
The last town we visited was Bihac, a beautiful town close to the pristine waters of the river Una. It was here that we met the liveliest and most responsive group of students at a technical college – some subsequently inviting me to be their friends on Facebook.
In the National Theatre in Tuzla a woman stood up and spoke about her son who had been murdered and how her life had become meaningless with her husband also dying shortly afterwards. It was as if there was no-one else present just the two of us having an intimate conversation. I asked her, as I had asked another woman many years previously: What kind of life would your son have wished for you.
Other people whispered their private stories into my ears or shared them quietly at dinner tables.
One woman told me a story that continues to haunt me. Her son who is half Serb was disabled as a consequence of an accident. During the war he was assisting with a medical team in defense of Bosnia. A badly injured Serb soldier was brought in and refused a blood transfusion of blood coming from a Bosniak (Moslem) nurse. The young man offered his own blood to save the soldiers life. The soldier refused saying that this would be twice as bad coming from someone with a mixed ethnic identity and he died. Today the young man has begun to hate that part of himself which is Serbian. What an urgent and deep need there is for healing.
During our final weekend in Sarajevo retired General Braco Fazlic of the Bosnian army, a leader of the partisans defending the city during the siege gave us an enthralling firsthand account of the siege including the graveyard partly carved out of tennis courts and now the last resting place of all the city's residents who were killed during the war.
The Dutch embassy hosted a seminar on our final morning on the lessons of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation process for Bosnia and Herzegovina. This meeting confirmed the assertion made by many others about the lack of visionary leadership at national level from either political or religious leaders. It seems that the picture is not as bleak at municipal level where there are leaders who act in the interest of all citizens.
The convergence of the narrowest forms of ethnic nationalism with brands of Christianity – Orthodox and Catholic in contradistinction to each other and to Moslems is as poisonous and as violent in the former Yugoslavia as ever it was under Christian Nationalism in apartheid South Africa.
There is an urgent need for forms of acknowledgment of the past, a process of mechanisms to detoxify the hearts and minds of people – to break the cycle that turns victims into victimisers.
I am looking forward to my next visit.
Father Michael Lapsley SSM
April 2010.
Monday, 10 May 2010
My remarks at Mass of Thanksgiving for my survival on May 1, 2010 - on the 20th anniversary of my bombing
Remarks by Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM
Dear Friends
Thank you to each of you for being here today. from so many different countries and walks of life.- beloved friends and representatives of different organisations Thank you Archbishop Thabo. Thank you Archbishop Tutu. I am honoured by the presence of Former First Lady Mrs Zanele Mbeki and my old friend Tito Mboweni. We invited people from all over the world. The only ones I expected to come were some of you who live in Cape Town. Imagine my delight when Steve Karakashian said he was coming from the United States and Sven Erik Fjellstrom from Sweden and Fr Chris Chivers from the UK. I am happy to see so many members of the consular corps. I greatly appreciate that High Commisioner Geoff Randall from my birth place of Aotearoa New Zealand and Mr. Eddy Machado, Counsellor of the Cuban Embassy in Pretoria is here. Thank you to leaders of political parties who are here. I appreciate the support of my two brothers, Fr Tanki Mofana and Fr Mosia Sello from Lesotho and my brother priests from Cape Town together with members of the Cathedral congregation. Thank you to each of you who participated in the service in whatever way especially the Pro cantu choir, their director Leon Starker and the organist David Orr, not forgetting our servers, Greg Coetsee and Luke Wildschut.. I have promised our Precentor Fr Bruce Jenneker caviar every day for a year for his many hours of work preparing this service. Also many thanks to my PA, Eleanor Kuhn for all the behind the scenes work and the support and assistance of my colleagues at the Institute and our extended IHOM family... Thank you to Fatima Swartz and my comrades from the Friends of Cuba Society for their part in the catering of the reception we are about to enjoy.
It is not accidental that we began with an Islamic and a Buddhist.prayer.. I have long believed that the future of humanity is an interfaith future in which we need to reverence and learn from each other's faith traditions including traditional beliefs but I also have the deepest respect for my atheist, agnostic, and communist friends.
When I was in Australia a few weeks ago, some friends asked me what I was going to do to mark the anniversary of the attempt on my life 20 years ago.
I decided to begin by asking my two favourite archbishops, Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba if they were available. When both said, yes, today's Mass was on
In the last while, I have thought a great deal about these last twenty years, as well as the events of that fateful night of April 28, 1990 and the years preceding it.
During my years in the liberation struggle and as a chaplain of the ANC, I had become used to death. Time and again I was asked to lead and speak at funerals and memorial services of fallen comrades. As years passed, I also thought about the possibility of my own death. What I had not imagined was permanent major physical disability.
Some of you who have heard me tell my story before, will know that a key element in the bombing was my own sense that God was with me. I also felt that Mary who watched her son being crucified
understood what I was going through.
Shortly, after the bombing, I apologised to a friend that I had survived unlike her son who had been assassinated.
When I was bombed, it was the prayers and love and support of people across the globe, some of whom are here today and others who are with us in spirit, that enabled me to make my bombing redemptive – to bring life out of death, good out of evil,
It was the paintings done by many children especially those from Canada Australia and the UK, on the walls of my hospital room, that helped me through my darkest moments.
Despite the fact that I had nearly driven him mad when he was Bishop of Lesotho, it was Desmond Tutu who, as Archbishop of Cape Town, invited me to come and work here in Cape Town.
In 1993 I started to work at the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture. Whilst there, some of us created a workshop model called the healing of memories. In 1998, the Institute for healing of memories was created – seeking to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations. With my colleagues and many volunteers, healing of memories has provided a vehicle to accompany many, many people on their journey of healing just as I was accompanied on my own journey.
