Report from the Presentation in Foca

Sarajevo, 13. October 2007.

The Research and Documentation Centre from Sarajevo supported by the Embassy of Great Britain and with the collaboration of the Municipal Councils in Foca and Foca-Ustikolina organized a public presentation within the project 'Conflict Prevention Public Debates', on October 11th 2007 in the National Theatre in Foca. The campaign 'Truth against Conflict' is being led within the project with the goal of developing the culture of dialogue in a society; which would lead to recognizing and removing potential causes of conflict at the local level.

There were more than one hundred people present at the first common session of the Municipal Council Foca and the Municipal Council Foca – Ustikolina, where the members of the two Councils had the opportunity of getting better acquainted with the results of the project 'Human Losses in BiH 1991 – 1995'. This presentation was an introduction into the discussion that followed.

Even though Foca is a town in which more than 2800 innocent people were killed, the participants showed a remarkable level of tolerance and readiness to face the past as well as a clear dedication to build future relations on the basis of an open dialogue.
Furthermore, the participants emphasized that there is no such thing as collective guilt and responsibility for the crimes that were committed and that the responsibility is solely individual. Therefore, it has been suggested that the local prosecutor's offices should be approached with a clear mission of starting investigations and raising charges against all suspected war criminals no matter who they are.

The particular success of this presentation lies in the fact that this was the first time since the Dayton Peace Agreement that the two municipal councils had their sessions together, which can be understood as a sign of a brighter future for the citizens of Foca. What is of great importance is that Foca has a new, more progressive local government and that no matter the divisions brought by the DPA, it is a town that can accept people no matter their religious, national and other belongings.

All the participants agreed that the problems of Foca need to be resolved primarily in Foca and not in Sarajevo or Banja Luka. The way people are dealing with the problems in Foca is in a way encouraging and it brings us hope in a better future for Foca and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole.  

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