RECOM Initiative !Voice 8-2012 ENG

7/31/2019 RECOM Initiative !Voice 8-2012 ENG

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Initiative for RECOM

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8/2012


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IMPRESSUM

!Te Voice is the ocial monthlypublication o the Initiative or RECOM.

All issues are available on the website: www.ZaREKOM.org

News about the Initiative or RECOM is available on Facebook: http://www.acebook.com/ZaREKOM.

PerKOMRA.ForRECOM and on witter: @ZaREKOMPerKOMRA

Te RECOM team:

email: [email protected] Phone: +381 (0)11 3349 766 Fax: +381 (0)11 3232 460 Cell: +381 (0)63 393 048


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EDITORIAL

Te lives o Srebrenica survivors unold according to the Srebrenica calendar, year-round,

no matter how ar rom their native Srebrenica they are imitating lie, says my riend Hariz

Halilovic rom Srebrenica, who now lives in Australia and works as a senior lecturer at the

Monash University in Melbourne.

We met in Srebrenica three years ago. Although it was the rst time we had seen each other, and

although we had had no prior contact o any kind, it was as i two close riends were meeting,

having lived apart or many years. We hugged and stood there, wordless, or a long time. In

the years past he had read my articles, as I had read his. Never did I read something he wrote

about Srebrenica without crying, and I always wondered: Who is this man? Along with the acts,

which no one can deny, he brings soul into his articles, the soul o the people o the Drina valley

(Podrinje), with all they suered during the hell o the war.

Hariz and I are bound by a closeness that allows us not to have to explain to each other what it

means to count the grandathers, uncles, cousins, classmates, neighbors... who died in the war

or were simply victims o war crimes. We do not have to talk about what it means not having

a home, childhood, school, what it means having no place to go back to, no one to return to, no

longer having a birth place where your mother would greet you, or where your children would

spend their summer recess... I do not have to prove to him that although

I am a Bosniak woman rom Foca, who survived the siege o Sarajevo, I

write objectively, considering the acts and evidence. We do not have to tell

each other that it was the Jewish survivors o the Holocaust in the World

War II who orced the world to deal with the genocide, because none other

!Srebrenica

1995-2012

Only ew still have

a dilemma about

what happened in

Srebrenica.

Dzenana Karup-DruskoPhoto: personal archive


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but a Jewish man initiated the adoption o the Genocide Convention at the UN in 1948, and

all credit goes to him. We do not need to quote to each other the denitions o genocide under

international law, or o crimes against humanity, rape as a war crime or court rulings in order to

know and understand what was really happening between 1992 and 1995 in the Drina valley. We

know them all, know them all too well, because this is our ate that will ollow us until the end o

our lives.

Hariz and I, each in our own way, have been ghting or years to tell the world the truth about the

horric crimes committed against Bosniaks. So that they dont get orgotten. Fortunately, we are

not alone. Tere are others not only in Bosnia and Herzgovina, but also worldwide. Just a ew still

have a dilemma about what happened in Srebrenica.

Separating men rom women and children, the ring squads executing men all day long, the trucks

carrying the bodies, the bulldozers that dug mass graves... this was the horric truth that the

Bosniaks o Srebrenica knew, and everyone else who wanted to know the truth could know. But it

took several years to prove (in court) what had happened in Srebrenica, to conrm the judgments

o the ICY and to have the truth accepted in a Resolution o the European Parliament. Although

there are still those (primarily in Serbia and Republika Srpska) who deny the crime, the nal

judgments issued beore the International Court at the Hague and the acts gathered during these

processes can no longer be disputed or erased. Everyone knows who committed the horric crime

and why. On behal o the Serbian people, as both Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic repeat

today in the Hague, members o the joint criminal enterprise rom Serbia and Republika Srpska had

decided to commit genocide.

