Page 502 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

1142 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

War memorials in Bosnia and Herzegovina – provocations
or places for dialogue?

Anida SoKol

n Bosnia and Herzegovina and the area of former Yugoslavia, in the last two dec-
I ades, there was a memorial-building boom connected to the Yugoslav Wars. Each
side hurried to fortify its interpretation of wartime events and honor its victims. In Bos-
nia and Herzegovina this was especially chaotic and uncontrolled due to the lack of a
coordinated approach to memorialization. Today, in almost every municipality in Bosnia
and Herzegovina there are memorials dedicated to events or people connected to the last
war (1992-1995). They are mostly static physical representations dedicated to military
and civilian victims of one ethno-national group (Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats) or to their
1
military formations. Numerous plaques can be found near the locations of atrocities or
on the walls of mosques and churches, while larger monuments are placed in central
squares, in front of public institutions and in places of burial. Less common are memo-
rial centers such as the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Centre for the victims of the geno-
cide in Srebrenica or “alternative” memory initiatives such as Sarajevo Roses, concrete
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scars caused by the explosions of mortar shells painted in red color. Until now, there are
no official records of how many memorials have been built and what has been the cost.
Instead of fostering reconciliation and the process of coming to grips with the past,
war memorials in Bosnia and Herzegovina reflect one-sided interpretations of the war
and only deepen the already existing ethno-national tensions. The war ended with no
victorious and defeated side and three mutually exclusive narratives about wartime
events and actors that are making up part of the national identities. The Dayton Peace
Accords created a high level of decentralization and a complex political system divided
into two entities, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As a consequence the state has little impact on its entities and on the official memory
discourse. The vast majority of the three ethno-national groups believe that their people
had been fighting a defensive war and there is no common understanding of the past

1 Ministarstvo za ljudska prava i izbjeglice, Ministarstvo pravde, Strategija Tranzicijske Pravde, Radni tekst,
Strategija tranzicijske pravde za Bosnu i Hercegovinu 2012-2016, p. 17, www.mpr.gov.ba/aktuelnosti/pro-
pisi/konsultacije/Strategija%20TP%20-%bosanski%20jezik%20fin%20doc.pdf
2 Jasmina Tepić, Perspective Series, Research Report: Do memory initiatives have a role in addressing cultures
of silence that perpetuate impunity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Utrecht: Impunity Watch, 2012, p. 27, http://
www.impunitywatch.org/docs/BiH_Mem_Research_Report_English.pdf