RECOM Initiative !Voice 3-2012

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Proessor Zarko Puhovski

As is well known, the ambition o RECOM is, at rst sight, elementary, simple, even modest;

it is but an eort to come by a precise, ocial and objective record o war crimes and other

serious breaches o human rights, to recognize victims and their suering, as well as to

stop such crimes being repeated. However, it is a act that in spite o the work o numerous

activists and the support o at least part o the public across the ormer Yugoslavia, this

modest ambition has or years aced enormous diculties in becoming a reality, coming up

against obstacles that are political and moralistic, as well as ideological, nationalistic, judicial

and historical.

Te reasons or this are not just local in origin; the relatively popular view here is

nevertheless a wrong one; it is the inversenationalist notion, which has it that such

nationalism, such primitive interpretation o patriotism, what one might call an ahistorical

praxis, only exists in our midst. It is wrong because what is on the other side isnt merely

the local politicking o postwar reormed nationalists. Unortunately, what is on the other

side is thousands o years o political history and the history o culture, by no means

conned only to the hilly Balkans.

Quite simply, this is the inevitable conclusion o any serious analysis o philosophical,

theological and other literature. Virtually at the beginning o the Western tradition (which

ollowed immediately ater Heraclites amous dictum, on war as the ather o all things) is

the ollowing ormulation rom Aristotle: A persons true moral capacity decays in peace

and fourishes in war. It is, mutatis mutandis, precisely what we encounter throughout the

centuries, in ormative works o theory and literature, and subsequently also in compulsory

textbooks; it is a concept which claims that war is the true context or discerning the highest

o human values, the opportunity or the heroic nature o humans (o course, primarily men)

to nally maniest itsel in ull.

!A Change

o MoralParadigm?

EDITORIAL


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A survey was once conducted in Europe, involving 10,000 students. It asked or responses

to the ollowing questions: What is your attitude towards those who ought in the Second

World War; what are your objections to their participation in the war, i you have any; do

you envy them? Te response o three ourths o the students to the nal question was

that they envied them or having been in a situation where they were risking their lives or

ideals they believed in. Tus, the students perception was that they lived in boring (non

war) times in which they could not prove themselves, unlike those who lived through heroic

times, and could testiy to their belies.

In ancient Greece, Roman law, the early Scholasticism, in

otherwise conficted versions o the Catholic ideology or

modern philosophy, various variants o the thesis which points

to the standpoint that has thus become received wisdom o (not only the Western) tradition

have been perpetually reiterated: true acceptance o a certain moral position is proven

through readiness to accept two extremes the sacrice o ones own lie, and the taking

o anothers. It is only then that loyalty, love, devotion to a certain viewpoint, doctrine,

aith, nation etc. can be considered proven. Such a state o being stands in opposition to

the nearlegendary thesis o Clausewitz, that war is the continuation o politics by other

means. oday, this can no longer be considered to be so, given that the contemporary

(overwhelmingly democratically structured) political sphere lives on compromise (thereore,

war is ar more likely to maniest itsel as a state o emergency la Carl Schmitt).

However, this way, a new paradox emerges namely, rom the traditional moral standpoint,

compromise is, o course, unacceptable, since it literally indicates a compromising o a

moral position, that is, its relativisation given the real circumstances, and thereore theworst thing that can happen to the hypothetical moral agent. In contrast, rom a modern

(democratic) political standpoint, compromise is the highest achievable goal, since in

principle, the initial (no longer wartime) presumption is: I know that I cannot win.

Certainly, no reasonable person would turn to compromise in a situation o confict i they

knew (or, more oten, believed) there existed any chance o winning. It is only when we are

certain that winning is impossible that compromise appears as the logical and reasonable

solution. In short, compromise, which is the basis o contemporary politics, does not

(directly) lead to war, unlike moral radicalism, absolutism or undamentalism, which most

usually do lead to confict, and even to war.

In postwar periods, and so in the one that ollowed the Yugoslavian wars, these

undamentalist moral intuitions that hold heroism to be the undamental eature o

humanity, and war the privileged context or the maniestation o heroism, continue to

operate by inertia. Tey work, or instance, as the moral legitimation or lying about victims

(ours and theirs), or at least as the basis or avoiding the truth to the greatest extent

possible in order to preserve the image o a state in which we are entirely in the right, and

they in the wrong, an image or which so many have such a great need.

My ather always said to me: I likean honest Croat better than anySerb. (Marija Veerina)


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In turn, those who insist upon the truth, and particularly, a truth that would be ocially

guaranteed by the elected bodies o the postYugoslavian countries as the people rom

RECOM, or example, do emerge as some sort o postwar spoilsports. And this is why

they have encountered all the resistance that has arisen so ar (and or sure, there will

be more). Te remark about the obstinate and entrenched nature o such resistance in

wider history (not just rom a local perspective) is not aimed at discouraging RECOM in

what it does, but on the contrary, should serve as a warning that the task at hand is one

o widereaching importance. A warning that the issue is one o overturning traditionally

unquestioned moral models; in a word, to comprehend the uncovering and publishing o the

truth as being o the highest value in a community even the heroic act o our times.

Zarko Puhovski,Proessor o Political Philosophy at the Faculty o Philisophy, University o

Zagreb, and member o the eam o Regional Advocates o the Coalition or RECOM

Te Initiative or RECOM was the topic o the programEurope on Radio Montenegros

Channel One, aired on January 6, 2012. Mirela Rebronja, Outreach Coordinator o the

Initiative or RECOM in Montenegro, was the programs guest.

Mirela Rebronja told listeners o the importance o orming a commission which would

establish the acts o war crimes and other grave human rights violations in the ormer

!NewsaboutRECOMon RadioMontenegroChannel One

NEWS ABOUT RECOM


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Yugoslavia between 19912001. She noted the Coalition or RECOMs achievements in post

Yugoslav societies as they progress toward European Union membership, beore moving

on to speak about the need or institutionalization o the Initiative, and the active and

timely participation o all countries in the region in the establishment o RECOM. During

the program, Rebronja spoke about the recent meeting o the regional team o RECOM

advocates with the President o Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, about the letter o supportor RECOM addressed to the heads o all successor states o the ormer Yugoslavia which

was signed by 155 artists and intellectuals rom across the region, and about the hugely

popular perormance o the playHypermnesia in Podgorica which promoted the goals o the

Initiative or RECOM.