Judgments are important because it is important that courts prove what happened. O course,

nal judgments are satisaction or the victims. It is altogether a dierent question whether a such

judgment is adequate, or whether a mother who no longer has anyone, can accept that a criminal,

sentenced to 15 years ater having killed a thousand people, goes o to prison where he has better

living conditions than she does, and then nally returns to his home and to his amily, amily

she will never again have... In Srebrenica, the criminals killed loved ones, destroyed their homes,

orced them to disperse throughout the world, destroyed their lives that will never be the same.

All they have today are the memories o their dead...

On this July 11th Hariz is in Potocari again, burrying his relatives, riends, classmates...

Dzenana Karup-Drusko

Te author is a journalist o the weekly BH DANI rom Sarajevo and a member o the Regional

eam o Advocates or the establishment o RECOM


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!Publicadvocates or

the Initiative orRECOM meetwith ambassadors

rom EU member

states

IN THE NEWS NEWS ABOUT RECOM

Belgrade, June 21st, 2012

Advocates or the Initiative or RECOM inormed the ambassadors about the results and

challenges they aced in the process o acquiring support rom state institutions, which they hope

will ultimately take over responsibility or establishing RECOM. At a meeting o ambassadors

rom EU member states, held in Belgrade yesterday, Ambassador Vincent Degert, Head o the

Delegation o the European Commission to Serbia, reminded participants that EU institutions

supported the Initiative or establishing RECOM, because it contributes to the strengthening

o regional cooperation in dealing with the past. Te Public advocates asked the ambassadors

or their support and assistance in their communications with local politicians, to ensure that

the RECOM process will become an inter-governmental project, which oers a true resolution

to the problems o the recent past and one that guarantees that such crimes will not recur. Te

advocates also presented the rst volume o the Kosovo Memory Book, an HLC and HLC Kosovo

project which documents the names and circumstances o all o the victims o the armed confict

in Kosovo in 1998, as a proo o the resolve o human rights organizations to help accomplish the

most important objective o RECOM, which is to name all o the killed and missing persons rom

the wars waged during 1990s.

Te ambassadors oered their support or the process o reconciliation in theregion through truth-telling rom the perspective o victims, which is oered by the

Initiative or RECOM. Tey underlined that the process o dealing with the recent

past is o great importance or the region.

Public advocates, Nataa Kandi and Dinko Gruhonji, and a member o the

Coalition or RECOM, Maja Mii rom the Youth Initiative or Human Rights,

participated in the meeting on behal o the Coalition or RECOM.

Ambassadorsexpressed their

support to

the process o

reconciliation in

the region.


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Te Head o the Delegation o the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina/EU Special

Representative Ambassador Peter Sorensen met yesterday (July 9, 2012) with the representatives

o the Coalition or Reconciliation Commission (RECOM). RECOM Coalition is a regional

network o NGOs seeking the establishment o a regional Commission to promote reconciliation

ollowing the 1991-2001 confict in the ormer Yugoslavia. Commenting on todays meeting,

Ambassador Sorensen said:

I commend people in civil society who are pursuing eorts to support reconciliation. Te EU

hopes this initiative will indeed oster reconciliation and good neighbourly relations in the

region. It was an inormative meeting where I had a chance to hear about RECOMs activities and

extensive consultations carried out with civil society and legal practitioners in the past months.

Press Statement of Delegation of EU in Sarajevo

!Advocates

withAmbassadorPeter Sorensen

Photo: Oce o the Delegation o the European Union

Sarajevo, July 9th, 2012

Praise to those rom the civil

society who continue their

eorts or reconciliation.


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IN THE NEWS

Te 17th anniversary o the Srebrenica genocide was marked this year in Potocari. More than orty

thousand people attended the commemoration ceremony and the burial o another 520 victims. o

date, 5,137 victims have been identied and buried, o the more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys

executed in the days ollowing the all o Srebrenica to the Army o Republika Srpska on July 11, 1995.

