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Reparacije za žrtve: Naučene lekcije sa Konferencije za prevenciju zločina Centra za postkonfliktna istraživanja | Balkan Diskurs
Balkan Diskurs
13. maja, 2024.
Oni koji su preživjeli ratove na području bivše Jugoslavije ključni su za izgradnju mira. Njihova svjedočanstva služe kao podsjetnik na prekršeni imperativ “nikad više”. Priznavanje njihovih prava uključuje i pravo na reparaciju. Reparacije su ključne za pomirenje i sprečavanje ponavljanja zločina. Štoviše, reparacije će omogućiti postkonfliktnim društvima da marginalizaciju preživjelih iz rata izvuku iz njezinih korijena.
Ovo je stav predstavnika civilnog sektora iz Bosne i Hercegovine, Crne Gore i Kosova, i međunarodnih institucija, a koji je iznesen na regionalnoj konferenciji „Izgradnja zajedničke agende za prevenciju na Zapadnom Balkanu“, u sklopu panela „Žrtve i reparacije: Lokalna perspektiva“, u martu ove godine u Podgorici. Graciela Gatti Santana, predsjednica Međunarodnog rezidualnog mehanizma za krivične sudove, putem video poruke, kazala je da su žrtve kao svjedoci odigrale ključnu ulogu pred Međunarodnim krivičnim sudom za bivšu Jugoslaviju (MKSJ) i Mehanizmom, „njihove priče su svjedočanstva o otpornosti ljudskog duha i služe kao snažni podsjetnici za imperativ – nikad više“.
„Ohrabrujuće je primjetiti da prava žrtava međunarodnih zločina na traženje odštete je sada šire priznato. Brojni sudovi i tribunali uspostavljeni nakon MKSJ, uključujući povezana načela i postupke u svoje pravne okvire nastoje žrtvama pružiti sredstva za naknadu štete“, navela je Santana, dodajući da „postoji sličan razvoj i unutar domaće sfere“.
Reparacije: nesavršena borba
Selma Korjenić iz TRIAL International BiH, naglasila je važnost uključivanja žrtava u procese reparacija i tranzicijske pravde, podsjetivši da su „civilno društvo i udruženja žrtava morali aktivno zagovarati i podizati svijest kako bi postigli neke mjere reparacija“.
Istakla je ulogu međunarodne zajednice u podršci procesu pravde i reparacija, navodeći primjer uspješnog povećanja procesuiranja slučajeva seksualnog nasilja u Bosni i Hercegovini nakon što je pitanje postalo globalno prioritetno. Kroz rad sa žrtvama i prepoznavanje njihovih potreba, Korjenić naglašava da su postignuti konkretni rezultati, poput donošenja Zakona o pravima za žrtve torture u Republici Srpskoj.
Ovim zakonom uređuju se uvjeti i postupak za priznavanje statusa i prava žrtava ratne torture kao posebne kategorije civilnih žrtava rata, te prava temeljem njihovog utvrđenog statusa. Također se uređuje način ostvarivanja njihovih prava, način osiguranja sredstava za ostvarivanje tih prava, te druga pitanja od značaja za priznavanje statusa i prava prema ovom zakonu.
Daliborka Uljarević iz Centra za građansko obrazovanje Crne Gore, smatra da reparacije su snažan mehanizam suočavanja s historijskom nepravdom. Pojasnila je da reparacije potiču pomirenje tako što priznaju patnje žrtava.
„Govoreći o reparacijama, one nam dolaze kao nešto potpuno udaljeno, ne samo političarima koji stvaraju ovu atmosferu, već nedostaje i podrške građana kako bi to gurali naprijed, kako bi barem djelomično nadoknadili dijelove pravde na koju žrtve još čekaju“, smatra Uljarević.
Bekim Blakaj iz Fonda za humanitarno pravo sa Kosova naveo je da je uloga civilnog društva u procesu tranizicijske pravde ograničena u vezi s reparacijama, ukazujući na problematiku zakona o statusu i pravima žrtava koji su diskriminirajući prema civilnim ratnim žrtvama. Uz to, dodaje da često memorijalizacija na Kosovu nije inkluzivna i ne pruža adekvatnu naraciju o prošlim događajima.
Naglasio je potrebu za pravednijim pristupom reparacijama, a koji bi uključivao sudsku komponentu, navodeći: „Kad je riječ o monetarnim kompenzacijama, poput onih koje pružaju fondovi, u Kosovu, nažalost, sve su administrativne reparacije. Nema jednog slučaja da je sud dodijelio reparaciju za određene žrtve“. Administrativna reparacija je vansudski postupak koji države provode radi pružanja naknade masovnom broju žrtava kršenja ljudskih prava.
Polarizirana društva i društvene promjene
Sagovornici panela složili su se da su društva zapadnog Balkana sve više polarizirana.
U Crnoj Gori, prema riječima Uljarević, postoji sistemski pristup zanemarivanju pitanja polarizacije i podjela bez obzira na razlike unutar vlasti jer „ono što svjedočimo u posljednjih nekoliko godina je zapravo regresija“.
Branko Ćulibrk, iz Centra za mlade KVART u Bosni i Hercegovini, vjeruje da promjene u društvu moraju proizaći iz samih građana.
„Naša je uloga zagovarati solidarnost i vidljivost žrtava, bez kritiziranja političkih struktura koje bi nas mogle marginalizirati“, smatra Ćulibrk, ističući važnost rada s mladima.
Prema njemu, rad na rješavanju problema prošlosti ključan je za ostvarivanje željenih društvenih promjena. KVART je usmjeren na rad s mladima, ali prepoznaje nužnost uključivanja cijele lokalne zajednice kako bi se pormijenili lokalni društveni okviri u vezi s prošlošću.
Marlies Stappers iz Impunity Watch, koja je moderirala panel „Žrtve i reparacije: Lokalna perspektiva“, naglasila je da ne možemo pričati o značajnim reparacijama bez priznanja počinjenih zločina.
„Pravda znači i priznanje i prihvatanje bez čega žrtve ne mogu ozdraviti“, naglasila je Stappers.
Uz to, dodaje Stappers, reparacije imaju ulogu u sprečavanju ponavljanja zločina i mogu doprinijeti rješavanju uzroka marginalizacije žrtava ratnih zločina.
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Ovaj članak je nastao nakon regionalne konferencije o prevenciji zločina koju su organizovali Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja, Impunity Watch i Koalicija za prevenciju genocida i masovnih zločina na Zapadnom Balkanu u martu 2024. godine u Podgorici, Crna Gora. Konferencija je omogućena uz podršku komesara Vijeća Evrope za ljudska prava, Fonda Rockefeller Brothers, Ministarstva vanjskih poslova Italije, Evropske unije u BiH i UNDP-a BiH (u okviru programa Podrška EU izgradnji povjerenja na Zapadnom Balkanu).


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Izgradnja zajedničkog narativa usred međugeneracijske traume: Naučene lekcije sa konferencije za prevenciju masovnih zločina | Balkan Diskurs
Balkan Diskurs
17. maja, 2024.
Liječenje od prošlosti na Zapadnom Balkanu zahtijeva izgradnju zajedničkog narativa o jugoslavenskim ratovima 1990-ih. Ključni alati za pomoć u postizanju ovoga uključuju obrazovanje i pravilno rješavanje međugeneracijskih trauma. 25 godina nakon što su posljednje puške na Kosovu utihnule, ovaj cilj tek treba biti u potpunosti ostvaren.
Panel „Liječenje (od) prošlosti: Psihosocijalna podrška i obrazovanje“ bio je u sklopu regionalne konferencije „Izgradnja zajedničke agende za prevenciju na Zapadnom Balkanu“, održane 21. i 22. marta u Podgorici, Crna Gora.
Konferenciju su organizirali Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja, Koalicija za prevenciju genocida i masovnih zločina Zapadnog Balkana, u saradnji sa Impunity Watch. Učesnici konferencije su bili predstavnici civilnog društva iz cijele regije, borci za ljudska prava, aktivisti, članovi Koalicije za prevenciju genocida i masovnih zločina, kao i predstavnici međunarodnih organizacija.
Panel je moderirala Kate Ferguson, iz organizacije Protection Approaches sa sjedištem u Velikoj Britaniji.
O ovoj temi govorila je Jasna Zečević, direktorica Centra za terapiju i rehabilitaciju žena Viva Žene Tuzla ,,Ako ne izliječimo traumu, ne možemo izliječiti prošlost. Ali možemo li zaista izliječiti prošlost? Ne možemo jer prošlost nije zločinačka. Prošlost je nešto što je dio nas, pa je pitanje kako je prihvatiti. I problem je kako je prihvatiti“. Viva Žene Tuzla je organizacija koja od 1994. godine radi sa ženama koje su preživjele ratne zločine u Bosni i Hercegovini.
Razgovori o prošlosti unutar porodice koji se najčešće dešavaju, prema Zečević, drže ljude u začaranom krugu. Stoga da bismo se suočili s prošlošću, ona smatra da je potreban ne samo pojedinačan napor, već i šire društveno i političko angažiranje.
Margareta Blažević iz Inicijative mladih za ljudska prava Hrvatske, istakla je jedan veliki izazov u percepciji ratova 90-ih iz perspektive mladih, a koji se prevashodno odnosi na transgeneracijske narative koji su iskrivljeni ili nepotpuni. Pojasnila je da je rad Inicijative mladih za ljudska prava usmjeren na identifikaciju i rješavanje dva ključna izazova koji proizlaze iz nedostatka svijesti među mladima o ratu 90-ih, posebno o ulozi Republike Hrvatske u sukobu u Bosni i Hercegovini i samom sukobu u Hrvatskoj.
„Primjećujemo da mladi često dobivaju informacije iz obitelji, što rezultira transgeneracijskim prenošenjem narativa koji mogu biti iskrivljeni ili nepotpuni“, kazala je Blažević, dodavši da „u našem pristupu edukaciji mladih, težimo se približiti istini kroz različite metodološke pristupe, kao što su uključivanje mladih u procese tranzicijske pravde i poticanje njihove samostalnog djelovanja.“
Važnost odgovornog suočavanja s prošlošću naglasila je i Velma Šarić, predsjednica i osnivačica Centra za postkonfliktna istraživanja (CPI), dodavši da to nije moguće bez integrisanja mirovnog obrazovanja u zvanične nastavne planove i programe.
Pojasnila je da je Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja u saradnji sa stranim ali i domaćim partnerima, među kojima su nastavnici i edukatori iz cijele Bosne i Hercegovine, osam godina radio na edukacijskom priručniku „Holokaust i mir – Lekcije iz prošlosti za budućnost“, a u kojem se nalazi i mirovno obrazovanje.
„Tek smo prošle godine uspjeli integrisati priručnik „Holokaust i mir – Lekcije iz prošlosti za budućnost u nastavni plan i program u školama na području Kantona Sarajeva. Po prvi put u historiji, 100.000 mladih će učiti o miru kroz različite module kojima se priručnik bavi“, dodala je Šarić.
Mladima je bitno pružiti širok spektar perspektiva, smatra Šarić, kako bi im omogućili da samostalno sagledaju događaje iz prošlosti i izgrade vlastiti kritički stav. ,,Otvoren i inkluzivan pristup obrazovanju o prošlosti može osnažiti mlade da postanu aktivni građani koji promiču razumijevanje i mir. Njihova uloga u društvu nije samo da naslijede nas, već i da oblikuju budućnost koju žele vidjeti“, stava je Šarić.
Prema njenim riječima, integracija priručnika „Holokaust i mir – Lekcija iz prošlosti za bolju budućnost“ predstavlja značajan korak ka boljem razumijevanju mira i prevenciji sukoba.
Kolika je važnost kulturnih inicijativa u širenju svijesti i podršci mladima u procesu obrađivanja traumatičnih iskustva, govorila je Jasmina Lazović, Heartefact Srbija. Prema njenim riječima, umjetničko djelo ne samo da može pokrenuti razgovor o prošlosti već može pozvati ljude da se stave u tuđe cipele i pokušaju da razumiju ta iskustva.
„Jedan od izvanrednih doprinosa za koje mislim da su organizacije civilnog društva Zapadnog Balkana dale svijetu je razumijevanje važnosti razgovora o traumi i rješenja usmjerenih na žrtvu“, kazala je Ferguson, dodajući da se prije 30 godina o ovome nije pričalo i da postoji nešto vrlo snažno u tom pokretu koji su uglavnom vodile žene, a koji je proizišao iz iznimnog, nezamislivog, nasilja koje se dogodilo na Zapadnom Balkanu.
Panel je naglasio kritičnu potrebu za jedinstvenim pristupom rješavanju međugeneracijskih trauma i iskrivljenih narativa koji proizlaze iz jugoslavenskih ratova. Putem obrazovanja, psihosocijalne podrške i kulturnih inicijativa, ulažu se napori da se odgovorno suočimo s prošlošću i potaknemo zajedničko razumijevanje historije na Zapadnom Balkanu. Integracija mirovnog obrazovanja u službene nastavne planove i programe označava značajan korak naprijed, osnažujući mlade ljude da se kritički bave svojom prošlošću i oblikuju budućnost utemeljenu na razumijevanju i miru. Dok organizacije civilnog društva nastavljaju prednjačiti u gradnji pomirenja, regija je spremna utabati put prema kolektivnom ozdravljenju i prevenciji budućih zločina.
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Ovaj članak je nastao nakon regionalne konferencije o prevenciji zločina koju su organizovali Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja, Impunity Watch i Koalicija za prevenciju genocida i masovnih zločina na Zapadnom Balkanu u martu 2024. godine u Podgorici, Crna Gora. Konferencija je omogućena uz podršku komesara Vijeća Evrope za ljudska prava, Fonda Rockefeller Brothers, Ministarstva vanjskih poslova Italije, Evropske unije u BiH i UNDP-a BiH (u okviru programa Podrška EU izgradnji povjerenja na Zapadnom Balkanu).

