The official end of the war in Kosovo on 12 June 1999 did not bring to all families the much-needed relief after the brutal war that started in February 1998. The mysterious murdered continued for several more years. Journalists from the largest nationalities: Albanian and Serbian, became target of murders or violent disappearances. In a mini-series of […]
At a press conference in Zagreb on October 22, 1992, the The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), under the leadership of Tadeusz Mazowiecki announced that a mass grave had been discovered in the area of Ovčara near Vukovar. The tomb had been untouched prior to the arrival of members of UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Forces),[…]
“Bye, Berush. See you,” are the last words heard by Xhemajl Mustafa, a Kosovo Albanian journalist and intellectual. He spoke those words to his teenage daughter, Beriana, as he was going out of their apartment in Prishtina in noon of 23 November 2000. As the 22nd anniversary of his murder looms closer, Beriana – who followed into her[…]
Twenty-nine years have passed since the killing of Sarajevan civilians in Kazani. The remains of somewhat more than 20 persons have been found so far. They all are victims of Mušan Topalović Caco and his colleagues from the Tenth Mountain Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The mortal remains were exhumed in[…]
I don’t know how to begin. I have to write about October 22, 1992 and I don’t know how to begin. I have to write about October 22, 1992, and I don’t know how to begin, because on that day the paramilitary group Avengers, led by Milan Lukić, abducted sixteen people. They abducted one man the night[…]
Notes of one of the a founders A group of Serbian historians recently began collecting documents and testimonies about the anti-war movement in Serbia in the 1990s, in which the Association of Independent Intellectuals Belgrade Circle, founded on January 25, 1992, played an important role. As one of the founders of this association and one of its[…]
Every October 1, a certain ritual takes place in Montenegro. They show footage of the Montenegrin aggression against Dubrovnik, hold round table discussions, NGOs give out press releases, and after several days we forget that anything happened and go back to the usual daily grind. This year, even that ritual mentioning of one of the most tragic,[…]
This podcast is a conversation between Vjollca Islami-Hajrullahu, MA, psychologist and project manager at forumZFD Kosovo, and Dr. Mimoza Shahini, psychiatrist with focus on experiences of children during wartime. The video interview seeks to elaborate on the long-term psychological impacts of war on children, survivors and family members and the importance of confronting the past as form[…]
The year 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of Jusuf Gërvalla’s death. Based on this event, the International Art Festival “Nën braza të kohës / Under the Plow of Time” commemorates for one year through various activities the diverse work of Jusuf Gërvalla under the title 82 Gërvalla 22. In Kosovo most public spaces are heavily dominated by[…]
Albania continues to be one of the post-communist Western Balkan countries that is cut off from political debates and projects which focus on transitional justice as a multidimensional and comprehensive mechanism that brings a society closer to the consequences of its past and traumas of a dictatorial regime. Although it is a country free of ethnic conflicts[…]
Transitional justice remains one of the most fragile issues for the Western Balkans societies, considering the fact that at no given moment has the political leadership responded to the democratic need of implementing such a process. It is not by chance that transitional justice in our countries has been considered a “witch hunting” mechanism or a process[…]
Whether at a crime scene, on a chair, or at the computer, forensic examiners, who have examined the persons murdered in Kosovo and in other countries, were exposed to the experience of atrocities and have testified about those. They have identified the missing, helping connect their remains with the families. They have used examinations as a tool[…]