Facing the past

Facing the past means facing one's memory, its content and the way it has been built in our minds. Although we are not always aware of it, we do establish our attitude towards our future on the basis of our memory and it is on memory that we to great extent define, and/or identify ourselves and our position in the time - both present and future. It means not only identifying ourselves, but also the people around us - through our interpretation of our memory of events. If our memory is based on facts and not on mythical tales, then the transfer of our remembrance onto our environment will be truthful and devoid of all the remnants of legends and unreliable myths about us and about the others.

The attitude of Balkan peoples and states towards their past has in most of the case reflected their partisan, political and ideological monopolies, manipulated and dictated history, and, through them, a mythologized and ideologised consciousness, all sorts of prejudice and stereotypes about past and its protagonists, rather then a calm, documented and factual consideration of concrete events, i.e., objective and impartial historical facts. In place of truth (and only truth) about our past and our dead we have cherished and transformed into proverbial statements the attitude that " about the dead and about past one should only speak nicely ".

It is in human nature to accept - alongside the hardship - the dark side of past; it is in human nature to be more prone to remembering nice moments than sad and ugly ones. Acceptance of the fact that our recent past was tragic, disgraceful and marked by horrendous atrocities, may help us avoid the trap of its denial and its hiding, or to avoid falling into the trap of transferring the burden of facing that past to some future generations. Although the degrees of responsibility differ, the first steps in facing the past would be the acceptance of that very fact and of our own responsibility.

Dealing with the past in the war - torn, post - conflict and transitional countries is one of the key preconditions for the achievement of lasting peace and safe future. Fundamentally in such an endeavours for every society would be to recognise and acknowledge, as well as to fully grasp the significance of facing one's painful past that could for quite a long period of time quite cruelly reflect on the reality of the present day.

In an effort to enable a comprehensive reintegration of society, facing the past needs to be supported by the authorities, and fully accepted and supported by civil society, and, above all, it needs to be fully accepted and supported by the victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law - crimes of war, genocide, inhuman and degrading treatment and all other violations of human rights and freedoms.

Processing, or rather bringing all those responsible for those acts to justice is the paramount obligation for the entire process, and collaboration with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ( ICTY ) and national courts is of key importance.

Only full commitment to these processes, both on the part of victims and survivors, and all those who organises and lead these processes are of decisive importance for the confidence in the institutions of justice and of in system per se, mutual trust among individuals and ethnic, religious communities, and for victims' regained self - confidence and self - respect as well as their human dignity that finally lead to the social reconciliation that would guaranty the elimination of the culture of impunity and of un - accountability for all the unlawful acts.

We strongly believe that such a process is an integral part of comprehensive efforts to build a lasting peace, of economic and social transformation that should contribute to the security and stability of the overall society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, affirmation of its traditional social values - coexistence of different cultures, faiths, and ethnic groups as well as its institutions and individuals as the citizens of the common state, and affirmation of all of its collectives and their particular features and specific cultures, needs and interests.

We would also like to emphasise that facing the past is not either a single or a short - term goal. It implies the attainment of full awareness of the recent - unfortunately - atrocious and genocidal past of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its causes and consequences for the whole country and well as for the region. It is a process that does not accept the rewarding the crimes and their perpetrators, oblivion and denial of the truth not matter how painful and unpleasant it may be for some people. It is a process that needs to establish a truth that will not be shaped by ideological drives and manipulated by politics, nor will it be revised to accommodate some current needs, but rather the truth based on undisputable documents and facts and underpinned by legally binding judicial decisions.

For such a process of facing the past, we would need a broad social consensus and the inclusion of scores of NGOs and various institutions, particularly research and educational ones, the media and, above all, the associations of survivors and victims who, besides moral satisfaction for the suffering that is ensured by the courts, must get a material reparation and a wide social recognition and acknowledgment of the fact related to the suffering and their pain.

Prior to any formal bodies and commissions of different sort that the victims of the crimes mainly view with suspicion, we need a broad public debate on how we see and why we need to deal with the past. At the very beginning of this process, we should have in mind that it is a long - term endeavour and therefore we must first grasp the full complexity of the endeavour, its sensitive nature, and particularly, the needs of the victims. This debate should be free from all kinds of prejudices and based on arguments that explain that only through the investigating, justice and discovery of truth, rebuilding of confidence and support to the victims we would be able to change positively the relations within the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina and create preconditions for a lasting and stable peace.

