This document summarizes reconciliation efforts in the Balkans after periods of conflict. It discusses the importance of reconciliation occurring at various levels, including politically, socially, and individually. Reconciliation requires acknowledging past wrongs through truth and justice processes, rebuilding trust between former enemies, and finding a shared understanding of history. The document examines challenges like denial of responsibility, struggles with guilt and trauma, and the presence of war criminals in politics. It analyzes mechanisms used in the Balkans, such as international tribunals, truth commissions, and national courts, and their ability to facilitate reconciliation after mass violence and human rights abuses.

1. 1
Peace -
signs along the road
Enver Djuliman
Norwegian Helsinki Committ
www.nhc.no

2. Content
• Reconcilation, Peacebuilding and Transitional
Justice - Clarification of terms.
• Demands of peacebuilding
• Peacebuilding at various levels
• Carriers of reconicilation
• Exempls from West Balkan and South Caucasus
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3. 3
Intruduction
• It is said that a war has its past, its present and its
future
• A man can get out of a war, but the war never
comes out of man
• War continues his own life after they have taken
part in it is dead.

4. A war is a result of forgetting what happened in the
past. Srebrenica happened because we/Europe
forgot Holocaust.
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5. When end a war
• During the siege of Sarajevo, in April 1992, an old man named Cedo,
armed to his teeth, is approaching the Serb positions. Serb soldiers
throw a question at him: ”What are you doing here, old man?” ”I came
to fight” – the old man replies. ”Go home old man, we’ll take care of
this!” – soldiers say dismissingly with a big grin on their face. ”Are
you nuts?!” I had waited for this for fifty years, and now you tell me to
og home!” – the old man protests.
• Why did Cedo wait? Was it possible to do something for him and
many others to make them leave the World War II behind them and
break the chain of continuous revenge instead of living in anticipation
of new conflicts?
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6. Reconicilation
• It is a choice that parties to the conflict take
• An answer to society and individual's needs in
order to proceed the life
• This means that they can agree on common values,
as a basis for community and a new life together
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7. Peacebuilding
• Peacebuilding is the process of creating self-
supporting structures that “remove causes of wars
and offer alternatives to war in situations where
wars might occur.” Conflict resolution
mechanisms “should be built into the structure and
be present there as a reservoir for the system itself
to draw upon, just as a healthy body has the ability
to generate its own antibodies. J.G.
• Peacebuilding requires values, goals,
commitment to human rights and needs.
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8. Transitional Justice is
• a set of judicial and non-judicial measures that
have been implemented by different countries in
order to redress the legacies of massive human
rights abuses. These measures include criminal
prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations
programs, and various kinds of institutional
reforms.
ICTY.
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9. Transitional Justice
• Transitional justice is not a ‘special’ kind of
justice, but an approach to achieving justice in
times of transition from conflict. Aim is to achieve
accountability and redressing victims, provide
recognition of the rights of victims, and promotes
civic trust and strengthens the rule of law.
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10. Reconciliation
• To early?
• For wich period?
• Who formed the process?
• Wich way?
• Who are carrier of reconciliation?
• Who are opponents 10

11. Norway stil reconcilies.
•Arcitect story
•The Norwegian soldiers in SS were never
investigated for what they individually might have
done at the Eastern Front.
•Hamsun
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12. Demands of reconicilation
1. Determination to reconcilation and accept of the
idea of necessity of co-existence
2. Balance between sides in conflict that enables
them to act as equal partners both in negotiations
and in reconciliation process itself
3. Agreement on the definition of reconciliation (a
stolen bike)
4. Mutual understanding of each other's needs
5. Structural changes, a new value system and
culture of peace
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13. The future and the need of reconcilation
Movie ”The Defiant Ones” Starring Sidney Poitier.
Two prisoners, a white and a black man, have
escaped from prison. They are chained and
handcuffed to one another. While running away they
fall into a pit with smooth walls, just like the ones
we have. One prisoner manages to climb to the top
of the pit, but he cannot get out because the other is
laying at the bottom of a pit. The only way for them
to get out of the pit and survive is to climb together.
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14. Demands of reconcilation
6. Changing the conflict ethos.
Individual people's beliefs contribute to the shaped
reality in conflict divided societies. Tese consist
of: perceptions, attitudes, motivations and
behavior of society members
Reconciliation requires the psychological changes
- the transition to the beliefs and attitudes that
support peace and demand establishiing of new
goals and new affiliations releted to these goals.
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15. Demands of reconcilaton
7. Agreeing what truth is ... Concept
8. Truth, acknowledgment, awareness, acceptance,
justice
9. See the historical context of conflict and stood a
"common context
10. Positive cavity and new positive experiences
11. Deconstruction of collective
12. Re-humanisation of "the others".
13. Trust
14. A specific type of knowledge. 15

