RECOM Initiative !Voice - 1/2011

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!Truthhas noalternative

INTRODUCTION

What is RECOMs goal? What is happening with the Initiative or RECOM? What dovictims o serious human rights violations think o the Initiative?

Answering these and other similar questions is the main task o ! Te Voice o the

RECOM Initiative. Te newsletter provides inormation on the most recent events and

developments concerning the Initiative. It carries news about the process o advocacy or

RECOM, statements o political support, interviews with politicians in the region, the

opinions o prominent public gures, the media and the public about the Initiative or

RECOM, as well as the activities undertaken by the Coalition or RECOM.

In addition, ! Te Voice disseminates the voice o victims. Every issue bringstestimonies o victims, opinions, o those who help victims secure their rights, opinion

pieces, interviews and testimonies o those or whom responsibility, the need or truth,

reconciliation and memory are social priorities. Te bulletin is published monthly in

electronic orm, and quarterly in print. It is available through the website o the Coalition or

RECOM (www.zarekom.org) and rom HRC oces in print.

Why is all this necessary? Te answer to that question is contained in an open letter o

support written by a number o intellectuals and artists rom across the ormer Yugoslavia,

addressed to the Presidents and members o the Presidency o all successor states o the

ormer Yugoslavia. In this letter, which was published in the media in all the countries o

the region, they ask their highest political representatives to do everything in their power

to enable RECOM to begin its operation on the basis o the Drat Statute adopted by the

Coalition or RECOM ater years o consultations with people rom across the region.

With this letter we want to give loud and strong support to the Initiative or

RECOM, because we believe that the establishment, publication and acceptance o acts

on a regional level is necessary or all o us, in order to create the necessary oundations


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! Why RECOM?

RECOM is necessary because objective

obstacles limit the process o establishing

the truth about the past. The trials beore

the International Criminal Tribunal orthe Former Yugoslavia, and those beore

national courts in the region, have ailed to

initiate a broader public debate about war

crimes. In the region, trials are not even

perceived as a legitimate tool in establishing

the ull truth about the crimes. I the region

does not deal with the past, orgetting

the past and the recurrence o conict

represents a real danger. Manipulation o

or restoring dignity to victims, to meet their needs and rights, to determine the ate o

orcibly disappeared persons, and to prevent the horrors o our common recent past rom

happening again... Te Initiative or RECOM can make our communities better, and above

all it can make us better people.

Hence, the success o the Initiative or RECOM will be measured not only by whetherthe ultimate goal has been achieved, but also by assessing the path taken to achieve it. By

and large, this path is becoming part o the ultimate goal uncovering the acts and nding

out the truth. Te knowledge o what really happened is a prerequisite or everything that

comes later: reconciliation and cooperation, building new and better relations among the

peoples and nations in our region. Because there is no alternative to the truth.

Editors:

Igor Mekina

Predrag Ivanovic

Between April 26 and June 30 2011, 1301 volunteers in one hundred and ty cities

across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Slovenia and

Serbia collected signatures rom the public in support o the establishment o RECOM.

Te campaign One Million Signatures or RECOM was led by youth organizations the

Academy o Progressive Ideas rom Slovenia; PRONI and the Youth Resource Center rom

Bosnia and Herzegovina; CEMI rom Montenegro; Integra rom Kosovo; the Youth Education

Forum rom Macedonia; and the Youth Initiative or Human rights rom Serbia and Croatia.

NEWSABOUTRECOM

!542,660signatures

or RECOM


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individual victims, victim numbers and the

scale o atrocities could draw the region into

new clashes, and such practices must be

countered with acts.

RECOM will be a platorm or the victims,an extra-judicial mechanism designed to

compile a record o the past based on acts,

an opportunity to hear rom all sides in the

conict. As such, RECOM will be modeled

on renowned international commissions

o inquiry (South Arica, East Timor, El

Salvador) and on recognized national

judiciaries o New Zealand, Belgium, Italy,

Israel, Canada, and Australia.

Signatures were collected at 219 points in capital cities and larger towns, as well as in a

door-to-door campaign. By July 5, 542,660 support signatures had been secured.

Politicians and public gures also gave their support. Te opening o the campaign was

the most important media event in Pritina /Prishtin on April 26. Te Health Minister oKosovo, Ferid Agani, gave his signature o support. Deputy Prime Minister o the Republico Croatia, Slobodan Uzelac, the Mayors o Porec, Karlovac and Vukovar, and many

Croatian MPs have done the same. In Serbia, the President o the Vojvodina Parliament,

Sndor Egeresi, the Prime Minister o Vojvodina Bojan Pajtic, Vice President o the

National Parliament o Serbia Judita Popovic, writer and President o the Serbian Renewal

Movement, Vuk Draskovic, along with many MPs and political leaders gave their signature

or RECOM.