Context

When creating a strategy and conducting a process of facing the past, the social context in which the process takes place must not be neglected. Both positive and negative influences created by the political environment may reflect on the attempts by the society to overcome obstacles and limitations that past events impose on current situations in all segments of BH society. Unfortunately, a decade has been lost without creating a suitable strategy of facing the past, and this problem has not been the subject of open and comprehensive social dialogue. Proof of that is the fact that the BH Parliament never considered problems of the past nor created methods or supported actions of civil society in that respect.

There is also strong polarization that is the heritage of war, a strong influence of national and religious elements in social and individual identification, which has detrimental influence on younger generations, particularly because of extreme reduction of identity to ethnic and religious elements with repression and near elimination of dozens of other identification elements. This is the situation where basic individual freedoms are suppressed and a collective model of identity is imposed ( identity crisis ).

To that we should add the slow pace of reconstruction and development of judicial, police, and military structures as the key guarantors of security for people, and particularly of their individual rights and freedoms. Slow justice for grave violations of international humanitarian law and a large number of perpetrators who are still at large in Bosnia and Herzegovina created the feeling among the public that crime has been rewarded and strengthened the feelings of insecurity and helplessness among individuals who did not feel that they could change anything.

Lack of confidence in courts and police and their dependence on political elite, as well as corruption, are still strongly present and represent a huge systemic obstacle for solving the problems from the past through the rule of law.

Mass election abstinence, particularly among young voters, based on their belief that there is no political alternative whose credibility can guaranty social changes, is also a significant social problem which burdens the process of facing the past.

Marginalization of civil society and underdevelopment of its institutions, strong political influences and even manipulation with some parts of the civil society, which reflect negatively on activities of victims' associations, are part of the environment that carries some responsibility for slow transformation of the way of thinking inherited from the pre - war communist period and worsened by the war, and for slow development of democratic relations based mostly on civil and individual rights and freedoms.

There are still completely different perceptions of the same events, depending on the perception of " victim " versus " perpetrator ", or " my " versus " their " suffering. In this context, such strong perceptions, which are held isolated from one another, are particularly dangerous, as well as national - chauvinistic manipulation with those perceptions which leads to the creation of separate and conflicting ethnic - religious " truths " and " black - and - white" pictures of " us " and " them ".

On top of all that, there is no suitable support from the international community or understanding among its members of the authentic needs of BH society in selecting the forms and methods of dealing with the past. Unfortunately, some of their attempts were more along the lines of opening discussions on the need to forgive, forget and reconcile, rather than focused on essential measures and activities to create a number of preconditions for a true social reconciliation through reconstruction of Bosnian society and restoration of its values.

The attempt to table the issue of " reconciliation " failed because it was organized and tackled in an elitist manner, without prior comprehensive consultations with victims, and it was headed by individuals who are not known among the victims as independent researchers or as persons close to victims and their needs. Among the victims, the perception was that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an end in itself and that its formal link to the Parliament and government would only be the source of new expenses and a new bureaucratic structure, not a search for truth and justice above all, followed by reconciliation.

The victims understood the Commission more as an attempt to forgive and to forget, rather than as the means for attaining truth and satisfaction for victims and justice for perpetrators. Instead of persistent and practical research among the victims, a few years have been wasted on elitist gatherings that discussed the ways of establishing the Commission.

What does organizing and conducting a process of " Facing the past " mean?

It means primarily collecting facts and documenting the past, the ways in which people suffered ( were killed, raped, tortured, detained, gone missing, expelled, robbed, harassed ), not some abstract rhetoric, rough approximations and manipulations with numbers.

It means keeping permanently open different forms of dialogue, expert, scientific, and public discussions on specific issues from the past with varying degrees of complexity, referring to events and persons that participated in them and their role, as well as discussions of results, causes and consequences of past events and their possible influence on current social situation.

It is an active and creative relationship with past events, not amnesty and amnesia.

It is also the ability to draw lessons from tragic events and to equip ourselves for dealing with problems and potential sources of conflict. It means that we should act preventively on events that contain the elements of conflict.

For us, it means also re - traumatizing individuals ( victims ) and the society as a whole.

It means that we should clarify, in a timely manner, events that could cause in the future ideological and political manipulations and incitement of revenge and conflict.

It means prevention of revisionist history, falsification and manipulation of events from the past.

It means returning dignity for victims and making it possible for them to talk about their suffering. Facing the past for victims is a full recognition or full awareness regarding what happened, when and how, and by whom, who is responsible and what legal and other consequences they were exposed to.

It means creating an environment of stronger feeling of social responsibility ( individual and collective ) for the events we participated in.