16. Reconcilation
on different plan
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17. Reconcilation on the political plan
- Identifying sources for the conflict
- Give up the political project or part of it
- Legal proceedings
- Lustration
- Other
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18. Reconcilation on social level
Transition from political system dictatorship/war/
•History
•Culture
•Education
•Language
•Sports
•Economy
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19. Past
Regime of truth.
The culture of lies
- The terror by oblivion (forgetting)
- The terror by memory
- In the former Yugoslavia, you cannot talk about
yourself without touching the subject of History.
- Past is not over as long as we remmember.
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20. Terror by memory
Terror by memory is also a war-time strategy, which erects
barriers and creates differences. We are different from THEM
(Serbs). OUR history, religion, tradition and language is
different from THEIRS. In a war-time version this structure,
which is seated deep in the Croatian public opinion, is used in
the following way: We are different from them (Serbs)
because we are better, which is proved by our history , WE
always build while THEY only destroy since the time
immemorial ; WE are the European Catholic culture while
THEY are nothing but illeterate Orthodox barbarians.
Following this transformation of truths into lies and lies into
truths, citizens will support those who are in majority.
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21. Terror of oblivion
• The country in which they have lived for years suddenly is no longer
theirs. Citizens will have to forget about their past lives in order to
make room for a new life.They will adapt,conform, acquire some
things and renounce others in order to survive, and to provide for the
survival of their children – so that space is freed on some ”higher”
state level for the NEW ( this time, truly new) BRIGHT (this time,
truly bright!) FUTURE (this time, true future!)
• ”Terror by memory” has it’s parallel process in ”terror by oblivion”.
Both processes serve to build a new distorts, resketches and falsifies
historical authenticity. Thus, the most recent history textbooks for
elementary schools replace former heroization and fetishism of Tito
with fetishism of the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman who is
described as the ”architect of Croatian defense”, ”great Croatian
statesman” and ”Croatian man for all times”.
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22. Reconciliation on the individual level
• Both abuser, the victim and society needs
reconciliation
• Who is your enimy
• Experiences of; Betrayal. Dehumanising. Loss.
(the story of two mothers). Guilt. Pointless.
Emptinens.
• Memories – What do we do with them?
• Reconciliation with oneself
• Reconciliation with the new reality and the new
identity.
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23. Adisa, a refugee from Bosnia, once said to
me:
• ”How can one explain something that is inexplicable or irrational?
There are many things that one cannot explain or control, or do
anything with it. It’s beyond me. It’s a difficult question. It’s healthy
to cry… Over and over again. I have to talk about everything that ails
me. I have to get it out. It’s important to be able to cry. As I mature I
find it easier to cry. I couldn’t cry before regardless of how sad a
thing might have been. Now, one text or one song is enought to stir it.
It lays within and it can attack me whenever it wants!” Another
refugee from Bosnia said: If I start talking about ”it”, I will live
through it again. Even nowadays, a few years after, ”it” is sending
signals in the form of nightmares. It is a burden one has to carry in all
spheres of one’s life.”
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24. Traume
• Many are ashamed because of what they were
exposed to. "I can not go back there and once
again live with them when I think about what they
did to me, for I am ashamed that," said an
acquaintance. People were made to the hard
hearted. The result is that victims must live on one
or the other way with the many traumas whole
life. These are perceived not only as life events,
but as something that defines life, which forms the
further life.
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25. Reconciliation with oneself
• Significant relationships in existence changes -
relationships with oneself, one's body, to other
people, to life, to the future and to society.
To deal with this later and regain a belief that
something of this can be restored, involves an
extensive process that requires adjustment and
processing of the individual.
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26. Reconciliation with the new reality
• You are not from here?
• She does not know the about my river!
• New names of cities and streets
Destruction of cultural memories
• Exclusion from the cultural community.
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27. Life after:
Ardita, a 20 year old refugee from
Kosovo, said by her arrival in Norway in march
1999 the following:
• ”I will never trust Serbs and I will teach my
children to never trust them. That way it will
continue through generations”.
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28. • Who are your enemy-ies?
• This reconciliation. If the means
that this being is human again,
if it gives us back our own
human dignity, then I accept it
