Janja Beč Neumann is Serbian-born sociologist,

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

researcher, writer and lecturer. She holds BSc in Engineering of Technology (

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

) and PhD in Sociology (

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

). She is a member of the

International Association of Genocide Scholars The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is an international non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, including the Armenian genocide, the Holoc ...

. In her scientific work she concerns herself in research and lecture with the topics

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

, genocide and memories at the territories of the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. She established the MA Course on War Crimes, Genocide and Memories, the first such course to be set up in South-Eastern Europe since the 1992–1995

Bosnian war The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

.
Meaningful World, Spring 2009 Newsletter of the Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention, accessed 28 November 2010 She has written numerous academic publications as well as theater-plays on these topics. Beč Neumann has been known as a rare voice in Serbia calling for recognition that genocide was perpetrated against

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s in the Bosnian war. Considered an authoritative voice on the

Srebrenica genocide The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by units ...

, she has described the explanations given by

Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби Босне и Херцеговине, Srbi Bosne i Hercegovine), often referred to as Bosnian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, босански Срби, bosanski Srbi) or Herzegovinian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, � ...

officials including the

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...

president

Nebojša Radmanović Nebojša Radmanović ( sr-Cyrl, Небојша Радмановић, ; born 5 February 1949) is a Bosnian Serb politician who served as the 5th Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2014. He has been serving as memb ...

for their refusal to attend the collective burial and commemoration ceremonies for the victims as "shameful" and regards the Dutch battalion of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) who expelled civilian refugees from their compound at Potocari in July 1995 as accomplices in what happened.
BBC Monitoring European report, 20 July 2009, of Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation TV, Sarajevo, Posteno ("Frankly") current affairs programme broadcast on 11 July 2009, republished by Bosnian Institute, accessed 28 November 2010 She describes denial as the last phase of genocide which takes generations to confront, as shown in the case of Germany. In 2005 she was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

Published books

*''Why Wars in Yugoslavia?'' (Novi Sad & Belgrade, 1993) *''The Shattering of the Soul'' (Belgrade, 1997) *''Sewing up the Blue'' (Cairo, 2002) *''Genocide live'' (Granada, 2003) *''Archipelago Atlantis'' (Sarajevo, 2004) *''Srebrenica from Denial to Confession; Banality of Indifference'' (2005) *''Top 10 Bystanders in Srebrenica'' (2005) *''Darkness at Noon: War Crimes, Genocide and Memories'' (Sarajevo, 2007) *''Talks with Richard Goldstone'' (Sarajevo, 2007)

References

External links

Interview with RFE/RLFrom seminar "Srebrenica, Who Cares? Genocide, Who Cares?"
Academic Network South-East Europe {{DEFAULTSORT:Bec, Janja Serbian women non-fiction writers Living people University of Belgrade alumni Year of birth missing (living people)