The EU Info Centre in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in BiH organised a film screening of the documentary dedicated to the life and work of the former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, in Sarajevo, on 17 March. This was followed by a discussion with Konstanty Gebert, a Polish journalist, Jewish activist and writer, who was Assistant to Mazowiecki when he was the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the territory of the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Ambassador of Poland in BiH H.E. Andrzej Krawczyk welcomed the audience noting that Mazowiecki’s legacy has been important in BiH as it has been in his homeland.
In the discussion, Gebert gave many interesting insights on Mazowiecki’s work in BiH during the last decade of the 20th century, bringing these details closer to everyone interested in the contemporary history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ”I was with him when he resigned because of Srebrenica. I tried to persuade him not to give his resignation, but he told me – I cannot pretend to defend human rights under the UN flag after all,” said Gebert.
Trying to portray Mazowiecki to the present young generation Gebert recalled one occasion in Mostar. ”A few years ago, when I was in Mostar talking about Mazowiecki, someone said – Mazowiecki, he was a normal human being. That is exactly what he was, a normal human being, and normal human beings do not allow other people using them as an alibi, an instrument or a cover for something else”, said Gebert pointing out how important it is to remember the great men who made a great contribution to humanity and brought changes in Europe and in the region. “On this special ocassion, we want to show him love and appreciation for having the privilege to be with a man like him and see how it brings changes to this region,” he said.