It is a constructive and creative relationship with experiences of our own past and the past of other peoples in the region.

It means preserving the memory of tragic events from our past and humble respect for the victims, but also preserving memories of many positive and magnificent proofs of humanity (sometimes paid for with life) in order to protect friends, neighbors, co - citizens of different ethnicity or religion.

For us it means explaining the influence of irrational factors ( such as war) on economic, political, cultural, and overall social development. Consequently, it is the issue of economy and development, because future is based on resolved conflicts of the past and not on their constant revival, perpetuation, resulting in potential instability that has disastrous influence on economic and social stability and development. It is the issue of development and our future because reconstruction of buildings and roads, industry and economy as a whole is much easier than curing hearts and minds, painful memories and suffering.

It is the final identification of most suitable ways of finding justice, truth and rule of law as guaranties of long - term peace.

What we do not regard as " Facing with the past? "

It is not about an obsession with the past, myth - making or reversion to the past.

It is not about putting a burden of past events on young generations or filling them with hatred.

It is not about creating an idyllic, conflict - free image of our past and present.

It is not about the current - politics use of the past for the purpose of arousing fear and xenophobia, or confrontation with others and those who are different.

It is not about obstructing the peace processes, but conversely, supporting them.

It is not about creating new or maintaining the old myths, especially no myth - making with wrong numbers or revising historical facts.

It is not about ritual gatherings aimed at forgiving and reconciliation, or political apologies.

What we must always bear in mind?

No apology, particularly ritual and cosmetic apologies by politicians, no admission of guilt by perpetrators or governments, or reparations will compensate for the losses suffered by the families of those killed and the losses which the families of missing persons still suffer, or for sufferings and humiliations to which some survivor victims were subjected. Deep mental anguish and agony will forever remain in the hearts and souls of generations to come, and we are obliged to alleviate them at least to a certain extent in order to make it easier for the victims and survivors to cope with daily problems they are facing.

Facing with the past is not a one - way road, or a relation in which there is an absolutely clear division between victims and perpetrators, between the guilty and the innocent ones. In BH society, processes in different directions will be necessary to take place and many approaches to the facing with the past and the perception of the entire phenomenon will often be confronted and intertwined. Individual perceptions and memories of events will be confronted with collectivist ones. On the other hand, the decisions by judicial authorities and factual evidence on which their final decisions are based will have to be effectively and carefully transferred to the levels of individuals and collectives, i.e. social and professional, ethnic and religious groups that had taken part in the conflict.

There have been attempts to shape the individual perception of the past events from collective perspective, mainly an ethnic and religious one, and in that respect to strictly control all channels of communications and information flow which may shed light on the past events. Even in case when a collective is the victim ( e.g. of genocide ), the unilateral approach towards the causes of the tragedy and the victims withdrawal into their own tragedy are very dangerous. The fact that someone is a victim does not mean that he or she should be locked in that position and stop searching for the reasons which had caused the crime. This also raises the issue of collective memory v. individual memory.

Search for the truth must at the outset remove the barriers between " us " and " them ", " our crimes " and " their crimes ", " victims " and " perpetrators ". The ability to cross even such boundaries like the perception of the perpetrator as a victim of a certain social context will enable us to relate to the past without being blinded with emotions and have the only and ultimate goal to clarify events to the minutest detail, to identify victims and perpetrators and bring them to the level of explaining individual fates rather than mere statistical analyses or historical generalisations.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a society in which not only a struggle for memories is being waged, but rather a struggle for power over memories. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a society having a strong tradition of unwritten oral history and memories, while the time we live in demands a transformation towards establishing a written collective memory as a sum of individual memories, thus reducing the possibility of anybody's dominance and being the most reliable way to understand the past and the tradition while avoiding manipulation.

It is the disregard for their suffering, the silence on the crimes and inefficient justice that the victims find hardest to accept and regard as being serious crimes equal to direct killing and torture.

Likewise, nobody can, whether implicitly or explicitly, request the victims to forgive the perpetrators for what they had done. Their expression of anger must be understood as an emotional response to the events which had seriously injured them and it should be accepted as such. For facing with the past implies, inter alia , the creation of a legitimate setting for victims to express their feelings, grief and rage.

The agonies experienced by individuals as a result of terrible tragedies are trans - generational, therefore the facing with the past and the remembrance of the suffering are also part of a trans - generational process.

In this context, the gender sensibility of the issue must not be disregarded, since the woman is a double victim, for having lost a male member of the family, and for having taken the burden of responsibility for facing and coping with the consequences of the tragedy in the family in the period after the war conflict.