• What do I get out of reconciliation?
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29. Some storyes from the war.
- Indifference
- The traffic of war
- Nothing is like a pair of soldier boots
- Losing ones voice
- Next time we come
- An afternoon of ”ethnical cleansing”
- About my father
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30. Dilemmas
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31. Guilt
• An unavoidable question
• Harmonization of guilt
• Relativization of guilt
• Denial.
• Who is here to blame?
• Individual/colectiv guilt
• Jasper’s perception of guilt
- Criminal guilt
- Political guilt
- Moral guilt
- Metaphysical guilt
- How can we draw a line between common
responsibility and common
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32. De-nacification and de-collectivisation of
guilt
• National elites try to densificate guilt: But:
• Atrocities occurred to those who belong to
another ethnic group
• War crimes were done on behalf of their
own ethnic group
• Individuals are product of comunity
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33. Denial
We’ve all read the same books, listened to the same
music, played the same games.
- Didn’t they see what I saw?
- Didn’t they care?
- Did they think it wasn’t wrong?
• Denial: Complete denial, discreditation (?) of
those who ask questions, change of meaning of
terms, relativisation, justifying.
• Accept?
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34. Truth
- The culture of truth
- A developing culture which will explain history
- -------
1. Denial
2. Acknowledgement
3. Research
4. Awareness/Consciousness
5. Accepting ones guilt
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35. Justice
• Delay of legal proceedings may delay or even prevent
restoration of trust.
• To abstain from justice in the name of reconciliation has
been proved to give no result. It leads to equalizing of
guilt.
• Without legal proceedings the perception of justice might
change.
• Facing the past creates space in the society where trust and
reconciliation is possible.
• Legal proceedings are not cases that only concern the
victim and the criminals, they are vital for the entire
society and will become a part of a common history.
• Reconciliation or justice?
• Diferent types of justce.
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36. • If only it were that simple! If only there were evil
people somewhere insidiously committing evil
deeds and it were necessary to separate them from
the rest of us and destroy them. But the line
dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of
every human being. And who is willing to destroy
a piece of his own heart?
Alexander Solsjenitsyn
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37. The international criminal tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia in Hague
Advantages
- Reveal the actual truth
- Qualifies crimes
- Results can found basis for common
understanding of what has happened.
Disadvantages
- Covers mainly the juridical part
- Limited number of cases
- Understod as political and unjust
- Far from those who were involved in the conflict
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38. National Court
• Lack support
• Lack co-operation between states. (Extradition
problems - Bosnia-Croatia-Serbia)
• Lack of trust
• Lack of resources
• But yet there is progress
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39. The international legal proceedings weaken
Authorities in different countries on Balkan use:
• USA and ICC
- Law about court
- Bilateral agreements
• International alliance in war in Iraq an Afganistan
• Use of torture in war against terror
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40. War criminals
• Lustration
• They still rule in the political life.
• Idealized as heroes
• They and their families receive economical
support
• Reside in wealthy countries
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41. Special half day tour- Radovan
Karadjic
Departure from Belgrade city center – Nikola Pasic Square. Arrival at
New Belgrade, where last Radovan Karadzic residence was – Block 45
and Jurija Gagarina St. First, we will follow Karadzic morning and go
to the bakery shop for a breakfast - home made potato pie, which
was his favorite morning meal, since he was well known by eating
mostly ascetic food. Of course, morning is a right time to check daily
news and after crossing a street from bakery shop, we will say good
morning to the local kiosk and buy some newspaper. By walking
through the park, we will visit grocery shop where Karadzic was
favorite customer. After a short break in a park, checking newspaper
and chat with his neighbors, maybe with one cold beer on foot, we
will end up on front of the building where he used to live as well as
bus station of 73 city bus line and take some photos for a memory.
Luda kuca local pub is waiting for us as a best part of a tour. So, in
this rustic ambient, we will try to enjoy like he used to, maybe
catching some memories and moments of his stormful life,with glass
of wine– (Bear’s blood), snack and sounds of Serbian national
stringed instrument called – gusle. Before ending this fabulous tour,
we need to check famous pancakes in Pinocchio pancake shop,
located in old town of Zemun. Of course, specialty that waits for us is
Karadzic pancake.On our return to the city center, we will have
panorama sightseeing of Special Court, where, after he was captured,
Karadzic stays before going to Hag. 41

