Features

May 20, 2008

Serbia’s Past, Serbia’s Future

By Dick Oosting

BRUSSELS -- Serbia's parliamentary elections this month produced a paradox for that country as well as its neighbors and the European Union.

President Boris Tadic's party of pro-Western reformers, the Coalition for a European Serbia, won the largest share of the vote and thus will be the largest party in parliament. But even if Mr. Tadic's party manages to form the next government - a feat that is far from guaranteed - it may not be able to lead the country on a path of political reform.

To achieve true, lasting reform, Serbia must confront its past.

For the last eight years, ever since street protestors forced Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic from power, the international community has sought to coax Serbia to acknowledge its own actions in a meaningful way. Those action include Serbia's leading role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, involving Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - conflicts in which the Serbian army and Serbian militias committed war crimes against civilians as well as prisoners of war.

Serbia, however, has done little to recognize the wrongs of that era or to aid its victims. Most glaringly, Serbia continues to shield from justice Gen. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Mladic must account for the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnians from the town of Srebrenica in 1995.

To rejoin Europe, a new Serbian government will have to detain Mr. Mladic and surrender him to the international tribunal. It will then have to do more. Europe's experiences since the end of World War II show that securing a stable peace requires justice. And that one requirement for justice is truth. Latin American and African states recovering from large-scale human rights abuses have confirmed those lessons.

Serbia needs, first, truth to help its citizens understand their own recent history. So do Serbia's neighbors. Given the politics of the region, it may seem foolish even to consider establishing a truth commission in the former Yugoslavia that would serve to verify the fate of the victims and document the role of governments, their armies and civilians in the violent events of the 1990s. And yet leading civil society organizations in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia are joining forces to press for precisely such a regional truth-seeking effort. The truth must be both established and -- no less important - acknowledged.

Serbia also must recognize the harm suffered by the hundreds of thousands of victims and begin a serious debate about how best to offer them justice. A starting point would be a sincere apology for the wrongs committed in Serbia's name. While reparations are essential, full justice for victims and their families must also include seeing the main perpetrators in court.

Taking those steps would improve Serbia's relations with its neighbors, hasten Serbia's membership in the European Union and quickly bring substantial social and economic benefits.

Serbia is burdened by a weak economy, difficult relations with neighboring states and its role as an outsider in Europe's future. Those problems will become easier to resolve after Serbia seeks the truth about its own actions and fully recognizes justice - for perpetrators and for victims - as an essential step toward reconciliation and a genuine, lasting peace.

Dick Oosting is the Brussels-based Europe Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice, a human rights organization that assists countries pursue accountability for human rights abuses.