Te host prompted Mirela to say more about the

collaboration between the Initiative and the cast. Mirela

explained that the message the play attempts to convey

is very much in line with some o the goals that the uture RECOM aims to achieve: that

crimes and human lives are not to be orgotten, that they are discussed no matter how

dicult that may be or us, because that is the only way or postYugoslav societies to move

orward, reed rom the burden they have been carrying or twenty years. She added that

the Coalition or RECOM would continue to carry out similar activities in the uture, in

order to remind the public o the importance o the process o dealing with the past and the

establishment o RECOM.

Lecturer and political analyst Mentor Agani

Mentor Agani, a lecturer at the Department o Sociology and Political Science at theUniversity o Prishtina/Prishtin is to lead the public advocacy process or RECOM

in Kosovo. Agani teaches courses on the theories o nation, nationalism and global

!MentorAgani electedas Kosovomember othe Teamo Regional

Advocate

The truth must not be selective,it is based on acts and hencemeasurable (Dino Mustafc)


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transormations and is a producer and moderator at Radio elevision Kosovo. Agani

served as deputy director o the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation, and editorinchie o

the magazine Ura (Te Bridge), published by the Gani Bobi Center or Humanities. He

translated Ernest GellnersNations and Nationalism into Albanian. In 200607, Agani was

a guest lecturer at the Harvard Universitys Miranda de Gunzburg Center or European

Studies.

Imre Kabok and Hilda Banski lay a wreath at a memorial to Germans killed in WWII,

Kikinda, January 27, 2012

On the occasion o Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), the Association o War

Veterans o the 1990s and the Council o Persons with Disabilities o the Municipality o

Kikinda, organized a meeting o researchers o Holocaust victims, World War II victims,

and veterans o the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Te Kikinda Symposium, held on

January 27, 2012, was: Our contribution to reconciliation: Let us not orget the people who

are no longer with us. Te event was an opportunity or victims o dierent generations

to interact, listen to each other, and to become amiliar with the idea o RECOM, a body

designed by victims to help them overcome the trauma o war and repair the damage caused

by human rights violations.

Te conerence was opened by the Mayor o Kikinda, Ilija Vojinovic, who called or aminutes silence to remember all the victims. In his speech, the mayor asked: How can

we contribute to the process o reconciliation, in order to restore return the dignity o the

victims and reintegrate ormer combatants into society? Zoran Kosic, President o theAssociation o Combatants o the Wars o the 1990s, stressed that in todays Kikinda there

were several mass graves containing the bodies o German citizens, the socalled Danube

Swabians, whom the authorities massively persecuted ater World War II.

!We needRECOM or

the sake o ourchildren: KikindaConerencededicated tovictims andreconciliation


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Olga Knezevic, a representative o the Jewish Community in Pancevo, said that beorethe war there were 551 Jews living in Kikinda, but only 16 o them survived. ZsuzsannaMezei rom the Archives o Vojvodina, and a member o the SerbianHungarian JointCommission Investigating the War Crimes Committed rom 1941 to 1948, presented the

ndings o research into the executions which the Communist authorities carried out ater

the liberation in 1944: in Serbia ater World War II, the authorities executed approximately

10,000 persons (mainly Germans and Hungarians), who were considered to have

collaborated with the occupiers. Ater the liberation, a large number o Germans were taken

to camps, where 33,642 o them were killed or died. ibor Zaharovic rom the DevleskiUrma Association o Roma, said that his association supported both the establishment o

RECOM, and lasting reconciliation in the region. He mentioned that, according to some

records, about three million Roma lived in Europe beore World War II. Approximately

1,300,000 o them were killed in the war.

Dinko Gruhonjic, president o the Independent Journalists Association o Vojvodina anda member o the Regional eam o Advocates or RECOM, chaired the panel devoted to

the process o RECOM. He introduced the participants o the conerence to the process o

RECOM: oday, again, the news about some ugly events have been heard across the region.

[Gruhonjic was alludeding to the violence against Croatian handball ans]. Tese events

involved youths. But they are not really to blame or it. o a large extent, we are to blame,

because young people dont know what happened during the war their parents and society

as a whole remain silent. Or, i they say something, it is usually onesided and biased. Tis

is why these youths need RECOM, said Gruhonji. Zoltan Moldvai rom the Council oPersons with Disabilities o the Kikinda Municipality, said that people with disabilities rom

Kikinda support RECOM, because they know best what it is like to lose someone.

In the panel titled Our contribution to reconciliation, Branislav Kavalic, rom theProvincial Association o Veterans o the Wars o the 1990s, reminded the audience that it

was soldiers themselves who hated wars the most and who wished that acts and individual

responsibilities be determined. Te Provincial Association o Veterans o the Wars o the

1990s, he said, supported RECOM and would contribute to its promotion.

Te RECOM process is important or the victims who have suered, but also or those o

us who ought in these wars. Because o the crimes o some individuals, we, who behaved

honorably in the war, we who went to ght when our country summoned us, we are nowbeing burdened with collective guilt. Tese acts must be established or our benet too,

concluded Kavalic.

Conerence participants laid wreaths to commemorate all victims in Kikinda: at the

Monument to the Remembrance o the Victims o World War wo; at the site o a prewar

synagogue, rom which the Jews were taken to camps; and at the site where German citizens

were killed and buried in a mass grave.


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Riots and assaults on Croatian citizens who came to Serbia to support their team at the

European Handball Championship, prevented some o the registered Croatian participants

rom taking part in the conerence in Kikinda. Te riots began on January 22, 2012, on the

eve o a handball match between Croatia and Spain, when ghting broke out at a cae in

downtown Novi Sad, and soon spread onto the street. Tere was more violence ater the

match between Croatia and France on January 24, 2012, when two hooligans were arrested

having assaulted ve Croatian citizens o near the center o Novi Sad, two o whom they

injured. On the same evening, in the outskirts o Novi Sad, a group o two dozen hooligans

threw stones at a convoy o cars and buses carrying Croatian ans. Tirty six vehicles were

damaged; the two injured Croatians (one with head injuries and one with stab wounds)

were taken to the Novi Sad Clinical Center. In the capital o Vojvodina, several vehicles with

license plates rom Rijeka, Sibenik, and Ogulin were burned. Te media reported that the

assailants had links to the Delije and Firma, sports an groups as well as the rightwing

movement Obraz.

