The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Why RECOM matters?
Vehid Sehic, Forum of Citizens of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Without doubt, the territory of the former Yugoslavia is still burdened with the past and the war events from the period of 1991-2001. However, the greatest problem is that that the conditions for facing up to the past, i.e. the facts that would most objectively establish the causes and consequences of the wars, have not been created. A feeling of justice and objectivity does not exist as a value, which results in a subjective view of the past. The consequence is that responsibility is most often attributed to the other side.
| Vehid Sehic |
Such behaviour by the political and academic community in particular does not contribute to the building of understanding and trust among the citizens of the region. Furthermore, it creates preconditions for possible future conflicts. Therefore, a regional commission is necessary since it would prevent the erosion of the facts from memory and prevent the falsification of history. It is especially related to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina where three official histories exist, three truths about the 1992-95 war (the Bosniak one, the Croatian one and the Serbian one).
These three truths are contradictory to each other, which results in continuous instability in the country and contributes to the instability of the region as a whole. Therefore, strong support for the establishment of RECOM is expected from the European institutions. RECOM's aim is in the first place to establish the facts that will restore dignity to the victims, as well as to create a social climate that will strengthen the forces from the region that are ready for dialogue, mutual respect and understanding. RECOM will also create preconditions for a future without conflicts, which is in the interest of all of Europe.
Tea Gorjanc Prelevic, Human Rights Action, www.hraction.org Podgorica, Montenegro
WHY THE EU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE RECOM INITIATIVE
The RECOM initiative supports the principles of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the rule of law, common to the EU member states, which present the general principles of Community law and should be abided by the Western Balkan states acceding to the EU (art. 6 of the Treaty on EU).
The RECOM initiative is intended to support the work of judicial institutions, especially the prosecutors, to help ensure their capacity to effectively investigate and hence promote the rule of law and human rights of all, regardless of ethnic or national affiliation (in accordance with the aim of the 1993 Copenhagen criteria of the European Council).
| Tea Gorjanc Prelevic |
RECOM may significantly supress the existing impunity for war crimes by ''mapping'' the crimes and their perpetrators and by issuing recommendations for further investigations and the processing of those responsible. It is to be expected that some victims and perpetrators, still not trusting the prosecutors' offices in their own countries, will decide to provide testimonies directly to the Regional Commission.
RECOM may assist in the formation of stable institutions that would ensure the rule on law in future on the basis of determined past errors in their performance. RECOM should organize studies and hearings on the institutional responsibility of the prosecutors, police forces and judiciary during the 1990s on the territories of the former Yugoslavia and provide conclusions and recommendations for further reform or training that would help prevent the same errors from reocurring.
RECOM should institutionalize efforts aimed at reconciliation among citizens in the region (the goal highlighted by the 2008 Council's Decision on Partnership with Croatia), although the intention has been hidden in an attempt to overtly impose on the victims of war crimes, who should have the liberty to individually decide on reconciliation.
However, the consultations organized by the Coalition for RECOM have already shown remarkable success in improving communication and understanding among the victims as well as other participants, regardless of their ethnic or national background. RECOM should promote the facts established by the final judgments of the ICTY and ensure they are regionally accepted. Moreover, once the ICTY
has ceased to operate, RECOM may also assist in supervising the implementation of its directives to member states. Finally, we all expect that RECOM will strengthen the universal values among all of us in the Western Balkans and ensure lasting peace in these parts of Europe.
Matthew Holliday, HLC Outreach Director
The value added of the RECOM initiative is that it is entirely ''home grown“; the whole initiative is conceived and implemented by local actors responding to local needs that have been locally identified. It is the local character, the bottom-up approach - an initiative conceived and developed by citizens and civil society not the state and its institutions - as well as the regional approach that marks out the RECOM initiative as unique in terms of transitional justice mechanisms in the Western Balkans. In this sense RECOM should obtain a legitimacy in the eyes of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, that the ICTY, as a UN Security Council established tribunal, has never had.