source: news-balkandiskurs

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Balkan Diskurs


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Peta Škola za mlade u Srebrenici: lokalni narativi i globalni izazovi prevencije genocida i izgradnje mira | Balkan Diskurs
Balkan Diskurs
20. maja, 2024.
Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja u saradnji sa Memorijalnim centrom Srebrenica organizuje petu Školu za mlade Srebrenica, na kojoj će učestvovati mladi iz različitih država svijeta i Bosne i Hercegovine, od 7. do 12. jula 2024., u sklopu obilježavanja 29. godišnjice genocida u Srebrenici.
Škola za mlade Srebrenica je jednonedeljni obrazovni događaj koji se organizuje svakog jula od 2020. godine u Memorijalnom centru Srebrenica za omladinske aktiviste, umjetnike i studente (od 18 do 30 godina) iz zemalja Zapadnog Balkana i svijeta. Uključivanjem mladih u niz aktivnosti, seminara i treninga, škola ima za cilj doprinijeti učenju i kritičkom razmišljanju o temama suočavanja s prošlošću, tranzicijske pravde i prevencije genocida i masovnih zločina.
Škola predstavlja inovativni program za diskusiju o prevenciji nasilja, memorijalizaciji nasilne prošlosti i izgradnju mira kroz izlaganje mladih lokalnim narativima kroz globalni objektiv i predavanja stručnjaka sa poznatih univerziteta kao što su Univerzitet u Stockholmu, Univerzitet Kolumbija, Univerzitet u Salzburgu, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, London College of Communication, RMIT University Melbourne i Manhattan College.
Lamija iz Mostara, prošlogodišnja učesnica Škole za mlade Srebrenica, iskazala je bitnost postojanja Škole jer osim znanja, ima priliku da upozna i nove ljude.
„Prijavila sam se prije svega jer sam smatrala da bih se kao Bosanka trebala educirati o ovim stvarima, iako imam 19 godina. Moj najveći dojam je da sam bila okružena ljudima koji dolaze iz različitih sredina i jednostavno sam bila jako inspirirana i na neki način motivirana od strane njih iako je bilo jako emocionalno iscrpljujuće svjedočiti određenim narativima“, kazala je Lamija.
Učesnici Škole imaju priliku da se upoznaju sa radom Memorijalnog centra Srebrenica, a i da se pridruže učesnicima Marša mira na nekoliko kilometara prije nego što stignu u Potočare.
Tokom trajanja Škole, učesnici su smješteni u „Kući susreta“ – Fondacija Kuća dobrih tonova i Međunarodni forum solidarnosti – Emmaus, a imaju priliku posjetiti i prostorije „Kuće dobrih tonova“ koja ima za cilj da djeca i mladi u Srebrenici imaju pristup kvalitetnim edukativnim, kulturnim i zabavnim sadržajima.
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Prema riječima generalnog menadžera Kuće dobrih tonova, Ismara Porića: ,,Nema boljeg mjesta od Srebrenice za osmišljavanje načina za izgradnju mira i učenje o ljudskim pravima i demokratiji. Srebrenica je prelijep grad sa bogatim prirodnim resursima i teškim historijskim teretom.ˮ
Učesnici ovogodišnje Škole imat će priliku da uče od lokalnih i svjetskih stručnjaka za izgradnju mira i prevenciju genocida, poput David Simona, direktora programa za studije genocida na Yale Univerzitetu, Melanie Cammett, direktorice Weatherhead centra za međunarodne poslove na Univerzitetu Harvard, Dine Abazovića, sociologa i profesora na Univerzitetu u Sarajevu, te Emira Suljagića, direktora Memorijalnog centra Srebrenica.
Prijave za petu Školu za mlade Srebrenica su otvorene od 20. maja do 20. juna 2024. godine. Od izabranih učesnika se očekuje prisustvo tokom svih dana škole, a troškove učešća (prevoz i smještaj) snosi organizator. Program škole je organizovan na engleskom jeziku.
Ukoliko ste zainteresovani za učešće, popunite obrazac koji možete pronaći ovdje i pošaljite ga na [email protected]. Rok za prijave je 20. jun 2024. godine. Prijave će se razmatrati kako budu zaprimljene, a kandidati će se primati dok ne dostignemo maksimalan broj od 50 učesnika.


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Ponovno podešavanje iskrivljenih narativa na društvenim mrežama: Naučene lekcije sa konferencije za prevenciju zločina Centra za postkonfliktna istraživanja | Balkan Diskurs
Balkan Diskurs
20. maja, 2024.
Digitalne platforme predstavljaju velike izazove za suočavanje s prošlošću na Balkanu. Stručnjaci za tranzicijsku pravdu iz bivše Jugoslavije diskutovali su o ovome na konferenciji Centra za postkonfliktna istraživanja (CPI) o prevenciji zločina, „Izgradnja zajedničke agende za prevenciju na Zapadnom Balkanu“. Njihova zabrinutost, izražena na konferenciji održanoj 21. i 22. marta u Podgorici, u Crnoj Gori, odnosila se na pitanje poricanja genocida i iskrivljenih narativa na društvenim medijima.
Sofija Todorović, direktorica Inicijative mladih za ljudska prava (YIHR) Srbija, istaknula je potrebu prilagođavanja informativnih sadržaja koji će biti atraktivni i konzumirani na društvenim mrežama, pogotovo što različite zemlje nude različite sadržaje.
„Na primjer, u Srbiji, kada istražujete o Srebrenici online, prvih 20 pretraga koje ćete dobiti bit će vrlo opskurne o genocidu, uključujući web-stranice za poricanje. Ali kada to napravite u Bosni, u Sarajevu ćete dobiti potpuno drugačiji rezultat. I to su stvari o kojima stvarno moramo razmišljati“, objasnio je Todorović, dodavši da organizacije civilnog društva moraju biti kreativne kako bi sadržaj došao do različite publike.
U svom je govoru istaknula kako je najveći izazov za organizacije civilnog društva kada pokušaju prezentirati složene informacije na kratak, jednostavan način. Todorović je na konferenciji kazala da to u konačnici može biti zamka. Neke se činjenice mogu lako prenijeti u malom sadržaju, poput statistike i vrlo kratkih izjava, dok složenija pitanja oko sukoba zahtijevaju kontekst.
Osim što se pokušavaju suprotstaviti širenju dezinformacija i ekstremizma, organizacije civilnog društva suočavaju se i s izazovom edukacije korisnika o algoritmima i njihovom uticaju na sadržaje koje konzumiramo, objasnila je Todorović.
„Ako razmišljamo dugoročno i ostavimo svoj sadržaj na društvenim mrežama, onda bi bilo bolje da pronađemo načine za rješavanje više slojeva sukoba i žrtava s različitih strana“, kaže Vesna Teršelić iz Documente – Centra za suočavanje s prošlošću Hrvatske.
Objasnila je važnost sadržaja koji se bavi višestrukim slojevima sukoba kao i žrtvama iz različitih zajednica. To će, smatra Teršelić, pomoći u borbi protiv dezinformacija i emocionalnih reakcija na sadržaj, ukorijenjenih u prejednostavnim narativima. Minimiziranjem takvih reakcija organizacije bi stoga smanjile rizik od govora mržnje.
Todorović iz YIHR Srbije osvrnula se i na primjer Srbije u kojoj postoji jednonacionalna kultura sjećanja, uz militarizam i veličanje ratnih zločinaca koji su sveprisutni u društvu. Kazala je da je Haaško ukidanje oslobađajućih presuda bivšem šefu srbijanske sigurnosti Jovici Stanišiću i bivšem dužnosniku Državne sigurnosti Franku Simatoviću 2023. godine prelomni trenutak za srpsko društvo.
Rješavanje problema niske medijske pismenosti i govora mržnje
Tokom panel diskusije Mirza Avdić iz Centra za istraživačko novinarstvo (CIN) iz Bosne i Hercegovine izrazio je zabrinutost zbog niske stope medijske pismenosti u društvu Zapadnog Balkana. Osvrnuo se na projekt Reporting Diversity Network (2020), koji se fokusira na praćenje internetskog govora mržnje u Albaniji, Bosni i Hercegovini, Kosovu, Crnoj Gori, Sjevernoj Makedoniji i Srbiji.
„U posljednjih 20 mjeseci primijetili smo da imamo 97 narativa govora mržnje u našim online medijima u Bosni i Hercegovini. Različite vrste govora mržnje kroz različite medije kao što su TV, web stranice, online publikacije i društveni mediji. Govor mržnje uglavnom je bio usmjeren prema temi spola i etničke pripadnosti te prema migrantskoj populaciji. Primijetili smo da su glavni akteri u ovim narativnim govorima politički lideri, ključni donositelji odluka i uticaji“, rekao je Avdić.
Zabrinutost koju su izrazili drugi sagovornici na panelu o snalaženju u iskrivljenim narativima dok se govori o tranzicijskoj pravdi ide ruku pod ruku s Avdićevim pozivom na poboljšanje medijske pismenosti.
Avdić je naglasio: „Medijska pismenost je nešto što moramo unaprijediti, posebno kod mlađih generacija, koje još uvijek traže svoje mjesto u medijskom prostoru.“
Nadalje, on povezuje rasprostranjenost govora mržnje s niskom medijskom pismenošću, sugerirajući da pojedincima možda nedostaju vještine kritičkog razmišljanja potrebne za razaznavanje i odbacivanje sadržaja mržnje na internetu.
Zaključno, panel je naglasio hitnu potrebu rješavanja niske medijske pismenosti i borbe protiv govora mržnje na Zapadnom Balkanu. Govornici su naglasili potrebu za ciljanim naporima da se novinari i šira javnost educiraju o snalaženju u složenim narativima i identificiranju dezinformacija na internetu. Društveni mediji zahtijevaju sažetost i jednostavnost, postavljajući izazove onima koji žele prenijeti nijansirane teme. Stoga jednostavno pružanje informacija na društvenim medijima možda neće dovesti do istinskog razumijevanja. Davanjem prioriteta inicijativama za medijsku pismenost i poticanjem vještina kritičkog razmišljanja, akteri mogu raditi na stvaranju informiranijeg i inkluzivnijeg digitalnog krajolika koji štiti od širenja štetnih narativa i promiče dijalog i razumijevanje.
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Ovaj članak je nastao nakon regionalne konferencije o prevenciji zločina koju su organizovali Centar za postkonfliktna istraživanja, Impunity Watch i Koalicija za prevenciju genocida i masovnih zločina na Zapadnom Balkanu u martu 2024. godine u Podgorici, Crna Gora. Konferencija je omogućena uz podršku komesara Vijeća Evrope za ljudska prava, Fonda Rockefeller Brothers, Ministarstva vanjskih poslova Italije, Evropske unije u BiH i UNDP-a BiH (u okviru programa Podrška EU izgradnji povjerenja na Zapadnom Balkanu).