Te Croatian media reported several violent incidents in Croatia. Four masked hooligans

vandalized the Serbian minority sports club in Split ater the match between Croatia and

Serbia on January 27, 2012. On the same evening in Vukovar the Tree roses restaurant

was attacked, the SDSS headquarters was stoned, and the door o the Maritimo Bar in thecity center was smashed. In the historic center o the city o Dubrovnik, two windows were

broken at the Orthodox Church o Annunciation.

A veteran rom Osijek, Zeljan Mrak, a member o the Coalition or RECOM, who wasscheduled to speak at the Kikinda conerence on the process o RECOM, was orced to

cancel his participation because o the escalation o violence. Zoran Kosic read his letter toparticipants, which is reprinted below.

!Hooligans

prevent ZeljanMrak romattendingKikindaconerence

Slovenias experience has proventhat commissions o inquiry canbe very useul, and that those whoclaim that commissions dontreally solve anything are hasty anduntrue. (Igor Mekina)


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Te letter rom Zeljan Mrak, a veteran rom Osijek, to the participants at the Kikinda

conerence:

Veteran rom Osijek Zeljan Mrak

Dear Zoran,

Please, convey my greetings to all participants at todays meeting and excuse my absence.

I guess I dont have to go into a detailed explanation as to why I couldnt attend.

We are in times o strained relations yet again, and lie cant seem to proceed normallybecause a minority have decided to act insanely.

It is well known that the the hooligan war usually reects the situation in our countries,expressing the proound disturbances in our societies. It is understandable that there are

dierences, and conicts are understandable too, but it is not clear at least not to me whyall this has to be maniested in this particular orm and in this particular manner.

What is quite clear is that today I am not coming to join you at the meeting because I amaraid that something may happen to me as I travel through Vojvodina. It only really takesthree ools to make the journey a regrettable endeavor or me!

While your meeting deals with the causes and consequences o the abnormal situations inour common past, we are, unortunately, still let to determine why and how the violence didnot subside in the ace o reason it will take a lot o eort to make the situation normal. Inthis case I am the victim, because I was denied the happiness o being with you and workingon some very important and interesting topics, with which you will be dealing today. I am

condent, however, that better times are ahead.

I wish you much success in todays work and good luck or the uture. I want you to succeed inyour noble mission, and I wish to see your work contribute to a better uture through a better

understanding o the past.

It is well known that those who have not learned anything rom the past, are doomed to repeat it.

Once again, I ask you to accept the reasons or my absence and to acknowledge my regret Ihope, however, that you will be successul in your work.

Best regards and much luck!

Zeljan Mrak


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Leading human rights organizations rom the ormer Yugoslavia gathered on January

27, 2012 at an international symposium entitled Reconciliation in the Balkans: Legal andPolitical Issues, organized by the Institute or Eastern Europe o the Berlin Free University.

Symbolically held on the International Day o Holocaust Remembrance, the seminar

amiliarized the participants, who gathered to exchange inormation and experiences, with

German initiatives or reconciliation in the Balkans.

Werner Vth, Vice President o Berlin Free University, opened the seminar, together with theCroatian and Serbian Ambassadors to Germany, Miro Kovac and Ivo Viskovic. ProessorVth stressed that the importance o the seminar lay in the act that it would deal with the

crucial development topic or the Balkans: the topic o reconciliation. Proessor Viskovic drew

parallels between the Second World War and the conficts o the 1990s: Te wars in the ormerYugoslavia ended without winners or losers, which is why it is more dicult to have a successul

process o reconciliation, said Mr. Vth. Above all, he said, reconciliation came through

education - today, teachers must be more insistent than they were in the 1990s when discussing

!Germanexperience oreconciliation:InternationalDay oHolocaustRemembrance

Reconciliation in the Balkans: Legal and Political Issues, January 27, 2012, Berlin, Germany


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these issues with their students, because some "distorted narratives" had survived within

educational programs, which turned youths into militant nationalists. Te region must challenge

these educational programs through decisive acts rom the political elite, such as the resolution

on Srebrenica, and the processes o civil society such as the Igman Initiative, he added.

In his opening address, Professor Herwig Roggemann, Proessor o the Free University,expressed his satisaction that the issue o reconciliation in the ormer Yugoslavia had recently

been addressed by the Presidents o Serbia and Croatia.

Mirsad okaca rom the Sarajevo Research andDocumentation Center, noted that the word

reconciliation has been misused, as it is too oten

used, to indicate orgetting. Also, added okaca,

the successor states o Yugoslavia should not make

peace in the name o some European concept, but in the name o their own uture. Tereore,

the Research and Documentation Center had, he said, "been openly lobbying against RECOM",

because the idea o it has been imposed as a solution rom the outside, a solution which is not

indigenous. Te problem o Europe is its national exclusivity over a particular territory, said

okaca. Reconciliation really should start with the collective memory ocused on empirical

acts, said Mr. okaca. In order to avoid vague mythologizing o the past, it was necessary, he

said, to empirically determine the number o victims o the wars and this was why theBosnian

War Crimes Atlas was created, as a geographical Inormation system which presents the acts

about the crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995, and helps to

determine the exact number o victims regardless o their nationality (around 98,000 persons in

total), he concluded. Ante Nazor, head o the Croatian Memorial Documentation Center o theHomeland War, said that all criminals have a name and should never be conused with a whole

nation. He warned that the most important job to determine the cause o the war had been

largely ignored, even though it was certainly easier to talk about the consequences o the war i

its causes have been determined. Isabella Kisic rom the Helsinki Committee or Human Rightsin Serbia presented her organizations research and public advocacy on the role o Serbia and its

elites in the preparation and implementation o the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and

Kosovo. Te main aim o the Helsinki Committee is not reconciliation, but the establishment

o equal relations and sincere cooperation among the countries in the region, She said. Te

most painul element o Serbian transition is conrontation with ones own responsibility, which

constitutes the moral minimum necessary or a positive uture o the region. Institutions rejectan alternative view o history which would include a review o stereotypes. Te media remain

silent. Predrag Ivanovic, rom the Humanitarian law Center presented a paper on the processRECOM rom 2006 to date, ater which he asked the ollowing question: Why do the acts o

the crimes remain on paper, instead o entering schools and educational programs? It takes

concerted eort rom civil society to promote such acts as a universally valid truth, which must

constitute the oundation o any discussion about the past. Tis joint work can be done through

the RECOM process, which so ar has brought together over 1,500 civil society organizations.