Truth commissions are usually official, state-created bodies. However, NGOs and victims' associations have been at the forefront of their creation, and NGO involvement has often determined their success.
| Matthew Holliday |
Another important feature of the RECOM initiative is that while it encourages and builds capacity in civil society to advocate a regional approach to post-conflict fact-finding and truth-telling, it will also create linkages between civil and political society. This is fundamental to the success of the RECOM initiative in that while civil society can foster support for post-conflict fact-finding and truth-seeking, and can facilitate public debate on the past, it is ultimately political society, the decision-makers, which bear responsibility for establishing any post-conflict fact-finding body, mandated to establish an official but no less objective narrative of past abuses. Therefore the nexus between political and civil society is fully recognised and articulated within the RECOM initiative.
Without prejudice to the ''home-grown'' character of the initiative, there remains a need for international support from such bodies as the European Union, the UN, Council of Europe, etc. For, with international political support the prospects of gradually building political support in the Western Balkans are greatly increased. And it is the political support of the states of the Western Balkans that will give the RECOM initiative sustainability by establishing an official regional commission to investigate and disclose the facts about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. But the political will to ensure such sustainability is the principle risk that threatens the RECOM initiative.
A number of indicators, however, point to the fact that the RECOM initiative will obtain the necessary political support from national decision-makers. In Serbia, Justice Minister Snezana Malovic has on several occasions publicly stressed the importance of fulfilling the rights of victims of the armed conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia to truth and justice - thereby affirming Serbia's European perspective. In
In Croatia President Stjepan Mesic - long an adherent of joint regional initiatives with neighbouring countries - supports the initiative. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authorities have committed themselves to working on the transitional justice processes. National-level processes implemented by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in concert with UNDP, will dovetail the regional vision and activities implemented within the framework of the RECOM initiative. In Kosovo, President Fatmir Sejdiu has publicly endorsed the RECOM initiative and the need for post-conflict truth-seeking and truth-telling and for public debate about the crimes committed in the past.
These factors point to the potential for success of the RECOM initiative.But why should the European Union support the initiative? Aside from the moral responsibility to realize the victims' and their
families' rights to know the facts about what happened to them and their loved ones during the wars of the 1990s, from a pragmatic perspective for the European Union it is imperative that the unresolved legacies of the armed conflicts on the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia are resolved prior to further enlargement. The RECOM initiative has the potential to make a significant contribution to resolving these legacies, building trust between peoples, states, and state institutions in the Western Balkans, and fostering stability and security.
Daliborka Uljarević, executive director of the Centre for Civic Education, Podgorica
Responsibility lost in transition:
It has been outlined in the EU's Thessalonica Agenda of 2003 that the promise of membership to the EU for the Western Balkans countries is conditional - amongst other matters - on the development of regional cooperation and good-neighbourly relations. However, a decade of conflict and strained political relations amongst the successor states of the former Yugoslavia somewhat obstruct full harmonization of relations between the neighbouring countries. While it has been largely recognized - in a number of international reports and in the EU's Progress Reports - that inter-state relations in the region have improved at the political level, tensions between communities that have been affected by the atrocities of the wars of the Yugoslav break-up still linger. Regardless of the technical progress that each of the states has made in meeting European standards, a lot has to be done to normalise relations between people and consequently to have viable regional cooperation.
| Daliborka Uljarevic |
A genuine and effective process of facing up to the past is one of the necessary long-term pillars for the development of a sustainable regional cooperation between the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It will lead to the building of future relations on grounds of a sound understanding of the complexities of political memory of recent events, as well as on a culture of human rights and democratic governance.
Almost two decades have passed since one of the still leading Montenegrin politicians was passionately encouraging Montenegrin citizens to take massive and active involvement in the war by explaining that "One cannot win the war by deserting but through mobilization" and "This time we will win and end the common life with them, I hope for all time". Simultaneously, another political leader, who is still a leading politician, was launching the famous syntagm of "War for Peace" and convincing people that "peace can only be secured by war, regardless of all the pain and suffering". Nowadays, the latter has summarized these developments almost like an independent analyst, stating that "It was a great historical misunderstanding which, unfortunately, ended in a bloodbath". Both talk about the success of Montenegro's path towards the EU, denying the importance of dealing with unresolved issues from the past but creating a different history. This is best illustrated by the fact that Montenegrin pupils can find only one sentence on these events in their history textbooks: "In the attack of the Yugoslav People's Army on Dubrovnik County, reservists from Montenegro also took part". Not a single word about the other "operations", crimes or responsibility.
