Moves That Are Turning Into a Process

Goran Božičević[1]

Moves that are turning into a process

The conclusion of the research conducted in Croatia for QPSW[2] in 2003 is: there is no systematic, accountable and structured confrontation with the past in Croatia, but there is growing concern within the civil society about the problems incurred by the lack of such a confrontation. Two different approaches can be discerned: individual work with particular persons or target groups and advocacy that could influence changing the public opinion and decision-makers. Both levels are necessary and they should unfold simultaneously.

In the meantime, the change, important and unexpected, came from the top. Upon the announcement of the first electoral results, when it was clear that HDZ was coming back to power, I felt, similar to, probably, greater part of the civil societyin Croatia, a certain “tweak in my stomach”. The memory of the rule of HDZ in the 1990s, with the question, “Again?” However, one should admit that the Government of Ivo Sanader did more than anyone had expected as far as the confrontation with the past is concerned. Although untrue, the thesis that within less than a year from the return of HDZ (the end of 2003), it was done more on the issue of reconciliation than in the last ten years is as much illustrative as it is provocative.

i)The surviving members of the family Zec were reimbursed (which was the indirect acknowledgment of the state responsibility for the murders)

ii)The widow and the son of Milan Levar, the informant witness of the Hague Tribunal were reimbursed as well

iii)On the same day, the Juro Francetić’s monument was evicted (this was attempted by various NGOs and individuals), as well as the commemorative plaque to Milo Budak

iv)The six high rank generals of the so called Croatian Republic of Herzeg Bosnia and another two generals connected to the operation “Oluja[3]” were successfully and promptly delivered to the Hague. The farewell meeting was attended by tens and not thousands of people, as predicted by Slobodan Praljak – one of six generals, just one night before delivery.

v)At the recently held conference of the Fund for the Humanitarian Law” on the topic of Confronting the past, State Prosecutors of both Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro were discussing the common problems together.

vi)Ivo Sanader is the first Croatian Prime Minister visiting Serbia and Montenegro: “There is no alternative to cooperation.”

Together with the preparation to the accession to the EU, the debts from the past need to be paid and this government has started to do so. Croatian politics is entirely subjected to the goals of entering the EU and “Euro- Atlantic integrations” i.e. NATO (the means to achieve this goal is another large issue) and there is little space for maneuver regarding this issue for any government. The rhetoric has been changed so that now the Croatian officials describe Croatia as a bridge/connection between the region and the EU and promote “good-neighborhood partnership”

In this period the civil sector starts dealing with the issue of facing the past in a more consistent way. Especially media and artists are involved in this issue to a lot greater extent than many NGOs that were expected to do so. Nevertheless, some NGOs are shifting from dealing with the present to an open confrontation with the events in the 1990s. After the movie “Oluja over Krajina[4], the documentary production of FACTUM from Zagreb brought “Paviljon 22” and the recent movie on crimes in the Lora from Split as well. The student of film direction Goran Dević, after the success of his awarded Sisak[5]story, the parabola on the birth of fascism (“these are not our crows”) shoots a documentary on the murder of Ljubica Solar.

The news of the day on the Croatian civil scene could be the foundation of “Documenta”-The center for confronting the past. It was founded on 18 October 2004 by the joint action of the Center for Peace, non-violence and human rights from Osijek, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Zagreb, The center for Peace studies and the Civil committee for Human Rights. It is both interesting and indicative that the documentation in Croatia (although “Documenta” does not intend to deal only with documents) is dispersed, disordered and in fact unavailable. The Fund for Humanitarian Law from Belgrade, The research- documentary center form Sarajevo, and the board that initiated the foundation of Documenta from Zagreb signed a protocol on cooperation, in Sarajevo on 6th April 2004.

Valuable and important steps during 2004 were made in the cooperation between different organizations that deal with the disappeared and other victims of war (the work of International Commission for Missing Persons) as well as between the associations of former soldiers. The public was refreshed (shocked would be the appropriate word for some), by the cooperation between “The association of demilitarized war veterans of the ‘patriotic war’ from Šibenik and the war veteran organizations from Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the project: “In the future with truth”. The initiative “The veterans of war for the peace”, in the School of peace in Mrkoplje,” last June, managed to gather for the first time representatives from the war veterans and peace/human rights organizations in the effort to combat mutual prejudice and plan the joint further steps.

Last summer was marked by demystification of the taboo on the murders in Osijek during the war in 1991. Many citizens called the Center for Peace with relevant data and testimonies. The Zagreb conference of NGO Igman Initiative held in Fall 2004, gathering over 150 NGOs from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, managed to attract the Heads of State of Croatia and BIH and appeared on the front covers of daily newspapers with the incredible: “The confrontation with the past is the priority”.

Simultaneously, the revisions of numerous scandalous cases of trials in absence and the cases such as Lora from Split, Paulin Dvor etc. as well as the constant strengthening of independence and professionalism of judges, reflect the progress made in judiciary.

Last year and even further in the past, was very lively in the field of confrontation with our own darkness from the 1990s. A series of steps of which only a couple have been mentioned, together with the simultaneous work on both levels, individual and public, lends hope that the Confrontation with the past in Croatia is a process and not a trend.

“Croatia is becoming an ordered, conservative and a boring country where nothing interesting is happening” - I heard recently from a friend –sociologist. I would just add, “economically ever more stabilized”. Although this might seem to many from the territory of the former Yugoslavia like an attractive description of the future, it hides a great danger of silence regarding the dark side of wars in the 1990s.

The necessity of complying with the EU standards, and the normalization of the relations with the neighbors does not imply haste in oblivion of crimes. On the contrary, “there is no alternative to cooperation”, meaning the cooperation in all fields, with the simultaneous “cleansing of everyone’s own yard” so that “we do not seek the common truth as we try to narrow the space left for silence and lies” about the events from the recent past. (as one of this VDS conference participants appositely defined the Confrontation with the past).

A lot of work lies before Croatia on its road towards facing its crimes, in fact, crimes committed in the name of Croatia by the people from the state bodies, and all other forms of crimes committed during the wars in the 90s. However, this job looks more feasible today than it looked one or two years ago.

[1]Quaker Peace & Social Witness, representative in Croatia & Miramida Centar, Grožnjan, instructor.

E-mail:

[2]Kesić, V. A report about research on confronting the past in Croatia, Zagreb:QPSW.

[3] The Storm

[4] The movie on expulsion of Serbs from Croatian province Krajina.

[5] The town in Croatia