The greatest value o the consultativeprocess is that it brought together the civilsociety o post-Yugoslav countries around

the needs and interests o victims.(Nataa Kandi)


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In the concluding part o the symposium, titled Te Law and Reconciliation, Proessor

Roggemann examined the multidimensional quality o the concept o reconciliation, which,

he said, required our separate phases to be worked through: the cause, the acts, acceptance

o responsibility, and punishment in the orm o reparations. Michael Bongardt, proessoro the Free University, discussed the terms victim, perpetrator and orgiveness through

the discourses o psychoanalysis and theology. Te word orgive is presupposed by a sort

o imbalance caused by ones conscious and objective actions. Imbalance here means the

establishment o the dierence between a person taking advantage o a particular situation

and the damaged party exploited as a victim. I the victim and oender agree that there is

an imbalance, where the oender admits that he is guilty, and repents, the conditions or

reconciliation are in place. It is up to the victim to orget the perpetrator cannot rid himsel

o guilt, he can only ask the victim or orgiveness.

Te discussion showed that even highly developed societies do not necessarily have quick

social recovery Germany had to wait or it nearly 30 years, through the 1960s and a sweeping

global revolution. Psychological studies show that the only the third generation o descendants

o victims and perpetrators will be able to overcome the problem o Holocaust guilt. But when

the process o orgiveness nally begins, settlement should not be let out o the picture, or else

a negative message will be sent to uture generations that violence does pay.

Inter-aith prayer: Bishop o Dubrovnik, Mate Uzinic and Bishop Grigorije o Zahumlje and

Herzegovina, Dubrovnik, January 18, 2012

At the invitation o the Bishop o Dubrovnik Mate Uzinic, on January 18, 2012, BishopGrigorije o Zahumlje and Herzegovina attended a joint service o Christian unity inDubrovniks Cathedral o the Assumption o the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bishop Grigorije

!Inter-aithPrayer inDubrovnik


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thanked Bishop Uzinic or the invitation and said: I do not orget or a single moment

... what responsibility every spoken word carries. ... Te word [orgive] has the power to

embrace the one who loves us not and to melt the rost o hatred in the one who thinks

evil thoughts. ... No one is orbidden rom uttering this word with a sincere heart and calm

spirit, conscious o its weight and meaning. ... onight ... as a Christian and a Christian

Bishop, I eel the need to say these words:orgive me.

Beore they said the Lords Prayer together, Bishop Uzinic thanked Bishop Grigorije or his

words and sincere thoughts, and said: I we want to be Christians, we must orgive. ... In the

name o us all, I say to the Bishop and his church orgive us, hoping that they will be true

Christians and orgive us. At the end o the

service, Bishop Uzinic announced that the

ollowing year a service would be held in the

Orthodox Church in Dubrovnik.

ivica ucic, a Serbian religious analyst, told !Voice: Grigorijes sermon is memorable in terms o the opportunities it oers us, and in terms o its humanism and theology, his

sermon was perect. About the event itsel, ucic said: Tis is not an institutional act

o two churches. Rather, it is the act o two persons who are part o their own churches.

Grigorije did not give his speech on behal o the Serbian Orthodox Church, nor was he the

guest o the whole o the Croatian Catholic Church. Tis was a meeting o two bishops at

a municipal level. But, in my opinion, this text, with small modications to make it strike a

more universal tone, could be signed and said by all Serbian and Croatian Bishops. Grigorije

deliberately chose words which the entire Serbian Orthodox Church could utter. And, o

course, everyone understands which misortune he has in mind.

DEBATES

Journalist and columnist Drago Pilsel

I eel the need to correct the inaccurate inormation published by a Banja Luka daily newspaper,

Nezavisne novine, which presented as something rather strange, Bishop Grigorije o Zahumlje

It is up to the victim to orget the perpetratorcannot rid himsel o guilt, he can only ask thevictim or orgiveness. (Michael Bongardt)

!Quietheroic

kindnesso BishopGrigorije


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and Herzegovina praying in a Catholic church. Te newspaper wrote that it was the rst time

in the last 1,100 years that an Orthodox bishop held a prayer service or the unity o Christians

in a Roman Catholic church. Tis, however, is not true. In Zagreb and in other Croatian, and

also European cities (and, urthermore, in St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican), orthodox bishops

and their ellow Catholic bishops haveprayed together in Catholic churches or the same cause.

It is, however, very signicant that Bishop Grigorije, precisely in the Week o Prayer or Christian

Unity (a centuriesold tradition), as a guest o the bishop o Dubrovnik, uttered words o

orgiveness or the destruction o Dubrovnik and rebinje by socalled Orthodox believers. I say

socalled believers because those who injure, kill and destroy other peoples towns and churches,

no matter what religion or nation they call their own, are not believers but worthless creatures.

I met Bishop Grigorije in Strasbourg in 2008, where he and I were invited to speak about

the contribution o churches and religious communities to sustainable peacebuilding in

southeastern Europe. It was clear to me that this man, so kind and serious, would sooner

or later perorm a quiet heroism o goodness, as his act in Dubrovnik was described by

Miljenko Jergovic.

On the evening o Wednesday January 18, in Dubrovnik Cathedral, at an ecumenical service

oering prayers or Christian unity,, Bishop Grigorije asked or orgiveness and asked others

to orgive in the spirit o the Lords Prayer. In his sermon, during a service led by the bishop

o Dubrovnik Mate Uzinic, Bishop Grigorije reminded us all o Christs commandment o

love and oered up a prayer which contained a call or orgiveness: I do not orget or a

single moment ... what responsibility every spoken word carries, the Orthodox Bishop said.

Aware o its weight and meaning, I will say it now beore you. And that phrase is: orgive

me, he said. We need to say over and over again: Forgive us, O Lord, orgive our sins.

onight, in this holy place, in this beautiul cathedral in this amazing city, I have a need, as a

Christian and a Bishop, to say this Christian phrase orgive me, added Bishop Grigorije.