The needs of victims have to be observed, they have to be accommodated, never expecting that it is only them who should come to us seeking solutions to their cases.

Our years - long experience of working with victims shows that they are least prone to expressing hatred and being vengeful.

No equation or interdependence can possibly be placed between and among forgiveness, apology, trust and reconciliation.

In the process of dealing with the past one should avoid any form of generalisation and general conclusions which are not based on detailed investigations and evidence ( comparative empirical studies and case studies ). Thereby, we will contribute to the achievement of the social function of history in post - conflict and traumatic times by simply providing a source wherefrom to obtain facts, while at the same time letting others evaluate and judge them.

On the other hand, we shall make the victims feel certain gratification ( beside the judicial one which is always partial ), that their suffering has not been forgotten, that it has been recorded and saved from oblivion. Namely, each victim believes that her or his case is the most important and serious one, therefore taking care of each and every detail and case is especially important and indispensable in the creation of a mosaic of truth.

We must by no means forget that the facing with the past will be accompanied by attempts to hide documents and other evidence of crimes and other violent acts from the past. Of course, direct perpetrators and others who were involved in crimes will also be hiding. Likewise, there will be pressures on potential witnesses to testify on what they know. There will also be pressures and threats made to investigators. Experience has shown that they will go so far as to a series of threats, including the gravest ones. The experience regarding the attitude of many actors of the recent tragic past events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both those from neighbouring countries and those from within BiH, towards the activities of the ICTY ( the Hague Tribunal ) proves most clearly the lack of readiness on the part of some political and military - police structures to face the criminal past and the attempts to achieve political goals through violence. Therefore, in addition to developing a local ( Bosnian ) approach to the facing with the past, it is also necessary to seek and examine forms of regional co - operation among the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The establishment of Investigation and Documentation Centres in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb, and the signing of the Protocol on Co - operation, which also covers the documentation on the events from the recent past, prove the possibility of making further breakthroughs in this context.

The facing with the past will also be accompanied by attempts to strictly individualise the responsibility for crimes, thus covering up the involvement, incitement and instigation of hatred and the overall role of government authorities, political and intellectual elites and other groups in criminal acts, thereby creating a smoke - screen to prevent the investigation of their responsibility. Of course, this will be followed by a strongly expressed willingness to grant amnesty for ethnic collectives from moral and political responsibility for having provided the regimes which had given rise to crimes in the past with electoral legitimacy. Therefore, one should bear in mind the fact that a vast majority of individuals in the region of ex - Yugoslavia did not act beyond a certain ideological and political context, therefore as absolutely isolated individuals, but rather as members of military and other formations and political - state groups which had been led and guided according to precise plans, under clearly structured and visible command, and with precisely defined political goals.

Goals

Facing the past is not a one - way, one - dimensional, extra contextual process and all the factors are instrumental to defining the goals and major directions of action. Only a diversity of goals and numerosity of tasks, which will often be implemented at various paces, with different correlation and synergic effects, may produce in the end the results, which will be recognized in the behavior of individuals and social groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina's society. Aware of that, we believe that the following are our absolute and priority goals:

• research and collection of the facts and documents; their careful, detailed analyses and storage in the databases and archives;

• support to judicial institutions in punishing war crimes and administering justice, moral and material satisfaction to the victims ( reparations );

• support to building and strengthening of independent and impartial, professional civil society institutions which will support and lead the process of facing the past;

• influence the government and its agencies to create mechanisms and support institutions which contribute to a constructive and creative dealing with the past;

• preserve processes outside daily political and ideological influences and manipulation;

• shape relations with religious communities with special attention to and search for the most suitable models of their engagement in the process of facing the past;

• encourage the implementation of a whole series of individual projects which will contribute to the pieces of the puzzle of truth to fall into place, to opening of the dialogue on some topics and unclear, still unexplained issues;

• foster special relations with independent, impartial and free media in promoting, expanding and accelerating the process of facing the past;

• enable participation and inclusion of a broad circle of individuals and organizations in the whole process;

• create preconditions for all forms of artistic expression which will contribute to preserving memory;

• encourage regional and inter - state cooperation in exchanging information and experience in conflict - prevention and heeling the wounds;

• seek assistance and support from international governmental and non - governmental organizations in creating financial preconditions for the organization and management of the process.

The specificities of Bosnia and Herzegovina will require the shaping of new models and reliance on some of already verified models used to face the past. Still, creative relationships and willingness to introduce fast, efficient and effective changes will have to be fostered in all cases, if some models or methods prove to be less - than - productive.

