MP’s emotion as she relates a personal tale of Srebrenica

INDIVIDUAL STORIES HARROWING BUT NEED TO BE TOLD, SHE SAYS

AN MP broke down in tears as she told the tragic story of a Bosnian war victim who died 25 years after he was shot and left for dead by Serbian soldiers.

Alicia Kearns, who represents Rutland and Melton, could not hide her emotions when talking about a casualty of the Srebrenica massacre.

She was speaking in the House of Commons in a debate marking the 27th anniversary of the genocide.

Her constituent, Karen Packwood, was in the public gallery to hear the tribute to her late husband, Amir.

Ms Kearns revealed how, as a 13-year-old, he had been shot by a Serbian soldier just for being a “male and Bosniak”.

Amir was not killed in the incident, but died two years ago due to contaminated blood transfusions he was given by medics at the time in their effort to save his life.

He was described by Ms Kearns as being a “proud, kind and loving man”.

Conscious of her emotions getting the better of her, Ms Kearns said: “I’m not ashamed of my tears today because every time we shed a tear, we show that we care and that we will not stand for these people being forgotten and silenced.”

The Srebrenica killings were the only episode of the Bosnian war to be legally defined as genocide.

The conflict, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, came after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist and ethnic hatred as Bosnian Serbs turned on Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Ms Kearns, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Bosnia, said Amir was only 11 when the war broke out.

She said she was sharing his story “because hearing individual stories matters, no matter how difficult it might be”.

She told the House: “He was a happy boy who lived with his family, played football in the park and enjoyed toy cars and comics. But then the militia came.

“Amir was evicted and he lost everything. His toys, his comics, everything he loved, and his innocence. Aged 13, as Amir walked down the infamous sniper alley in Sarajevo, a Serb soldier took aim and shot him.”

Visibly upset, she said Amir had cried out to the soldier “I’m just a boy, I am not a soldier, why are you shooting me?”.

She said he then realised it was because he was male and Bosnian.

“This made him a target for annihilation because, according to the Serbs, he was not human,” said Ms Kearns. “He did not deserve to live. He did not deserve a family, he did not deserve a future.”

Amir did survive, learned to thrive, fell in love with his wife, but “the agony of war stretches far into the future”, the MP said.

“That bullet that was shot in hatred and the transfusions that saved his life at that time, ultimately killed him because they were contaminated blood. His liver failed him 25 years later, and he is another victim of the Bosnian war.”

His widow thanked her MP for highlighting Amir’s story.

Speaking after the debate, Ms Packwood said: “The importance of telling Amir’s story is the fact that genocide denial is on the rise.

“There are so many people that actually don’t know exactly what happened in Bosnia, not just in Srebrenica, but in Bosnia in general.

“For me, what’s really important is the fact that people will often focus on what happened during the war, but the thing that’s really important about this story is that war doesn’t end when some kind of peace treaty is declared for people who actually lived through the experience.

“Amir is one of those. The war continues in a very, very different way. They never, ever, ever recover from what happens to them.”

Foreign Office minister Graham Stuart closed the debate by saying: “We must learn the lessons of history in the region and the consequences of inaction.”