He then emphasized how important it was to say these words in Dubrovnik. Although it

has survived many misortunes, Dubrovnik is above all, the city o happiness and hospitality,

because it greets and meets those rom outside. It is thereore even more important that we

have gathered in this appeal or peace, blessing and unity, or which every soul thirsty or the

living God should strive, said Grigorije. He urged all believers to be preachers o the gospel

o orgiveness and love that deeats evil, transorming evil into goodness, and he urged that

Christians o the East and the West, who have not closely and openly communicated orcenturies, to change that practice.

Although this service was the initiative o two bishops, it has indisputable weight at the ocial

church level and will serve as a solid oundation o good neighborly relations between our

countries. All o us who deal with building trust and reconciliation will not orget this and we

will return to it and to similar gestures. It will not be orgotten even though it was poorly covered

by the media. It should be an encouragement to all o us who are committed to the process o

dealing with the past, regardless o whether or not we are members o the Coalition or RECOM.


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Te process o reconciliation is not easy, but I am a patient person. And I am a person o

hope! I I can live with the act that the Croatian Catholic Episcopate sill owes us all a ull

apology or the Catholic prelates collaboration with the Ustasha, I can wait or the day

when the Serbian Orthodox Church will admit its role in the postYugoslav wars. It is not

that important or me to point my nger at the likes o Kacavenda or Artemije. My priority

is to know that I have an Orthodox brother named Grigoije, who sees with the eyes o truth,

who oers the hand o reconciliation to his brother and a coheir o the Apostles, Mate

Uzinic, and who does not require majority approval (I read in the papers what his brethren

have said to him), because I do not seek it either, but patiently walk to the holy brotherhood,

which is not just human but heavenly.

Drago Pilsel,journalist and theologian

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT RECOM

Human rights deender, Natasa Kandic

Te problems o securing witnesses and evidence, which Serbia aced when, in 2004, under

pressure rom the international community, it began indicting its citizens or war crimes,

have played a decisive role in the initiation o cooperation with the judicial authorities o

the Republic o Croatia. At a time when enemy institutions were subject to distrust and

suspicion, the Humanitarian Law Center assisted in encouraging and securing the testimony

o victims thanks to its reputation among the victims in the region. In testiying beore the

courts, victims receive public recognition o the pain and injustice they suered. However,

!Begin the

Process oRECOMsInstitutionalization


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war crimes trials are not tasked with determining the acts o victims suering and pain.

Teir goal, instead, is to determine the criminal liability o the deendants. In these trials, the

role o victims is to help judges determine the liability o the accused, and neither victims

nor perpetrators, but prosecutors, judges and deense councils play that role. Hence, the

idea o the need or additional mechanisms, primarily regional in nature, which would ocus

on the experiences o victims and create a actual record o what happened in the past,

emerged as an answer to the questions and the dilemmas o how to correct or compensate

or the limitations o objective judicial mechanisms.

Te idea o a regional approach to establishing the acts

about war crimes, originated in the Humanitarian Law

Center. In May 2006 the HLC the idea was discussed

on numerous occasions with the leaders o two non

governmental organizations rom the region the

Research and Documentation Center (RDC) rom Bosniaand Herzegovina, and Documenta rom Croatia. Both Mirsad okaca and Vesna erselic,

leaders o these two NGOs, expressed their conviction that regional cooperation was the

key to successul prosecution o war crimes, and, as such, crucial or the process o dealing

with the past. In March 2008, with the support oMark Freeman rom the InternationalCenter or ransitional Justice (ICJ), I rst announced, on behal o the HLC, a proposal

to begin the process o orming an ocial Regional Commission or establishing the acts

about war crimes. Initially, the idea seemed too strong or Vesna, who called or a dialogue,

pointing to overwhelming public resistance in Croatia to anything that raised any suggestion

o the reemergence o anything reminiscent o the ormer Yugoslavia. . Mirsad sincerely

supported regional cooperation in documenting war crimes, but was very skeptical aboutwhether the countries in the region would be willing to set up such a commission. However,

with strong support rom Mark Freeman, they both agreed to take part in advocating or

the idea o an ocial Regional Commission or establishing the acts about war crimes. Te

idea became public in May 2008. Shortly thereater, Mirsad okaca stepped away rom the

advocacy process, probably because he doubted the success o the process. He has been

proven wrong. Vesnas hesitations about the regional approach became a healthy challenge

in the consultation process, in which resistance to the establishment o the acts at regional

level were discussed in the context o shaping the mandate, goals and tasks o the Regional

Commission, which had been abbreviated to RECOM in the meantime.

Looking back, I believe that the consultation process, which lasted three years, was the

greatest success o civil society in the postconfict period. Te process was carried out

by human rights organizations but it involved a number o victims associations and

associations o amilies o missing persons, who had previously perceived each other as

enemies. At the meetings, dedicated to the needs and expectations o victims and society,

with which we launched the consultation process, they were exposed to the stories rom all

sides, and victims ound themselves wondering about the similarities between their own

The RECOM process is important orthe victims who have suered, butalso or those o us who ought in

these wars. (Branislav Kavali)


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pain and the pain o the enemy. Families o the missing persons were the rst to recognize

a common interest, which certainly contributed to making the building o solidarity and

compassion with all victims one o the goals o RECOM. I remember the words o one

ather, who ater 13 years ound the remains o his son. I am a happy ather. And I hope

that you will all nd your children too. He said this at a meeting o the associations o

amilies o missing persons in which they discussed potential relations between RECOM

and governmental commissions on missing persons, and he said it as i he had ound his son

alive! Te amilies still searching or the remains o their loved ones heard him, others heard

him too and some, or the rst time, understood a new meaning o happiness and saw the

warmth and compassion that the words o the happy ather drew.

In my opinion, the greatest value o the consultation process is that it brought together

the civil society o postYugoslav countries, around the needs and interests o victims, but

also around the need to articulate social interests in relation to the dicult legacy o the

past. Participants, over 6,000 o them, composed the drat statute o RECOM, all the while

earing that they were not up to the task. And not once were they asked by any government

or state agency about their needs and expectations, not even about the kinds o approaches,

instruments and activities that could help compensate or the damage and injustice inficted

on the victims. But the public has recognized the value o the initiative: 542,660 signatures

have been secured ,supporting the establishment o RECOM, making it the best supported

regional initiative o the post war period.