Te Prime Minister o Montenegro Igor Luksic gave his signature; in Slovenia,

the Ombudsman Zdenka Cebasek-Travnik and President o the Youth Branch o the

Liberal-democratic party o Slovenia Borut Cink have done the same. Te Initiative was

supported by the State Secretary o the government o Slovenia Joze Skolc. In Bosnia and

Herzegovina, support signatures were secured rom the Federation Vice President Mirsad

Kebo, Minister o Culture Salmir Kaplan and the Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen, writer,

essayist, journalist and analyst Ivan Lovrenovic,

directors Dino Mustafc, Haris Pasovic and

Danis Tanovic, poet, writer Ferida Durakovic,

and actor Ermin Bravo.


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! How long did the consultation process take

The consultation process ofcially began

in May 2006, when Sarajevo hosted the frst

Regional Forum or Transitional Justice. Ove

250 participants among whom were humanrights organizations, victims associations,

amily members o missing persons, youth

organizations and other civic groups

jointly concluded that a regional approach

could contribute to resolving the ate o

the missing, to uncovering secret mass

graves, and to building a culture o respect,

solidarity and compassion with all victims.

At a regional consultation meeting on May 9,

2008 in Podgorica, with the amilies o victims

inmates and veterans rom Croatia, Bosnia,

Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, the HLC, IDC

and Documenta announced that the advocacy

or a regional approach to establishing the

acts about the past had matured enough

and should be given a concrete orm. They

proposed to launch discussions about a

Regional Commission or establishing the act

about war crimes and other related violations

o human rights abuses. By the next day,

the initiators had ounded the Coordinating

Council, with members by invitation only, the

primary commitment o which was to orm

On October 12, 2011, the EuropeanCommission adopted its annual review o its

Enlargement Strategy and the progress the Western

Balkan countries, urkey and Iceland had made

toward their EU membership in the previous

year. A document titled Te Enlargement Strategy

and Main Challenges 2011-2012 was published,

along with individual reports on the progress each

country in the region had made. Tere is a separate

report on Serbia.

Te Enlargement Strategy sets out the goals

or the coming period and summarizes the

candidates progress. Te reports orm an appendix

to theEnlargement Strategy in which European

Commission bodies assess the extent o progress the

countries have made with regard to the process o

European integration. Once again, these documents

voice support or the Initiative or RECOM as an important element o progress.

Section 2.3 oTe Enlargement Strategy, entitled Strengthening regional cooperation

and reconciliation in the Western Balkans, species that the European Commission is closelymonitoring these activities, as they are essential or the stability and membership o the European

Union. Te initiatives initiated by non-governmental organizations and civil society, such as..

. the ruth and Reconciliation Commission (RECOM)... play an important role in enhancing

reconciliation beyond governments among the citizens o the region, says the document.

Section 1.3 o the report on Serbia, titled Regional issues and international obligations,

notes the importance o regional cooperation and good neighborly relations. Te report makes

a positive assessment o Serbias support [or] the RECOM initiative on reconciliation.


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Ocial political support or the

Initiative or RECOM is highlighted in

section 2.3 o the report on the progress

o Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,

Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo, where

it is emphasized that each o these countries

continues to actively support... the RECOM

Initiative.

A Letter o Support or the Initiative

or RECOM, sent on October 7, 2011, and

addressed to the Presidents and members o

the Presidency o the countries o the ormer

Yugoslavia, was signed by 155 regionally

renowned intellectuals and artists.

We, or whom the war in the ormer Yugoslavia, with all its consequences, has becomethe subject o proessional research and artistic vision, an event or reection and concern

about the ate o memory and truth, ask you to do everything in your power to enable the

Initiative or RECOM to come to lie and to begin its operation, the artists and intellectuals

wrote.

At a press conerence held in Sarajevo on October 8, 2011, Dino Mustafc, a director

rom Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirjana Karanovic, an actress rom Serbia, Ursa Raukar, an

actress rom Croatia, and Dino Merlin, a musician rom Bosnia and Herzegovina spoke in

support o the Initiative or RECOM.

a regional coalition or the promotion and

advocacy o RECOM.

During two years o debate and discussion

(June 2008-June 2010), at 77 consultation

meetings, and three regional consultationorums involving a total o 3,509

participants representatives o human

rights organizations, youth organizations,

religious communities, members o victims

associations, associations o victims

amilies, veterans, artists, historians, and

individuals rom other civic groups RECOM

was moulded into a body that would be

tasked with compiling a record o the nameso all victims o war crimes, all dead and

disappeared persons, and an inventory o

ex-inmates and all sites o detention. Among

other things, RECOM has been recognized

as the best mechanism or resolving the ate

o missing persons and the discovery and

disclosure o mass graves.

In March 26, 2011, RECOMs Drat Statute

was adopted at the Fourth Parliamentary

Session o the Coalition or RECOM. The

event marked the end o the consultation

process, which lasted rom the establishment

o the Coalition or RECOM in October 2008

through to January 2011.

!Lettero Support orRECOM signed by155 artists andintellectuals


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Tis is a broad initiative rom citizens who

want to institutionalize the truth throughout the

system, said Dino Mustafc, and added: We

all know to what extent the victims are being

manipulated and we know very well that this can

only lead to new clashes.

Ursa Raukar supports the establishment

o RECOM because the commission has the

potential to prevent manipulation: Without

truth, peaceul lie or our children will not be

possible... Horrible crimes were committed,

but another major crime is the manipulation o

victims.

