Page 505 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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ActA
Figure 2.
“Monument to
the Fallen Croat
Defenders to the
Homeland War”
in Mostar

movement, bringing a new narrative to the collective memory. 10
Memorials of the VRS serve for central commemorations associated with the Army,
followed by speeches of glory, victory and victimhood. By the Bosniaks and Croats,
who label this military formation as perpetrators, these monuments are considered as
provocations, especially when placed on the ground of their suffering. One of the most
controversial memorials in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the one dedicated to Serb soldiers
on the ground of Trnopolje camp in Prijedor, which was the staging area for the mas-
sive deportations of primarily women, children and elderly men and where numerous
non-Serbs were killed and tortured. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) accused several persons for crimes in this and other camps near
11
Prijedor. The memorial in the shape of eagles’ wings – the double-headed eagle is
part of Serbia’s coat of arms – is dedicated to the Serb soldiers who died elsewhere in
the country. The Cyrillic inscription reads: “To the fighters who gave their lives for the
foundation of Republika Srpska.” 12
The “Monument to the Fallen Croat Defenders to the Homeland War” (Spomenik
poginulim hrvatskim braniteljima domovinskog rata, Figure 2) is placed in the Croatian
part of Mostar, the city in Herzegovina that today is divided between Croats and Bos-
13
niaks and where, during the war, the two groups clashed. It stands in front of the cul-
tural institution “Duke Stjepan Kosača Croatian Centre” (Hrvatski dom Herceg Stjepan

10 Milena Dragičević Šešić, Cultural policies, identities and monument building in Southeastern Europe, in Aldo
Milohnić, Nada Švob Đokić (ed.), Cultural Identitiy Politics in the (Post-) Transitional Societies, Zagreb:
Institute for International Relations, 2011, p. 39.
11 About the camps around Prijedor see: Ed Vulliamy, War is Dead Long Live the War, London: Bodley Head,
2012
12 Rachel Irwin, Velma Šarić, Special Report, Calls for War Memorials Divide Bosnia, Institute for War and
Peace Reporting, p.4 2010, http://iw3.iwpr.net/sites/default/files/special_report_-_calls_for_war_memori-
als_divide_bosnia_low_res.pdf
13 About Mostar as a divided city see: Jon Calame, Esther Charlesworth, Divided Cities: Belfast, Beirut, Jerusa-
lem, Mostar and Nicosia, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, pp. 103-120.