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Svaki bosanski ćilim je dio bh. identiteta i posebna priča | Balkan Diskurs
Ramo Tučić
22. maja, 2024.
Ranije se ugled jedne porodice ogledao u vještini tkanja ćilima ili uopšte u vještinama ručnog rada. Koliko su djevojke spremne za udaju vješte u ručnim radovima, to je kuća bila bogatija. Danas je drugačija priča.
Izrada tradicionalnog bosanskog ćilima je na rubu zaborava, iako je u najtežim trenutcima izrada ćilima bila za neke spas, kao način okupacione terapije u toku i nakon ratnih dejstava. Svaki bosanski ćilim priča neku priču, a nerijetko pokazuje ljubav i poštovanje prema tradiciji.
Udruženje “Bosfam” (BOSanska FAMilija), okuplja žene mahom iz Podrinja, koje su u toku izbjeglištva u Tuzli, svoje misli zaokupile izradom ćilima. Koncem, odnosno nitima od vune, žene su pričale svoju priču, dok su čekale, odnosno nadale se povratku muževa i drugih članova porodice iz Srebrenice, ali i drugih dijelova Podrinja.
„Tada su u Tuzli škole pretvorene u Kolektivne centre koji su bili prepuni žena sa djecom. Bosanska žena nije naučena da sjedi besposlena, a poznavajući da su žene iz tih dijelova BiH naučene na ručni rad, našla sam za shodnim da okupim žene i na taj način da im koliko toliko skrenemo misli“, kazala je Munira Beba Hadžić, predsjednica Udruženja “Bosfam”.
Iako bosanski ćilim karakterišu motivi tako zvane gugutke i kornjača, članice “Bosfam”, zamijenile su ih drugim motivima. Svaka članica utkala je dio sebe u taj ćilim i prvih 15 koje su izradile, nose nazive Nura, Esma, Muniba, Fatima i tako dalje.
Prema riječima Hadžić, dobro izrađeni ćilimi mogu trajati i do 300 godina. S obzirom da traju duže od životnog vijeka članica, izradile su i “Ćilim sjećanja na sve žrtve genocida u Srebrenici”.
„Kad nas više ne bude, želimo da ćilimi pričaju priče i da bude sjećanja na žrtve genocida“, kazala je Hadžić, pojasnivši da su u prvi ćilim utkale „20 imena naših najbližih koji su nestali u Srebrenici“.
S obzirom da je Hadžić prosvjetna radnica, dodala je da su izradili i ćilim sa imenima 25 kolega iz prosvjete. Također, izradile su ćilim posvećen djeci, članovima porodica, ćilim sa imenima žena, za žrtve Bratunca i sve ih poklonili Memorijalnom centru u Potočarima gdje su sada dio stalne izložbene postavke.
Međutim, priču o ćilimu i ćilimarstvu nema ko da nastavi, smatra Hadžić i dodaje da tradiciju „guši“ nedostatak podrške institucija. Šta je prioritet države, pita se predsjednica “Bosfam”, odgovarajući da ćilimarstvo nije.
„Lakše je dobiti projekat za neku konferenciju nego za zapošljavanje žena i očuvanje tradicije“, kazala je Hadžić.”
Dva mjeseca za izradu ćilima
Izrada ćilima počinje tako da se prvo pripremi vuna koja se boji i počinje osnova na razboju. Tako se formiraju niti kroz koje će se provlačiti obojena vuna. Provlači se po sistemu odvajanja niti u parne i neparne brojeve, te se između tih niti provlači obojena vuna. Nakon toga, kako pojašnjava Hadžić, vuna se sabija i kada žele promijeniti boju vune, onda prekinu nit i nastavljaju drugom bojom. Na kraju tkanja, ćilim se „šiša“.
Za izradu ćilima navodi da je potreban talent i da dobra tkalja je ona koja može da tka sa obje ruke. „Dobroj tkalji za izradu ćilima su potrebna oko dva mjeseca“, kazala je Hadžić.
Spoj modernog i tradicionalnog
Bosanski ćilim generalno svojataju mnogi. Borbu za očuvanje bosanskog ćilima, dugo vodi i Sarajevo Film Festival koji je od 2019. godine, čuveni red carpet zamijenio u „crveni tepih inspirisan elementima ćilima iz Sarajeva koji datira iz 1930. godine.“ Na ovaj način, kako navode, imaju spoj tradicionalnog i savremenog, ali i poštovanja i ljubavi prema tradiciji.
Da postoji borba i kod mladih, pokazatelj je Emir Avdić iz Dubrava kod Tuzle, koji modernom metodom čuva tradiciju. Prilikom izrade tepiha koristi savremenu tafting (eng. Tufting) metodu, kojom se odgovarajućim alatom, odnosno pištoljem, utiskuje vuna na platno. Na ovaj način nerijetko izrađuje i ćilime.
„Znam koliko zapravo izrada tepiha njeguje tradiciju, a znajući kako su naše bake i nene mnogo značaja davale ručnoj izradi svih stvari u pokućstvu, naročito ćilimima, shvatio sam da na ovaj način mogu izrađivati i tepihe koji će imati motive ćilima“, naveo je Avdić, koji je među rijetkima u BiH koje zanima ovaj zanat.
Predsjednica “Bosfama” smatra da su mladi sve manje zainteresirani da nastave tradiciju izrade ćilima. „Mlade ovo ne privlači. Ovo nije brza zarada. Da imamo malo veću podršku vlasti, možda bi interesa više i bilo“, kazala je Hadžić, naglašavajući da tradiciju trebamo očuvati jer je i sama odrasla na ćilimu, pitajući se „pa zašto to ne bi i njeno dijete“.

author: Ramo Tučić


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Alumni | Balkan Diskurs
36


text: Smjernice za republikovanje (ponovno objavljivanje našeg sadržaja) | Balkan Diskurs


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Autori | Balkan Diskurs
74, 36, 23, 14, 14, 12, 12, 11, 11, 9, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1


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Blog | Balkan Diskurs
Mirnes Bakija
27. januara, 2021.