A number o ocials rom Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the region attended this years

commemoration: Prime Minister o the Republic o Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, Deputy Prime

Minister o urkey, Bekir Bozdag, the High Representative or Bosnia and Herzegovina,

Valentin Inzko (who also took part in the Peace March to Srebrenica), Chairman o thePresidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, Chairman o the Council o Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevanda,

Vice President o Republika Srpska, Enes Suljkanovic, Minister o Foreign Aairs o Bosnia

and Herzegovina and President o the SDP-BH, Zlatko Lagumdzija, deputies o the League o

Social Democrats o Vojvodina (LSV) in the Serbian Parliament, Elena Papuga, Djordje Stojisic,

and many others. Te US Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Patrick S. Moon read out a

message rom US President Barack Obama: Te name o Srebrenica will always be associated

with the darkest events o the 20th century. As or the victims, justice has only partially been

realized in the courts in Te Hague and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the perpetrators o

this crime, including Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are nally being held accountable or

their actions. We know that the painul past will not hinder the uture o Srebrenica and Bosnia.

Te United States rejects attempts to distort the scale o this crime, to justiy motives or the

crime, to blame the victims and to deny the irreutable act that it was indeed genocide.

Associations rom Srebrenica, led by the Mothers o Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves, explicitly

demanded that no political speeches be delivered at the commemoration. Politicians rom Bosnia

were booed by the participants.

!Marking the

anniversaryo theSrebrenicagenocide


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On July 10, the Croatian Parliament held a plenary session which commemorated the victims

o Srebrenica with a moment o silence. Parliamentary Vice President Josip Leko said on that

occasion: Srebrenica is a historical reminder. We should cry out Never again! Te Prime

Minister o Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, attended the memorial service or the rst time, and

aterwards said: Tis is a solemn and terribly sorrowul event. Much sadder than I thought as I

was coming here.

Te Parliament o Montenegro, in cooperation with NGOs the Forum o Bosniaks and Muslims

and the Union o the Soldiers o the National Liberation War (NOR) and Anti-Fascists, organized

a commemoration o the Srebrenica genocide in Podgoricas Pobrezje Memorial Park, which is

dedicated to the victims o the Yugoslav wars. Srebrenica is a symbol o the evil that the South

Slavs are capable o inficting on each other, and it must never be orgotten, said the President othe Montenegrin Parliament, Ranko Krivokapic.

Te Parliament o Vojvodina began its session on the day o the Srebrenica massacre with a

moment o silence or the victims o Srebrenica and or all victims o the wars in the ormer

Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Acting on a proposal rom the parliamentary group o the League o

Social Democrats o Vojvodina, the President o the Parliament o Vojvodina, Istvan Pastor,

called on MPs to honor the victims. Te caucus o the Democratic Party o Serbia (DSS) let

Prime Minister o Croatia Zoran Milanovic at the commemoration in Srebrenica

Photo: Reuters


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the session beore the moment o silence, while the MPs o the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)

remained seated during the event.

In Banja Luka, in remembrance o the suering o the Srebrenica victims, representatives o the

civil society associations, the Banja Luka association, Fatma and the Behar womens choir, threw

fowers into the Vrbas river in the Banja Luka suburb o Gornji Seher. Te Srebrenica massacre

has been commemorated in Banja Luka or the past ve years.

In Belgrade, on the occasion o the 17th anniversary o the Srebrenica massacre, a street event

was held in the city center, titled, We Will Never Forget Srebrenica, organised every year by the

Women in Black. Dozens o activists held a long white canvas, with the names o 8,372 victims

and the messages rom the amilies and relatives o the Srebrenica victims printed on it. A

perormance, enacting the making o a temporary monument o shoes to victims o Srebrenica,

A Pair o Shoes One Lie, was also held. Hundreds o Serbian citizens donated shoes or this

perormance, an act in which they displayed sincere emotions, compassion and solidarity with the

women and victims o Srebrenica, a spokesperson or the Women in Black said. Te activists and

their supporters were surrounded by the police, in order to secure their satey.

Most Serbian media ignored the commemoration o the Srebrenica massacre. On July 11, 2012,

the ront pages o national newspapers, including Politika, were lled with news about politics

and show business, and ailed to publish even the statement on Srebrenica issued by the US

President and other ocials and commentators on the global and regional policy. Te Second

Channel o RS, the national broadcaster screened a documentary lm, Te Srebrenica Killing

Fields, at the same time as the First Channel broadcast a popular V show, Happy People.

