Sarajevo: Awards for Mr. Brian Masse and Emir Ramic

The University of Sarajevo has awarded Mr. Brian Masse and Emir Ramic, Director of the with the prestigious academic award, the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University.

 Expert from the reasons for the award of the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University for Mr. Brian Masse, Member of the Canadian Parliament:

 "All citizens of Bosnian origin living in Canada can testify that Brian's contribution and hard work to acknowledge and declare a day of mourning for Srebrenica and to make sure that everyone knows that the crimes committed in Srebrenica were in fact genocide. Despite the resistance to include the word genocide in the resolution, Brian was determined to pass the resolution in the Parliament. This task was accomplished on October 19th 2010.The lobbying and advocacy process for this resolution lasted more than a year and Brian's dedication, commitment, integrity and courage are important factors that led to the realization of this; something that is very important to the Bosnian Herzegovinian community. Furthermore, this gives an advantage to Canada to strengthen its commitment in the fight to prevent genocide in the future, and further optimize the relations between BiH and Canada to prevent future genocides. It is vastly important to emphasize Brian Masse's commitment to fighting for human rights since the beginning of his political career. In fact, his entry into politics was linked to the genocide in East Timor. From then onwards, Brian has maintained his integrity in the fight for human rights. In the case of the Srebrenica Resolution he demonstrated that the need for justice surpasses the need for apparent peace".

 Excerpt from the reasons for the award of the Golden Badge of the Sarajevo University for Professor Emir Ramic:

"Professor Ramic is the name that everyone in Canada associated with a relentless struggle for truth and justice in North America and beyond. Ramic,is a victim of genocidal ideology in his hometown of Prijedor and a victim of the same ideology in Canada, but his selfless and heroic efforts in Bosnia are synonymous with resistance, and patriotism in the most original sense of the word. There is not enough space on these sheets to include all his merits and all of his victories, but we will draw attention to his immense contribution in Canada. Canada is the largest Western states to join the list of countries that passed a motion which acknowledges the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica and this is in large part thanks to Emir. While many have resisted the passage of the resolution and other similar documents, and although many people attempted to sabotage the project or at least diminish its importance by attempting to remove the word genocide from the resolution, Ramic did not accept any other offer except the original document which clearly identifies the act as: genocide, Who committed the act, who the victims are and how many victims there are. In the past seven years Ramic worked hard to adopt the Srebrenica Resolution in the Canadian Parliament. The idea eventually gained momentum, and the resolution was adopted on October 19th 2010. Now, under the watchful eye of Emir, we are working on passing a law that would officially declare a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada, as well as establish a memorial for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide in the city of Windsor. A member of the Canadian Parliament, Brian Masse presented Emir's resolution in the Canadian parliament".

R.E.