While reconciliation may have occurred to a certain degree at the political level, at the community level this process is still in its cradle; as such this fact can hardly help communities to truly become siblings in the wider European family. There is no technical progress that can make up for this and ignorance of the importance of this aspect may be fatal for the overall democratization of the region.
Until people, and especially victims, can say "the justice is done", we will be living in a gap between verbally declared democratic values and European standards and a reality marked by weak institutions and strong, uncontrollable individuals who foster a culture of impunity.
This is where the importance of the RECOM comes: in compiling a precise, public and objective record of war crimes and other violations of human rights committed on the territory of former SFRY, including recognition of the victims and their suffering, thus preventing crimes in the future. In order to have a clear view into the future, not only among the citizens of Montenegro, but a whole regional consensus on the facts, acknowledgment of victims and their sufferings, preservation of memories from oblivion, the simple truth about the past as healthy base for future societal development is of utmost importance.
This process, following the traumatic historical experiences such as were wars of the Yugoslav dissolution is, by definition, a long and arduous endeavour.Still, it is necessary not only to entail the efforts undertaken at the highest political level but to make people closer to each other through sharing the very aspects of the personal and political memory that have troubled them. In turn, enhanced understanding and cooperation will precisely and substantively (rather than merely formally and politically) help meet the Thessalonica requirement for regional cooperation.
Responsibility has been lost in one transition period. Nowadays, it is an obligation both of the people of the region and of the EU to help its reestablishment, to prove that the Balkans is not producing genetically modified people for wars, to change the image of existing collective guilty and to introduce the concept of punishment for crimes at an individual level. The track record of Balkan countries in effectively facing the past will be an indicator of these countries' capacity to join an EU founded on peace, tolerance and democracy. The dedication of the EU in supporting transitional justice in the region will be indicator that it is still fully attached to the aforementioned founding principles.
Dzenana Karup-Drusko
Considering the gravity of the crimes committed in BiH it is impossible for courts (international or national) to establish what really happened in BiH. Without undermining the significance of judgements rendered, before The Hague Tribunal in particular, we are aware that many victims have never testified anywhere and that they probably won't, that their stories have not been noted and that most war criminals will never be held accountable for what they did. On the other hand, we have this very important fact that the mandate of the Hague Tribunal is coming to an end. Trials will continue before national courts, but current practice has shown that very few people follow these trials and even the media is not interested in them.
Hence, it is obvious that there is a need for a body, besides courts, which will continue investigating what happened during the war in BiH and which speak about this in public. RECOM would be the optimum solution, also because victims would have an opportunity to have their stories heard in other countries as well as in the countries from which this all came in the first place and where denial of war crimes still exists, and this is, more or less, the case with all countries.
What I find very important when it comes to this initiative is that there are attempts to involve all victims in this process regardless of their national background. Also very important are their reactions that we have had opportunities to see so far. They accept that crimes were committed on all sides, but victims in BiH are scared that crimes committed in that country might be minimized and that all victims would be equalized. However, their willingness to participate in the process and speak about it in public, and at the same time listen to documented answers, gives hope that this process will be a success. This can help us in our endeavour to deal with the past by accepting all facts and thereby trying to prevent something like the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s from ever recurring.
Vesna Terselic
it seems that the European Union is pragmatically open to policies such as the Hague conditionality policy, which has been very useful, just like the process of European integration, because institutions in
the successor states to the former Yugoslavia are given a clear sequence of steps that they must follow in order to become members of the European Union.
However, the policy of European integration falls short of being a transitional justice strategy, nor would I call it a strategy of dealing with the past. Europe after the Second World War did some very important things in analyzing that conflict and bringing convergence between countries involved in the war, but it has never had a strategy of transitional justice, nor has it had a strategy of dealing with the past, and this is not accidental.