Mirjana Karanovic ears the return to the

Serbian political scene o the rhetoric rom the

1990s: I am still angry with the way the national

television o Serbia manipulated the dead.

Musician Dino Merlin supports the Initiative or RECOM, and believes that the

commission could stop the relativization o crimes: He who denies Srebrenica, is doing the

same with regard to Jasenovac.

Slovenian director Dusan Jovanovic believes that the Initiative is well planned, and

hopes the appeal or its establishment will bear ruit. He said he expected much more than

just principled support rom politicians.

Te Letter o Support, with all signatures, can be downloaded at:http://www.zarekom.org/uploads/documents/2011/10/i_2057/_1/_2814_en.doc

Press conerence about the Letter o Support, Sarajevo, October 8, 2011

! RECOMs Objectives:

(a) To establish the acts about war crimes

and other gross violations o human rights

committed on the territory o the ormer

SFRJ in the period rom January 1, 1991until December 31, 2001, the political

and societal circumstances that led to

the commission o these acts, and the

consequences o the crimes and human

rights violations;

(b) To acknowledge injustices inicted upon

victims in order to help create a culture o

compassion and solidarity with victims;


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On August 29, 2011, the International

Day o the Disappeared, the Coalition orRECOM called on the governments o Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo to establish a database o

missing persons, classied by nationality; to set up unds to support the amilies o missing

persons; to include enorced disappearance into the criminal law as a separate ofense; to

give nancial support or exhumations and investigations that may lead to the discovery

o mass graves; and to strengthen the protection program or witnesses willing to provide

inormation about secret mass graves. Further, the Coalition or RECOM called on the

governments o the region to support the establishment o RECOM, primarily because

a regional commission would contribute to a more efective resolution o the ate o the

missing persons, and the detection and discovery o secret mass graves.In cooperation with the Regional Coordination o AssociationsoFamilies o Missing

Persons in the Former Yugoslavia, the International Commission on Missing Persons,

and the International Committee o the Red Cross, associations o the disappeared rom

the region marked the International Day o the Disappeared in Brcko, Zagreb, Belgrade,

Gracanica, Vukovar, Podgorica and at Ozren. Te universal message at each gathering

was that the governments in the region must speed up the location, exhumation and

identication o the missing and stop bidding up the number o victims by compiling

all kinds o lists and airing alse promises or proessional or personal interests. From

August 30, 2002 to August 30, 2003, the ates o just 86 people was resolved. Tis is a tragic

and devastating act, says an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister o Croatia by a

number o non-governmental organizations, which Zdenka Farkas, head o the Center

Te Appeal read in ront o the Wall o Pain in Zagreb. Tirteen civil society organizations

rom Croatia, among which was Documenta, issued a press release emphasizing the

importance and the role o the uture Regional Commission RECOM whose method

o impartial research into historical sources may be an important step toward clariying

and disclosing the ate o the missing and restoring the dignity o all victims. Podgoricas

Association o Families o the Kidnapped, Killed and Missing, Red Peony, pointed

(c) To contribute to the ulflment o victims

rights;

(d) To help political elites and society in

Parties to the Agreement to accept the acts

about war crimes and other gross violationso human rights;

(e) To help clariy the ate o the missing

persons; and,

() To help prevent the recurrence o war crimes

and other gross violations o human rights.

(RECOM Drat Statute, Part IV Goals and

Tasks o the Commission, Article 13 Goals)

!Coalitionor RECOM

calls orestablishment oa database othe disappeared


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! RECOMs Functions:

(a) Collecting inormation on war crimes

and other gross violations o human rights,

providing a detailed account o the crimes

and other violations, and describingpatterns o abuses and their consequences;

(b) Collecting inormation pertaining to the

ate o missing persons and cooperating

with competent bodies o the Parties to the

Agreement conducting the search or the

missing;

(c) Compiling registers o human losses

related to wars or other orms o armed

conict, to include:i. Civilians whose loss o lie or

disappearance was caused by the war or

other orm o armed conict;

ii. Combatants whose loss o lie or

disappearance was caused by the war or

other orm o armed conict;

(c) Collecting inormation on places o

confnement connected to the war or other

orm o armed conict, individuals who were

out that it was necessary to create a missing

persons database, which would contain specic

and precise inormation about the circumstances

o their disappearance. Saet Halilovic, Minister

o Human Rights and Reugees o Bosnia and

Herzegovina, said on the International day o

the Disappeared that resolving the ate o the

missing was a civil and moral obligation. Natasa

Scepanovic, Chair o the Coordination o Serbian

AssociationsoFamilies o Missing Persons in

the Former Yugoslavia, said that more would

be achieved i the problems were depoliticized.

She called or the opening o all archives and the

creation o a single database o missing persons.

Te Coordination o AssociationsoFamilies

o Missing Persons in the Former Yugoslavia

requested that no country in the region become

a member o the European Union until the ate o

missing persons was resolved.

