Dealing with the Past in the Former Yugoslavia

Dealing with the past is one of the hardest things for societies and individuals alike. In the American context, it is hard enough for people to get through history classes in school in order to learn about their own supposed past. After all that work, it is even harder for those same Americans to learn and accept that much of the distant history they spent so much time learning was full of lies and biases. For people in a region like the former Yugoslavia who very recently suffered through a horrendous war in which all sides committed horrendous acts, the idea of facing the past is almost unimaginable. In the years that have passed since the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the region has truly become a "laboratory" for learning about dispelling fear and building trust after conflict.

Numerous approaches to dealing with the past have been attempted or proposed in the former Yugoslavia. Svetlana Broz's unique approach is to document and spread "hero" stories in which someone was helped by a member of a different ethnic group during the war. These stories can be comforting to people as they learn that members of their own ethnic groups did terrible things during the war, because the stories prove that not everyone from that ethnic group was "bad." Likewise, the stories can be useful in teaching people that not all members of another ethnic group were "bad." The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, on the other hand, devotes much of its energy to teaching people about the "bad" things that happened (as opposed to Broz's method of focusing on the "good"). One method they employ towards that end is to have victims of war crimes speak to young people of the same ethic group that perpetrated crimes against them. Although this approach is not very uplifting for anyone involved, the YIHR feels it is important for every ethnic group to be put face-to-face with its terrible past. Still another approach, advocated by Jakob Finci, is to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the region. Finci feels that having a public recounting of the horrors of the conflict may be the only way to overcome the effects of the propaganda that existed (and exists) throughout the former Yugoslavia. Creative and varied approaches such as these are necessary to overcome the many obstacles to dealing with the past in a post-conflict situation.

Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia are all at different stages in the process of generating discussion about the past. This is primarily because each country experienced the conflict in such fundamentally different ways. Serbians, for instance, are still generally in a state of denial regarding their past in the war. Members of the Serbian Parliament described the average Serb response to a video of Serbs committing war crimes as being one of "shock," and made excuses to explain why Serbs were so unaware of such events. This can be partially explained by the fact that most of the fighting occurred in Bosnia rather than Serbia. Also, because Serbs were somewhat demonized by the international community and media, they are naturally defensive about what happened during the war since no one wants to consider him- or herself as "bad." Because Bosnians actually lived through the war as it happened around them, and are generally considered the primary "victims" of the conflict, they are much more ready to accept the past. Croatians, on the other hand, rather than denying or accepting the past, are more inclined to simply forget about it. Because they were generally portrayed as playing a minor side role in the war by the international media, Croatians are much more able to look to the future and separate themselves from the past than are Bosnians and Serbians. Because each country is in such a different stage of dealing with the past, each country will require a different approach or approaches as it goes about that process.

We have learned a lot from the "laboratory" of dealing with the past in the Balkans, and I am confident that there is still much to learn in the coming years. Although societies and individuals are hesitant to accept that members of the "in group" have done that "bad" things in the past, it is possible for them to do so if they are introduced to the facts in a way that works. So far, my impression of the "results" from the Balkan "laboratory" is that the most effective approaches to dealing with the past are those that work at the individual level, one person at a time. Although this is somewhat disheartening because it is very difficult and time consuming to heal an entire society one person at a time, it is also inspiring. It shows that something can actually induce these poor people to face their horrible past, which means that if we devote enough energy to it, even the supposedly "impossible" can become reality.