Mourning Rita Süssmuth

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) honors the extraordinary commitment of former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth to the victims of war and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "With Rita Süssmuth's passing, Germany has lost a great champion of human rights. She was one of those political figures who did not remain silent in the 1990s when systematic violence, ethnic cleansing, and genocide were being committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At a time when looking away and political restraint prevailed, she publicly stood by the victims, clearly named the injustice, and supported civil society initiatives that demanded justice, protection, and international responsibility," says Belma Zulčić, director of the STP section in Sarajevo.

As President of the German Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth was one of the prominent supporters of the Society for Threatened Peoples. "Rita Süssmuth approached our human rights organization because she wanted to stand up for the victims of the war in Bosnia. She supported our campaigns, vigils, and protests against genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We owe her a debt of gratitude for her tireless commitment to human rights," says Zulčić.

Rita Süssmuth's commitment was characterized by a deep conviction that human rights are universal and must not end at national borders, ethnic categories, or geopolitical interests. “For many survivors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, her voice meant recognition, dignity, and the feeling of not being forgotten. She helped to ensure that the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina were clearly named—as a warning and as a mission for the future,” said Zulčić.

Rita Süssmuth supported the European Forum for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was founded by the STP in 1994 and brought together over 100 associations and organizations of Bosnian refugees and displaced persons from several European countries. In April 1994, she spoke at the STP rally “Let Bosnia live!” in Bonn, which, with around 30,000 participants, is considered a key moment in German civil society mobilization for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July 1995, immediately after the siege of Srebrenica began, she appealed in a speech to the Bundestag: "What is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not the result of uncontrolled violence, but an expression of targeted expulsion and the systematic destruction of a population group. Anyone who continues to hesitate here is complicit." Without hesitation, in September 1995, together with Simon Wiesenthal and Haris Silajdzic, then Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, she took on the patronage of the STP World Congress on Genocide in Bonn, which provided the first concrete evidence of the extent of the genocide in Srebrenica. Until the very end, Süssmuth worked alongside the STP to defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at presse@gfbv.de.