In the United States o America, the Mayor o Charlotte in North Carolina,

Anthony R. Foxx, paid homage to the Srebrenica victims by issuing a

proclamation on the genocide, declaring July 11, 2012, the Day o Remembrance

o Srebrenica. In his statement, Mayor Foxx praised the Bosniaks living in

Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, and said that the 17th anniversary o

the genocide raises awareness about the tragic suering o the Bosniak people,

while respecting and commemorating those who were killed as a result o ethnic

cleansing and genocide.

Te mayor o Grand Rapids, Michigan, George K. Heartwell, declared July 11, 2012 the Day o

Remembrance o Srebrenica. Tis is the eighth year in a row that a proclamation has been issued

in this city or the Day o Remembrance o Srebrenica and or the Week o Praise to Bosnia and

Herzegovina. A large number o Bosniaks who survived the military aggression and the genocide

live in Grand Rapids.

Jelena Grujic

Three parliaments

in the region

commemorated the

Srebrenica victims.


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A decision delivered by the European Court o Human Rights in Strasbourg on June 26, 2012,

that some thirty thousand residents o Slovenia, originally rom other republics o the ormer

Yugoslavia, who had been erased on February 26, 1992, by a secret act, rom the ocial register

o persons with permanent residence in Slovenia will mean that they can hope to achieve at least

partial recognition o their suering. Te court ound that more than two decades ago, Slovenia

breached as many as three articles o the European Convention on Human Rights. Te case

against Slovenia was brought beore the court in Strasbourg by the ollowing applicants: Mustaa

Kuric, Ana Mezga, ripun Ristanovic, Ali Berisha, Ilan Sadik Ademi and Zoran Minic.

Mustaa Kuric, born in Sarajevo, moved to Kopar, Slovenia, in 1965, where he still lives as a stateless

person; Ana Mezga is a Croatian citizen; ripun Ristanovic is a citizen o Bosnia and Herzegovina;

Ali Berisha and Zoran Minic are citizens o Serbia, Ilan Sadik Ademi is a citizen o Macedonia.

On June 26, 2012, the Court ordered that the respondent State [Slovenia] is to pay, within three

months, the ollowing amounts: (i) EUR 20,000 (twenty thousand euros) each to Mr Kuric, Ms

Mezga, Mr Ristanovic, Mr Berisha, Mr Ademi and Mr Minic in respect o non-pecuniary damage,

plus any tax that may be chargeable on these sums; (ii) EUR 30,000 (thirty thousand euros) to the

applicants jointly, plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants, in respect o costs and

expenses. In short, the Grand Chamber o the Court o Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that

Slovenian authorities had missed an opportunity to legally correct the case o the Erased, among

whose number are some 5,000 children. Te court ound that Slovenia had violated Article 8 (the

right to personal and amily lie), Article 9 (the right to eective legal protection) and Article 14

(prohibition o discrimination) o the European Convention on Human Rights. Te court ound

or the plaintis on the case o discrimination because, ater Slovenia declared independence,

the Erased, as citizens o the ormer Yugoslavia, were treated worse than the people who had the

status o alien residents.

!EuropeanCourt:

Sloveniamust correctinjusticesinficted uponthe Erased


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Te rial Panel o the court, presided over by Judge Nicholas Bratz, ound that ater Slovenias

declaration o independence, the 25,671 Erased persons had suered considerably, that their

erasure had led to grave consequences, and that the victims were at a disadvantage compared

to other oreigners with permanent residence in Slovenia. Consequently, the Court resorted to

the pilot-judgment procedure, ordering Slovenia to prepare within one year a compensation

scheme or all o the Erased in Slovenia.

