Every time I knock on the doors of families of the missing, the experience is unique. Every repeated knock is accompanied by the conscious fear that I am about to reopen old wounds. The latest experience was not any different than the other times when I have tackled this topic.   Some months ago, I went to meet Ajshe Shehu, […]

Photo: Media Center Belgrade Translation: Luna Đorđević The previous year hasn’t brought many changes when it comes to dealing with the past in Serbia. Everything mostly stayed the same – the inactivity of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, the non-existence of a clear commitment from the government to finally deal with the violent past and the continuation of […]

While in a second it seemed that the ‘invisible enemy’ in BH did not choose between ethnicities, and that now, all Serbs and Bosniaks and Croats have a common enemy or danger – but, that second evaporated before sparking enough to feel any unity. ‘We haven’t learned anything,’ I heard somewhere. ‘All this is reminiscent of war,’ I also heard. […]

A few days ago we were talking with a friend about a family culture of remembrance, and about the conspiracy of silence that exists in almost all families, that is, there is a tacit agreement not to discuss family war. She pointed out that the only time her mother talked about it was when she told her that in all […]

On the night of April 4 – 5, 1992, the siege of the city of Sarajevo, one of the longest-standing sieges in modern war history, began and lasted until February 29, 1996. Sarajevo was under siege for 1,425 days and 13,952 people were killed during the four years, or 14.54% of the total human loss in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A […]

It seemed to me that after 30 and a few years of journalistic practice, nothing could astonish me, but wow! When I visited Banja Luka’s Correctional Institution, better known as the Tunjice Prison. The head of the department responsible for educational work with prisoners took me to the workshop in which Christian prisoners, in a Christian way, make icons in […]

Regarding the publication Naming War Crimes by their Real Name Legal regulation of the prohibition of denial, minimizing, justification or approval of genocide, Holocaust, crimes against humanity or war crimes Almost twenty-five years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still perceived as a country in transition. In addition, it should also be emphasized that […]

Photo by:  tacno.net / With Study: NAMING WAR CRIMES BY RIGHT NAME Legal regulation prohibiting the negation, denial, minimizing, justification or approval of genocide, Holocaust, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Authors: Lejla Gačanica and Caroline Finkeldey. Publisher: forumZFD – TRIAL International, Sarajevo, December 2019. Written by: Nerzuk Ćurak Although the pandemic of the Corona virus has greatly reduced people’s […]

How we, as a society, faced with the past, could also be heard recently from the stands of the Banja Luka City Stadium. The only question is what is more defeating: Is that young people, instead of celebrating sports, celebrate hatred and slaughter – "The knife, the wire for Srebrenica", or the silence of those who should not be silent. […]

Transitional justice   When you hear or read the term "transitional justice," you think of a specific kind of justice. In fact, it is a whole set of activities carried out in societies in transition that generally lead to the establishment of justice and the rule of law. This discipline finds its purpose primarily in the need for societies to […]

You know how we always repeat why memories are important and what matters is what we remember about the past? Especially the way memories are transferred and what is ‘saved’ in the collective memory of society. What we remember determines the present and what we are as members of a certain group, collective, community. Our memories are woven into our […]

I remember after the war was over, very soon the public started talking about dealing with the past, and started organizing workshops, the main goal of which was to deal with all those who have any trauma from the war. The media followed the current topic at the time, constantly reminding us of what our past was like. It was […]