42. Truth Comisions: Goals
Cast light on historical, political, social, ethical, economical
and other environments which took place pre and during
the conflict
• Contributes to facts being confirmed and for the truth
coming out.
• Decolection of guilt
• Being part of building a minimal of common
understanding of what has happened so that this will be the
foundation for common history.
• A part of restoring the value of justice
• Both victims and offenders get seen and heard
• Shows us how a society works in connection with assaults
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43. West Balkan
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44. Immigrans
• Think with their legs
• With one leg in two boats at the same time
• No mans land/ Neither here nor there.
The new ”place” is often in contrast with his nature. The
architecture isn’t “hes”
Is an indefatigable collector of the dust of his memories
• Works with refugee tourism
• Does not consider oneself equal to others (because of the
history he carries) It might attack him anytime
• It’s very lonely in exile
• Never goes back to what he once left
• This is an identity 44

45. Losses in connection with the escape
• Majority - Minority
• Network
• Psychological mirrors (All those who were around and
used to speak the same emotional language ) which gave
the right response to what they said and did- a new group
of people arrive and they think and act differently
• Often have resurces wich er no needed
• Role Identity:
In his home country Ali was a father, a brother, a uncle, a
cousin, a nephew….In Norway he’s an immigrant, a
person who applied for political asylum, a Pakistani and a
minority.
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46. • Status
• Education
• Language
• Work ”refugee professions”
• One feels one is a ”reduced” person
• Social competence
• History – No one is familiar with your history
• Authority
When Immigrants become aware of all of these losses they
begin to long back home. Then one can start talking
negatively about Norway instead of finding a solution to
the problem. 46

47. Arriving to Norway
• Refugee, for the first time in ones life
• Are you a Muslim?
• Immigrants have become Muslims
• Tabula rasa
• You have skills which Norway has no need for.
• You are reduced to being a refugee and immigrant
• They write about you, positively?
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48. Western Balkan - Two long term programs
1. Peace schools for Youth in Former Yugoslavia: 1999-2014.
•350 schools.
•12 000 participans.
2. Build Bridges, Not Walls – Intercultural Understanding and Human
Rights at Universities in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Serbia and Kosova
-14 semesters held at 5 partner universities.
-Corner of Human rights and Peacebuilding
-5 conferences on Role of universities in peacebuilding
-book with recommendations of Role of Universities..Sarajevo
Declaration…
•http://www.nhc.no/no/vart_arbeid/prosjekter/The+role+of+universities+in+peacebuilding.b7C_wlfS3a
•
http://nhc.no/no/nyheter/Strengthening+the+role+of+universities+in+peacebuilding+in+the+Western+B
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49. • There’s a strange situation on the Balkan
between the ethnic groups. They like each
other and hate each other, but are unable to
reach each other. (Merlin)
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50. South Caucasus
• Project: Coalition for trust
The “Coalition for Trust”, a three-year regional project funded by the
European Commission and co-funded by the Norwegian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, started in late 2012 and it operates in all the entities of
the South Caucasus. It aims to restore trust and build people-to-people
contacts by opening up new perspectives on conflict transformation.
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51. THANK
YOU!!!
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