Te question now is how to proceed. We have received political support rom the

Presidents o Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, one member o the Presidency o Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Presidents o the Parliaments o Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovos Prime

Minister, and a number o ministers and leaders o political parties. Tis support does not

yet, however, have any concrete maniestation. In June 2011, the Coalition or RECOM

handed a petition or the initiation o the procedure or the establishment o RECOM

to the Presidents o the countries in the region. Te time is ripe to begin the process o

institutionalization o the Initiative or RECOM. One possibility is that all o the heads

o state (or governments) in the region orm a regional team o experts to examine the

RECOM Drat Statute, which the Coalition or RECOM ocially adopted on March 26,

2011. It is thereore crucial that the Coalition or RECOM agree as soon as possible on

the goals and objectives o RECOM that will constitute the socalled hard core, i.e. the

nonnegotiable set o clauses, which must be included in the nal RECOM Statute that allsignatories will ocially agree upon.

Natasa Kandic,Executive Director o the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and member o

the Regional eam o Advocates o the Coalition or RECOM


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Journalist Igor Mekina

Opponents o RECOM oten cite perverse arguments to prove their point. Tey argue, orexample, that RECOM contravenes some countries constitutions, or that establishing the

causes o wars and war crimes condemns the entire idea o RECOM to ailure. Some are

perhaps too quick to iner that time has shown that such commissions do not really solve

anything.

Tese claims are actually incorrect and contrary to the experience o many countries

in the world and also in the region. ake the example o Slovenia, which has had a very

positive experience with truthtelling commissions and commissions tasked to correct past

injustices. Ater Slovenias independence, the Commission or the Correction o Injustices

that, pursuant to the law on redress o grievances (ZPKri), adopted in October 1996, hasthe right to correct any injustice done to those who were deprived o their rights through

the decisions and rulings o the communist government ater 1945 that breached the rules

and principles o the rule o law. Te Commission has the right to return seized property to

wronged parties, to decide on compensation, and to publicly recognize the years a victim

spent in prison, which are then doubledup and added to the number o years o service or

their retirement plan.

Te task o the Commission, in short, is to correct

the injustices and achieve national reconciliation.1

Although the Commission is ormally anadministrative body, it has broad authority under

which it may annul court rulings made on the territory

o Slovenia between May 15, 1945 and July 2, 1990.

1 Governmental Commission or the Implementation o the Law on redress (Komisija vlade za izvajanje Zakona opopravi krivic), available at: http://www.mp.gov.si/si/delovna_podrocja/poprava_krivic_in_narodna_sprava/komisija_vlade_rs_za_izvajanje_zpkri

!PositiveExperienceswithCommissionso Inquiry

While your meeting deals withthe causes and consequences oabnormal situations o our common

past, we are, unortunately, stilllet to determine why and how theviolence did not back o in the

ace o reason it will take a lot oeort to make the situation normal.(eljan Mrak)


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And what is the result o the commissions operation? Over 23,500 successully settled (in

addition to about 300 rejected) cases. Te commission is still in operation thanks to the act

that the authorities have adopted the view that, since statute o limitation does not apply to

war crimes, there are no deadlines or any other time limits or ling a claim.

O course, RECOMs task will not be quite the same, because RECOM does not want to

assume the role o the judiciary. However, the very existence o the Commission or the

Correction o Injustices in one o the countries o the region (Slovenia), in which many

civil society organizations support the establishment o RECOM, proves that even the

broad powers that the commission enjoys are not necessarily in confict with the internal

regulations o a state. By analogy, this means that the important, albeit more modest powers

required or RECOM are not inconsistent with the constitutions o some countries in the

region, many o which share similar provisions.

o stick with the example o Slovenia, which has had a positive experience with neighboring

countries regarding the establishment o (previously disputed) historical acts. Despite the

very tense past relations between Italians and Slovenians, Slovenia and Italy managed to

agree on the establishment o a common historical and cultural commission, whose task was

to establish, in cooperation with Slovenian and Italian historians, irreutable historical acts

about the relationships between the two nations in the period between 1880 and 1956.2

Te initial proposal came rom the Italian government and was originally sent to the ederal

government (o the then Yugoslavia) in Belgrade. Following the breakup o the ormer

Yugoslavia, the Italian government sent the same proposal to Zagreb and Ljubljana. Te

CroatianItalian commission has never met, but neither has it been dissolved. Te operationo the SlovenianItalian Commission, on the

other hand, was more successul.

Compiling and writing the conclusions o the

Report o the SlovenianItalian Commission,

which was composed o seven Italian and seven

Slovenian historians, took seven long years (19932000), but the result was worth the wait,

because in the end, the Slovenian and Italian colleagues agreed on the most contentious

historical issues, ranging rom the responsibility or the war, responsibility or the killing o

Slovenian civilians by Italian occupiers, and on the killing o Italian nationals by partisan

orces in Istria, and the tragic postwar exodus o thousands o Italians rom Istria and

Dalmatia. Te success o the Commission surprised even its institutional patrons, i.e.

the governments o Slovenia and Italy, and it opened up the prospect o postnational

historiography, which has been practiced in many European countries. All this proves that a

2 Report on the SlovenianItalian Historical and Cultural Commission(Poroilo slovensko - italijanske zgodovinsko -kulturne komisije), available at: http://www.kozina.com/premik/index_porocilo.htm

In turn, those who insist upon thetruth as the people rom REKOM, orexample, do emerge as some sort opostwar spoilsports. (arko Puhovski)


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commission could be very useul. Hence, the claim that commissions dont solve anything

is incorrect.

Te experiences o Slovenia show that the goal o the Drat Statute o RECOM on

determining the cause o wars and war crimes is not something that inevitably condemns

to ailure the entire idea o RECOM, as some critics hostile to the Initiative or RECOMtend to, erroneously, claim. On the contrary, the experience o many European countries,

including Slovenia as the rst member o the European Union among the successor

countries to the ormer Yugoslavia, proves that only by establishing the historical acts and

cleaning up problems with neighbors oten through a joint commission is it possible to

build a common European uture.