Te International Day o the Disappeared, Croatia, August 30, 2011

Gathering in Brcko August 29, 2011


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As part o the event Adopt Srebrenica:

International Cooperation or Memory Te

Fith International Week o Dialogue andEncounter, held on September 5-6, 2011, the

organization Amica rom Tuzla and the

Alexander Langer Foundation rom Bolzano

jointly organized a meeting o a group o

students rom Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina

with HLC employees and associates.

Aleksandar Obradovic presented the activities

o the Coalition or RECOM rom its inception

to the current phase o advocacy.During a discussion with Natasa Kandic

about the Initiative or RECOM, the responsibilities o young people and the idea o reconciliation,

the students shared their opinions about a regional truth commission project. Tey pointed out

that RECOM was necessary, primarily because anonymous victims are impossible to remember,

and thereore cannot be continuously present in the minds o the people o the region.

RECOM will be conronted with problems, the students suggested, because to the

majority, it is dicult or even impossible to understand that the concept o human rights

applies to all mankind, and those peole are irritated when war crimes committed against a

community to which they deny such rights, are incontestably documented. It is hard to say

whether such individuals are shocked by the act that war crimes, they do not even holdto be crimes (but legitimate belligerent actions), are being recorded, or by the act that the

human rights o people deprived o rights are being deended.

According to the students, as many mechanisms as possible should be used to secure justice

or the victims and as many options as possible devised or physical and moral reparations.

Briey: trials andRECOM, together. Te Italian students cited one example rom their country:

thirty years ater World War II, there was still no mention o the civil war in their country, just

as terrorism was not spoken o in the 1970s. Italian society saw the enormity o the problem o

silence: the entire social structure was in danger o collapsing unless society dealt with the past.

unlawully confned, tortured or subjected

to inhumane treatment, and compiling a

comprehensive list o the places and victims,

with the application o identity protection

measures where necessary;

(d) Researching the political and societal

circumstances that decisively contributed

to the outbreak o wars or other orms o

armed conict as well as to the commission

o war crimes and other gross violations o

human rights;

(e) Holding public hearings o victims and

other persons about war crimes and gross

violations o human rights;

() Recommending measures to help prevent

the recurrence o human rights abuses and

to ensure reparations to the victims; and,

(g) Compiling, publishing, and presenting its

Final Report in a manner that will acilitate

broad access to the Report by the 7

(RECOM Drat Statute, Part IV Goals and

Tasks o the Commission, Article 14 Tasks)

!Italianstudents

support theInitiative orRECOM and itsactivities


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Students rom Bosnia and Herzegovina said they believed the Initiative or RECOM

would ace great diculties, because nationalism was still very strong in the minds o many

people in the ormer Yugoslavia. Zarko rom Srebrenica, however, was optimistic: public

testimony, which would be an integral part o RECOM, would have a positive efect because

it would create a strong emotional reaction, which would efectively make the audience

aware o the sheer horror o the crimes.

When asked whether it was more dangerous to deny the past or return to the past by

remembering, documenting and marking, the students responded emotionally. One o

the more common replies was: Denying the past is always part o the political discourse.

Tese young European intellectuals noticed a great diference between truth and social

necessity on the one hand, and politics on the other. Tey saw the current political discourse

primarily as a selsh struggle or short-term goals, within which the unpleasant truth was

all too oten ignored. On the other hand, they understood that dealing with the past was an

immediate and urgent matter, which has been let unnished or too long already.

Adopt Srebrenica , meeting at HLC, September 5, 2011.

At the International Forum or

ransitional Justice in Post-Yugoslav Countries,

held on June 27, 2011 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, renowned international experts

presented their views o how and why the

Initiative or RECOM was important.

At a panel discussion moderated by

Drazen Lalic rom the Faculty o Political

Sciences in Zagreb, the ollowing participants

expressed their views: Christian Axboe

!Epistemic

community againstthe broderhoodo crime


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Nielsen (Aarhus University, Denmark), Diane F. Orentlicher (Washington College o Law,

USA), Eric Gordy(UCL School o Slavonic and East European Studies, Great Britain),

Florence Hartmann (journalist, France), Jasna Dragovic Soso (Goldsmiths College,

University o London, Great Britain), Lazar Stojanovic (lm director, Serbia), Marlies

Glasius (Universtiy o Amsterdam, Netherlands), Mladen Ostojic (Queen Mary College,

University o London, , Great Britain), Vera Krzisnik Bukic (Institute or Ethnic Studies,

Slovenia) and Vladimir Petrovic (Institute or Contemporary History, Serbia).

Opening the discussion, Drazen Lalic explained the purpose o the orum and its

discussion: Every citizen with some academic background, living in a system that only

looks democratic but is in act totalitarian, must be aware o the horric events that took

place, the murder o the prisoners o war and other similar atrocities

Diane F. Orentlicher warned that it was necessary to check whether what was

important to us was really what the victims needed: or example, the victims wanted the

International Criminal ribunal because they saw it as a mechanism or justice, while justiceor victims is never discussed in connection with the ribunal. Te ribunal, she said, was

generally criticized by the public as unair, although it continually emphasized the need or

justice. rials took too long, criminals were sentenced to short sentences, the courtroom

was converted into a stand or the promotion o political platorms...

