To: CBS President, Leslie Moonves
CBS: Apologize for Insensitive Srebrenica Genocide Joke
Genocide isn't funny. We demand a direct, public and immediate apology not only from the show's producers, but also from CBS for their decision to air a tasteless joke about Srebrenica, a Bosnian and Herzegovinian town in which a genocide was committed. Srebrenica is a painful topic for all Bosnians, and we deserve more than to let genocide and our pain be the butt of a TV joke.
Why is this important?
On April 21, 2016, CBS's new show, “The Odd Couple” aired an episode containing a scene that was offensive, inappropriate and a direct insult to the victims and survivors of the Bosnian war, and in particular, the Srebrenica Genocide. In the aforementioned scene, a male character, played by actor Thomas Lennon, asks a female character, played by actress Lindsay Sloane, out to the “new Serbian restaurant called A Taste of Srebrenica” and in the same breath makes a sexual innuendo about the “meat sticks” of that restaurant.
Since Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, it has faced some of the greatest challenges seen in Europe since World War II. The war of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina left over 100,000 dead, over 2 million displaced and according to the United Nations (UN), between 20,000 – 50,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) women and girls victims of sexual violence.
On April 16, 1993, the United Nations Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in Resolution 819, placing the Bosnian town of Srebrenica under the protection of the UN. However, on July 11, 1995, over 8,372 innocent Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were systematically separated from their mothers, sisters, grandmothers and slaughtered by Serb forces within a five day period - the youngest victim being a newborn baby who in 2013, was buried next to her father, also a victim of the genocide. Srebrenica marked the final act of brutal genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While the Srebrenica Genocide continues to be denied by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb leadership as well as neighboring Serbia, it is important to note that in 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990's, was the first international criminal tribunal to enter a conviction for genocide in Europe when it ruled that the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide against Srebrenica’s non-Serb population. Moreover, in March of 2016, the ICTY ruled that Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader committed genocide in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica against its non-Serb population. Further, the United States Congress unanimously adopted H. Res. 199 which was introduced by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and S. Res. 134, introduced by then Senator and now Vice President, Joseph Biden which states that "the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 and 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, created in Paris on December 9, 1948, and entered into force on January 12, 1951."
Despite the fact that it has been twenty years since the genocide occurred, widespread genocide denial and the revision of history continues to threaten peace, progress and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. On July 11th of each year, the surviving family members of the Srebrenica Genocide along with supporters from the local and international community gather in Srebrenica for a burial ceremony. Last year, 136 newly identified victims were laid to rest but countless remain missing, their body parts hidden in mass graves as their surviving family members painstakingly wait for their bones to be discovered so they can give them a proper burial. According to the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP), which deals with DNA identification, there are approximately 1,200 people left to find. According to the numerous associations within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as multiple research and studies done, it is estimated that the PTSD rates in Srebrenica survivors are at 70% (Hasanovic, 2012) and that PTSD is prevalent in a minimum of 50% of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although some studies estimate that number is as high as 70%.
Given the above facts, it is incomprehensible that CBS would attempt to make the Srebrenica Genocide into a joke. Today, there are over 250,000 Bosnian Americans living in the United States as a result of the war and genocide that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992-1995 and CBS's insensitive joke dehumanizes genocide survivors and minimizes the pain they have experienced.
We demand a public apology from the CBS television network itself and request an apology from the show’s writers. We ask that the person who wrote this inappropriate joke be immediately dismissed as Srebrenica is a painful topic for all Bosnians and we deserve more than to let the crime of genocide, where innocent people are still searching for the bones of their loved ones be the butt of a TV joke. I, alongside the hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors, demand a public apology issued on all of CBS's social media platforms. As an act of good faith, we demand that CBS and their TV show “The Odd Couple” donate to the "Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves", a non-profit organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina that works with survivors and family members of the victims, who have disappeared or been killed in Srebrenica and Zepa during the fall of UN "Safe Haven" in 1995.
Since Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, it has faced some of the greatest challenges seen in Europe since World War II. The war of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina left over 100,000 dead, over 2 million displaced and according to the United Nations (UN), between 20,000 – 50,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) women and girls victims of sexual violence.
On April 16, 1993, the United Nations Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in Resolution 819, placing the Bosnian town of Srebrenica under the protection of the UN. However, on July 11, 1995, over 8,372 innocent Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were systematically separated from their mothers, sisters, grandmothers and slaughtered by Serb forces within a five day period - the youngest victim being a newborn baby who in 2013, was buried next to her father, also a victim of the genocide. Srebrenica marked the final act of brutal genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While the Srebrenica Genocide continues to be denied by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb leadership as well as neighboring Serbia, it is important to note that in 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990's, was the first international criminal tribunal to enter a conviction for genocide in Europe when it ruled that the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide against Srebrenica’s non-Serb population. Moreover, in March of 2016, the ICTY ruled that Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader committed genocide in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica against its non-Serb population. Further, the United States Congress unanimously adopted H. Res. 199 which was introduced by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and S. Res. 134, introduced by then Senator and now Vice President, Joseph Biden which states that "the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 and 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, created in Paris on December 9, 1948, and entered into force on January 12, 1951."
Despite the fact that it has been twenty years since the genocide occurred, widespread genocide denial and the revision of history continues to threaten peace, progress and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. On July 11th of each year, the surviving family members of the Srebrenica Genocide along with supporters from the local and international community gather in Srebrenica for a burial ceremony. Last year, 136 newly identified victims were laid to rest but countless remain missing, their body parts hidden in mass graves as their surviving family members painstakingly wait for their bones to be discovered so they can give them a proper burial. According to the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP), which deals with DNA identification, there are approximately 1,200 people left to find. According to the numerous associations within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as multiple research and studies done, it is estimated that the PTSD rates in Srebrenica survivors are at 70% (Hasanovic, 2012) and that PTSD is prevalent in a minimum of 50% of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although some studies estimate that number is as high as 70%.
Given the above facts, it is incomprehensible that CBS would attempt to make the Srebrenica Genocide into a joke. Today, there are over 250,000 Bosnian Americans living in the United States as a result of the war and genocide that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992-1995 and CBS's insensitive joke dehumanizes genocide survivors and minimizes the pain they have experienced.
We demand a public apology from the CBS television network itself and request an apology from the show’s writers. We ask that the person who wrote this inappropriate joke be immediately dismissed as Srebrenica is a painful topic for all Bosnians and we deserve more than to let the crime of genocide, where innocent people are still searching for the bones of their loved ones be the butt of a TV joke. I, alongside the hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors, demand a public apology issued on all of CBS's social media platforms. As an act of good faith, we demand that CBS and their TV show “The Odd Couple” donate to the "Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves", a non-profit organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina that works with survivors and family members of the victims, who have disappeared or been killed in Srebrenica and Zepa during the fall of UN "Safe Haven" in 1995.