author: Mirnes Bakija


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Sarajevo Roses as a Reminder of the Dead | Balkan Diskurs
Jelena Lukic
June 4th, 2014
Jelena Lukic explores the red resin concrete scars that mark the sites of past mortar shell explosions in Sarajevo.
Sarajevo. Its name has been written into the new pages of the world’s history of warfare. During the 1990s, stories of its tragedy were featured on the front pages of newspapers across the globe.
On its streets, in the asphalt, the petals are filled, red in color, and they came to be called the happy-melancholic-romantic Sarajevo Roses. They serve as a unique monument to a city that survived one of the longest battles in the history of modern warfare. They serve as a memorial to the Siege of Sarajevo where many cultural and religious institutions were damaged and where civilians were at the forefront of the suffering: 50,000 were injured, 10,650 died, of whom 1,601 were children.
Sarajevo was under the constant siege of Serbian forces for 1,425 days. 470,000 grenades hit the city during that period – approximately 329 a day. A record was hit on 22 July 1993 when 3,777 grenades were thrown in one day. Each grenade that exploded left a trace that looks like a flower. When the war ended, “petals” with fatal craters were painted red in order to honor all those who died during the Siege of Sarajevo. Each rose is a place where at least three people died. Some people recall the siege and manage to clean the places in April every year. Sarajevo people bring flowers on their way to somewhere, and when passing they tell their children about what happened there and what those roses stand for. The others wonder what do those scars represent and why the government doesn’t repair and care for them.
A group of activists from Sarajevo handed the text written by Jasminko Halilović, “The Disappearance of the Sarajevo Roses” to the local government. The government promised that they would take care of it. But they didn’t do anything. The activists didn’t give up: they managed to do what they had previously wanted by participating at the 14th anniversary of European and Mediterranean young artists in Skoplje. There, they presented “7 Articles – 7 Sarajevo Roses” as well as at the Festival of International Arts in San Marino.
Halilović, the head of Urban, was born in Sarajevo. He graduated from the school of economics and then took his masters in financial management. Apart from running the Urban association, he’s an author of many other projects like Sarajevo Party, which was the first blog published in a form of a book; he was the co-author of the memoir, Sarajevo – my town, the place to meet. He started his interactive web project four years ago which has later become very famous in the region and which made the local government and the media give support. The final outcome was the publishing of The childhood in war, at the beginning of 2013. But what is it actually about? Jasminko asked the people of his age a question on his web page, “What does the childhood in war mean for you?”. The news spread around very quickly. Jasminko’s project was supported: 1,500 people from 38 countries around the world wanted to share their experience. They wanted to talk about growing up during the war, their letters, drawings, diaries… and their stories ended up on 328 pages of Jasminko’s amazing book.
All my effort on this book I want to dedicate to Mirela Pločić, my first crush, who, unfortunately, died in 1994. Comparing to some other published war diaries, I wanted to write about the collective experience at the wartime. This project is there for all generations who experienced childhood from 1992 to 1995.
The publication has been translated into many languages and has been presented at the European Parliament sponsored by Doris Pack, the President of the Committee for Education, Culture, Media, Sport and Youth of the European Parliament, and Dino Elezović the Representative of Sarajevo canton to Bruxelles.
“Personally, I’m not a fan of monuments made of modern materials that totally change the context of the place where they’re built. That’s why I think that Sarajevo Roses are the most representative monument that reminds us of the siege of Sarajevo and all war victims,” said Jasminko Halilović, the head of Urban association that promotes culture in the capital of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
The romantic context in the monument name – roses, pictures the Sarajevo spirit the best, as well as the strength to express the worst things in a metaphoric way. That’s why people love the unique monument so much and that’s why they’re so attached to it. It’s important to stop its destroying because of people’s attachment. Nothing was done concerning that problem so far, there were just a few tries of some individuals and organizations.
All the above mentioned is proof that an individual or a small group can help preserve the memory of these lost years and lives as do the Sarajevo Roses.

created: June 4th, 2014

author: Jelena Lukic


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Thomas Mesa: Moving Bosnia Forward | Balkan Diskurs
Jess Kuntz
June 4th, 2014
Jess Kuntz speaks with Thomas Mesa, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, about the US Embassy’s work in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The US Foreign Service is structured to provide its officers with a big picture view. Over the course of a 25+ year State Department Career, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Thomas Mesa has served in countries as diverse as Paraguay, Romania, Pakistan and now, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The diversity of his CV equips him to tease out similarities between situations, whilst remaining mindful of each country’s unique dynamics.
Now on his third year in Sarajevo, Acting DCM Mesa aptly applies that perspective to Bosnia. Despite local hand wringing over the institutional constraints imposed by the Dayton Constitution, Mesa does not see it as inherently problematic in an institutional sense. Dayton not only brought order to an unstable situation, but “what many leaders forget is that it lays out the civil rights that pertain to all citizens, including peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.” The United States’ primary goal in Bosnia is to assist the nation in moving towards NATO and EU membership – the Dayton Constitution, Mesa says, is not, in and of itself, an obstacle to that vision.
“I personally think it’s not so much the governing structures of Dayton … but more importantly the political will. Are the leaders of Bosnia willing to do what they have to do to move the country forward? Are they willing to compromise on certain issues? Are they willing to find common ground? Are they willing to reach consensus?”
Anyone following recent developments in Sarajevo and Banja Luka is likely to answer Mesa’s questions in the negative. But, Mesa notes, Bosnian political parties behave much like their counterparts all over the world: they espouse their own views, they maneuver to political advantage. What is lacking is a strong system of what Mesa calls democratic infrastructure linking political leaders and citizens.
Traditionally, civil society organizations serve to link the two. Listening to Mesa, one encounters a dose of optimism concerning the state of civil society in Bosnia, particularly at the local level. The US Embassy’s small grants program has provided Mesa and his staff with a high level of exposure to the work of the NGO community. “They may not be big,” he notes. “They may not be well known, they’re not on the world map of civil society organizations but you do have a lot of NGOs that are carrying out a lot of good work and being effective.” If the accountability and responsiveness that is increasingly found on the local level can be replicated within higher levels of government, Bosnia’s deficit of democratic infrastructure might yet be rectified.
What then, is the prognosis for Bosnia & Herzegovina? While US objectives in Bosnia – movement towards NATO and EU membership – remain unchanged, the Embassy and State Department leadership engage in a constant process of reevaluating their approach to the country. The economy is a top concern – namely, getting politics out of business. So too is engagement with European Union and regional partners who can guide Bosnia in undertaking reforms that will bring it into alignment with EU membership requirements. But at the end of the day, whether or not Bosnia moves in that direction depends on Bosnia’s leaders. The system, Mesa insists, is not necessarily broken. It falls to individuals – both leaders and citizens – to find consensus and embark on the path forward.

author: Jess Kuntz


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A Rendezvous with PINCH Media | Balkan Diskurs
Fiorenzo Polito
July 17th, 2014
Fiorenzo Polito speaks with Mirko Pincelli, Co-Founder of London-based production company PINCH Media, about his recent work in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ten o’clock in the heart of Bosnia; over the Channel it’s still nine. It’s quite early, at least for an interview. I start Skype and the call begins. Mirko Pincelli and I are both sitting in our respective kitchens, although I’m in Sarajevo and he is in London, both with a coffee mug in hand. Mirko, a documentary and fiction director with a background as photographer and photojournalist, is the founder of Pinch Media, together with Enrico Tessarin, his business partner as well as writer and producer.
Mirko and Enrico have been working for quite a long time with the Post-Conflict Research Center (P-CRC). This shared story began some time ago with the full-length documentary film Uspomene 677, that collects the testimonies of three adolescents and three survivors fifteen years after the end of the Bosnian war. Mirko laughs, telling me that Velma Šarić was his last hope. He had been pondering the project for a very long time, but he had not been able to find someone to help him out. After a long besiegement of messages, e-mails and phone calls, eventually Mirko and Velma managed to set an appointment. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
Pinch Media is currently working on the project Obični Heroji (“Ordinary Heroes”), a series composed of five 30-minute documentary films that explore the parallel stories of rescuers and rescued. These people, even if overwhelmed by the war events, gave each other support and understanding – with no regard to racial or ethnic differences, and thus transmitting a profound message of moral courage.
An example of this is the story of Đorđe and Salih, who have been friends for the majority of their lives, although the former is a Bosnian Serb and the latter a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim). This kind of relationship is not commonplace in post-war Bosnia. When Salih was taken from his home and transported to the Batković concentration camp, he thought he would never make it out alive. It is thanks to his old friend that he survived. Đorđe came and took him home. During the war, Đorđe became known as a man who would risk his life to help others regardless of their ethnicity or religion.
Then there is the story of Ferid, a 40-year-old Muslim man, taken by bus to the horrors of Paklenik Pit, deep in the forest in the eastern part of Bosnia. Men were lined up and shot, and Ferid was the only one, out of 77, to make it out of those woods alive. He seized the opportunity to escape; as he sought shelter from his persecutor, only one woman stepped forward to take the risk and save his life by hiding him in her home That woman was the gentle and humble Mina, now 80 years old. Her bravery set a different example, making her an ordinary hero.
On the occasion of Mirko’s last visit in Bosnia, we had the chance to meet one another. Mirko, of mixed Italian background but raised in Tuscany (his accent is unmistakable), has developed a deep bond with this land. Life in Bosnia put a spell on him, as have its inhabitants. When I ask him about the reason that so many individuals fall in love with Sarajevo, whose charm he compares with that of an attractive woman, he explains that it’s because of the people. Bosnians have passed through so many things— they went down to the miserable bottom where they gazed into the abyss. Therefore, they discovered a new meaning of life, according to which a single smile, word, or act acquires incredible and precious value.
Mirko came to Bosnia to shoot the fourth chapter of Ordinary Heroes. “Possibly the best chapter ever shot”, he says; it was an extremely delicate procedure. The characters of these stories aren’t always keen to open themselves up immediately and share experiences so profoundly personal with someone unknown, especially if that someone is a foreigner (even Mirko’s first name, which is typically a Serb name, has been an obstacle from time to time). Before the shoot, it’s necessary to get in contact with the intevierwee, build their confidence and put them at ease so that they can communicate frankly and sincerely.
During our interview, the doorbell rings. It’s Enrico, dropping by for a coffee. It is an opportunity to ask him about their synergic work at Pinch Media. When they first met, Mirko and Enrico were working i different places, absorbed by different projects. But it was not long before they decided to give up their previous jobs and join forces to found Pinch. One of the advantages of this production company is the consolidation of roles: director, writer, producer and editor. They reveal to me how much easier it is to work as a pair. It is far simpler to harmonize two heads instead of fifteen – costs are reduced and there is much more space for individuality and initiative.
Mirko is involved in a number of diverse and ongoing projects. Among them is the feature film The Habit of Beauty produced by Pinch Media together with Orisa Produzioni. The narrative begins immediately following the Tottenham riots in London in August 2011. The central character is Ernesto, cult-photographer and mercurial provocateur, who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. He looks at himself in the mirror, only to be met with deep dissatisfaction. He decides, without regard for those he will be leaving behind, to go back to his native Italy and face the past, but his unsettled accounts are not ready to abandon him. His gallerist Stuart, his assistant photographer Ian, and his old love Milena come together and set off for Italy to find him—each for their own reasons. It will be an outer as well as an inner journey that will lead them back to one other after many years. Forced to slow down and reflect, they rediscover that their love and friendship for one another can save them from almost anything. Mirko says that with The Habit of Beauty he wanted to create a “very personal film,” to “write and produce a film about issues that were important, uncompromising and true”.
Another project Mirko is currently engaged in is a documentary film that, to a certain extent, resembles his previous work Uspomene 677. He talks warily, explaining the delicacy of the issue. Set in Syria, the documentary will give space to both sides of the conflict: Sunni and Alawite. “There will be two characters who will share their experiences of the revolution from their own points of view, which are radically different.” Those persons share a common background and are still good friends. Before the war — exactly as in Bosnia — being part of one ethnicity or another was irrelevant. It has yet to be determined how this story will end, but for now, we are impatiently awaiting the conclusion of the forth episode of Ordinary Heroes, and wishing Pinch Media the best of luck in their future endeavors.