The model of facing the past, which should be built in BiH, is participatory and inclusive, not representative and mediated. Thereby, the peculiarity of collective, group memory, in our case with religious layers and influences, will be replaced by a broad, individual participation in creating a social ( national ) memory. Memory ( recollection ) across ethnic lines undoubtedly indicates that there would be no conditions for an identical, common social memory in the Bosnian community. This is why it is necessary to base our model on individual memories of members of various groups and the preservation of individual experiences - to identify and draw memories from individual experiences without neglecting the fact that they gained experience and lived through various events both as individuals and members of certain groups.

In order for the above goals to be implemented in the processes that we are opening through this strategy, we are of the view that it is particularly important to support the following actions:

continue and complete investigations and collection of documents on past events,
continue and accelerate court procedures before ICTY and national courts,
organize and implement oral history projects,
organize monitoring of war crime trials,
prepare projects for support to victims for the purpose of preparing court procedures and assistance thereafter,
create joint national and regional projects of governmental and non - governmental sector,
prepare special educational projects for schools and universities,
prepare texts and launch outreach project and programs in all the media on the issue of facing the past,
organize cultural events ( festivals, concerts, exhibitions, etc.) to preserve memory of the past,
build memorials and other appropriate monuments in memory of victims of war crimes.

Institutions

Facing the past requires an engagement of the entire society and support by a whole series of institutions from both governmental and non - governmental sector. Unfortunately, the whole process will encounter numerous challenges and attempts to make " controlled " facing with the past or a strong political influence. Aware of strong post - war polarization on political, ethnic, religious or other bases, we believe that for the time being the best would be for the major part of the process to rely on civil society institutions, regardless of the fact that they continue to be underdeveloped and insufficiently strong in both staffing and financial terms.

Facing the past also involves preservation of memory and expression of respect for all victims of the war. Fostering individual and collective memories may be developed through various forms ranging from erecting monuments, memorials and museums to the formation of institutions which will continually be available to the victims and other citizens who show interest in past events.

We in BiH have to build authentic models and methods adjusted to our needs and wishes; in no way should we copy or uncritically use someone else's experiences ( e.g. the South African Commission ). Other people's experiences could and should, of course, be analyzed through comparative studies and should not be directly and uncritically implemented. Dealing with the past is a creative task and implies researches of the new, institutional, methodological and organizational approaches to the problem.

In essence, if supported and successfully implemented, the role of the civil society organizations in the process of facing the past may strongly encourage their overall role in and influence on the society. For, revealing the truth and creating recommendations for undoing injustice of the past and working toward meeting the needs of victims is not sufficient. Facing the past must result in bringing changes to the behavior of institutions, their actions and organization, and then fundamental democratic changes to the society. Truth for the sake of the truth, but also truth for the sake of changing relations and the situation in the society is something different.

Long - time experiences in dealing with the problems of war crimes and serious violations of international legal norms support our commitment that, in addition to an ad-hoc body ( ICTY ), it is only the existence and further development of permanent institutions in charge of dealing with the past that may yield successful actions and eventually results and desired societal freedoms and durable peace.

The institutions included in the process of facing the past must take into consideration what is still regarded as a high level of mistrust, especially on the part of victims, toward previous attempts to speak of the past with a string emphasis on reconciliation; credibility and experiences in working with the victims are key to success of their engagement in dealing with the past.

In that context, we are of the view that facing the past implies the inclusion of the following institutions:

• Institutions, authorities and agencies of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, notably the State Parliament and Government ( the Council of Ministers ), with a special place to be given to the Justice Ministry, the Ministry for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entity Ministries of Education and Culture;

Procedures

Provided that this concept is approved upon comprehensive consultations, a special document (charter or protocol) would be prepared to form a kind of a social alliance for facing the past and to define organizational models or an institution through which the whole process and implementation of the strategy and goals would be organized and implemented.

All the procedures should be completed during the first three months of 2005 and the activities under a separate plan should start in April or May 2005.

F A C I N G T H E P A S T

( GENERAL PRINCIPLES )

Introduction

Context

What does organizing and conducting a process of " Facing the past " mean?

It means primarily collecting facts and documenting the past, the ways in which people suffered ( were killed, raped, tortured, detained, gone missing, expelled, robbed, harassed ), not some abstract rhetoric, rough approximations and manipulations with numbers.

What we do not regard as " Facing with the past? "

What we must always bear in mind?

Goals

Institutions

Procedures