Presentation documenta ukraine_slaven raskovic

1. Dealing with the past – restorative
techniques for social coherence in
Croatia

2. Break-up of Yugoslavia
Slovenia
1991
Sloveni
a
Croatia
1991 –
1995
Croatia
Bosnia &
Herzegovina
1992 – 1995
Bosnia &
Herzegovina
Kosovo
Kosov
1998 –
o
1999 Macedoni
Macedonia a
2001

3. War in Croatia 1991 - 1995
Ethnic map of Croatia War affected areas

4. Human rights violations 1991 - 1995
Fall of Vukovar 1991 Operation Storm 1995

5. Post-war developments
Unprosecuted
war crimes
Divided
communities
(ethnically
polarized)
Incomplete
records of
human losses
Legalized
official
narratives
Patriarchal –
heroic
discourse in
memorializatio
n

6. Post-war developments
Divided
communities
(ethnically
polarized)
Divided
history
Divided
memory
Divided
lives
Divided
future?

7. Documenta
Center for Dealing with the Past – Established in 2005
Culture of
Memory
Documentin
g human
losses 1991
-1995
Monitorin
g war
crime
trials
Oral
history
program
History
education
Vision: „Towards a sustainable peace by dealing with the
past”

8. Croatian Memories:
Unveiling personal memories
on war and detention
Collecting personal memories in post-war Croatia

9. Limitations of oral history
Subjectivity
Selectivity
Conditionalit
y

10. Advantages of oral history
1
Giving voice to marginalized
or neglected groups
(“history from below”)

11. Advantages of oral history
2
Putting a human face
on historical events
(“flesh on the bones of historical books”)

12. Advantages of oral history
3
Deconstruction of
official narratives

13. Advantages of oral history
4
Showing the human face of
Others whose stories were told in
a pejorative or relativizing context

14. Advantages of oral history
5
Getting insight into
personal experiences

15. Target groups of interviewees
 Civilian war victims
 Marginalized groups (women, national minorities,
peasants...)
 Family members of killed and missing persons
 War veterans
 Refugees and IDP
 Political prisoners
 Human rights activists
 War correspondents and journalist

16. Questionnaire
 Semi-structured – open questions
 Introduction
 Family history
 Identity
 Life before the war
 First signs of the war
 Beginning of the war
 The war (personal losses, human rights violations,
refugees...)
 End of the war
 Life after the war

17. Usage of oral history material
Educational material
Scientific research
Exhibitions
Theater plays

18. Unveiling personal memories
on war and detention
 http://www.croatianmemories.org/en/video-archive/
unveiling-personal-memories-on-war-and-detention/

19. Monitoring War Crimes Trials
 Goal:
 Strengthening the rule of law in the area of war crimes
proceedings by increased efficiency and improved legal
framework for the war crimes proceedings as well as the
improvement of the victim’s status in the proceeding

20. Monitoring War Crimes Trials
 All war crimes trials at the courts of the Republic of
Croatia are monitored, including the revisions of the
previous proceedings conducted in absence of accused
persons
 The number of war crimes trials at the County courts in
the Republic of Croatia is continuously relativelly high
(23-34 trials which includes approximately 100
defendants per year)

21. Culture of Memory
 Goal:
 is to systematically educate about politics of
remembrance, practices of marking sites of violence and
commemorative culture in Croatia and the wider region

22. Culture of Memory
 historical interpretation of crimes which marked the
20th century, as well as sites of memory and
commemorations related to them, have often been
subject to political manipulations and have served as
an excuse for new cycles of violence
 we want to make a modest contribution to the
acknowledgement of suffering of all victims

23. History and Civic Education
 Goal:
 Systematic teaching about twentieth century conflicts,
forms of political repression and propaganda, war
suffering, war heritage and war narratives are
neccessary for peace education and sustainable peace
development.

24. History and Civic Education
 In the year 2007 Documenta published Supplement
for history textbooks on recent history, which caused
a lively debate. Today, most of the controversial
contents and methods used in theSupplement are
today a standard part of history textbooks.

25. Thank You!
 Slaven Rašković
 slaven.raskovic@documenta.hr
 Documenta – Center for Dealing with the past
 www.documenta.hr