Tis is the rst time that a court has conclusively ound that Slovenia did not comply with the

promise made beore the reerendum on its secession rom Yugoslavia, namely that ater its

independence it would respect the rights o all people living on the territory o Slovenia. Te

judgment in Strasbourg is a great victory o the Erased and their attorneys, as well as o a

number o civil society organizations which ought or the rights o the victims o this most

massive violation o human rights in Slovenia ater 1991. Many o the Erased, Aleksandar

odorovic, the ounder o the Civil Initiative o Erased Residents o Slovenia, who participated

as a witness in the process beore the court in Strasbourg, play an active part in the RECOM

process. Proposals, which took into account the special needs o the Erased, have been included

in the Drat Statute o RECOM. Ater the court issued its judgment, Aleksandar odorovic stated

that the state will have to deal with what it did, while an Italian law processor Andrea Sauccuci,

who represented the Erased, said that the judgment is crucial, since it requres the [Slovenian]

government to create a mechanism to correct the injustice inficted upon all o the Erased.

Te case o the Erased reached the public only ater being taken up by

activists rom the organization Civic Link and ollowing the publication o an

article entitled Exiled, Evicted, Erased, that I wrote, and which was published

in the Slovenian weeklyMladina on November 22, 1994. Te article was the

rst to describe in detail the manner in which Slovenia, without warning,

had taken away the status as permanent residents rom the citizens o other

republics o the ormer Yugoslavia, who had not, within six months o Slovenias

independence applied or or been granted, Slovenian citizenship. Consequently,

those erased residents o Slovenia lost not only their residency, but also the right

to work, to social welare, health care, education, and even the right to ree movement, as ocials

rom the Ministry o the Interior conscated and destroyed all o their identication documents

without any explanation, although those documents were valid. Many o the Erased were even

expelled rom Slovenia to Croatia, despite the ongoing war. Tis happened, or example, to

Dragomir Petronjic rom Celje, whose remains were returned to the amily ater 15 years o

searching, having been ound in an unmarked mass grave in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Slovenian ocials have reacted in dierent ways to the judgment delivered in Strasbourg. Judge

Bostjan M. Zupancic noted that damages might be a great nancial blow to the state, because

they could reach the sum o ve hundred million Euros. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa

The Court o Human

Rights in Strasbourg

ruled that Slovenianauthorities missed the

opportunity to legally

correct the case o the

Erased, which includes

about 5,000 children.


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said that the state has no money to pay the damages to the Erased, while the Minister o the

Interior Vinko Gorenak said that Slovenia rst has to eed [its] hungry. Such a response was

criticized by Member o the European Parliament, Jelko Kacin, who warned the government in

Ljubljana that court judgments must be compiled with rather than commented on. Slovenian

President Danilo rk stressed that enorcement o the judgment o the Court in Strasbourg

is our obligation, o which there can be no doubt, and said that he was concerned about the

statements made by the Prime Minister (Jansa) and the Minister o the Interior (Gorenak), since

they showed disrespect or the constitutional principle o the rule o law. He noted that Slovenia

is a country o the rule o law, and as such must obey court judgments and comply with them.

Igor Mekina

Te author is an independent journalist rom Slovenia and a member o the Regional eam o

Advocates or RECOM

Te protest march o the Erased

Photo: Igor Mekina


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INTERVIEW: ZDRAVKO GREBO

Proessor Zdravko Grebo is one o the most amous intellectuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He teaches law at the University o Sarajevo and at the Center or Interdisciplinary Studies. He

is the Secretary o the Committee on Law o the Academy o Arts and Sciences o Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Proessor Grebo is the author o our books and a number o studies, and has won

many awards over several decades or his dedication to the struggle or peace and promoting the

rule o law. He is one o the advocates or the establishment o RECOM.

What are your general impressions as an advocate o RECOM, and what kind o arguments

do you tend to use in avor o the establishment o RECOM in your discussions?

Our goal is to convince our interlocutors that the time is ripe or a step orward, toward the

establishment o RECOM. We have met with the High Representative Valentin Inzko, with the

U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Patrick S. Moon, and with the Head o the EU

Delegation, Ambassador Peter Sorensen. And that is this way to do it.