Eric Gordysaid that the ribunal was the rst legal body with such a purpose the

Nuremberg ribunal and the court in okyo were military institutions, which adjudicated

in haste and did not provide or the adequate deense o the accused. One o the greatest

achievements o the ribunal was its collection o detailed documentation which prevented

the denial o acts. Tis made the conicts and crimes in the ormer Yugoslavia the bestdocumented in the world. Te main limitation o the ribunal was that it was unable to

answer the question: what would be a sucient number o trials necessary to achieve some

orm o justice? Any number is seen as either too big or too small, he said. From 2000, the

public reaction ranged rom complete denial, through relativization, to todays ideological view

o the crimes as acts o deense or victory. Te reason or this was the nature o the trials

a trial, he said, was a technical process, the main goal o which was to provide satisaction

and recognition to victims. But i the idea o reconciliation was to come to lie in the region,

the people must receive the inormation about the war rom someone they trust more than

they trust the ICY and national courts. Political institutions and the media were not trusted.Citizens believed victims rst o all, those individuals whom they saw as similar to themselves.

Tey wanted to hear personal stories, to gain an insight into other peoples eelings.

Mladen Ostojic submitted a report on his investigation o the relationship o Serbian

political elite to the ribunal. I think it is in act one o the key lessons o the Hague

ribunal that the international transitional justice initiatives cannot succeed without the

support o local political elites, he said at the beginning o his speech. Te seed o Serbian

political elites insincerity to the ribunal lay in the ear that the ribunal would threaten


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the stability and legitimacy o Serbian institutions. Tis ear o institutional destabilization

has been transerred to the army and police, and nally led to the assassination o the Prime

Minister, Zoran Djindjic, he added. Te consequence o this ear was an attempt by the

authorities to persuade the indictees to surrender, which practically let the state standing

behind the indictees, in much the same way as in Croatia and in Bosnia. Te nal outcome

o this process was the socialization o criminals and their public idolizing, he said.

Jasna Dragovic Soso pointed out that in the ormer Yugoslavia the political climate was

nally changing, and that it was nally time or some initiatives that ailed in the past. But

there was still no public debate in the region about the crimes committed in the recent past.

Even when something very important happened, such as the arrest o Mladic, the debate

consisted o re-hashed arguments rom the 1990s. RECOM had the power, he said, to establish

the basic acts about what had happened in the region. Tis was very important, because there

was no universally accepted version o the events rom the 1990s at the national level.

Christian Axboe Nielsen commented on a statement by the Serbian Minister o theInterior, Mr. Ivica Dacic, who said that the brotherhood and unity o criminal groups was

the only remaining survivor o the ormer Yugoslavia. Neilsen said that in all the countries

o the ormer Yugoslavia, war crimes and organized crime were two sides o same coin.

However, the prosecution, rather than the study o these criminal groups was much

more important or the uture o the region, as this would create a complete picture o the

history and at the same time remove a number o problems in society.

Vera Krzisnik Bukic said she saw RECOM as the necessary reaction o civil society

to the sphere o arbitrary policy. As a historian, she approached the issue o reconciliation

through the example o the Cazin uprising, the revolt o peasants against Communist terrorin 1950. Tese events were taboo until 1991, when a large study presented the acts about

the rebellion to the public. RECOM should do the same: presenting as many indisputable

acts as possible would set the basis or a just resolution o the problem.

Marlies Glasius noted that transitional justice was acing a nearly impossible task.

Establishing the ocial truth about events, providing redress to victims, and deterring

uture crimes these tasks were so dicult that they became especially rustrating to those

or whom they were primarily intended. One should pay closer attention to the trials beore

the ribunal rom an expressionist standpoint, and see them as theater: a ritual that conveys

a message to society, she said. But, she added, trials were incapable o efectively bringingorth the truth. First, there was tension between the processing o criminal acts and public

statements about the truth trials direct attention to the accused and his or her specic

crime, which was why diferent trials arrive at diferent truths. Secondly, international

tribunals are nanced and organized by the Western countries, which makes it likely that

the truth established in them will be rejected as Western theater. Finally, during a trial the

accused will do everything in their power to sabotage the court procedure, which she said

created two versions o the truth and destroyed public condence in the ribunal.


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Florence Hartmann started rom the view that the process o international justice

would always remain incomplete unless the historical narratives o groups involved in the

conict were changed, and this could be done through education. Article 45 o RECOMs

Drat Statute proposes the mechanisms which will help integrate the established acts

into the educational systems in the region. However, such proposals took time, she said;

meanwhile, the post-war generations are being shaped by conicting narratives and systems

where historical education and transitional justice are not part o the same sphere. So ar,

instead o meeting the needs or justice, democratization and reconciliation, education had

been emphasizing the diferences between nations in the region. Te reorm o history

requires a lot o time this has always been the case and always will be, She added. Beore

transitional justice mechanisms, such as RECOM, begin to afect the educational system, the

media should publish the acts instead o hiding the atrocities that caused so much sufering.