There is an unwillingness to deal with a legacy of a collaborationist past dating from the Second World War in practically all countries of the European Union as well as countries that are not members of the European Union. Also there is a reluctance to look at the legacy of those who cooperated with the repressive mechanisms of communist parties.
It is therefore not surprising that there is no strategy of dealing with the past when the European Union has not been ready to deal with its own past in the sense of processing what is a negative legacy.
In this context, the process of civil society debating truth-seeking and truth-telling in the Western Balkans may be an opportunity for the European Union to additionally think about the Regional Commission as a proposal not only for the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, but also as an opportunity to open important issues from its own past.
The RECOM initiative provides an opportunity to ask questions about processing the past within European institutions like the European Parliament or the Commission. As well as creating space for the voice of the victims and creating prerequisites for truth-seeking in the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, the RECOM initiative has cathartic potential for other people in other countries, old or new members of the European Union, which can foster, in due course, a true peer-to-peer dialogue about dealing with the past, whether about crimes committed in the 1990s or crimes committed during the Second World War or during the vengeful non-judicial executions after the Second World War.
What are needed are a genuine peer dialogue and a more intensive learning process in which the EU and its constituent members and EU aspirant states of the Western Balkans learn from each other.] The bottom-up character of the RECOM initiative in Kosovo
Nora Ahmetaj
In regard to Regional Truth Seeking Commission - RECOM initiative, in Kosovo the process has been quite vibrant during the consultations and the forums (2006-2009), therefore it was positively accepted by civil society stakeholders and political leaders.
However, Kosovo civil society lags behind the modest regional actions in transitional justice systems. Since Kosovo institutions and the international community are mostly focused on political stability, questions concerning the war, victims, missing persons, the perpetrators, the governments and the individual's responsible remain largely unanswered.
| Nora Ahmetaj |
Lack of communication between the ethnic groups in Kosovo leads to lack of understanding and prejudice. It is prejudice that has led to ethnic hatred in Kosovo and caused the population countless suffering. However fragile peace might be, in Kosovo justice is so deeply dependent on the perception of individuals and ethnic groups that it presents the very threat to the peace.[1] What was considered justice in 1999 may differ with what is considered since the declaration of independence. Therefore, while for the majority of Albanians independence is considered the ultimate act of justice and thus presents an elimination of threats (that they will be put under Serbian rule again), for Kosovo Serbs it may present a potential threat (that they will be victims of revenge) by Kosovo new institutions.
Another harmful perception has also developed the exclusivity of the right of each major ethnic group to be accounted as the victim. When asked whether members of their ethnicity have committed war crimes, Kosovo Albanians deny this claim by 78 per cent.[2] As is the case with post-conflict countries of former Yugoslavia, in Kosovo the past is not confronted openly with the involvement of both state inquiries and personal accounts of the conflicts.
Perceptions among Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs on the sources 'delivering' the truth about war crimes committed during the war in Kosovo vary to a great extent. In some way, justice in Kosovo was
sacrificed for the sake of stability. In order to set the foundations for a democratic society, constructive debate and the bottom-up approach is in the interest of all people in Kosovo and the region.
The RECOM approach is about to open the door to those who have trust in justice and are strong enough to be able to confront the negative powers in the search for justice for all of us, for victims of crimes and in the search for perpetrators of crimes and their archives.
Zdravka Karlica
We, members of the Republican Organization of Family Members of Detained and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians, believe that the European Union should support RECOM. We feel that a regional commission for truth-seeking about war crimes and other serious violations of human rights in the former Yugoslavia would judge events that occurred on this territory more objectively from the victims’ point of view. We also feel that it is hard to find out the truth because in BiH, unfortunately, there are three truths.
This war left a great number of victims, and family members of killed and detained soldiers, detainees, refugees, mistreated persons are victims of war, and children are the greatest victims. In this sense, we believe that these issues should be approached in a very serious manner and it is important that we meet the following prerequisites:
- the process has to be completely depoliticized;
- mediators/organizers must not be compromised, morally or in any other manner;
- the starting point must be unbiased and without imposing different prejudice and convictions or already formed opinions;
- it is necessary that, above all, the representatives of organizations/associations of victims of war reach a consensus and accept the process mentioned herein without any pressure;
- judicial decisions cannot represent final facts, i.e. we can only use them as documents to check facts;
- and, finally, everything should be carried out in a transparent manner, with clear objectives and a method for reaching them.