Igor Mekina,reelance journalist, director o the Civic Link and member o the Regional

eam o Advocates o the Coalition or RECOM

Director Dino Mustac

Many times we have heard and seen open public support or vulgar nationalism and

glorication o ascist ideas. Probably encouraged by the recent grati on a building in

Sarajevo that read Hang the Serbs, Zivko Budimir, President o the Federation o Bosniaand Herzegovina, estimates that the time is ripe or a concert by a notorious seldeclared

nationalist Marko Perkovic Tompson in Sarajevo.3 Everyone has the right to his ownmusic taste and sensibility that too speaks volumes about his character yet it is

scandalous, shameul and miserable when a highranking ocial in this country claims to

see nothing problematic about the lyrics and the style o the aorementioned turbokitsch

3 http://www.radiosarajevo.ba/novost/67984/predsjednikbihzelithompsonovkoncert

!Lovethy

CriminalNeighbor


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Ustasha. In a kitsch society, politics is no longer the place o serious debate about what

is good and necessary in our society, and how this good can be achieved. We have been

deprived o such debates or decades, we have lost condence in the institutions populated

by charlatans and demagogues who are led by populist instincts to remain in power, because

they rule in a society wasted by crises which, sadly, learned nothing rom the 1940s to the

1990s.

In his book Te Anatomy o Fascism, the renowned historian Robert O. Paxton warns usthat in the 21st century no ascist will appropriate the title ascist but we recognize the

ascists partly by what they say though, it is, o course, is important how they operate too.

Tis new, remodeled ascism emerges in the absence o political ideas and ignorance o

universal values, and thus takes the shape and color o its time and culture. We live in a

culture o denial and lies, justication o the evil done to others in the name o our own

national rights, interests and welare. Speaking morally, or even politically, our indierence

to, and amiliarity with, the phenomenon o ascism is dangerous or the uture. We must

thereore openly say that Zivko Budimirs statement and also his own political party(the Croatian Party o Rights), which has a positive view o the World War II criminal and

quisling Ustasha movement are prototypes o contemporary ascism. Tis, by the way, is

one o the ruling parties in the Federation o Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Unortunately, the President o the Federation is just one o many characters within the

Bosnian political elite, all resembling phantoms, ghosts o the past whose end we would

all like to witness, but who, like a deadly virus, transorm in an instant into new and

unpredictable combinations, new compounds o government and political coalition. In

todays Bosnia and Herzegovina it is almost impossible to say what is let and what right,

and this conusion results in political nonsense, leaving no room or an alternative. Forthe ascism born beore our eyes, written out on buildings, cemeteries, and antiascist

monuments; cheered on and supported in sport stadiums or that ascism we are all

responsible, both individually and collectively. It is the result o a spiritual emptiness, a

loss o political vision, ideas and ideals, an opportunistic academic community, a criminal

business elite, a segregated school system, and a politically controlled media.

Having sunk deep into eelings o resignation, our society is exhausted by the politics o

ailed projects, negotiations and agreements, preelection promises o reorms which

are always portrayed as democratic reorms and economic development. But atigue and

saturation by politics cannot be an excuse or the loss o civic identity, the transormationinto a submissive voter, into a mass man who no longer has the ability to recognize lie as

goodness, truth, beauty, justice and compassion.

I we have said yes to this, ascism has again settled where we live, or perhaps it never went

away?

And we were persuaded by the members o the Sarajevo Canton that ascism never actually

let when members o the Canton recently decided to support war crimes indictees among


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civil ocials and soldiers o the Army o Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the epilogue to his book about the war in Bosnia and HerzegovinaLove Ty Neighbor,

Peter Maass writes: I am now much more aware o the ragility o human relationships,and ar more aware o what it means or what it could mean i you are a Jew. I learned this

rom Bosnian Muslims, who made two atal mistakes. Tey thought that the act that theybelonged to a minority bore no weight in civilized Europe, but believed at the same time

that the wild beast had been buried orever. Tey did not realize that, even i you give little

importance to the religion you yoursel belong to, one day others will nd it important.

And the act that your society is stable today, doesnt mean that it will stay that way orever.

Muslims against Christians, Jews against nonJews, whites against blacks, the poor against

the rich so many stitches along which to tear a society apart when it alls into the hands

o manipulators. Tese are lessons that Bosnia taught me, the lessons that remained inside

o me and probably changed me. Te wild beast is here, and the ground under my eet is no

longer as solid as it used to be.

One could say that Bosniaks have made a third atal mistake: they let the wild beast o

lies and deception destroy the truth again, although the truth is the only remedy or our

recovery. o reach the truth means reaching justice on behal o all the orgotten victims.

Te truth cannot be selective, it is actual and measurable instead: this is why Bosniaks

have a moral duty to insist that every word about the war be heard, every tear remembered,

and every victim recorded. Bosniaks have no reason to ear the truth about the war in

Bosnia and Herzegovina, because they did commit mass, organized crimes, or systemic

persecution. Tis is why it is important to support the initiative on the part o the Federation

VicePresident Svetozar Pudaric to designate and mark a place or the Serbs who suered

during the siege o Sarajevo, which would not in the least alter the character o the deensivewar led by the people o Sarajevo in the longest siege in human history. Tis is a civilized

act o piety and commemoration that will not exclude any victim regardless o his national

belonging. Tis is the only way to master the past in order to move on into the uture,

toward a democratic society. Te only way to do this is to cultivate a culture o compassion

and empathy, so that uture generations will never again commit violence against those

o dierent ethnic or religious aliation. Bosniaks have this experience in their historical

memory o World War II and o the most recent past (19921995). Tereore, they have a

responsibility to change the epoch o postDayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been

marked by Bosnias indierence to countless victims, but also to its own ate as a victim who

must not leave anything to oblivion, as leaving something to oblivion would mean equating

good with evil.