Te arguments used in these discussions ocus on two parts o the issue. I our hosts are not ully

amiliar with the Initiative or RECOM, our rst task is to repeat the main arguments or the

establishment o RECOM, although our primary task is to urge them to take this historic, cosmic

step, which entails a move rom civil society initiatives to state or intergovernmental cooperation.

We try to explain that all states in the region, and especially their current or uture governments,

should each contribute to the ormation an expert group, which will reach consensus on urther

steps, and then, when they align the text, send it to their respective parliaments. So ar, we

have been encountering cautious understanding and agreement. Montenegrin President Filip

Vujanovic and President o Croatia Ivo Josipovic have promised to get the mechanism going.

Tat step will not be easy because the same text with the same objectives must be adopted by the

parliaments o all the countries in the region.

!Genuine,

honest peopledo nothesitate to tell

the truthProessor Zdravko Grebo

Photo: Depo portal


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RECOM will be primarily ocused on the rights and recognition o victims. Critics, however,

tend to deny this very connection. What is your comment?

When advocating or the establishment o RECOM, one o the arguments that we use is the need

to give voice to the victims, that the point is that victims should be heard, victims that exist on all

sides, and that they get their own space.

Te danger, likely to keep returning in the uture, is that attacks on

RECOM are permanently aimed at this spot, at the very best thing

RECOM can do, which concerns the relationship with victims. It has been

alleged that RECOM minimizes the [problems o the] victims, and that it

has not received the support o victims associations. Tat is a notorious

lie. Some associations have walked out, but most didnt. But regardless

o who let and who remained, at this moment RECOM should be an

issue or state institutions, and o inter-state interest. But regardless o who is the current leader

in these countries, leaders must realize that no matter what other initiatives exist, RECOM is

something that at this moment in history must happen, that it is in the interests o all countries,

and o course in the interests o all victims.

How do you explain the attacks on RECOM in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

I really do not know. Attacks on RECOM in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been going on or a

long time now, but in the relatively long history o RECOM we have had similar things happen in

other countries. But as ar back as I go, I still cant comprehend why at the highest levels, among

the elite o non-governmental organizations dealing with similar issues, there is an incredible

confict o vanity and leadership aspirations, interwoven with issues o money too. I do not think,

however, that the negative views expressed in the media and at public gatherings about RECOM

is the prevailing opinion rather, I think that the leaders o these organizations, simply or their

most private interests, challenge the credibility and objectives o RECOM. An example o a

dishonest and dirty campaign is a recent article in the daily newspaperPRESSrom Republika

Srpska, which claims that advocates or RECOM receive a ee o 1,800. I have never received a

ee, nor have I sought it, nor will I ever ask or it. Most people who have stuck with this idea do it

not or material motives, but because they are promoting an honorable idea.

In our response to thePRESSarticle we have perhaps ailed to remind the public that the largest

number o signatures in support o RECOM were secured precisely in Republika Srpska. Hence,

it is not clear how these characters romPRESS,who argued that RECOM had no support there,

represent the voice o the local public or even the victims associations they invoke.

What is your opinion o the national strategy or transitional justice in Bosnia and

Herzegovina, which has now entered the stage o public debate?

Perhaps we have ailed to

remind the public that the

largest number o support

signatures or RECOM had

been secured in Republika

Srpska.


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I am all or a variety o dierent initiatives. No one is competing with anyone here. I believe that

there is room or everyone, especially or those who can airly and responsibly do the job. As ar

as I am concerned, i the intentions are honest, they are more than welcome. I thereore do not

understand the envy, malice and anxiety that those gathered around the strategy have expressed

about RECOM.

How would you describe the importance o the eforts to establish the acts about the past?

