Photo: Marko Đurica Translation: Luna Đorđević Those who claim that there is no catharsis without an awareness of guilt are right. And perhaps this is the shortest answer to the lack of true dealing with demons of the past. We live amidst a total confusion of values, a quarter of a century removed from the wars in former Yugoslavia. This […]

Currently, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is stuck in the process of adopting a revised National War Crimes Strategy, which has not yet been discussed by the BiH Council of Ministers. I have been reporting on war crimes for many years, and long ago I lost the initial enthusiasm I had that all victims would find justice. Unfortunately, the time to […]

When I was younger, my biggest fear was to sit with Serbs and hear them talking in their language. After the war, every time I would hear them talk, my eyes would fill with tears and my mind would be overrun with images from the war. I thought that as I got older, I would be able to escape these […]

The phrase “dealing with the past” has been worn out for a while in Serbian society. This was done in various ways. For year those who were accused and who have committed war crimes kept repeating that only traitors of Serbian national interests and foreign mercenaries use this phrase. Many believed them. The other side, which never accepted those crimes […]

Almost two decades have passed since the end of the war in Kosovo. For many, memories are still fresh and cannot be forgotten. It is more so, or hardly possible for people who lost family members; for people who lived through various trauma and did not receive any institutional treatment, in other words, none. Also, they had no-one to turn […]

Free access to information is a human right. It is crucial for the development of open and democratic societies, and for ensuring that governments are accountable to their citizens. Through this powerful instrument, which is a key pillar of developed democratic societies, citizens can have insight into how public money is spent, whether public institutions comply with the laws, and […]

We cannot meaningfully speak about the media and the challenge of dealing with the past in Serbia before we answer a few key questions: Is the past even over? Is our present nothing more than our past, thinly veiled? Can a society, and its media, properly deal with the past if it does not seriously deal with the present, due […]

The media is the power to present the world in a certain way. And that is why there are so many different and conflicting ways in which the meaning of the world can be constructed. It is of elementary importance what is presented and who is presenting it, what is being left out and who is doing it, and how […]

At the beginning of 2015, I read a story on Balkan Insight about 170 Serbs, 90 from Kosovo, who were welcoming in another New Year at Krnjača, the last remaining collective centre for refugees in Serbia’s capital. During the wars in the former Yugoslavia, many ethnic Serbs fled from their homes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. In 1999, […]

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first step towards building a better future is one which takes us back to the past. It is necessary for everyone to come back and confront the past events that have characterized them, both as individuals and as part of a collective. Journalists, in particular, should seek and determine the truth behind past events, in […]

Reporting on topics related to Serbia’s wartime past has decreased in Serbia in recent years, including coverage of trials for war crimes and for victims of war crimes and their families. Since the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has ended, and international pressure has weakened, serious issues relating to Serbia’s wartime past have been […]

My participation at the study visit to Buchenwald Memorial Center as a part of the project „Learning lessons from a violent past for a peaceful future” was exceptional experience for me, both, as an individual and as educational expert with significant experience in this field. What is the role and the responsibility of education when dealing with the difficult past […]