Whilst it is true that I will always grieve for the hands that I have lost, I am not sorry that I have received many more hugs than I would if I still had hands. . There are a few people who to my surprise, insist on shaking my metal hooks At the same time, I know that I have much to be thankful for. More, I know that I have gained immeasurably through the journey I have travelled.
Travelling the world has taught me that we are one human family capable of the most horrendous deeds. Just a few days ago I visited the genocide site in Srebenica in Bosnia. At the same time we are all capable and called to tenderness, kindness, generosity and compassion.
Often through the years I have asked myself why I survived a bomb that was supposed to kill me when so many others died, who also deserved to live. I guess that some of us had to survive to be living reminders of what we in this country did to each other. But a thousand time more importantly, I hope I can be a small sign that stronger than evil, and hatred and death, is goodness, compassion, love and life – indeed of God
Dear friends, thank you for joining me today in thanking God for my survival and for praying for all victims of violence and torture.
In the life that is left to me, I hope that I will help make the world a better place.
I pray that we will all leave this Mass with new strength and courage to care more resolutely for Mother earth and play our part in making South Africa, Africa and this world a home for all people.
Dear Friends
Thank you to each of you for being here today. from so many different countries and walks of life.- beloved friends and representatives of different organisations Thank you Archbishop Thabo. Thank you Archbishop Tutu. I am honoured by the presence of Former First Lady Mrs Zanele Mbeki and my old friend Tito Mboweni. We invited people from all over the world. The only ones I expected to come were some of you who live in Cape Town. Imagine my delight when Steve Karakashian said he was coming from the United States and Sven Erik Fjellstrom from Sweden and Fr Chris Chivers from the UK. I am happy to see so many members of the consular corps. I greatly appreciate that High Commisioner Geoff Randall from my birth place of Aotearoa New Zealand and Mr. Eddy Machado, Counsellor of the Cuban Embassy in Pretoria is here. Thank you to leaders of political parties who are here. I appreciate the support of my two brothers, Fr Tanki Mofana and Fr Mosia Sello from Lesotho and my brother priests from Cape Town together with members of the Cathedral congregation. Thank you to each of you who participated in the service in whatever way especially the Pro cantu choir, their director Leon Starker and the organist David Orr, not forgetting our servers, Greg Coetsee and Luke Wildschut.. I have promised our Precentor Fr Bruce Jenneker caviar every day for a year for his many hours of work preparing this service. Also many thanks to my PA, Eleanor Kuhn for all the behind the scenes work and the support and assistance of my colleagues at the Institute and our extended IHOM family... Thank you to Fatima Swartz and my comrades from the Friends of Cuba Society for their part in the catering of the reception we are about to enjoy.
It is not accidental that we began with an Islamic and a Buddhist.prayer.. I have long believed that the future of humanity is an interfaith future in which we need to reverence and learn from each other's faith traditions including traditional beliefs but I also have the deepest respect for my atheist, agnostic, and communist friends.
When I was in Australia a few weeks ago, some friends asked me what I was going to do to mark the anniversary of the attempt on my life 20 years ago.
I decided to begin by asking my two favourite archbishops, Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba if they were available. When both said, yes, today's Mass was on
In the last while, I have thought a great deal about these last twenty years, as well as the events of that fateful night of April 28, 1990 and the years preceding it.
During my years in the liberation struggle and as a chaplain of the ANC, I had become used to death. Time and again I was asked to lead and speak at funerals and memorial services of fallen comrades. As years passed, I also thought about the possibility of my own death. What I had not imagined was permanent major physical disability.
Some of you who have heard me tell my story before, will know that a key element in the bombing was my own sense that God was with me. I also felt that Mary who watched her son being crucified
understood what I was going through.
Shortly, after the bombing, I apologised to a friend that I had survived unlike her son who had been assassinated.
When I was bombed, it was the prayers and love and support of people across the globe, some of whom are here today and others who are with us in spirit, that enabled me to make my bombing redemptive – to bring life out of death, good out of evil,
It was the paintings done by many children especially those from Canada Australia and the UK, on the walls of my hospital room, that helped me through my darkest moments.
Despite the fact that I had nearly driven him mad when he was Bishop of Lesotho, it was Desmond Tutu who, as Archbishop of Cape Town, invited me to come and work here in Cape Town.
In 1993 I started to work at the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture. Whilst there, some of us created a workshop model called the healing of memories. In 1998, the Institute for healing of memories was created – seeking to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations. With my colleagues and many volunteers, healing of memories has provided a vehicle to accompany many, many people on their journey of healing just as I was accompanied on my own journey.
Whilst it is true that I will always grieve for the hands that I have lost, I am not sorry that I have received many more hugs than I would if I still had hands. . There are a few people who to my surprise, insist on shaking my metal hooks At the same time, I know that I have much to be thankful for. More, I know that I have gained immeasurably through the journey I have travelled.
Travelling the world has taught me that we are one human family capable of the most horrendous deeds. Just a few days ago I visited the genocide site in Srebenica in Bosnia. At the same time we are all capable and called to tenderness, kindness, generosity and compassion.
Often through the years I have asked myself why I survived a bomb that was supposed to kill me when so many others died, who also deserved to live. I guess that some of us had to survive to be living reminders of what we in this country did to each other. But a thousand time more importantly, I hope I can be a small sign that stronger than evil, and hatred and death, is goodness, compassion, love and life – indeed of God
Dear friends, thank you for joining me today in thanking God for my survival and for praying for all victims of violence and torture.
In the life that is left to me, I hope that I will help make the world a better place.
I pray that we will all leave this Mass with new strength and courage to care more resolutely for Mother earth and play our part in making South Africa, Africa and this world a home for all people.
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