Lazar Stojanovic spoke o the aspects o RECOM that diferentiate it rom judicial

institutions that deal with moral and political responsibility. Collective responsibilitydoes not exist, but it was acceptable to speak o the mass political responsibility o all

those who raised their hand to support the arrival o a criminal to power and urther his

criminal policy, he said. Recognition o such responsibility was essential to the process o

establishing a truth and reconciliation commission in the ormer Yugoslavia, because or

the rst time in history, a regional commission will be established. Tereore, recognition o

political responsibility would help each state to recognize its crimes, and it would show that

it accepted its own crimes as much as it did the crimes committed against it.

Vladimir Petrovic singled out an interesting act that in the process o dealing with

the past and in the eld o transitional justice there are virtually no historians. Te reason,he said, was that historiography is one such discipline which made a major contribution

to the dissolution o Yugoslavia, and [...] has done much to turn this dissolution into the

war, and then [...] did a lot to present the character o the war as vaguely as possible. It was

impossible to expect people who had invested their careers in a specic political project to

critically reect on their own commitment and the project itsel. Tis was the reason behind

the project Te End o Yugoslavia, which was essentially an attempt to disclose, in a critical

edition, the most relevant documents concerning the break-up o Yugoslavia, in the hope o

creating a actual basis or urther discussion.

Drago Pilsel, reecting on hal a million signatures in support o RECOM, and thepositive reaction o the Montenegrin political elite, concluded that there was a chance

to nally settle history. Trough his lie story, he talked about the moment when he had

realized that it was not possible to be an Argentinian letist, a Croatian ascist and a student

o theology, all at the same time. Te inability to settle history in ourselves was, he said,

perhaps something RECOM could help people do.

Amir Kulagic, a survivor o Srebrenica, said that processes such as the Initiative or

RECOM, are the best proo that we still have the strength and courage to ght our own


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dicult experiences. He reerred to the theory that all victims speak the same language

and pointed out that it was not true: victims do not agree even on the meaning o the term

victim, crime, heroism in the war. Tere was also the problem o seeing reconciliation as

the goal o transitional justice: First we need to say who should be reconciled with whom. Is

it a reconciliation on a personal level? Is it on the level o ethnicity or society? Reconciliation

involves both recognition o the crime and an apology or it. But reconciliation must be preceded

by trust between people, between communities and then oat the level o society, he said.

Lets see whatart cando with the

actscollectedon the ground, and lets see

howart can restorethe acts. What is let

o the acts when artdoes withthemwhatI see as an artistictask?Let there be no

misunderstanding:RECOMis an almost

perectinitiative in an imperectworld.Only

a handul o us, artists, deal with evil, only a

ew o us talk about victims.But they are all,

mostly, our own victims.I earthatin what

little time we have leton the earth, this kind

oexchange oone dead oranother will have

become dominant, and I am araidvictims

will continue to be manipulated.Artmust

decisively ghtagainst the division o victims into ours andtheirs.

(Slobodan Snajder, writer, Zagreb, Croatia, Regional consultations with artists about the

Initiative or RECOM, Bosniak Institute, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, April 7, 2010)

Not only do I support, but I also signed the petition or RECOM!Inormationandnames

o people must be ound. Tis does not meanthat we willnecessarilyagree onthe truth.I

should remind us all thatthe wars wereought rst with ideas, then in the newspapers, and

nallywith bulletsand bombs.And everyone had his owntruth.But the diferencesamong

thesetruthswill be diminished, at the expenseo innocentvictims, i we manage to show theacts beore we attempt to interpret them.Tis is why IsupportRECOM.

(Slobodan Uzelac: What would have happened i adic had met Karadzic or Mladic?,

http://danas.net.hr/intervju-tjedna/page/2011/09/01/0075006.html, Danas, September 2, 2011)

Te Initiative or RECOM is indeed a political action, and one ohighestimportance.

Tis is why the Croatian media are so consistently silent about it,so that the whole thing can

be somehow overturnedand killed.But there is nopoliticalworko greater importance today

WHAT

OTHERSHAVE SAIDABOUTRECOM:


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but to produce that bigbook othe dead, which would contain the names o all those killed,

persecuted or displaced since 1991,including the nameso the killed killers,every single one

o them. [...]Te idea oRECOMis not [...]an attemptto arrive atone undeniable truth.

Te goal isto arrive at undeniable acts:peoplewith names, descriptions o theirsufering,

and nally the total number ovictims.Tis is both the least andthe most one can do or

the victims at the endo any war, and yet this has never been done here.Further, there is no

better way to prevent a uture war rom breaking out than with the actso the pastwars.And

what kind otruth will be drawn rom these acts, and whatkind o history will have been

written on the basis o them, that is indeedlessimportant.[...] Te truthwillcommunicate

with the truthithe data, names, numbers are known.

(Miljenko Jergovic, Why I Supported RECOM, in:Jutarnji list, May 31, 2011, p. 21)

As always, or truth and justice to make their way to us, we must ace up to the past.

Tat is thetask oRECOM,or more precisely o the uture Regional Commissionor

establishing the actsabout warcrimes in theormer Yugoslavia. We needthis commissiontobuildrelationshipsin the regionon a diferentbasis,butalso because such commission

would be thestarto a multilateralpartnershipbasedon recognitionand appreciationo

openness and respect. We cannotto livea lie, one must hear the voice ovictims, so that

victims and their amilies aregiven back their dignity, so that, plain and simple, the dignity

oman is restored. Te denial oa crimeis not permissible. Te denial oa crimeis no better

than participating in the crime.

