Most Canadians would have a hard time imagining what it must be like to experience war, especially one as merciless as the Bosnian war that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. But for Toronto resident Fadil Kulasic, his experience of this war is all too real. He was captured by Bosnian Serb soldiers and survived three different detention centers, including the notoriously brutal Omarska concentration camp. He was held for 202 days.  Fadil was twenty years old when the war broke out in his hometown of Kozarac, witch in May 1992 had a a 95% population of Bosnian Muslims.  He lived with his parents and younger brother in a village called Kozarusa, just 4 km away from the centre of Kozarac, in the municipality of Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia, a place that saw the horrors of the ethnic cleansing very early on in the war.

Fadil believes he is alive today because he would always look his captors directly in the eyes - he refused to turn his back to them, even when they demanded that he do so. He knew his captors were cowards. He also believed that if there was any ounce of humanity left in them, that they wouldn't be able to kill him if he continued to make eye contact. Fadils message to us is to "never turn your backs on Srebrenica" ...

Those fortunate enough to live in a democratic nation have an obligation to remember the words “Never Again” and to speak up against genocide.