Finished Summary Workshop “‘Long-distance nationalism’ and positive/negative impact of the diaspora on trust building” (Jan. 6)
2021.12.13
Category： Workshop
Research Group： A03 Migrants & RefugeesB03 Peace Building
The workshop “‘Long-distance nationalism’ and positive/negative impact of the diaspora on trust building” will be jointly organized by Group A03 “Migrants, Refugees, and Community Building” and Group B03 “Trust and Peace Building in Conflict Affected Areas.”
Islamic Trust Studies Workshop “‘Long-distance nationalism’ and positive/negative impact of the diaspora on trust building”
Presentation: Yukie Osa (Rikkyo University, A03 Co-investigator)
“Connectivity of the Bosnian Muslim diaspora affecting trust building of their mother country
: Their lobbying activities for the recognition of‘the Srebrenica’as genocide”
Discussant: Tetsuya Sahara (Meiji University, B03 Co-investigator)
Moderator: Hidemitsu Kuroki (ILCAA / Hokkaido University SRC, A03 Principal Investigator, Area Organizer)
Language: Japanese
Venue: Open to public, Admission Free, Online via Zoom, Pre-registration required
Pre-registration:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkcO2sqTwrHtEXoxZrtBK3lBs5_jGdaXL_
Co-organizer:
Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A)
“Migrants, Refugees, and Community Building” (Principal Investigator: Hidemitsu KUROKI (ILCAA) Project Number: 20H05826)
“Trust and Peace Building in Conflict Affected Areas” (Principal Investigator: Masako ISHII(Rikkyo University), Project Number: 20H05829 )
Contact
Erina Ota-Tsukada e.otatsukada[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp
Summary
The speaker was a humanitarian aid worker assisting refugees and displaced persons during the Bosnian conflict. Her current research focuses on the Srebrenica case in order to prevent a recurrence of the atrocities that occurred there. In this workshop, she discussed the Bosnian diaspora and its impact on peace building and trust building in their homeland. She introduced wide-ranging activities of the Muslim diaspora concerning the Srebrenica case, the only case that was qualified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). After presenting a literature review on the concepts of “diaspora,” “long-distance nationalism,” and “victimhood nationalism,” she discussed the political situation surrounding the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia, problems of migrants and refugees in the region, and the uniqueness and political characteristics of the crime of genocide. Discussions also included the process, objectives, types of Bosnian diaspora organizations, connectivity among them.
As a discussant, Dr. Sahara pointed out the close relationship between Turkey and Bosnia and introduced as an example the IHH, a Turkish humanitarian NGO, famous for its activities in Palestine and having its origin in humanitarian assistance during the Bosnian Conflict. He also presented the argument of the ICTY and its recognition of the Srebrenica case as genocide— a mass killing of prisoners of war.
Those on the floor posed several questions. The first question addressed whether the diaspora intended to construct memorial monuments at other sites besides the scene of the Srebrenica case that would be similar to such commemorations as the Holocaust Memorial Museum and statue symbolizing “comfort women” provided to Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. The other question involved a comparison with the Rwandan case and whether the diaspora was intensifying and amplifying the hostility in domestic politics to hinder peace building and reunification of the fragmented state. The reply to the first question was that the objective of the diaspora was to establish a memorial day in various parts of the world focused on July 11, the “date” the Srebrenica massacre started. The reply to the second question was that it could not be said at present that the diaspora played any role in contributing to reunification in the case of Srebrenica.
(Yukie OSA, uploaded on March 25, 2022)