author: Fiorenzo Polito


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Miguel: The Protests are a Manifestation of Frustration | Balkan Diskurs
Siara Costa
August 22nd, 2014
Ciara Costa reports on the Post-Conflict Research Center’s recent meeting with Luis Miguel, Envoy to the Spanish Embassy in Sarajevo, where discussions focused on the parallels between the post-war experiences of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain.
Envoy to the Spanish Embassy in Sarajevo Luis Miguel talked with Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) representatives about the process of reconstructing peace, drawing parallels between the experiences of Spain and Bosnia-Herzegovina after surviving war. Also discussed was the manner in which Spain is contributing to Bosnia’s reconstruction as well as what diplomatic representatives of Spain recognize as potential resources for this process.
Miguel pointed out that Spain played a neutral role in WWII, but only after it was devastated by a civil war. Rebuilding and reconstructing the land took a long time. During the final transition in the 1970s, Spain reestablished democracy, thus making a return to the main arena of European nations.
According to Miguel, Spain began exporting and sharing its own post-war experience and know-how after establishing democracy in the 1980s and 90s. It founded a development agency that funded many projects in a number of countries. Expanding further on bilateral cooperation, Miguel says that Spain has been deeply involved in Bosnia since the war, which includes the participation of peacekeeping troops as early as 1992. An office was also established which was crucial to the distribution of food and humanitarian aid in Bosnia. Between 1992 and 2010, Spain contributed 45,000 soldiers to international missions within Bosnia, although the numbers fluctuated and then diminished in the latter years until the presence was limited solely to advisors.
Financially, Spain has contributed approximately 100 million Euros to support humanitarian aid and development. Nowadays, Bosnia is considered as a medium-developed country, therefore, such assistance is less necessary. Other examples of Spain’s contributions to Bosnia-Herzegovina include the provision of financial aid to reconstruct the facade of Sarajevo City Hall, the development of an information system for Sarajevo’s water supply, and various other infrastructure projects in the areas of water supply and education.
Currently, the Spanish Embassy in Bosnia is focused on three main areas. First and foremost, as a NATO and European Union member, Spain is engaged in facilitating Bosnia accession to NATO and the EU. Although this is a difficult feat, due to a number of factors, the Spanish Embassy tries to engage and advise political and civil society leaders by mobilizing its own resources – primarily its experience as a member of both the aforementioned organizations. The efforts of the embassy are harmonized with the efforts of the international community in Bosnia led by EU Special Representative Peter Sorensen and High Representative Valentin Inzko. As a member of both the EU and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), the embassy additionally participates as a mediator in the efforts such as freeing up finances for use in Mostar.
The second aim of Spanish Embassy is to reinforce exchange between Bosnia and Spain through cultural activities and the promotion of Spanish language and literature as well as through enabling opportunities for mutually beneficial contact between civil society and institutional actors operating within both countries. To achieve this aim, the embassy is currently supporting the founding of a Spanish language department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.
The third aim of the embassy is to promote the priorities of the people in Bosnia, such as generating jobs, creating opportunities for bilateral business cooperation, and contributing to overall economic development.
According to Miguel, Bosnia has learned a number of lessons in keeping the peace and he emphasizes that the local people should not be underestimated. Bosnians are well educated and they know which resources should be directed towards education and effective implementation of peacebuilding efforts. Miguel points out that, from his personal perspective, Bosnia has transitioned from a country under reconstruction to a country in need of social and economic development. The greatest problem facing Bosnia today is the lack of economic growth and development; therefore, tackling unemployment is currently one of the most important items on the agenda.
Regarding the ongoing protests, Miguel considers the problems facing Bosnia to be universal, rather than particular to Bosnia. Those problems manifest themselves in a number of different ways: inefficiency, corruption and political paralysis. He claims that citizens are fed up with everything. Why are they fed up? Because they don’t have the chance to participate in the political sphere.
As a citizen, you vote for years under the illusion that you are participating in the process, but at the end of the day politicians make the wrong decisions. When you see them using the state budget for things they shouldn’t, you begin to feel frustrated. That frustration can boil over, thus resulting in the protests we have witnessed. Things like this have been seen in many other countries, from Thailand to Spain, and they are not something that is unique to Bosnia. Bosnian citizens feel that other countries in the region are progressing, while Bosnia remains idle. Croatia has recently joined the EU, Serbia is taking part in negotiations, and I am sure Bosnians would like to see their country progressing, but they currently see no progress at all. I think the protests are a good thing as long as they are not violent. The protests are a manifestation of frustration, which all the citizens are entitled to. Violence, however, cannot resolve anything. The fight against corruption is a fight that will continue, and the aim is to reduce it to the lowest possible level.

created: August 22nd, 2014

author: Siara Costa


text:
An Ordinary Day | Balkan Diskurs
Marko Tomaš
August 23rd, 2014
What do their fates mean to the world – the fates of those nameless, lads who got stuck in trenches far away from home? We could only pin clichés onto their fates, but in my mind, I have countless questions about the colors of the world that surrounded them.
Black and white world. A world of black and white photographs. Frozen moments. Faces devoid of emotion. Bodies in a strict pose. Bodies unaccustomed to posing or pretence. Faces and bodies sending a message to the future.
An innocent, uncrippled world, existing before we started documenting the mess and creating archives according to which we form our views of the past and build foundations on which our present must dwell. This is the twenty-first century and the future does not exist, it is only dreamed of. It is lived as a never-ending, sticky present that no imagination could wash away. A present through which we are dragging our feet as if through a muddy trench in Galicia. A present that does not allow us reminiscences such as kneeling blindfolded in front of a firing squad. Every frozen reminiscence is a message we failed to learn, to understand. Obsessed with the inability to move. The present is holding us in place.
Messages do reach out to us, but we cannot move. How can we understand those stiff bodies, those looks that we cannot read? How can we understand the black and white, when we are stuck in the grey snow of time we once believed to be the future; the time to which we were lured by thousands of colourful air balloons that oscillated over our heads to the rhythm of some careless music that was neither inviting us to dance nor love – a music that was inviting us to stop being worried about our tomorrow since it was right there, around the corner, a day after, bright as the air coloured with balloons. The tomorrow we live is the dream of a youngster who was stuck in a trench above which bullets were buzzing like vinegar flies. His face has survived in the photo. How innocent and naive that is! That face, those eyes exuding a belief that youth is worth spending in the trenches for the sake of a future that won’t exist! What was the name of the man I’m writing about? What would the knowledge of his name change in my perception? Could I write him a letter? Talk to him as a friend?
I should like to ask him a couple of things. First and foremost, I should like to know the color of the fields above his trench. Yes, that’s what I would like to know. Colors. I want to know the colors. That black and white world was colored. The messages that came from it, it is only those that are black and white. If I knew the names of his fellow soldiers, I would ask them the same thing. And why are they there in the first place? Who invented that madness we continuously get stuck in? The earth has been scorched. I could make things up. Tree stumps are charred. I could lean against all those clichés. But I am upset because I cannot read the message from their eyes. For who could read those eyes, the looks, that intricate language? The smile is there because of the future they are fighting for?! I could spend days piling up questions, but I have no one to send them to.
The present does not care for them, while the past is a mute archive of mixed emotions the man from the future is leaning on. The future that no longer exists, I repeat. It does not exist because we agreed to fight only to realise that we have wasted that which is now the past. The re-setting of the world. Earthquakes relay the Earth’s plates. War relays the world as we know it and spits us out into an unknown landscape. Scorched earth. Time is interrupted. The thread is disrupted, the continuity. If there is no future, there is no man of the future either. If there is only the present and a dusty archive of the past, what possibilities are there for the man of the present – the man who hasn’t dipped his head into the dusty past and who doesn’t want to wash the syrupy substance off himself, right here and right now? Why am I writing this?
My thoughts are clenched like a palm clutching a gun. I can’t read people’s eyes. I can’t color a black and white photo. I can’t sympathise with faces and bodies. I can’t bring myself to think that they feel anything other than I imagine them to feel and I don’t have the strength to impose a made-up destiny on them, what would be the good of it? Not even a cigarette or a naked woman lying on a bed in a town in the background, a bottle of wine or a soothing song comforting the sad soldiers. Paramedics may have taken them right after this photo was taken. In a field infirmary, a sister of mercy closed his eyes with the palm of her hand.
The air behind the lads in the photo does not smell of death. However, I am taught to imagine it preying on the grass over the trench. If I am able to imagine it, can I then claim to sense the smell of it in the air? Who am I, and what do their fates mean to the world – the fates of those nameless, dirty-faced lads who got stuck in trenches far away from home? We could only pin clichés onto the fates of those lads, but in my mind, I have countless questions about the colors of the world that surrounded them. The sky above their heads, that grey photographed sky may have been crystal clear; there may have been some strange cloud hovering above, entertaining them with its shapes. One of them used to enjoy drinking at the pub, one of them loved to dance, one of them played tin music, one of them was a miner and footballer, some of them were idle, one of them had crabs, and there they all were, wearing muddy boots, standing in the mud through which somebody’s blood was flowing.
That distant black and white world of their war was theirs alone. It ripped their lives apart as if they were the warm intestines of an animal that we are to feed on. Has anyone ever walked out of a trench a better man? I give in. Their looks are wearing me out. How can everything be so perfectly grey when I’m craving colors and some other form of perfection? I could be thinking about food and then try to write about what they could have been eating that afternoon. I could assume that they hadn’t eaten at all. I could play with the fate of those frozen looks and stiff bodies. Such thoughts cheer me up for a moment, I see a playground before my eyes, but soon I am overwhelmed with shame. Their fates are sealed, resting in a dusty archive of the past from which, every so often, new blood is spilled so that we can defend a present that has no future. I can’t wash the muddy faces. I can’t discover their features. I am weak. I have no one to whom I could send my list of questions, I don’t know the names of the addressees. But then I suddenly catch myself imagining an ordinary blue sky instead of a black death in the turfs above their trench – I can see the ordinary, juicy green; at the end of the trench, I can make up a peaceful provincial town with cellars full of wine and meat and at the town’s end, a completely ordinary road and a sign with the name of another provincial town, a completely ordinary life. But none of those things are fair to those muddy boots and faces and I am therefore letting it be at this very instant.

