Murals and textbooks
Revisionist narratives and outright denial have seeped into many walks of life in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and elsewhere. In the former, murals of Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladic – both of whom have been found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) – litter the facades of schools and other public buildings; glorifying their image and legacies before the most innocent of souls.
Other sites of rape, torture, and murder are being marketed to tourists, who often remain oblivious to the blood that has been spilt on these grounds (a recently launched petition calls upon Google to remove Vilina Vlas hotel’s listing as a tourist site). Segregated education systems teach their own potted versions of history, with crimes perpetrated in the community’s name erased from the syllabus and textbooks. Hope springs eternal from younger generations prepared to ask questions of their elders about the genocide and crimes against humanity – how such atrocities were facilitated, what they themselves did during those times, and why memories are now being obliterated. Sadly, such voices are either mute, departed, or yet to be formed.
Dealing with the past
Transitional justice barely raises a whisper, save for laudable efforts to establish a regional commission to establish the facts about all victims of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and to combat wartime sexual violence (a cause the British government has championed). A strategy painstakingly drafted several years ago rests in a bottom drawer somewhere, unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon. There is no framework for dealing with the past, even for those amenable to the very idea; whether these include institutional mechanisms for establishing facts about the past or databases of all victims (the living and the dead). Tackling trauma – including that passed on from one generation to the next – remains a taboo and psycho-social support is insufficient.
Civilian victims of the war face almost daily discrimination and neglect. Many survivors of Srebrenica and their offspring are still living in camps such as Jezevac and Mihatovići. There is no victim-centered approach to rehabilitation, let alone reparations. The country’s political deadlock, including where fundamental human rights matters are concerned (for instance, the Sejdić-Finci case), has driven such concerns further down the list of priorities, to the neglect of all victims, regardless of their identity.
Print
Ian Bancroft | Radio Free (2020-07-10T12:29:31+00:00) Srebrenica – the obliteration of memory. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/07/10/srebrenica-the-obliteration-of-memory/
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