Te whole initiative is an eort, a real and powerul eort, to establish the acts in all ormer

Yugoslav republics, simply because it is a necessity that must be ullled now, while the survivors

who can speak o the acts are still around. Bad experiences rom previous

wars, the manipulation o numbers o victims, the politicization o the

data and the acts, all o these are probably among the causes o what had

happened some 20 years. So, act-nding is a historical and scientic need,

and as ar as the victims are concerned it is a moral need. Tis initiative aims to identiy andcodiy the acts, and to legalize them in some way, without determining the causes o the war, or

the political, ideological or any other background to the confict between our peoples, the latter

being the work that some other institutions, perhaps primarily historians, should carry out. I

we are honest, we dont discuss the acts we establish them. On the one hand, acts constitute

the rst barrier against vindication o utureconficts, while on the other they provide adequate

satisaction to the victims, as much as thats possible. I really do not see what in all this some

people nd so controversial.

What is your view about the current approaches to memorialization o the recent past?

Im not sure that there is a consensus on this issue within the artistic community. Even in this

area, although not as dramatically as in the domain o politics, there are divisions within Bosnia

and Herzegovina, where everything is anyway divided into three parts. Tus, the artistic truth

is not exactly the same in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar. No matter how hard some o our

people try to rise above daily politicking and above the use o art or base, nationalistic and, I

would add, sexist purposes, there remain some who wont rise above it. In addition, there is a

ban on the memorial in Prijedor, or example. But we eleswhere, we have monuments celebrating

Draza Mihajlovic, Susak, udjman... All that is part o a conglomerate in which the roles are

not uniormly distributed. But, to be a bit less pessimistic, there are good initiatives, and there aregenuine and honest people who do not hesitate to tell the truth.

Jelena Grujic

I we are honest, we do

not discuss the acts

we establish them.


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THE VOICE OF VICTIMS

Sabaheta Fejzic lost her husband, aban (43) and son Rijad (17), in the Srebrenica massacre.

I arrived in Potocari with my son in the aternoon o July 11th and there were already many

reugees there. Te heat was terrible, and I spent that rst night with my son in a actory

destroyed in the confict. On July 12th we were let to the mercy o the Chetniks, the Yugoslav

National Army (JNA), various paramilitary units and the local Serbs, my neighbors. Once they

arrived, they immediately began separating and taking away the boys and the men. I one o their

amily members asked where they were taking them, they replied that they were being taken or

interrogation, and that they would be back. But they took them and they were never returned.

Even today no one knows where they are.

I then elt ear creap in, I became scared or the saety o my child, so I let the enclosed area and

went out into the open to be with other people, thinking I would save my child that way. But the

situation only got worse, more Chetniks and those men in uniorms arrived. Tey were armed

with knives, guns, belts... they were heavily armed. Ten I saw my neighbor Sreten Petrovic and

Milisav Gavric, some hundred meters rom where I was. I let my child with my mother who was

with us, to get to them and to ask them to save my child, because I was already aware o what

was to happen to us in Potocari. I went through the crowd, but people were all crammed next

to each other, so I inched away slowly, but at one point a thought passed through my mind I

must go back to where I had let my child. Tat was stronger than me. I immediately went back

and saw my mother crying. I asked her: Mother, where is Rijad? She said through tears: Tey

took him away, they couldnt have gotten too ar. Oh, dear God, they took my child! I ran to the

place where the men stood, and ound my child in a group o Muslim men, surrounded by armed

Chetniks. Why did you take my child? I asked. What do you care why we took him, we only

Sabaheta

Fejzic!No oneknows wherethey are


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Sabaheta Fejzic

Photo: HLC Archive

want to ask him some questions, and we will immediately bring him back. I told them: Teres

nothing you have to ask him. I you have some questions, ask me. Leave my child alone, and take

me or interrogation instead. What does a child know? He cant tell you anything. Tey started

insulting me, didnt want to give me back my child. Ten I threatened them: You know what, Ill

go tell the UNPROFOR men what you are doing. Tat helped me. Tey gave me back my child.

I took him and went to my mother. We were terribly rightened. I knew the situation was evenmore dangerous now, I elt that not a single man or boy would be saved rom the Chetniks.