created: August 23rd, 2014

author: Marko Tomaš


text:
The Balkans: An Abode of Unrest | Balkan Diskurs
Saida Mustajbegovic
August 27th, 2014
A hundred years have passed since the first bullets were fired near the Latin Bridge. The century-long period saw numerous pits and canyons—and unmarked graves. In them, hundreds of thousands are “resting in peace”. They have names of mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, and brothers—but still, they remain unknown.
As the cannon barrels grow cold, a cloud of unrest hovers over the Balkan Peninsula. It has been like this since the shots heard near of the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo resounded throughout Europe, which was then ready to respond with heavy force and weapons that had yet to be tested. In his recently published novel I Shall Come One Day, Father, Bosnian author Edin Krehić explores the heritage of a family in which the red hot iron,i.e. war, decapitates families into which sons are born fatherless — they disappear, get killed or shot waging wars in the Balkans, and their loved ones end up never knowing where they were buried. A pattern emerges in which father and son experience the same destiny, and grandsons must wait for the DNA results that confirm the identity of their missing loved one.
Without knowing how many similar stories have been written on paper, there remains the rejoinder that life has written plenty in this corner of the world. A hundred years have passed since the first bullets were fired near the Latin Bridge. The century long period saw numerous pits and canyons — and unmarked graves. In them, hundreds of thousands are resting in peace. They have a name and last name, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, and brothers—but still, they remain unknown.
In the year when Europe is marking the centennial of the beginning of the mass bloodshed — that emerged after a long period of peace —, nobody will remember to mention the mothers who —100, 70, or 20 years ago waved goodbye to their sons; nobody will mention the children, who at birth, were robbed of the opportunity to get to know their fathers; nobody will mention the orphans who were given a legacy of restlessness, instead of their parents’ warm embrace. Those mothers and children have their own internal calendars that remind them of their turmoil. But the dates significant to the severed families do not coincide with the dates on which officials deliver their speeches and interpret the past in a way that bears no significance for the ordinary person. The ordinary person — who merely inherited the restlessness — can only sympathize with his peers (and vice versa)—with those who live the history, and do not deliver great speeches about it.
How many graves are there a kilometer or two away from those pits, which have become the unmarked resting places of soldiers from World War I? The search for them has lasted almost a hundred years. Or they are not even searched for at all — they are stumbled upon when the cannon barrels are fired up once again. It is then, when looking for the newly dead, we find the old “resting places” of those whose identification will bring peace to no one. How many generations were given unrest as a heritage without even being aware of it? What religion does restlessness belong to? What nation? The founder and president of the Society for Threatened Peoples, Tilman Zuelch spoke to Al Jazeera Balkans about the restlessness of those who leave this world. He talked about his fellow countrymen who had spent their lives waiting for their loved ones to return. Indeed, they never lived to find their peace — they took their restlessness with them into eternity. Zuelch’s voice bore the same grief-sorrow-injustice we have been listening to in Bosnia-Herzegovina for two decades now. Prior to that, these feelings were only whispers. History records those whispers.
Nowadays, the news abounds with stories of turmoil and unrest. However, there are but a few resting souls who have been identified.  Four years ago, the remains of people who were killed in World War I, World War II, and the 1990s Balkan wars were found in Lake Perućac. Amor Mašović, the President of the Commission on Missing Persons of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that the Drina River is the biggest mass grave in the Balkans. If that were true, how many resting souls would it unearth?
Half a year ago, the biggest mass grave in Europe since World War II — Tomašica near Prijedor — was unveiled. Two hundred unidentified remains were found, after they had lain hidden for twenty-one years. Alongside that discovery, it was rumoured that there were other, even bigger mass graves in that area. The unrest in Prijedor found its way into the poetry of Darko Cvijetić from Prijedor. He wrote about mass graves that were never found, about the pain of those who were lost. “In a mass grave/never found/governesses are ironing shirts/all over again.” Through his verses, Darko has offered repose for every generation that inherited unrest. At the same time, he puts forth accumulated emotions of restlessness and disquiet, which he imparts to future generations, so that his verses might serve as reminders.
The wars themselves have been counted in the history of the Balkans, but nobody knows exactly how much unrest they have left behind. What is known is that there are currently eight thousand missing persons from the latest war in Bosnia. How many people are still missing from World War I? These statistics have never been of any interest to anyone, since laying bare the facts about war casualties would be unpleasant in some solemn speech delivered at the anniversary of the first or any other war.

created: August 27th, 2014

author: Saida Mustajbegovic


text:
War Profiteers Go on Campaign | Balkan Diskurs
Paulina Janusz
August 27th, 2014
For Bosnia and Herzegovina’s politicians, the vocabulary of commemorations, victims, the past, and crimes should be replaced by words such as activity (i.e., work) and accountability.
It was in 2008, and therefore not so long ago, when the President of the Democratic Action Party (SDA) Sulejman Tihić, while attending the party’s Central Board meeting, said, “We must ultimately overcome the passive position of victimhood and take on the active position and responsibility of a relevant political factor. The past, crimes, casualties and self-pity should not be the central topics of our politics.”
A brave statement — and optimists would even say, a truthful one. However, it had already fallen into oblivion prior to the 2010 general elections, so Tihić and his political disciples started appearing at collective burials and commemorations and cramming themselves into the front rows. Even though such a practice is detrimental to public discourse, it was not abandoned, and the pre-election discourse of Bosnian politicians remained poor and reduced to only a few ear-soothing, unobliging and regularly abused terms.
First and foremost, the terms were used without the supervision of the Election Law of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thanks to this, the so-called pro-Bosnian parties disregarded the target dates envisaged by this law which marked October 12, 2014, as the start date for their general elections campaigns, and traditionally their pre-election training ground is found in the smaller entity, Republika Srpska.
Term 1: The State
Since political memory has an extremely short life expectancy, it is questionable whether the then Chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliamentary House of Representatives, Denis Bećirević of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), even remembers his own initiative from early 2014, when he explicitly demanded that the international community ban the celebration of January 9th as the Day of Republika Srpska (RS).
Bećirović then experienced something that every Bosniak politician regards as a great honor—the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) lashed out at him. This was an excellent opportunity to collect a few pre-election points and to insert a number of pathetic statements into the public discourse such as: “I am prepared not to be elected to any position, but I am not prepared to remain silent when it comes to breaking up Bosnia;” or “I was not elected into Parliament by the SDS, but by the people who love and respect the state of Bosnia.”
This event kicked off Bećirović’s election campaign. As things currently stand, he will be assigned the role of the SDP’s electoral loser for the Bosniak member of the Bosnian presidency. His activities to that end are more than interesting since they show that the position of the “first Bosniak seat” in this country is not possible to obtain without adjusting to the dominant discourse of nationalist parties, which the SDP purports not to be a part of. A proven statesperson must, therefore, bring up Republika Srpska. Thus, after bickering with the SDS, Bećirević went on to launch his (doomed) initiatives to establish a Bosnian Supreme Court and a State Ministry of Agriculture. He also had an unusually strong reaction to Zagreb’s rhetoric about a third entity and an RS Law on Residence coupled with the decision verifying the accuracy and authenticity of data when registering a permanent residence in RS territory. Until now, this discourse has been absent from the rhetoric of this politician.
Term 2: The Defense
Bećirević looked at the current situation of the state, whereas his colleagues remained focused on the past. This was the path taken by the Party for BiH, whose delegation — composed of the Party President Amer Jerlagić, member of the Party Presidency Sejfudin Hodžić, and Podrinje Regional Council President Adib Đozić—showed up on April 8th in Zvornik at the 22nd anniversary celebration of the Day of Resistance.
A commemoration of this sort has never been popular among partisan circles — usually the occasion gathers only a handful of Zvornik locals in the absence of any political figures. It remains unclear what legitimacy a person such as Đozić — one the inventors of political vulturism — has when speaking of “resistance,” since this Tuzla University sociology professor fled his native Srebrenica way before the RS Army siege on the enclave tightened.
Đozić is an interesting persona — once representing the SDA, only to find refuge in the Party for BiH after a corruption scandal related to funds for returnees in the RS. He is well-known for promoting the works of quasi-scientific circles and scholars that present “proof” of a thousand-year old Bosniak claim to Srebrenica — an activity that has granted him easy access to funds. Last year, during the presentation of one such work, Đozić boasted that it would never have seen the light of day had it not been for (another Srebrenica native) Sadik Ahmetović and the reserve funds of the Ministry of Security, which Ahmetović managed at the time.
Exactly how Jerlagić came to remember this living legend of political exploitation of genocide remains unclear. It is true, however, that soon after paying a visit to Zvornik, Đozić found his way to the front row of the Party for BiH’s 18th anniversary commemoration. Today, he has already secured the third spot (first for his party) in the multi-party First of March Coalition list for the RS National Assembly Electoral Unit 5.
Term 3: The Victim
A party of Đozić’s disciples will fight for the remaining spots on the list, namely members of the SDA whose leaders are also warming up before the start of the official campaign. Just as in previous years, they excel within the natural habitat of the springtime mass funerals in the Drina Valley. However, this time they are heading on a march to Drina exactly a week before the first funeral is to be held in Vlasenica—marking the 21st anniversary of crimes committed on a Srebrenica elementary school on April 12, 1993 (the shelling of an elementary school soccer field by the Bosnian Serb Army resulted in deaths of over 60 children).
At last year’s 20th anniversary, there were no other people present except a handful of Srebrenica locals, Mayor Ćamil Duraković, Municipal Assembly Vice-president Hamdija Fejzić and SDA Municipal Board President Sadik Ahmetović. This year, the place was packed! All the Drina Valley SDA leaders were in attendance and, thus, Sadik Ahmetović was joined by the RS People’s Council delegate Šefket Hafizović and RS National Assembly Vice-president Ramiz Salkić. They were, in turn, flanked by the Federation BiH President Živko Budimir.
Even the history lessons, i.e. the stories of those who survived, were pushed to the side by the stories of surviving party members. This was characterized by the attitude of Amir Kulaglić, one of the founders of the Democratic Front in Srebrenica and former Organizational Board President of this commemoration, who had thus far shunned the media until that day. Of course, the people who spoke at last year’s event are forgotten about — Mediha Smajić who lost her father on that soccer field, Fikret Ibrahimović, the father of a girl who was killed, and survivor Hasan Hasanović.
The inclination to adjust to the requirements of the campaign was also exemplified by Hakija Meholjić (SDP) who said the al-fatiha, although anyone who knows him knows he is an atheist of conviction. This was but a continuation of the pre-electoral “religious revolution” within the ranks of the SDP. Meholjić gave a similar performance on March 31st in Potočari at the 11th anniversary of the first collective funeral for genocide victims, where he showed up with Denis Bećirović and the Federal Minister of War Veterans’ and Disabled Soldiers’ Affairs, Zukan Helez. It is worth noting that neither Bećirević nor any other party leader remembered the 10th anniversary.
Term 4: The Mother
During the war, Hava Tatarević lost her six sons and, presumably, there is not a single child in Bosnia and Herzegovina today who has not heard of her tragedy.
Her name may be known to all; however, since the outskirts of Prijedor are a relative terra incognita to media residing in Sarajevo, journalists were not so successful in ascertaining the exact name of her village. Thus, on the popular Klix.ba media portal—one of the first to have published the information about the identification of Hava’s sons—Zecovi became “Zenovo”, only to later become “Zecoe” in the text.
No one ever bothered to proofread the obvious spelling mistakes found in the text written by the portal’s editor-in-chief Faruk Vele, and “Zenovo” thus appeared in a number of other media publications, as well as on the fan page of Chairman of the SDA Caucus Asim Sarajlić where, in a pathetic proclamation, we read: “The terrible and heart-breaking story of Hava, a mother from Zenovo near Prijedor. It is because of cases like this, that we shall not allow the RS to regulate the issue of registration of residence in an unconstitutional and anti-Dayton manner. It is precisely because of such cases that we shall condemn every violation against the rights of returnees, which are jeopardizing their safety and certain political parties in the RS are encouraging extremist individuals to commit serious crimes against the lives and property of returnees, as was recently the case in Kozluk.”
“It is because of this” that politicians could benefit from the occasional visit to the smaller entity. Such a visit may have helped them to learn the actual name of Hava’s village, but such expectations are far fetched, since they are predominantly in the business of recycling stories, which are selected for the occasion by Amor Mašović who is double-hatting as one of directors of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Institute for Missing Persons and as SDA’s representative in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly.
It was Mašović who, at the Sarajevo panel discussion entitled Tomašica – a Death Mine, made Tatarević into a “star”, neglecting in the process all the other people who were found in this mass grave. He said: “Horrific crimes were committed in Prijedor; entire families were murdered. Tatarević, a mother whose six sons were killed, comes from that area… Members of the RS Army and police force transferred the murdered Prijedorians—mostly Bosniaks—to secondary and tertiary mass graves, or even disposed of their bodies using explosives, as was the case with the Jakarina Kosa mass grave.”
Mašović spoke and the politicians took note. Ever since then, they have referred to “mother Hava” countless times.
Hence, they have managed to prove that yet another dodgy term, which has so far been used to describe a different kind of mainly non-political activity, was not so foreign to them: war profiteering. For had there been no war, they would not be where they are today. And, if there were no “state”; no “victims”; and no “mothers”, there would be a lack of investments, unemployment and poverty — the true burning issues, which no one in Bosnia knows how to solve, or better yet, do not wish to solve.

