Oral History

Implementing organization: Research and Documentation Centre
Project Title: Positive Stories - Oral Histories of Bosnian Citizens Who Helped Each Other During the War
Duration: October 2006 - April 2008

Much has been written about the mass atrocities committed during the war in BIH from 1992 to 1995. Scholars, journalists, researchers and many others have documented the forcible expulsions, rapes, executions and genocide, which lasted for over four years in the final decade of the twentieth century.

However, less known is the fact that many Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens of all ethnic groups and religions put their lives in danger and acted extraordinarily in these years in order to help their neighbours and fellow-citizens, which were facing danger or even death. Those unknown heroes put themselves in the same situation by recognizing evil and protecting their fellow-citizens.

Our experience in working with victims, participants and witnesses of the war through different projects revealed fact-based examples of human courage and citizen’s solidarity which demonstrates that despite the horrifying circumstances there were some Good Samaritans who risked their lives in order to save somebody else’s.

The RDC has decided that such an important aspect of the B-H war should be explained, captured and preserved, as part of some important events for survivors and other citizens as well as for future generations who will need to deal with the past. We recognized these examples as positive aspects of the war that need not to be forgotten. In order to resist the existing xenophobia and hatred between people, often used in daily politics and prevent the ‘poisoning’ of next generations we will present these stories based on individual testimonies.

In addition, we will conduct oral history interviews with individuals gathered around different positive stories and events in the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina and through dialogs and questions try to explain the reasons and importance of these stories. After finishing interviews and analyses, we are planning to organize public presentations as in the recent projects that will start the open dialog in order to present positive and brave actions of individuals to the public.

The Research and Documentation Centre (RDC) has a long and rich experience in facing the past processes and actively participates in the improvement and development of a democratic civil society. Collecting data on wartime atrocities resulted in projects such as Population losses 1992 -1995 and the creation of a database with an enormous quantity of information on participants, perpetrators, victims, witnesses and different events during the war.

The RDC already gathered some of the video records and 7 thousand statements / testimonies and the Oral History projects will restore our activities in this field. In order to do this, the RDC has teams of people who are conducting fieldwork and gathering new information every day. Our intention is to expand the already existing documentation and collect additional information through oral history projects such as Positive Stories, Detainees, and Children during the War, as well as the Srebrenica narrative.

The oral history methodology is significant for gathering individuals’ stories of past events and conducting analyses explaining the past and overcoming obstacles towards a better future. The RDC chose oral history documentation as one of the key activities over the next three years to augment considerable print archive and place those documents in context of life histories together with different segments of the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s population lives today.

We already started to provide a valuable source of information for deeper and complete understanding of events in our database and we are continuing to collect information through fieldwork, fact finding, and other Oral History projects.

The Positive Stories project itself is our attempt to overcome the often used “black and white” interpretation and understanding the war and to promote citizens’ courage as a model of behaviour in peace. Appearances of courage and heroic behaviour in the war are especially important for the promotion of the process of building confidence, sustainable peace, reconciliation and supporting democratization. This is very important in politically, religiously and ethnically polarized societies and environments which are going through processes of peace building and stabilization, as well as building good relations between neighbours. Preserving positive stories from oblivion and ignorance is an attempt to help the better understanding of war events and to show the importance of the firm social ties between neighbours.

Having in mind that our research is going to include citizens of all social, religious and ethnic backgrounds we intend to show that it is possible to promote values which were always important and cherished in the Bosnian society, such as respect for the neighbours and the ability to coexist in a wide range of diversities.

Dealing with the past in war-torn, post-conflict, post-communist and transitional countries is one of the key preconditions for a lasting peace. Gathering the facts and documenting the past as well as revealing the circumstances that followed people’s destinies will help us create an attitude to the past events instead of amnesty and amnesia, creating an environment in which there will be stronger social responsibility for the past atrocities. One of the goals is also explaining and resolving social and economic consequences of violence. In order to enable a comprehensive reintegration of the society facing the past, this process needs to be supported by the authorities, fully accepted and supported by the civil society and the victims of war crimes.

Thus, it is a part of our strategic plan / pillars of facing the past, supported by numerous individual projects such as Population losses 92-95, Political Propaganda and War Media, Trail Monitoring, Information System Development and Victim / Witness support. Oral History - Positive Stories Project is a project that goes hand in hand with the above mentioned ones.

The lack of accurate historical accounts of events in South-Eastern Europe has been one of the reasons why citizens have been vulnerable to the rattling of nationalist politicians. The RDC believes that capturing and presenting the truth will create an opportunity for everybody to openly discuss past events, to understand and accept not only stories, but also a more global dimension of the problem and play an important role in building a joint future. We want to capture the segments of the Bosnian war often not seen in the representations of war events and to provide documentation that will enable us to inform citizens about this forgotten dimension of the war.

Showing that even throughout the war people had strong relations and courage could serve as an example, a model of behaviour that can be used in the post-war period. This can lead to the creation of an atmosphere of dialog and understanding of past atrocities and can help rebuild individual and social relations between people.

