“Am I Responsible?”
by Zoran Culafic
Hello and Welcome, from the studios of UN Radio in Kosovo…
Dialogue and reconciliation were the themes in early
February at a conference in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad that drew
together former enemy combatants from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and
Kosovo. The 6 day event was called “Am I responsible?” and according to event
organizers, the conference was designed to challenge the political attempts to
silence the need for reconciliation.
Adnan Dzalkic was a fighter
in a Bosnian Muslim military unit during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992-1993. He
said that confronting the violent legacy left by the Balkan wars was the only
way to assure mutual prosperity for former Yugoslav countries. At the conference, Dzalkic met face to face
with Serb and Croat fighters for the first time since fighting ended in his Bosnian
home in 1995.
Dzalkic
“My general impression is
that I’ve met guys here who have a similar approach and way of thinking to mine.
The truth, however, is also that I’ve met some former fighters who are totally
diehard and who still believe in nationalist ideas that were popular some 15
years ago.”
Fade-In ATMOSPHERE – concert
sound from Serbo-Croatian group…
Hundreds of young people from all of the former combat areas
were also drawn to the event – lured in by popular alternative music and the
chance to understand the violence that claimed more than 250.000 lives and
marked the demise of the former Yugoslavia.
Ivica Petric was a former
Croatian fighter who now heads a war veteran’s organization in Croatia.
Although he was encouraged by the presence of so many young people engaged in
public debate, Petric said he still had his doubts about whether misinformation
spread by generations of ethnic and cultural stereotyping could be overcome.
Petric
“I think that young
people in the majority of cases do not show enough courage to overcome
established frontiers that, let’s say, were passed down according to unwritten and
traditional rules in Balkan societies. But right now we exist in a time when we
must forget such frontiers. We must encourage debates between young people. We must
reveal certain truths and facts that were hidden from us, for political,
military or any other reasons … there must not be secrets any more. And that’s
the only way to start talking to each other.”
ATMOSPHERE – Albanian
hip-hop group – “urban roots”
Anchored by the strong performance
of Kosovo’s most well-known hip-hop outfit, Urban Roots, conference organizers
were surprised by the attendance of a new generation of Kosovar Albanians eager
to join the reconciliation process.
One young Albanian fighter
from Kosovo, Ariantine Abdullah said he was afraid to travel to Serbia because
of the perception that his former military group, the Kosovo Liberation Army,
was a terrorist organization. With the wounds of the 1999 conflict in Kosovo
still fresh for ethnic Albanians, Abdullah said his attendance at the
conference was about gauging whether their was real movement in Serbia for
reconciliation.
Abdullah
“I was most interested
in what Serbs had to say and I realized there is hope that Serbs are starting
to understand what happened in the past, and I realized that in Serbian society
there are young people who understand reality, and in some way they feel
ashamed of the what happened in the past. Unfortunately, there some other
elements like the Serbian youth from nationalistic youth associations that were
completely different.”
Conference
organizers, Urban NS a production company based in the host city Novi Sad,
plans to expand the taped studio debates between former fighters into an 8 part
documentary television series called Restart. Urban NS editor in chief, Marina
Fratucan said that documentary segments are meant to confront the past misdeeds
of older generations.
With
this we end today’s programme – a UN Radio in Kosovo production. Thanks for
listening and stay tuned.