And that is precisely what the Assembly o the Canton o Sarajevo4 has done when it

shameully and manipulatively decided to give ull support to the Ministry o Veterans

Aairs o the Canton o Sarajevo, all in keeping with the statutory powers and all other

4 http://www.radiosarajevo.ba/novost/68697/politickaosudaradatuzilastva


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parameters, and with the unds provided or legal aid or

the deenders o Bosnia and Herzegovina rom the budget

o the Canton o Sarajevo. Te support is meant to provide

every kind o assistance to the eight arrested persons accused

o having committed crimes against Serbian and Croat

civilians and POWs in the Silos camp and other detention

centers in the area o Hadzici in the period between 1992 and 1995. For 15 years we have

been watching such decisions come rom all ethnic communities in the orm o organized

innocence, according to which no one was the perpetrator, all were victims o the other

side, and these decisions have been writing new pages o the ethnocentric history o our

heroes and patriots whose only role is to secure votes through daily political conficts and

cheap demagoguery. Irresponsible and immoral lack o social consciousness and conscience

toward truth and toward the importance o investigation o suspected war criminals, are

only the continuation o evil that humiliates the victims and deepens the gap between

ethnic communities, creating a space or Maasss wild beast o uture conficts and

misunderstandings to emerge.

In the novelLiquidation, byImre Kertsz,Judith says to B, who was born in Birkenaubarracks: Youre certainly right, the world is a world o murderers, but I do not want to see

the world that way, I want to see it as a place where it is possible to live.

Shall we leave such a world to our children?

Dino Mustafc, lm and theater director, director o the International Teater Festival o

Sarajevo (MESS) and member o the Regional eam o Advocates o the Coalition or RECOM

Marija Vecerina and her amily fed rom Knin during Operation Stormconducted by theCroatian police and military at the beginning o August 1995. She waited eight years to nd

! Nagrada

!THEVOICE OFVICTIMS

Those who injure, kill anddestroy other peoples towns andchurches, no matter what religionor nation they call their own,are not believers but worthless

creatures. (Drago Pilsel)


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the remains o her son. She testied about events beore 300 participants rom the region at

the Tird International Forum on the mechanisms or the establishment o acts about war

crimes in the ormer Yugoslavia, held in Belgrade, on February 1 and 2, 2008.

It happened in 19 in 1994. Some ran away rst, but we were in the mountains with the cattle

and we thought the attack would pass, like so many others beore it. My son was at home, hehad taken sick leave. He was sick. And wasnt... wasnt on duty. He and one o my daughters

were at home, and me and my other daughter, we were in the mountains with the cattle. And

then when everyone began to ee, we too had to run away my son came to us to the mountain,

and said: Come on, run away, they have started taking everything, he said, Knin, Gracac.

Everyone, he said is already gone. And so we headed over toward Krupa, to the village o

Golubic, I mean, Krupa. [...] In Zegar eight o us crammed in one small car. And so we headed

toward... there toward Serbs, thats where they told us to go. But we... the night had become

thick, and we took a road we shouldnt have taken, and we didnt really know the road that well,

and all o a sudden the sound o shattered glass was heard. We heard shooting and shattered

glass. We stopped, and they revealed themselves the Croatian army surrounded the car. One

said: Where are you going? Get out, well kill you all! And we got out. Tey made us lie on the

ground and said: Lie down, well kill you all! We were harassed, they threw our things around.

Tey searched my sons pockets. He had some German marks... I do not know how much... 100,

150, something like that. Tey took it. He, my son, said, take it all, he said, just dont kill

me, and they had already wounded him in the leg. Blood was owing. One daughter, was also

wounded, in the arm, and my daughter-in-law in the head, not too seriously. And so we were

there... We were harassed, 15 minutes, maybe 20, I dont recall exactly how long. And then they

said come, you are going with us. And they took us. We didnt know where they were taking

us. Tey led us down some stairs, into some basement. Tere in the basement there were otherpeople, women, men, elderly. Some 13, I think there were 13 o them when we arrived. My son

was badly wounded in the leg. Te blood was owing. We were bandaging him up all night.

Blood was owing all night. I can not say the soldiers treated us too badly during the night,

they said: Te ambulance is coming, or my son that is. But it never came. Blood was owing

all night. [...] In the morning about nine oclock, hal past nine, something like that, the soldiers

came, two, three soldiers, three, or maybe our. And they said Come on, they said, soldiers,

you will go Tere we saw two other boys, Momcilo isma and Djuro Macak. We ound them

there. He said: You soldiers, you are going to a military prison, and the wounded are to go to

the hospital. Tats what he said. ake the wounded and help him. I went ater them to see i

the military police came, to see where the cars were. And they cursed me and said: Get back toback or we will kill you. And so I went back to the basement. [...] From there we went to another

center, I dont know its name. It looked like a gym. Tere we stayed about 20... about 20 days

at the most. And the internationals came there. I asked everyone... everyone, about my son. I

ound out, thats what they told me, that he had been admitted to the hospital, that he reached

the hospital. And I hoped that i he had arrived at the hospital, that he may have survived. [...]

I went everywhere, to international organizations and everywhere. I hoped all the time, me and

my daughters, that he might be alive. And then in 1998 I went to Croatia, I went everywhere,


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to the military police in Knin, I went everywhere... o the hospital too. I said: He was admitted

to the hospital. I learned that he had been admitted. And they said: Hes not here. Tey ound

only my other daughter and my daughter-in-law. No, they said, he wasnt admitted, he is not

here. And I went several times, many times I went there to ask. I went to Zadar, everywhere,

to international organizations, the Zadar police. Some police ofcers said: You look amiliar.

And so nothing came o that. [] But he was not... he was so gentle, he couldnt bear to look

someone cut a nger. He was never involved in anything. [] My ather always said to me: I

like an honest Croat better than any Serb. And so I was never on bad terms with them. We were

neighbors. I grew up with them. I was hoping, maybe some o my riends would save him. In the

village o Muskovci there were no Croats. And I always had hope. Always, until 2003. We went

many times to look at the photos but whats there to recognize. Nothing could be determined.

Ten in April 2003, I was invited to Zagreb or blood analysis, and so they drew my blood.

And daughters were sent too... and then sometime in September we were called again, they

said it was conrmed that the... that there was a match, it was conrmed. So I went there and

arranged or a uneral, on the 28th, I think it was October 28 in Muskovci, in the amily tomb.

[...] I have that image always beore my eyes, and that event.

Marija Vecerina, a Serb rom Obrovac


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RECOM Initiative !Voice 3-2012

Documents

Transcript of RECOM Initiative !Voice 3-2012