author: Paulina Janusz


text:
The Otherwordly Balkans | Balkan Diskurs
Paulina Janusz
September 11th, 2014
“Only the details differentiate the narratives of WWI from those of the 90s Balkans wars. The latter speaks of Greater Serbian nationalism and the endangerment of other peoples, as well as some concept of Yugoslavia only mildly related to Yugoslavia itself, whereas the former is but another excuse to repeat the same arguments.”
Despite the fact that WWII ended on May 8, 1945, Russia and several other Eastern European countries celebrate Victory Day twenty-four hours later. The Russians were screwed by the time difference—for them, Nazi Germany’s signing of the capitulation occurred shortly after midnight; in turn, Eastern Europe was screwed by the Red Army which, alongside victory, brought a new ideological, political and economic system, as well as the icing on the cake—a decree that Victory Day would be marked not according to the local time zone, but according to the clocks of the Kremlin towers.
The Balkans, however, has screwed itself.
Victory dates aside, the Western and Eastern bloc managed to agree upon most of the other, far more important facts (who was the executioner and who was the victim; who started the war and why). Moreover, those established facts remained intact for the 70 years that followed. On the contrary, only a provisional agreement on the timeline of events survived after the break-up of Yugoslavia, while nearly nothing could be agreed upon regarding the facts. Instead, history gained a strong national impetus, and political elites considered Jasenovac [concentration camp] a convenient excuse for new crimes (revenge), and the Ustashe evolved from Hitler’s allies to defenders of Croats.
Now, we might ask why a story about World War II would serve as an introduction to a story about World War I? For the simple reason that, in the Balkans, it is irrelevant which war are we are talking about—for the last 20 years, people have basically been discussing the same event over and over again. Only the code names interlocutors use to describe them change. It seems that the wars of the nineties—whether they were wars of “liberation,” “the fatherland,” “defense,” or whatever we may call them—have, instead of ending, received only a thin layer of peace under which new battles continue to emerge. Indeed, these battles have changed in character, but that does not mean they have become any less exhausting.
Today’s battles can be shorter or longer, lesser or greater — and this year will provide military strategists of the Balkans a real treat when, one hundred years after the eruption of WWI, two decades of conflict will reach truly grotesque proportions. On June 28th, the world will be divided into the Serbs and the rest of the world. One group will mark this anniversary as key moment in modern times, and in the city that became worldly for the first time back then — Sarajevo. The other group will be marking the event in a city once worldly, but now aspiring to be exclusively Serb, hence perfect for boycotting the world — Višegrad.
Yet, Višegrad would not be an exclusively Serb town on this day of commemoration, had Gavrilo Princip not been deemed exclusively Serb in Sarajevo, and had nationality not became his sole important quality. Few are interested in what Princip means to the rest of the world or that his “terrorism” changed the destiny of many European countries. Consequently, the people of the Balkans couldn’t care less about the October Revolution, the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire, US entry into the course of world history, or the independence of dozens of Eastern European states. The focus is only on whether Gavrilo Princip was ordered by Serbia to kill Franz Ferdinand so as to liberate the Serbs (and every child in Bosnia-Herzegovina knows that “liberation of the Serbs” is synonymous with “genocide against Bosniaks”), or whether Princip heroically decided to sacrifice his own life to defeat the loathed occupier—with the well-known implication that the occupier comes from the West to impose unpleasant Hague verdicts on good Serbs.
For the residents of the Balkans to reach an answer to this question, Gavrilo Princip has had to undergo a certain metamorphosis. First, he had to become a Serb, even against his will and the fact that he would have probably declared himself a Yugoslav during the recent census; much the same as Ivo Andrić had to become a Serb, and the Muslims who were killed in 1992 had to become shaheeds (martyrs)—which means they had to become Bosniaks posthumously (even though only 5% of them had ever heard of that term before they died). Later, to become fully nationalized, Princip had to, on the one hand, become a terrorist — although the notion of terrorism from early 20th century has no connection whatsoever to what we today consider terrorism; on the other hand, he needed to receive the halo of a martyr, without any further discussion as to how he became a martyr or what the consequences of his heroic act were.
Once Gavrilo Princip was given his new national identity, the argument could be taken up a notch. Namely, resolving the eternal Balkans dilemma: Who started the war? This question is the very essence of this conflict. The people of the Balkans are not interested in WWI as an event unto itself. They are instead only interested in its use as a codename for the wars of the nineties. And so, if the Sarajevo assassination is an expression of Greater Serbian expansionist tendencies, then Serbia has been the aggressor since time immemorial, which in turn means that one does not need a Hague verdict to tell us who started it in the late eighties and early nineties. Dragutin Dimitrijević-Apis is Slobodan Milošević, and the Black Hand a joint criminal endeavor. Hence Princip, being an agent of Apis, must be a leader of some paramilitary group. If Princip is, however, a liberator, then the Serbs are not to be blamed for Srebrenica, because they simply liberated the area of unwanted elements. And Serbia fought for freedom as early as 1914, then the Serbs are a nation of heroes and are just — and therefore Serbia in the nineties was but a victim of the conspiracy of Western occupiers.
Only the details differentiate the narratives of WWI from those of the 90s Balkans wars. The latter speaks of Greater Serbian nationalism and the endangerment of other peoples, as well as some concept of Yugoslavia only mildly related to Yugoslavia itself, whereas the former is but another excuse to repeat the same arguments over and over again.
Amidst all of this, that which is of greatest importance remains unspoken of — the rest of the world.
This quest to make nationality the focus of every event has harmed the people of the Balkans pretty badly, and they have thus excluded themselves from historical relevance. Top officials did not visit Sarajevo on June 28th to support one version of history over another, nor to slap Serbs in the face (or Russians as the Serbs would have it). They will come to the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina with the understanding of its role in changing their homelands forever. Gavrilo Princip is neither a terrorist, nor a revolutionary, nor a Serb, nor a Yugoslav for them. For them, Gavrilo Princip was a human; the murder of Franz Ferdinand was casus belli; the war is over; and all of that will be crystal clear to all the guests, no matter where they come from.
Meanwhile, the people of the Balkans were only clear as to what the calendar said: June 28th. St. Vitus Day for some, the first day of the Ramadan fast for others. And for all of them, the start of something that, it seems, isn’t coming to an end any time soon.

created: September 11th, 2014


text:
BalkanThemes Volume 1: Issue 1- Missing Persons | Balkan Diskurs
Balkan Diskurs
September 25th, 2014
Around the globe, there are millions of reported cases of people who are missing or have disappeared. This first issue of BalkanThemes explores how governments and organizations are addressing this problem in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

