Monument-related practice in post-conflict societies and countries is an indispensable part of the analysis of the process of ”facing the past”. The policy of memorialisation makes it possible, to a certain degree, to determine up to what extent a certain society faced its own past and decided what will be part of the collective and public remembrance, and what will […]

The times were the way they were – there was fear, anarchy, destruction. I hid Tito in the basement. If I hadn’t done that, they would have destroyed him or melted him. One does not know what is worse. These are paraphrased sentences (except for the authentic one about the statue: ”I hid Tito”) of a person working at the […]

Coping with stressful events, those psychological imprints, could mean coping with one’s own future. If we consider ourselves victims of negative past experiences, we can look at our future in a depressive and agonizing way, and vice versa. However, the biggest ”natural gift” that has been given to humanity is their (our) freedom to choose between various alternatives. Hence, we […]

I was a child when the war happened in Kosovo. Inside my eyes of a child, I hold three crystal-clear memories. Our window overlooked a neighborhood where Serbian forces were deporting people and were breaking the main doors of apartment buildings. There are three families huddling together inside a room where the candle is hidden under the table so it […]

This spring marks the 18th anniversary of the NATO bombardment of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The anniversary of air strikes was commemorated during an event in Grdelička klisura, where passenger railcars were hit, as well as during a series of requiems throughout Serbia. Serbia used this anniversary, just as it used all previous ones, to deepen and strengthen […]

You will not get instructions for use for a life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is not even a parental advisory label, although it would be useful. A first grader dear to my heart dispiritedly described his first day of school in Sarajevo Canton: ”They played a song for us, we stood up and put a hand on our heart”. […]