'Truth against Conflict - Public Debate in Gorazde

Sarajevo, 26. September 2007.

The Research and Documentation Centre in Sarajevo, supported by the Embassy of Great Britain and with the collaboration of the Municipality of Gorazde, organized the second in a series of twelve public debates which have, as their goal, the development of the culture of dialogue in the Bosnian society and the removal of potential causes of conflict at the local level. The debate was held in the Cultural Centre on September 21st 2007. The debate gathered more than 120 participants which showed a particular interest in this kind of discussion.

The screening of the documentary used for propaganda purposes of the Association of the prisoners of camps from the Republic of Srpska – Visegrad ‘Na Drini grobnica’ (‘A grave on the river Drina’) was organized within the debate, with additional comments from Radmila Radosavljevic, deputy president of the Association. The representative from the Association said that the film was made because of the desire of the members of that organization to present the suffering of the Serbs in the region of the upper flow of the river Drina. Some of the material used belonged to the Army of the Republic of Srpska.

The documentary that was shown raised difficult questions and caused many comments within the heated debate. While some of the participants challenged the authenticity of the material used, others raised questions about the reliability and truthfulness of the testimonies of one witness that was shown, a detained member of the Army of BiH.

There is a need to emphasize that the victims shown in the film are real and that the crimes that the documentary speaks of really were committed in August of 1992 in the region of the upper flow of the river Drina. What is being challenged is, on the other hand, the one-sided approach of the authors of the documentary; using the victims for propaganda and the usage of hate speech.

What was emphasized by the participants was the desire to bring all those responsible for committing war crimes to justice in order to remove the responsibility from all the ones who were labelled as being guilty by the authors of this film without giving any substantial evidence for these claims. In connection to that, the discussion ended by an agreement to approach the local prosecutors with an initiative to raise charges against all suspects that can be connected to the crimes mentioned in the documentary.

This discussion showed that emotions were the ones this debate was being fuelled from and that many people are still not ready to accept the victims that do not belong to ‘his/her own group’. Furthermore, many are still not ready to admit the crimes of ‘their own group’ and to distance themselves from the policies that led to these crimes. The debate also proved that many of the participants still try to justify the crimes that were committed by ‘their own’ and that they have their vision of what the truth is, that they are not ready to question, let alone modify.

The conclusion of the debate was that the truth can be established and that it should be accepted fully; while every other, partial approach is a mean of manipulation and propaganda. The participants stated that similar presentations and debates should be organized in other towns and villages in BiH in order for the citizens to see the full extent of the human losses and tragedies in every region of the country, no matter the national or religious belonging of the victims.

PUBLIC DEBATE - WITH TRUTH AGAINST CONFLICT - AGENDA »»»»»»