(Alija Behmen, Mayor o Sarajevo, at the International Form or ransitional Justice in

Post-Yugoslav Countries, June 27, 2011, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

I would behappy i one o my neighbors

Ramo, Ibro, Muhamed, whoever came to me

andsaid: Mrs.Mira,your sonand husband are

here.I knowor sure that they are there.Bury

them with dignity.I wouldbegrateulto himor

that message or the rest o my lie.Mywounds

wouldbe very much alleviated.My consciencewould be peaceul.I would notgotoBikosi, to

the wall, to be at peace, butwould instead know

where theyare and whereeverything is atrest.

(Mira Jankovic rom Bikosi, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Te First Regional Forum or

ransitional Justice, Sarajevo, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, May 5-6, 2006)

THE VOICE

OF VICTIMS


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WhenI went to my village,I saw aneighbor, andhe asked: Do tell me the truth, as man

to man. Which is to say letsorget, i what happened can be orgotten. Ten I said: Just

give me a piece oinormation so that I can nd them, so that I can bury them, so that I can

close this chapter o mylie, so that I cangoto the cemeteryand tell thechildrenwho their

grandatherwas[...]I would like the truth to be known and all those who disappearedSerbs, Croats orBosnians to be ound, to be buriedandto putan end toit all, to see the

real truth, to saywho did what, when and where.

(Slavoljub Peric rom Vozuce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Te First Regional Forum or

ransitional Justice, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 5-6, 2006)

For meas a human being, justicemeans nding the man orthegroupthat killedmy

loved ones andasking themwhy they did it.Did these peopleevenknow my closestamily?

Why did they kill them in the cruelestwayandthen perhaps leave themsomewherewhere I

can nevernd them?Tat wouldbejusticeor me. [...]Forme, the truth would mean that I

Teater playAnalogies,perormed by the Family o Clear Springs Teater (Pozorita porodice bistrih potoka),

Cultural Center Pekarna, Maribor, Slovenia, February 7, 2011


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am told wheremydeadones were killed, and where I can nd them to bury them with dignity

somewhere, where I too could come and recite theFatiha, and bewith the soulsomy beloved

ones at least or a moment. Tis istruth or us.

(Amir Kulagic, Association o the Women o Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Te

First Regional Forum or ransitional Justice, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 5-6, 2006)

On October 22, 2011, Serbian daily newspaper, Politika, and other leading daily newspapersin the region published a letter in which one hundred and ty ve artists and intellectuals

rom post-Yugoslav countries expressed their support to the Initiative or RECOM, calling

on the heads o states in the region to jointly establish the Commission. Te letter prompted

Dragan Popovic and Miljenko Dereta rom Civic Initiatives to once again publicly express

their attitude towards the Initiative. In an article entitled RECOM is Doomed to Fail,

which Politika published on October 24, 2011, Popovic objects that the Drat Statute

proposed by the Coalition or RECOM contains provisions inconsistent with constitutions

o the countries in the region. Popovic, however, doesnt reveal the questionable Statute

provisions, nor does he cite which constitutions they are in conict with. In addition, in thetext RECOM Statute Bad or Good Idea, carried on the B92 web site on October 23, 2011,

Popovic states that he personally is against determining the causes o wars and war crimes.

In setting this as its goal, argues Popovic, the idea o a regional commission is doomed.

Another reason why he adamantly claims that the idea as a whole will come to nothing is

that the establishment o the Regional Commission is advocated by a small group o people:

When a small group o people is trying to push through such a big idea, it is dicult to

pass. Tis way o advocacy has not made any progress, anywhere in the world, and will

DEBATES!About theInitiative orRECOM


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not in the ormer Yugoslavia either. Popovics boss, Miljenko Dereta, is not versed in the

provisions o the Drat Statute RECOM but nevertheless states in the article that time has

shown the Commission does not really solve anything.

Given that neither Dereta nor Popovic have backed their allegations with acts and arguments,

I am in no position to argue with them. Tat is why I point out a ew acts, which should

contribute to (their) having a better insight into the process o the development o RECOM.

First, the Coalition or RECOM adopted its Drat Statute on March 26, 2011, ollowing

a three-year consultation process that involved more than 6,000 civil society activists,

including victims, amilies o disappeared persons, judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Facts

about war crimes and the causes o war are the goals espoused by the Coalition or RECOM.

Whether or not the states will accept these goals, remains to be seen. What ollows is

a phase in which governmental working groups rom across the region will be asked to

consider the Drat Statute proposed by the Coalition or RECOM, in order to give theirverdict on the issue. I the states ocially determine, as did Popovic, that the establishment

o the causes o war is an impossible task or a regional commission, that particular task will

have to be omitted rom RECOMs Statute, regardless o the act that it had been initially

included in the Drat Statute proposed by the Coalition or RECOM.