created: September 25th, 2014


text:
Bosnia as the European Avant-garde | Balkan Diskurs
Filip Balunovic
September 28th, 2014
Despite the fact that it went through the most brutal armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s multiculturalism —albeit now tinged with horrific war memories — is at least three levels above Western multiculturalism.
During one of my stays in Oslo, I concluded that Balkan people do not hold a monopoly on recent international and interethnic frictions. While conversing with a Swede, I was quite taken by his answer to my question as to what he was doing in Norway. He told me that it was primarily due to better wages and that, despite the fact that Norway was economically better off, he knew that Sweden could “once again conquer the Norwegian barbarians in no time.” On another occasion, I experienced a similar example of intolerance in the European capital of Brussels. I was curious about the relationship between the Flemish and the French, to which a Walloon — in a very moderate, yet pert manner — replied that there was no such thing as the Flemish language and that it was but a dialect of Dutch. I nodded at first, pretending to understand completely, and said that, mindful of the region I came from, the discourse was all too familiar. However, once it had become clear that my comparison was referring to the Balkan context, my interlocutors were offended and rushed to explain that the phenomenon occurring in both cases could not be compared, as the Balkans was a completely different thing. Despite the fact that every one of these societies was beset with identity conflicts, nobody was at ease to hear that the conflicts did not escalate simply because of economic welfare — and that they were only one big economic crisis away from a large-scale conflict. Bearing in mind the cyclical nature of the historic process of capitalism, as well as the ever-shorter intervals between the two stagnating trends of the accumulation of capital and the overall production, it is very likely that identity friction in the civilized world will be put to the test sooner than we had imagined.
I cannot say whether I felt either relief or satisfaction after that experience which caused me to be disgusted by the all-encompassing phenomenon of autoracism. On the other hand, I am sure that, since then, I have started to develop a new perspective from which I no longer regard multiculturalism as the number one feature of Western democracy — something that I had always valued and never necessarily disputed. My view is now, to a larger extent, concurrent with that of Slavoj Žižek who criticizes Western multiculturalism because of its tolerance-based definition. As Žižek states, tolerance is not something that should be placed in the center of co-existence of two, conditionally speaking, different groups, for the simple reason that the application of its principles do not go much beyond allowing the other group to exist, without a great [or any] desire that the co-existence should permeate the everyday life of either of the groups. Just like the principles of neoclassical economic liberalism, the only laws applying to diversity are those of the market. It is superfluous to refer to any sentimentality, bonding, or enjoying the diversity.
The Memory of Yugoslavia is also Fading
However, there is a place where Žižek — as an occasional realist — does not go. Boris Buden, on the other hand, frequently goes there, namely apostrophizing Yugoslav multiculturalism as an example of a non-market relationship between two or more ethnic, national, or religious groups. Little is left of Yugoslavia today; it is a memory for the most part. Yet, there is a tendency towards erasing even the memory.
However, a model can still be found that represents “Yugoslavia in a nutshell” — Bosnia-Herzegovina. Despite the fact that it had gone through the most brutal armed conflict in Europe since World War II, the country’s multiculturalism — albeit now tinged with horrific war memories — is at least three levels above Western multiculturalism. I believe that when John Stuart Mill said that representative, Westminster-type democracies could not function in multicultural political communities, he was actually referring to the multiculturalism that was reared in socialist Yugoslavia, rather than that which Western Europe is now [falsely] taking pride in. Were it different, someone would by now have stepped forward with the claim that Mill was wrong, as multiculturalism was nominally functioning “perfectly” in representative democracies across Western Europe. Of course, that tolerance upon which everything is grounded begins and ends with the desire to disallow the diversity of the “other” to jeopardize our private sphere. Unlike that model, diversity in real socialism not only enters the private sphere of the “other” and vice versa, but it is also celebrated as the most sacred thing of all.
What seems to be symptomatic, from an analytical point of view, is the fact that the memories of war in Bosnia did not take the place of the memory of brotherhood and unity. It may be said, rather, that the former had merged with the latter. The fear of a new war does not exclude the awareness of mutual “belonging.” I say this for a reason, cognizant that, among one portion of the population in Bosnia, a feeling of belonging to the state as the Great Other is absent. However, that void is frequently occupied by mutual cooperation and co-existence, independent from the bureaucratic and legal framework. Somebody might say that this sounds like a Fata Morgana, appearing occasionally so that the Bosnian society might once again retreat into its own identity bunker inside the boundaries of the ethnopolis of its own canton or entity. This may be true, but it is notable that, as is the case in downward trends of capitalist cycles, the time intervals between those “Fata Morganas” are becoming shorter and shorter and it is only a matter of time when a hundred-times repeated Fata Morgana will become reality. I do not wish to imply that Fata Morganas are lies (I am referring to the saying that “a hundred-times repeated lie becomes the truth”). I am saying that they stand half-way between reality and dreams, and that they represent, as Žižek stated in the title of one of his books, “the signs of the future.”
Hiding in Federal Plenums
Let us consider the latest of these “instances,” epitomized by protests occurring across the Federation of Bosnia. In spite of never quite spreading across to the other entity of the state, the grievances of the protestors are, in their essence, common to all constituent people of Bosnia. Many people from Banja Luka attended plenums across the Federation, as the reign of terror in their entity — embodied by RS President Milorad Dodik — had been dealing with its citizens much more repressively (and pre-emptively for that matter) in order to avoid the same sort of scenario currently taking place in the other entity. That, however, does not mean that protests remained colored by “Bosniak” or “un-Serb” nuances; on the contrary, for the first time after the war, the protests have instrumentalized the abundance of diversity that suddenly turned against, and threatened to defeat, the dominant ethno-political discourse of the present. This multiethnic population has once again assigned a task to people all over Europe and the Balkans. They succeeded in the attempt of political self-objectification and thus, after the political elites had refused to give the people what was rightfully theirs, they decided to take it by force—just as it had previously been taken from them. The state’s dysfunction, and the inability of political elites to reach an agreement, lost all significance as the dominant state of affairs when the avant-garde portion of the population implied that the removal of four cantonal ministers from office was just a warning. Everyone who thinks that that was just another visit to a parallel (sur)reality is mistaken, as such a unanimous revolt has managed to produce an irreversible impression that the people can communicate their views of their own accord.
Finally, for the first time in Bosnia, a different interpretation of the war could be heard. Possibly the best illustration of the beginning of the end of the liberal-nationalist ideology — which ranges from pathetic moralizing to proto-fascist glorification of war criminals—was a workshop held in Sarajevo at which participants discussed facing the past and started examining political economy.
Returning to the topic of multiculturalism, wouldn’t it be logical to ask the following question: is it possible nowadays for a country to be considered multicultural in the same way Bosnia has been multicultural for centuries, without looking back with pride at such differences rather than with some kind of tolerance? When I say “nowadays,” I am implying the current dominance of the neo-liberal paradigm in economic relations, which, as in any other case, inevitably defines social relations as well. Was it not the very interference of economic relations in the social sphere that caused all that we are going through today? If this wasn’t so, Karl Polanyi would not have spoken many years ago about neo-liberal society as a product of neo-liberal economy. Does it not appear that, guided by the avant-garde in the region (after the recent protests, this is more than evident), it is high time we brought back the only political-economic context that can function without fake liberal politeness and tolerance, while celebrating diversity and our unity in it? Does it not seem necessary, now more than ever, for us to idealize what was not ideal, so as to be given an opportunity to change what was not good while, at the same time, giving the imposed symbiosis of political elites and the international community a kick in the ass?
This is how it all appears to me, and yet, it could all be just another Fata Morgana…

created: September 28th, 2014

author: Filip Balunovic


text:
Election Commentary from Banja Luka | Balkan Diskurs
Milorad Milojević
October 11th, 2014
As Bosnia’s general elections draw closer, Milorad Milojević investigates the problems that continue to plague the country’s democratic processes.
After the TV debate between the two opposing candidates for the presidency of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, the leader of SNSD, Milorad Dodik, and Ognjen Tadic, the vice president of SDS — the strongest party in the oppositional Alliance for Change — I read a good comment from one of the viewers, which I will quote here: “This debate was more for the illiterate than for the indecisive among the voters.” And that iss exactly how it was, since it resembled two idlers arguing about a fence dispute on some farm. Without even mentioning the less rational attempts at dialogue, one cannot help but mention how Tadic spoke to Dodik in an extremely personal manner, and even interrupted him by saying: “It’s okay Bajo. It’s over. Enough!” Dodik mostly tried to ignore Tadic, but also insulted his opponent in moments of nervousness. The debates of other candidates in Bosnia-Herzegovina do not differ much from this one much. They are light years away from elegantly elaborating opposing attitudes, which can be seen in debates among candidates running for leading positions in the US, France or Germany.
In fact, most politicians in Bosnia haven’t offered any realistic or coherent story to their voters in this election campaign. Instead, they predominantly focused on collecting points through accusing their opponents of crime, corruption, the poor economy or engaging in fierce nationalist rhetoric.
It is ironic how some social democrat parties like Dodik’s SNSD turned completely to nationalism during the primaries. During a rally in Petrovo, Dodik proclaimed: “You need to remember how important these elections are for your safety. If you make the wrong choice, in a year all that will be left of Republika Srpska will be its name.” He even went as far as to give an interview to the Zagreb-based Jutarnji List, announcing that he would support the formation of a third federal unit in Bosnia, made up of a Croat majority and all the elements of a statehood; and, in the long run, he would offer to create an alliance in order to make three states out of Bosnia.
The HDZ leader and candidate for the Croat member of the Bosnia Presidency Dragan Covic has, at the same time, ‘reminded’ us of the Croats’ demands in Bosnia regarding the federalization of the country, the introduction of a public broadcasting service channel in Croatian language, etc…
On the other hand, electronic media were flooded with photos of the former head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, addressing potential voters in Jajce under the bust of the late president of the former Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito. For those familiar with the life and work of Mustafa Ceric, it was a shock:
Many will say that I constantly shock people, so here’s another shock. As the former head of the Islamic Community, it is probably hard for many of you to imagine me standing under Tito’s bust, and speaking from the same podium from which he spoke. There were some good things in former Yugoslavia, and it bothers me that some people monopolize Tito now and use him for their own interests, and, considering the things they are doing, they shouldn’t mention Tito or anti-fascism at all. Tito was one thing… and they are something else completely.
Politicians have also succeeded in shocking citizens during this election campaign, who are once again paying out of their own pockets for this circus. And we are not only talking about the money allocated to parties from the budget. Party members have taken advantage of other sources of financing as well. Transparency International Bosnia-Herzegovina (TI BiH) calculated that parties withdrew 24 million BAM (12 million Euros) from various levels of government. Their research included political advertising, election rallies, budget allocations and the use of public resources for campaign promotion.
“24 million BAM equals approximately 71,428 pensions — i.e. 6,000 retirees could have received their monthly checks for a year from that amount of money,” said public relations manager for TI BiH Ivana Korajlic, effectively illustrating how much money is wasted by those trying to buy the voters’ trust.
Korajlic also added that TI BiH is still collecting data on the abuse of public resources for political campaigning, such as the use of official vehicles and public enterprises, as well as taking official per diems for travel to campaign rallies. For example, TI BiH demanded data from the Helicopter Service of Republika Srpska regarding the use of helicopters in the transport of SNDS officials in the entity. It has also been stated that Autoceste’s construction of Corridor 5c was used for the promotion of SDP Bosnia and thus represents an abuse of a public enterprise and public resources for the election campaign.
For a country with over half a million unemployed persons, the same number of retirees, and where every other young person wants to go abroad in search of a better future, it is clear how the recklessness of Bosnia’s political structures results in insensitivity towards the social sectors. Not one of the political parties has forfeited their piece of the financial pie to benefit those they allegedly represent.
In light of all this, one should also look at the behavior of the media, who, together with rallies and election posters, are the main transmitters of political ideas. Of course, there are media who have professionally dealt with the election campaign and what it entails. But, it is also obvious that the verbal offenses of different political candidates were carried through the media outlets. The Institute for Social Research at the Faculty of Political Science in Banja Luka has conducted a study that shows that as many as 75% of citizens are convinced that media are under the influence of advertisers or political parties.
And finally, will the deceased be voting in these elections? I am not only talking about the victims of the last war, although they are mentioned quite often by all the political candidates, but also about those who died to preserve Bosnia as well as those who died to protect one of the national identities in this divided country.
The deceased are, however, still on the voters’ list. A citizen, Brankica Sudar, has filed a complaint with the Central Election Committee of Bosnia (CIK Bosnia) after she saw her late father’s name on the list of voters, even though he died back in 2007. There is no official data on how many deceased citizens are still on the list of voters, but it is interesting that this problem is recurrent and visible in almost all elections. CIK Bosnia shifts the blame to the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange (IDDEEA). Taking into account that IDDEEA has spent 104 million BAM to establish a brand new system for issuing personal documents, where everything is electronically connected, including all the registry offices, how is it even possible that no one has compared these files to the list of voters in order to remove the names of the deceased? These facts surely cast doubt on the reliability and independence of the electoral process.
On October 12, citizens will choose from 7,877 candidates who are competing for 518 seats across three levels of government. The current situation in Bosnia says enough about how many times we have been fooled, not since the war, but since the first democratic elections in 1990. There are even some people who have been in office since those first elections, and they continue to hold office by pulling the wool over people’s eyes. But maybe it is not up to them. Perhaps Orwell was right when he said: “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims… but accomplices.”

created: October 11th, 2014

author: Milorad Milojević