Artículos Destacados

Octubre 4, 2007

Truth and Acknowledgement in the Former Yugoslavia

by Suzana Grego

"After nearly 15 years since the end of the conflict, the past is still largely unaddressed. We must not, however, forget the significant progress that has been made since then."

This was one of the most echoed sentiments expressed at a regional consultation in Sarajevo last week, exploring the role of the media in uncovering the truth about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. The meeting-organized by the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo, and Documenta in Zagreb, in cooperation with journalists associations from the region and the ICTJ-gathered more than 40 journalists and human rights activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

The discussion started with an overview of other civil society consultations that had examined truth-seeking efforts in the region, and was followed by an examination of the roles and responsibilities of journalists in determining and publicly disclosing facts about the crimes that occurred during the conflict in the early 1990s. It was generally acknowledged that journalists in the former Yugoslavia have played an enormously important role by bringing to light information about past war crimes and airing victims' stories, both of which increased public awareness and debate of these issues. Despite these efforts, attendees were quick to point out the large gaps and challenges that remained.

Responding to frequent historical revisionism and even outright denial of past atrocities, the journalists detailed the challenges of uncovering the facts about the past and, in some cases, of creating the necessary space to report on those facts. Adding to those challenges, many pointed out that print and Internet-based media-which tend to cover issues related to the past conflict and war crimes more than their broadcast and radio counterparts-reach only a minority of the general population. Others pointed to the difficulty of engaging often apathetic and disinterested audiences. One journalist from the Republika Srpska lamented that in one survey, war crimes came ninth on a list of issues of interest to the public. Perhaps even more problematic was the phenomenon evident in several of the media markets represented-including Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia-that indicated a continued lack of consensus around fundamental facts that have already been established, for example who could be considered a war criminal.

The ambivalence of the statement peppering the entire discussion that some things have changed a lot while others have remained the same, was a clear indication of differences within the region itself as well as differences in journalistic perspectives. But everyone agreed on the central importance of uncovering and reporting on the facts in an unbiased way as one of the best modes of encouraging knowledge and understanding, and hopefully even acknowledgement of past wrongs.

Several journalists emphasized the central importance of regional documentation projects which have gathered and distributed accurate and valuable information about the past to the general public. The Humanitarian Law Center, the Research and Documentation Center (RDC), and Documenta have not only been uncovering the facts, but also providing credible, verifiable, and independent data to journalists and working with them to inform the public. The hope was expressed that by creating a unified set of facts and, eventually, a unified perspective on the past, a void that has thus far been "filled with manufactured truths," as one attendee put it, would be closed.

In general, participants cited as their primary common challenges the need to find ways to cooperate with one another on a cross-regional level, as well as the difficulty of covering the past from a more regional perspective, rather than only representing the experience of any particular country or ethnic group. But they concluded that working toward these goals would offer the greatest potential for a full and more comprehensive reckoning with the past, which could in turn help avoid the cyclical recurrence of violence that has plagued the region for the last century.

Toward the end of the consultation, the journalists developed several ideas for jump-starting regional media cooperation efforts, including working through the journalists associations; producing a program devoted to issues of the past and war crimes that would be broadcast throughout the region; creating a fund for documentary films and video segments to better reach the general population; and, creating a general-access portal to documents, videos, films, and other materials on this topic, including documentation from the independent research centers.

Pointing out that a lot of progress had already been made, thanks to the contributions of many courageous journalists both during and after the conflict, Mirsad Tokaca, president of the Sarajevo-based RDC, emphasized that much more change was needed in the region in order to fully address the past.

This event was part of a series of consultations with various groups interested in dealing with the past, in preparation for a major regional public forum that will be held in Belgrade in December 2007. The Belgrade forum discussion will focus on possible truth-seeking mechanisms.

Senior Associate Caitlin Reiger, head of the former Yugoslavia program at the ICTJ, traveled to Sarajevo for the September 29 consultation, along with Bogdan Ivanisevic, the Center's Belgrade-based consultant, and ICTJ Director of Communications, Suzana Grego.