Secondly, in no way is the Coalition or RECOM a small group o people: it consists o 1,880

organizations and individuals, victims and intellectuals alike. By June 2011, about 550,000

citizens o post-Yugoslav countries endorsed the Petition or the Establishment o RECOM.

Likewise, renowned artists and prominent intellectuals gave their support to the Initiative

or the Establishment o RECOM. Starting in November 2011, the advocacy process,

directed towards politicians, will be led and managed by the Regional eam, members,

who are: Proessor Zarko Puhovski (Croatia), Proessor Zdravko Grebo and director Dino

Mustac (BiH), Proessor Biljana Vankovska (Macedonia), a lawyer Azem Vlasi (Kosovo),

journalist Igor Mekina (Slovenia), journalist Dusko Vukovic (Montenegro) and journalist

Dinko Gruhonjic and I rom Serbia. (I am part o this group mainly because I initiated the

process, not because Im worth as much as the other team members).

Tirdly, the theory and practice o transitional justice acknowledges that restorative

justice (truth commissions, commissions o inquiry, local reconciliation initiatives) vastlycontributes to restoring dignity to victims, to social integration o ormer combatants,

and to peace building, and has the potential to prevent the recurrence o crimes. Teorists

and practitioners who deal with the transition o the successor states o the ormer

Yugoslavia believe that RECOM can overcome the objective limitations o criminal trials

(long duration, insucient capacities o the court systems, old age, sickness and death

o witnesses and victims) and provide a actual portrait o what happened in the ormer

Yugoslavia in the period rom 1991 to 2001, and why.


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Fourthly, politicians have not, as Popovic and Dereta claim, merely given declarations o

support to RECOM. In June 2011, the Government o Montenegro ormed a working group

to review and assess the Initiative or RECOM. What ollows now is a phase in which other

governments in the region will ocially take up the Initiative or RECOM or consideration.

My th point is that the proessional community has so ar been actively engaged in shapingthe mandate o RECOM, as evidenced by the numerous regional consultations held rom

2006 until March 2011, when RECOMs Drat Statute was adopted. Detailed inormation

about the consultation process is available at: www.zarekom.org.

Finally, I agree with Miljenko Dereta that daily politics continues to hinder a number o

processes. RECOM, both as an idea and in practice, has the potential to prevent political

manipulation o the number o victims and the spinning o national myths about the

conict, and it has the power to allow this region to nally begin a social, rather than petty

political reconciliation process.

Natasa Kandic

Te articles Natasa Kandic is responding to can be downloaded rom www.zarekom.org:

RECOM is Doomed to Fail (REKOM osuen na propast) -http://www.zarekom.org/uploads/press/2011/10/i_2106/_1/_2820_0.doc

RECOM Statute Bad or Good Idea (Statut REKOM-a protiv dobre ideje) -http://www.zarekom.org/uploads/press/2011/10/i_2104/_1/_2846_0.doc

Te initiative or the establishment o RECOM has

received a number o positive media reports and

public statements o support, but has also been

ercely criticised. In his text Analysiso Public

Criticismand Support o the Initiativeor

RECOM, publicist Igor Mekina considers positiveand negative views o the Initiative or RECOM in

the regional media. Summing up the arguments

against the idea o establishing a regional truth

commission, including the amous Ristivojevic-

Ivanisevic controversy on the subject o RECOMs

legal status, Mekina shows how arguments against

RECOM are oten based on logical errors.

!Contradictoryand alse

criticism o theInitiative orRECOM


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According to the Analysis, the unounded accusations against RECOM, the act that the

media that attacked proponents o RECOM in most cases did not give the accused a chance to

respond to serious allegations, and later insults and slander at the expense o some well-known

proponents o the Initiative, are undoubtedly examples o violations o journalistic ethics.

Media that have reported on RECOM in this way, are characterized primarily by hate speech,lies, decontextualization and concealment o acts.

Despite widely acknowledged ethical standards which require journalists, when presenting

serious accusations against individuals, to seek a response rom persons to whom the

charges relate, those supporters o RECOM who have been attacked in such articles

had no opportunity to put their case. Tis, according to Mekina, is not only evidence o

the unproessional nature o these media, but also a violation o international standards

o reporting, primarily o the Munich Declaration, which sets standards recognized by

many respected international media outlets. In his analysis, the author emphasizes that

comparative analysis o critical texts about RECOM proves that they are erroneous, logicallyincoherent, and contradictory. Hence, regardless o how convincing they may seem when

read separately, together they amount to little more than nonsense and alsehoods.

Full text o the Analysis can be accessed at:

http://www.zarekom.org/uploads/documents/2011/09/i_1647/_1/_2826_en.doc

Te Coalition or RECOM is yet to meet with the President o Kosovo, Atiete Jahjaga,

Boris adic, President o Serbia, and Gorge Ivanov, President o Macedonia to present them

with the signatures in support o RECOM. Te Coalition will then work to win the support

o the relevant institutions to initiate the procedure or signing an international treaty or a

political agreement to establish the Commission.

WHATNEXT?


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RECOM Initiative !Voice - 1/2011

Documents

Transcript of RECOM Initiative !Voice - 1/2011