Bearing in mind the fact that the war left deep wounds and caused an inter-ethnic conflict that is very hard to bridge and which still has a pending problem with the fates of approximately 10,000 missing persons in BiH that have not yet been clarified, this all creates an additional burden. It will require much more effort and willpower for good organization, clear regulations, political and public support, and finally the most important element, the involvement of associations of victims of war, and the irreplaceable support of government institutions.
In order to establish a permanent peace in BiH that will not cause conflicts in the future, the European Union has to support RECOM in its work.
It will provide prerequisites for all people in BiH (Serbs, Muslims, Croats, and others) to be dedicated to vital interests, most importantly, the improvement of the living standard for all citizens
- the education and training of students
- the resolution of social problems that have been piled up;
- the affirmation of coexistence, which would in general accelerate the process of BiH joining the European Union, which represents a permanent and final objective.
Dragan Popovic, Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Establishing the facts about war crimes represents one of the basic preconditions for the establishment of a lasting peace in the Western Balkans. One of the causes of instability in the region are the different versions of the past in the Balkan nations’ oral tradition.
| Dragan Popovic |
In the early 1990s, the Yugoslav nations were in no dilemma over dismissing economic stability and embracing nationalist policies ¬– vastly influenced by the unresolved issues from the past. The fear of renewed animosities, dating from the Second World War, was intensified by the manipulation of the facts about the armed conflicts and crimes committed in that period. This was possible because the truth had never been officially established, so it was left to everyone to believe their own version of history.
The Western Balkan region is still fraught with ethnic conflicts and unresolved issues both among states and within multiethnic state communities. Outstanding political issues are being exploited by anti-European political powers for nationalistic mobilization and to keep tensions alive. Such an unstable political state threatens the efforts being put into engaging the region in the European integration process and requires constant employment of EU’s human and material resources, focused on repairing the consequences of political crises in the region. Focusing attention on causes of conflicts would significantly improve results and enhance the efficiency of EU’s engagement in the Western Balkans.
Facts established by an official commission founded pursuant to a decision made by all states in the region would be a step toward elimination of causes of conflicts and hostilities in the Balkans.
The establishment of RECOM is an indispensable mechanism for establishing lasting peace in the Balkans, which certainly is one of EU’s priorities. Without resolving accumulated problems from the past it is impossible to integrate the Western Balkans into the community of European nations. The accession of Balkan states which have not made a clean break from their past would shift the crisis hotspot into the EU court. That is why it is of paramount importance that all mechanisms for establishing lasting peace and overcoming wartime past be introduced and become operational during the association process.
Milanka Saponja: With RECOM To Change in System of Values
The establishment of RECOM is a great, maybe even essential, aid to the change of system of values in the region, where the nationalistic discourse formed immediately before and during the war still prevails.
A high quality historical account formed by the commission represents the best basis for determining essential evidence about the causes and motives for the war and crimes, and may also serve as a good basis for historical, sociological, economical and other expert research in the decades to come.
At the same time, it represents a basis for the efficient denial of made-up and exaggerated presentations of the past, which have shown to be very efficient in gaining public support for the war.
Fed by horrible half-truths, which bred fear among the wider population, proved to be the best basis for realizing the war objectives that created about 100,000 victims in the region.
Now, 10 or 15 years after the war, the same matrix prevails in the public space throughout the entire region because it suits the interests of the economic elites formed on the foundations of war, thus preventing the democratization of countries and establishment of a new peaceful system of values based on respect for civil freedoms and human rights.
Research into information about the Yugoslav wars will present these false heroes the way they really are – as cheaters who by calling upon the interests of the people, used every opportunity for their own practical needs, now embodied in the huge wealth they have.
Gordan Bosanac
The European Union is partially building its identity on the Second World War. Although there is no doubt that the primary interest behind European unification has been economic, the idea of preventing a conflict as brutal and irrational as the Second World War is being incorporated more and more into the values of the European Union.
