VOA慢速英语2015 斯雷布雷尼察纪念日

AS IT IS 2015-07-11 Lessons to Learn on Srebrenica Anniversary 斯雷布雷尼察纪念日

This Saturday, Bosnia will mark the 20th anniversary of the worst mass killing¹ in Europe since World War Two. It is known as the massacre² of Srebrenica. During an 11-day period in July 1995, around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered during the Bosnian war.

Today families of the victims still feel the pain. But some experts say the events of 20 years ago should make nations work harder at preventing future conflicts.

For those who lost husbands and sons 20 years ago during the Srebrenica massacre, the wounds are still fresh.

Not long ago, medical examiners identified the remains³ of 136 victims. During ceremonies on Saturday, those remains will finally be laid to rest.

One woman lost her husband and both sons at Srebrenica. “We have been sentenced without a trial,” she says. “Our children were sentenced to death and expulsion, and we survivors⁴ were sentenced to stay living in hell.”

During the Bosnian war, the United Nations declared the town of Srenbrenica a “safe area” and under UN protection. Twenty years ago, Serbian General Ratko Mladic and his troops raided the area while Dutch peacekeeping forces were on guard. Thousands of Bosnian men and boys were killed.

Stephen Rapp is the United States’ Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. He says the international community must take greater steps to intervene to help reduce ethnic⁵ tensions in Bosnia and other places. He spoke⁶ recently at a conference in Washington.

“I think part of what we need to work for is for greater integration⁷ within the region, both within Europe and internally, recognizing the common interests of people in Bosnia for a prosperous future and a future where people can live together whatever their ethnicity, whatever religion they follow.”

Tanya Domi is a professor at Columbia University in New York. She says a lasting⁸ result of the war in Bosnia is its troubled economy.

The World Bank reports that formal unemployment is 40 percent, she says. With the addition of Bosnian young people, the number is almost 60 percent. She says conditions like these are not good for Bosnia’s citizens and people have started leaving the country.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague approved orders for the arrest of Ratko Mladic on war crimes charges. The court also announced charges against former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Mr. Milosevic died in prison in 2006. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still facing war crimes charges. The court found three others, including two Bosnian Serbs, guilty of genocide.

Ambassador Rapp says that even if justice is slow in coming for the crimes of Srebrenica, it will come. In his words, “The day will come when persons who target the innocent, who attempt to destroy whole groups, on whatever motivation, that those people will face justice. And I think that out of Srebrenica the world has gained powerful lessons that all of us need to implement⁹ every day.”

Even in the face of those lessons, there are still people who still deny the act of mass killing. On Wednesday, Russia vetoed a proposed UN resolution in the Security Council. The resolution would have condemned¹⁰ the massacre in Srebrenica as genocide.

Words in This Story

massacre – n. the killing of many people

expulsion – n. the act of forcing someone to leave a place

integration – n. bringing different kinds of groups together

prosperous – adj. successful in economy; profitable

implement – v. to make something happen; to carry out

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

8 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

9 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

10 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。