I was there all day, but the night o July 12th was the worst. On July 13th I went with

my son toward the trucks and buses on which people were being deported rom

Potocari. First I had to go past a column o Dutch soldiers, and then another o

Chetniks who were standing by the road, all the way to the trucks and buses that

were to deport us. I passed the Dutch soldiers, but when I came to the Chetniks, they approached

me and told my child to go to the right, while I was to go to the let. I told them: I my child goes

to the right, I go with my child. Tey didnt let me go with him. We both started pulling at him.

Tey were dragging the child to one side, I was pulling him to my side. I begged them: Please,

do not take my child! Tis is my only child. I have no more children. I you need someone to go, I

beg you, take me, but let the child go... o no avail. Tey tore him o. I could not even cry then.

My child was crying. I will never orget his big tears rolling down his pale cheeks, rom those

dark green eyes. When I realized that there was nothing I could do, I knelt down in ront o them,

clasped my hands and said, Kill me, please! One o them cocked his rife. I thought: Tank

God, they will kill me now, it is better that way... But one o them said: No use killing a Balinkusa

[a derogatory term or a Muslim woman]. He approached me, grabbed me by the chest, and

I was there all day,

but the night o July

12th was the worst.


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threw me onto the truck. Te truck moved immediately. I lay on the foor o the truck and I dont

remember the drive rom Potocari to isca... For the last ten years I have been trying to learn the

ate o my husband and my child. en years have gone by and I still know nothing o the ate o my

child. I dont know whether I will ever nd a single part o his body.

estimony rom the conerence Srebrenica Beyond Reasonable Doubt held on June 11, 2005,and organized by the Humanitarian Law Center shortly ater the release o a video showing

the execution o a group o Muslim men by the members o the Scorpions. Tis was the frst

public testimony o the Srebrenica victims in Belgrade, and it was attended by government

representatives, ambassadors o Western countries, the EU and other international institutions.


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HE RECOM PROCESS

Te debate about the best way to uncover the truth and or

truth-telling about the past was launched in May 2006 at

the First Regional Forum or ransitional Justice, organized

by the Humanitarian Law Center (Serbia), the Research

and Documentation Center (Bosnia and Herzegovina)and Documenta (Croatia). At the Forum, participants

representatives o NGOs and associations o missing

persons and victims rom the successor countries o the

ormer Yugoslavia committed to a regional approach in the

establishment o the acts about war crimes, arguing that the

war had taken place in more than one country, and that in most

cases victims and perpetrators did not reside in the same state.

Te Coalition or the ounding o a Regional Commission or

Establishing the Facts About War Crimes and Other Gross

Violations o Human Rights Committed on the erritory

o the Former Yugoslavia (RECOM) was constituted at theFourth Regional Forum or ransitional Justice on October

28, 2008 in Pristina/Prishtin. Over the course o three years,

through intensive consultations across the ormer Yugoslavia,

with over 6,000 participants, the Initiative or RECOM

prompted the most extensive social debate ever in this region.

Based on the proposals, requests, needs and views o the

participants in the consultative process, a Drat Statute was

drawn up and presented to the public on March 26, 2011. It

was then submitted, together with more than hal a million

signatures in support o the process, to the highest state

institutions o the countries in the region.

In October 2011, a regional team o Public Advocates or

RECOM was established to press or the nal stage o the

RECOM Process. Te states in the region have been requested

to institute an independent, inter-state regional commission

or the establishment o the acts about all victims o war

crimes and other serious human rights violations committed

on the territory o the ormer Yugoslavia between 1991 and

2001. Te ocial position o the Coalition or RECOM is that

RECOMs main task should be to establish the acts about war

crimes and to compile a list o all casualties, killed and missing

persons and that the nal decision on other objectives and

tasks should be made by the governments o the region who

will jointly establish RECOM.

Te main goal o!Te Voice is to provide inormation about theRECOM Process to the members o the Coalition or RECOM,

to the many supporters o the Initiative and to all those

interested in its development. In addition to this, !Te Voiceocuses on the progress o transitional justice in the region.

It is available in in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin,

Albanian, English, Macedonian and Slovenian.


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RECOM Initiative !Voice 8-2012 ENG

Documents

Transcript of RECOM Initiative !Voice 8-2012 ENG