PROJECTS

INFO::: Projects > Opening a Dialogue on the Recent Past within the Serbian Society

OPENING A DIALOGUE ON THE RECENT PAST
‘WITHIN’ THE SERBIAN SOCIETY

The project continues and extends the pioneer dialogue opened in late 2006 with the panel discussion titled "What Blocs the Process of Facing the Past in Serbia?", i.e. the public debate 'within' the civil society the purpose of which is to enlarge the area for well-argued stands on the recent past rather than fuel mutual accusations or induce mutual excuses. So planned dialogue 'within' Serbia's civil sector - marked by figures with clear-cut political profiles - can only advance the civil sector's role of a political corrective and outline the guidelines for the establishment of a moral minimum for the Serbian society. The second task of the project - realized through six thematic sessions on key issues of the recent past - is to present the argumentation that crystallizes different positions taken by a part of Serbia's intelligentsia, and - by providing "representative samples" for the measurement of social capability for confronting the past - detect inasmuch as possible the society's intellectual potential for moving towards Europeanization and genuine normalization in the region. The third task of the project it to display, through well-grounded argumentation, the manner in which the system of denial and fabrication of "truths" operates in Serbia, particularly after the death of Slobodan Milosevic shortly before being sentenced by the ITCY.

The project is implemented with the assistance of the Fund for an Open Society.

PANEL: LEGACY OF MILOSEVIC TRIAL

Geoffrey Nice Statement

31 March 2007

Some 13 months before Milosevic died I started drafting the closing argument. This, in edited form, may have appeared in the final version. It reads: "As the Defense case advanced it may have been possible to mark out the relevant background material from the irrelevant history over which no Trial Chamber here should attempt to judge. The Prosecution's view was often not at odds with Defense witnesses as to which events were significant, even if we did not agree as to the interpretation of those events. The Prosecution argues for detailed examination to start no earlier than in 1966 with the removal of Rankovic or with the reforms of 1968 to 1971 leading to the Constitution of 1974. After all, it may be thought, events...

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: A PART OF THE SERBIAN NATIONAL PROJECT

07/09/2007

Historians Latinka Perovic and Olivera Milosavljevic told today's conference "Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Part of the Serbian National Project" - organized by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia - that Serbia's nationalistic elites still strongly aspire to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Such aspirations, as they put it, considerably jeopardize Bosnia's society. For her part, Sonja Biserko, chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, suggested a revision of the Dayton Peace Accords. Sonja Biserko underlines that the issue of Bosnia-Herzegovina is crucial for all future processes in the Balkans, which is why the international community should take a more responsible and by far more...