War and Barbarity
The history of our times has witnessed violence on an unimaginable scale. George Kassimeris reflects on the age-old horrors of warfare and struggles to find reasons for what leads men to perpetrate inexplicable acts of brutality.
Like all monuments to pain and cruelty, Potocari, on the north side of Srebrenica, has an aura of dignity combined with its desolation. In the long, flat expanse of a former cornfield, with green hills rising on either side, lie a small flower-bed, a simple open pavilion topped by a tiny Islamic crescent and a plain stone slab inscribed with a Muslim invocation: ‘May revenge be turned into justice, may mothers’ tears be turned into prayers that there should be no more Srebrenicas.’ Then there are the graves. The green stones, about 1,438 of them so far, with space for many more as bodies are exhumed and identified, stretch almost as far as the eye can see and serve as a reminder of the capacity of men to inflict misery on each other.
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