The development of democratic institutions and respect for human rights has proven to be an important mechanism of conflict prevention. Yet, these mechanisms failed to prevent conflicts in our immediate vicinity. So, has the EU managed to incorporate security mechanisms as a society if, in its immediate vicinity, brutal and irrational violence is being repeated?
The answer is: no. That is why wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and processes of building peace in this area in particular are important for the idea of a united Europe, not only for economic and political union, but territorial as well.
The EU has only recently started to think about concepts of human security that will supplement classic security policies. There is less and less space for national securities in a united Europe because they lose their identity in the globalization process and because the focus is being transferred from the nation to the individual.
Had the EU had mechanisms with such an opinion about security in 1990s, it would have realized quickly how great a threat the war in the former Yugoslavia posed for citizens of the Union as well.
The Balkan violence lab now really has to become a place for “an experiment in building peace, trust and non-violence” but not the behind-the-scene external – diplomatic – interest type, but the place of attempt and mistakes in building a society of non-violence on the territory of the former Yugoslavia that comes from citizens themselves.
There is great potential in the successor states to the former Yugoslavia to present themselves to Europe through a peace-building dialogue. However, it is more than obvious that in the experience of national governments, these quasi-policies of peace building have always been false and unauthentic. If governments are not able to do this, maybe civil society can.
It is extremely important to observe what social factors are generators of peace building in the country successors to the former Yugoslavia. Who are the “visionaries” who speak about events before they occur, and how can we recognize and support the “visionaries” in a timely manner? Civil society organizations have definitely been ahead of national policies. Numerous other initiatives and individuals have also been forerunners but their work has not been recognized and encouraged in time. Communication with institutions is always stained by its relation to power, which does not necessarily have to be malicious – but the messages from those who do not hold powerful positions are often ignored.
If now we, the citizens who live in different parts of the European continent, want better security mechanisms than the ones we have built on present conflicts, we have to build our security capital on the remnants of the war in the Balkans.
Although it seems contradictory, the experience of war should represent a strategic advantage for the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. Everything will remain tragic if this capital only materializes in new conflicts, policies of lies and manipulation, and not in policies of security of people and peace building.
Dinko Gruhonjic, President of the Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists
The role of media in promoting RECOM initiative
The role of the media and public TV broadcasting services in the successor states to the former Yugoslavia in particular will be essential if we want this initiative to succeed.
In this regard, there have been several local and regional consultations with media editors. What was encouraging was the large turnout of editors at these consultations. Their constructive approach to the debate, the interesting ideas they presented and their willingness to be involved in the creation of a media campaign is also encouraging.
What is worrying is that the region does not have a long tradition of public TV services. Because of this, public broadcasting services still resemble state TV stations and the impact of day-to-day politics and governing parties on the programming is still obvious. In other words, advocating the RECOM Initiative with politicians will, unfortunately, influence its advocacy with editors and directors of public broadcasting services.
An additional aggravating factor in winning media support (with a stress on public broadcasting systems) for the Initiative lies in the fact that there was no lustration process in the media on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The people who took part in preparing for the war and conveying war propaganda still hold high positions in the media and public broadcasting services. That is also why we may doubt the sincerity of their wish to support the RECOM Initiative. Because of all of this, the media campaign for the promotion of RECOM Initiative needs careful preparation.
Maja Kassa, Professor
In a region where Europe has bled three times, and where people have not learned the message of the Second World War – that dealing with the past and the truth offers the only hope for the future – supporting RECOM does not represent a need but a necessity.
All of us who lived in this period have a responsibility towards the victims, to those who are gone and their families, to bring the truth to them because that is the only thing they expect, and to provide new generations with an opportunity to hear and accept this truth.
The authorities have neglected victims throughout the region while non-governmental organizations, which have proved valuable in the fight for human dignity and human rights, have an important engagement in this problem.
The countries of the region and also from the rest of Europe need to support and encourage them in every way possible, to ensure the RECOM project is presented and made accessible to public in the best possible way, and encompasses as many organizations and individuals who can contribute to this laudable project as possible. It is the only real way to bring truth to victims while the authorities remain unwilling to do so.
