UNMIK on AIR

December 5^th 2003

Time of apologizing

(By Andrea Saula)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on AIR .

Something seems to be happening in the Balkans of late – state officials actually using the words “I want to apologize” for the atrocities committed in the last decade, something unthinkable even six months ago. But Svetozar Marovic, the president of the State Union of Serbia & Montenegro did it a second time recently – and followed up on a historic apology to Croatia by apologizing to the people of Bosnia in Sarajevo.

Of course, words will not undo past tragedies, but any expression of remorse and goodwill can only be hailed as positive in a region still fraught. And of course there will be endless speculation about the motives for such a move, but at the very least, nobody will ever think again that an apology is impossible.

But the apology went down differently in Bosnia compared to the reception in Croatia. The perception of Serbia is heavily colored by the complexity of the Bosnian war, far bloodier than in Croatia as well as the current structure of the Bosnia and Herzegovina state. The continuing political instability in Serbia and the growing influence of right wing parties in the region further complicates the conditions in which the apologies taking place. Not to mention that the Bosnian war left some 250.000 fatalities and an equal number of refugees, a totally devastated infrastructure and that some of the biggest war criminals like Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are still free.

Emir Imamovic is the editor in chief of the news magazine “BH Dani” in Sarajevo. For him Marovic’s words are no great shakes, it was essentially a political act.

Emir Imamovic: There was very little reaction from the public Intellectual circles and political analysts gave to Svetozar Marovic the role that he deserves. Mr. Marovic was an extra but also played a lead role in the past in the Balkans. Nothing has really changed anywhere in the Balkans. There are some significant cosmetic changes at the top, like the transformation of Svetozar Marovic, from being the state clerk in Milosoevic’s time to the man who apologizes and has words of understanding.

Plenty of reaction in Belgrade though, and according to Sonja Biserko, of the Helsinki committee for Human Rights, much of it negative. Serbia, she says, still tries to deny recent history. Hard liners in Belgrade said there is no reason for Marovic to say something like that, while others asked for a similar apology from the other side. But the apology was important, emphasizes Biserko, especially for Serbia itself.

Sonja Biserko: The majority is against an apology. In Serbia there is still no understanding for the kinds of gestures that are aimed at re-building bridges with neighbors that suffered in previous wars. Those gestures are not enough. But if one takes into consideration, the kind of the region we live in, how brutal it is, those statements do imply some improvement. That’s a pre condition for thrust between people. That’s why I think that no matter how big the importance of an individual act, this gesture is significant, and especially for Serbia that still refuses to look at the past.

But refusals and denials are happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. Under the Dayton peace agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is one state consisting of two entities, the Bosnian federation and Republika Srpska. But the two mostly function as two totally separate entities, and adds Emir Imamovic, this explains the different reactions to the Marovic apology.

Emir Imamovic: Bosnia is a specific country. In Bosnia the president of Serbia & Montenegro gave an apology but Serbian representative in Bosnian presidency didn’t accept that apology. So there can be no positive consequences.

Nenad Sebek heads the “Center for democracy and reconciliation”, an organization based in the northern Greek city of Thessalonica. His center has been spearheading the campaign for apologies between Balkan countries. Sebek says that an apology can be considered to be just a symbol, but then, he adds, even wars have been based on symbols.

Nenad Sebek: The wars in the former Yugoslavia were immediately accompanied with a lot of symbolism, if you remember the cetnik’s, the ustasa’s symbolisms and all that which sort of came up after 40 years being dead and burred. In a similar way, we believe that a symbolic gesture, the likes of an apology of this kind, would help bring about general reconciliation.

The point is, stresses Sebek, is to find the right time to make an apology. Reconciliation is clearly not taking place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he says, pointing to the low rate of minority returns.

Nenad Sebek: Whether the time is right or not, frankly speaking, I’m sad to say so; I do not think that it is necessarily right. Maybe the time was right for a gesture like this between Serbs and Croats, between Serbia and Croatia, but maybe it’s not right for Bosnia and maybe it’s not right for Kosovo.

Maybe there will never be a right time. Misunderstanding is deep between the former enemies. And of course the huge outstanding issue – the charges of genocide that Serbian officials have to answer to at the International Court of Justice in Den Haag. Cynics will dismiss the apology as part of Serbian diplomatic efforts to persuade Bosnia to drop the case. But under that gray “political reality” there is something happening on the ground. Emir Imamovic again

Emir Imamovic: If we look at relations between Serbia & Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina from the point of view of ordinary people, we can say that there are no problems. You can go without any problems from Bosnia to Serbia and of course people from Serbia are coming here. It is not a problem if somebody from Sarajevo wants to go to Belgrade to work or vice versa. I haven’t heard of anyone being tortured or harassed at border crossings or police checkpoints.

A Macedonian dramatist once described the entire Balkans as an absurd area in his play “mamu mu. ko je prvi poceo” “damn, who started the war”. Who should the first to apologize could be the title of a follow-up play perhaps – one can argue that the one who started the war should be the first to say I’m sorry…but that won’t necessarily change the everyday life of common people.

And that all for this edition of UNMIK on Air. Thanks for listening