International Roma Day, April 8, is not only an opportunity to celebrate cultural identity, but also an obligation to remember the numerous and serious human rights violations that have accompanied the survival and social acceptance of this ethnic community. Contemporary Montenegro is fundamentally grounded in anti-fascist principles and values. The current public debate on the socialist legacy somehow marginalizes and […]

In the world we live in today—both globally and across the seven small states that emerged from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia—few people will remember the significance of tomorrow’s anniversary. On March 14, 2006, exactly twenty years ago, the Trial Chamber of the Hague Tribunal held its final session in the case Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević and announced that, […]

A tour guide stands in front of the memorial to civilian victims of the so-called “Troubles” in the center of Belfast and utters a sentence that sounds almost trite: “Peace is like a flower—it needs water and sunlight. That’s why we must constantly care for it and nurture it.” It is difficult to hear that metaphor without thinking of one’s […]

Thirty Years. It’s been thirty years since, in July 1995, sons vanished from courtyards, brothers from bedrooms, husbands from beds, neighbors from buses, students from classrooms.Since they were killed – systematically, indiscriminately – not for what they had done, but for who they were. Thirty years since genocide was committed in Srebrenica – a crime designed not only to kill, […]

The Hague Tribunal, a name well-known to everyone living in this region, evokes strong opinions—whether collective or individual. Unfortunately, it has become evident that while the majority hold an opinion about it, very few people possess the knowledge necessary to substantiate their views with facts. On the seventh anniversary of the tribunal’s closure, I decided to thoroughly re-examine my knowledge […]

Each year when the day marking the liberation of Belgrade from fascism arrives, especially when it’s a significant round-number anniversary, there is a sense of anxiety about how it will be officially commemorated. Then a person such as myself for example might feel somewhat uncomfortable even writing about it because they neither live in Belgrade nor are they a citizen […]

The Croatian War of the 1990s, for Croatian political elites, is one of the historical periods often and gladly used to promote crude ethno-nationalism, exploit the suffering of victims, and ignore court-established facts. One event that marked the 1990s and still holds an important place in state commemorations is Operation ‘Pocket ’93’, better known publicly as the military-police operation Medak […]