The project is focused on the brave people who exposed themselves to danger in order to help neighbours and fellow-citizens. With the main focus on the individual’s story, attention will also be paid to the social and political environment in the places where the events happened.

For the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s society the relevance is in the historical remembrance on these stories and the reaffirmation of traditional neighbours relations and values in society
For the RDC the relevance is in gathering documentation which will complete our archive and database and make conditions for analyses, publications and presentations

Through the existing projects such as Population Losses 1992-1995, Trial Monitoring and others the RDC is involved in and through the field research, contacts with victims, war participants, NGOs and individuals the RDC gathered many statements that provided us with the information on examples of positive stories. The RDC gathered some of these stories and preserved them in the database and the archives. These documents will be the initial sources for developing the process of collecting the stories and getting the contacts with potential interviewees.

The main participants / actors of the project are the interviewees / individuals who will tell their stories. Actors who are in charge of the implementation of the project are RDC employees and volunteers.
The RDC will also include other nongovernmental organizations and associations of victims such as the NGO Women to Women, Women - Victims of war, NGO Reporter, NGO Gardens of Righteous, the Nansen Dialog Centre, the Helsinki Committee and other relevant organizations and individuals which are involved in dealing with the past process. The RDC will also ask for support from the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Human Rights which can assist with relevant contacts, information and support in the affirmation of this idea. Donors will be also included as the ones supervising the project.

Equal gender participation will be taken into consideration as in other ongoing projects:
The RDC will make every effort possible to provide the balance of interviewees in all stratification such as sex structure, age structure, social structure, national and religious structure and educational structure, (e.g. stories of women, men, children, rural and urban population etc).
During the process of interviewing, interviewees will be asked how important dealing with the past is for them and how they see their role and contribution to this process.

The final stage of the project will be carried out through public presentations (i.e. affirmation of these stories in the public) and providing citizens with the opportunity to see and think about this forgotten aspect of the past, mostly neglected within our society.

The RDC team in charge of the Outreach Program will organize special activities for the presentation and promotion of this project based on the produced results and reports which will be presented to the public.

One press conference about the project
Several promotional activities through the media (press, radio, TV, internet)
Public presentations and debates based on gathered material and reports will be organized in at least seven (7) Bosnian towns such as Banja Luka, Mostar, Sarajevo, Zvornik, Bijeljina , Bihać, Konjic and others
The RDC also intends to contact film production companies and offer them the production of special documentaries about these stories

Objectives / Activities / Expected Results

Researching and capturing stories from individuals that will illustrate the citizen’s courage during the war period; reaffirmation of this neglected theme and emphasizing its value
Documenting these stories to complete the ‘picture’ of war events (i.e. enrichment and completion of the RDC database)
Producing reports on every phase of the project / summaries of results on research and statistical overview. This will provide us with the basis for analysis on this phenomena and its social context
Final results will be accessible to everyone and presented on public presentations including open dialog increasing the importance of these stories in everyday life
Publishing of the results and making them accessibl

The Target groups are those citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina which were involved in the stories: the actors of the events spoken of in the stories as well as the general public.

The Positive Stories project will be implemented in accordance with the already established oral history methodology by interviewing actors of the events. Each story would contain several testimonies, telling the story from different perspectives (i.e. victims as well as the ones who helped them and/or other eyewitnesses of the event), which will confirm the facts about the specific event. In situations where one side is not available due to different circumstances, the story will be told by one participant or a close family member.

Through eleven main activities with the emphasis on research – contacts, meetings with non-governmental organizations, victims associations, individual researchers and citizens, we will discover the facts about the events in question and track down the participants as to prepare them for the interview and capturing of their story. Questions will be made in a manner which enables the chronological approach to the events, creating the opportunity for interviewees to talk about their life during war time. The RDC plans to conduct video-interviews as well. If the interviewee refuses to participate in the video, the story will be captured as an audio recording followed by transcripts. Summaries and reports will be published on the RDC website. These records will represent a good foundation for the production of publications and continuing promotion of this project through public presentations throughout the country.

Browsing the archive and database as the initial source of potential interviewees, (examples in database already collected with general information on actors, description of events with dates and places)
Preparing a field research through contacts with relevant associations, individuals in search of relevant stories
The design of a unique format of questions that might be omitted depending on each individual. The interviewer will have general instructions for conducting the interview
Managing the location of the interview, transportation and equipment including all other necessary logistics for the interview
Pre-interview preparation, selection of witnesses and conducting interviews
Self-evaluations of researchers after every finished interview
Production of transcripts
Writing summaries and reports on a story
Analyses, classification and storage of information into the database
Digitalization and archiving of transcripts
Preparation for publication and presentations

Expected results are:
1. Providing documentation as historical evidence; 400 to 500 hundred statements and hundreds of contacts which will provide information for this and other projects such as new names of victims in database
2. Over two thousand pages of transcripts and over 500 hours of video material
3. Web publication – the section for positive stories (i.e. summaries on narratives)
4. Analyses and reports (i.e. narrative and statistical overviews)
5. At least seven presentations of produced material and reports on the project

Indicators will be periodical: monthly results such as number of captured stories, number of contacts with different associations, individuals and potential interviewees, visits on the RDC website, number of meetings and press conferences relating to the project.

