The European Union’s green transition has opened a new chapter in the relationship between Europe and its peripheries, both within and beyond EU borders, most recently through the EU’s Green Deal which aims for net zero emissions by 2050.[1] Although Bosnia and Herzegovina has formally adopted EU climate regulations and strategies, limited institutional capacity and financial constraints have ensured that […]

Any memory of a war crime carries its own graveness, however, the graveness of the suffering of Grabovica adds an additional aspect of bitterness due to the context in which this crime happened. This village was not the scene of fights, victims were not killed by crossfire, but were rather killed in their own homes and in the yards of […]

Srebrenica, Prijedor, Ahmići, Višegrad… When it comes to war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, these are the locations that are usually mentioned in this context. This happens for a reason. Crimes committed elsewhere were swept under the rug. One of these locations is Čelinac, an idyllic town near Banja Luka.   Author: Milkica Milojević In the period from 1992 to […]

More than thirty years have passed since Slobodan Mrkajić had been detained at concentration camps in Konjic, Hadžići and Igman. Today, he lives in Rogatica. He is the president of the Association of Concentration Camp Detainees of Sarajevo-Romanija Region and Association of Union of Concentration Camp Detainees of Republika Srpska. Together with the Centre for Non-Violent Action, former concentration camp […]

Just as in other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina that came under the control of the Army of Republika Srpska in spring of 1992, in Doboj, there was the same war scenario with a similar prelude to crimes that ensued. May of 1992 in Doboj will be remembered due to the arrival of military, paramilitary and police units of the […]

The conflict between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) resulted in a new and even bloodier period of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. New front lines, mostly in Herzegovina and Central Bosnia, appeared, followed by new concentration camps, ethnic cleansing and new war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war on […]

Designed based on concentration camps in Nazi Germany, Jasenovac meant death or was the last station before concentration camps in Germany and Poland for most of its victims throughout its existence. Those that managed to escape from the horrors of Jasenovac started testifying about the extent and manner of killings immediately after it, which appalled even Nazis themselves. Following the […]

In a time when political instability shakes the very foundations of our society once again and the public space is increasingly flooded with fear and divisions, I ask myself what it means to be a peace activist today. Our past relentlessly reminds us of the fact that peace is not something to be taken for granted. In the current political […]

As one of the nearest cities to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s border with Serbia, Bijeljina was the perfect test site for war plans and crimes that were about to engulf the rest of the country. Everything that was happening in and around Bijeljina in April 1992 was replicated throughout the Podrinje region over the ensuing months and years. Everything started at […]

On March 26, 1992, a massacre was committed in Sijekovac near Bosanski Brod by armed groups that later on joined the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), together with other members of Croatian military formations, including the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS). The attack on this village led to the death of Serb civilians and destruction of their homes. Several persons were taken […]

Criminal justice constitutes a fundamental element of transitional justice and provides a sound basis for facing the past, building trust within communities and eventually also reconciliation. Final rulings play a key role in this context, since they confirm the responsibility of perpetrators, provide a certain satisfaction to victims and their families and send a clear message about the unacceptability of […]

Reflexion faite (‘reflecting on the past’) is an easy discursive formula for a rather complex problem. But all this reduced presentation at first glance, hides the solution of this conceptual knot. Reflecting on the past opens the door to the two central concepts of this cycle of articles: memory and history. We will not read these concepts in their vernacular […]