The coordinator/head of the project will work on the project through its duration (entire 18 months), where he/she will work along with researchers on the preliminary preparations such as finding potential interviewees, preparing the platform questionnaire, organizing evaluations with researchers, preparing publications and presentations for the final phase of the project. Together with the researchers, the project coordinator will be writing reports for donors (progressive implementation - every six months and the final report - after the project ends).
Researchers/analysts will work for 16 months on the project, and their work includes: preliminary research of the data-base and archives, as well as contacting the potential interviewees, preparation of the platform questionnaire, field work, preparatory interviews, interviews, summary/analyses and report-writing about each story and finally, conducting of the internal evaluation.
The typical working day / week will include: searching through the archive and data-base, contacting and meeting relevant sources of information / gathering information in the field, preparing for the interviews, capturing the story, keeping in everyday contact with interviewees, reports and summaries as well as weekly meetings and internal evaluation.

The technical staff’s role during 14 months is to assist the researchers with the equipment usage, particularly video-recording equipment; making transcripts, archiving, processing information in the data-base and preparing for analyses and also the digitalization of every interview. The technical staff will not work for the first two months of the preliminary research and during the period of presentation.

The preparation of publications and the presentations will take two months and it will be conducted by the head of project. However, the professional consultant could be employed to perform this task.

The biggest portion of the project is the fieldwork/research (i.e. finding and contacting the potential interviewees). In accordance with our estimations that were drawn from our previous experiences, the majority of the potential interviewees could be situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, it is very important to emphasize that some of the potential interviewees could be situated outside the country. If we come to believe that their stories are important for the research they will be contacted. This means that our researchers could have to travel to the interviewees’ respective homes, or the interviewees could come to our centre.

The organization that will implement the Positive Stories project is the Research and Documentation Centre from Sarajevo. The RDC is an independent, non-profit, professional, non-governmental and non-partisan institution with the main task to investigate and gather facts, documents and data on genocide, war crimes, violation of international humanitarian law and human rights violations, regardless of ethnic, political, religious, social or racial background of the victim.

The RDC is also the first non-governmental research-focused organization that conducts in-depth social research specialized in war atrocities investigations on the field. One of the most important goals of the organization is to gather young, educated people and provide them with the opportunity to work, gain experience and knowledge.

The database is the backbone of the entire RDC organization and is the largest database in the civil sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the largest databases of this type in the world. The database emerged as a result of the RDC’s efforts to gather as wide range of documents and information as possible in connection to the recent war and post-war events. The archive contains millions of pages of various documents, audio-video material, 7.500 testimonies of survived victims and eyewitnesses. We have registered nearly 300.000 names of war victims, of which more than 97.000 were killed or went missing. The archive contains over 60.000 photos and 3500 hours of video recordings. We have registered locations of the over 440 prisons and concentration camps, 320 mass graves and 900 incidents of mass killing where civilians were predominant victims.

Our analyses are an enormous contribution to the social history of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, to the prosecutions in The Hague and domestic courts, and to the historical memory of the victims. Research results should also contribute to the prevention of conflicts, peace building and the democratization of Bosnian society.

Networking
ThePositive Stories project is part of the RDC strategic plan which is complementary with other RDC activities also supported by the RDC Outreach program. This project will be also supported trough the already established Confidence building network of NGOs, which will help in connecting people related to this project.

Monitoring / Steering / Evaluation
The project will be internally monitored during the whole time of implementation through the supervision of the RDC president (the Head of the project) and the committee board of RDC. The head of the project will organize self-evaluations monthly and the team for the project implementation will write reports.
External evaluations will be conducted by the RDC Committee board and donors every six months through reports.
If required, the RDC will establish a neutral evaluation working group in cooperation with the donors.

The RDC is expecting to produce quality testimonies and to provide relevant documentation based on facts which will give a basis for analyses and public presentations.

Documents and historical records (i.e. video material, audio and transcripts which could be used for further scientific studies, various documentation and also testimonies on war for criminal courts)
Contribution to the prevention of history revisionism, falsifications and every day manipulations
Contribution to the development of the environment in which the values of citizen’s courage will be accepted as a standard model in the society
Through the promotion of these stories the goal is to overcome doubts, fears and prejudice between and about peopl

Due to the fact that various political pressures still exist in daily life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, speaking freely about war-time issues is still rather rare. Witness accounts are often withheld because those willing to speak are often subjected to negative feedback from their surroundings.

Interviewees refusing to speak while being recorded, in front of the public, requesting protection of their identity. There is a possibility that the interviewees will not speak because of pressure and fear from the surroundings, even if the RDC gives guarantees for protection of their identity.
Not enough interviewees / witnesses found in the period of the project duration. It should be acknowledged that the project might continue if more stories are needed

The RDC will provide the interviewees with the possibility to come to our centres and other possible neutral locations to tell their story. Having in mind the RDC’s already established position and professional experience in this field of work, this should be helpful in overcoming difficult situations.