Reconciliation through remembrance? War memorials and the victims of Vukovar

International Journal of Transitional Justice

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 116-135

  Clark, Janine Natalya ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Ex combatants; Former yugoslavia; Memorialization; Reconciliation; Victims

Indexed keywords

EID: 84873607708     PISSN: 17527716     EISSN: 17527724     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijs031     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Leslie Dwyer and Degung Santikarma, 'Speaking from the Shadows: Memory and Mass Violence in Bali,' in After Mass Crime: Rebuilding States and Communities, ed. Béatrice Pouligny, Simon Chesterman and Albrecht Schnabel (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2007), 190.
2. Kruno Kardov, 'Silencing the Past: Vukovar between the Place and Space of Memory,' in The Violent Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Causes, Dynamics and Effects - Collection of Papers, ed. Miroslav Hadžić (Belgrade: Centre for Civil-Military Relations, 2004), 229.
3. Vukovar Tourist Board, http://www.turizamvukovar.hr/index.php?lang=en&article_id=164 (accessed 22 October 2012).
4. See, for example, Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
5. Paul Williams, 'Witnessing Genocide: Vigilance and Remembrance at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek,' Holocaust and Genocide Studies 18(2) (2004): 234--254
6. Heonik Kwon, After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006)
7. Harold Marcuse, 'Memorializing Persecuted Jews in Dachau and Other West German Concentration Camp Memorial Sites,' in Memorialization in Germany since 1945, ed. Bill Niven and Chloe Paver (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
8. Rachel Ibreck, 'The Resistance Memorial, Bisesero, Rwanda,' in Lest We Forget: Remembrance and Commemoration, ed. Maggie Andrews, Charles Bagot Jewitt and Nigel Hunt (Gloucestershire: History Press, 2011).
9. Andrew Whitmarsh, '"We Will Remember Them": Memory and Commemoration in War Museums,' Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 7 (2001): 1-15
10. Jay Winter, 'Historical Remembrance in the Twenty-First Century,' Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 617 (2008): 6-13
11. Judy Ledgerwood, 'The Cambodian Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes: National Narrative,' in Genocide, Collective Violence and Popular Memory: The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, ed. David E. Lorey and William H. Beezley (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002).
12. Rachel Hughes, 'Nationalism and Memory at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide Crimes, Phnom Penh, Cambodia,' in Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, ed. Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone (London: Routledge, 2003).
13. Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone, 'Introduction: Contested Pasts,' in Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, ed. Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone (London: Routledge, 2003).
14. Sara McDowell, 'Commemorating Dead "Men": Gendering the Past and Present in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland,' Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 15(4) (2008): 335-354
15. Susanne Scharnowski, 'Heroes and Victims: The Aesthetics and Ideology of Monuments and Memorials in the GDR,' in Memorialization in Germany since 1945, ed. Bill Niven and Chloe Paver (Basingstoke: Pagrave Macmillan, 2010).
16. See also, Cheryl Lawther, 'Denial, Silence and the Politics of the Past: Unpicking Opposition to Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 7(1) (2013): 157-177
17. According to François Girambe, the former chairman of IBUKA, an association of the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 'Humankind can never have peace if it has not accomplished its task of learning. We commemorate to fight the possibility of forgetting the genocide and the denials that it ever took place.'
18. Cited in Jimmie Briggs, Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 33-34
19. Charles Bagot Jewitt, 'Unpicking Some Threads of Remembrance,' in Lest We Forget: Remembrance and Commemoration, ed. Maggie Andrews, Charles Bagot Jewitt and Nigel Hunt (Gloucestershire: History Press, 2011), 20.
20. Cornelia Sorabji, 'Managing Memories in Post-War Sarajevo: Individuals, Bad Memories and New Wars,' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12(1) (2006): 1
21. Ervin Staub, 'Genocide and Mass Killing: Origins, Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation,' Political Psychology 21(2) (2000): 367-382
22. Trudy Govier, 'A Dialectic of Acknowledgement,' in Reconciliation(s): Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies, ed. Joanna R. Quinn (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009).
23. See, for example, Jennie E. Burnet, 'Whose Genocide? Whose Truth? Representations of Victims and Perpetrators in Rwanda,' in Genocide: Truth, Memory and Representation, ed. Alexander Laban Hinton and Kevin Lewis O'Neill (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).
24. René Lemarchand and Maurice Niwese, 'Mass Murder, the Politics of Memory and Post-Genocide Reconstruction: The Cases of Rwanda and Burundi,' in After Mass Crime: Rebuilding States and Communities, ed. Béatrice Pouligny, Simon Chesterman and Albrecht Schnabel (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2007).
25. See, for example, Janine N. Clark, 'The ICTY and Reconciliation in Croatia: A Case Study of Vukovar,' Journal of International Criminal Justice 10(2) (2012): 397-422.
26. For the author's photographs of these memorials, see, http://www.flickr.com/photos/88656942@N05/sets/72157631775704317/ (accessed 22 October 2012).
27. Ngwarsungu Chiwengo, 'When Wounds and Corpses Fail to Speak: Narratives of Violence and Rape in Congo (DRC),' Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 28(1) (2008): 83
28. Paul Ricoeur, Memory, History and Forgetting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)
29. This research was approved by the Research Committee of the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, in line with the university's Code of Practice on Research Ethics
30. Friedrich Nietzsche, 'History in the Service and Disservice of Life,' in Unmodern Observations: Friedrich Nietzsche, ed. William Arrowsmith (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 90.
31. Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, trans. Raymond Rosenthal (London: Abacus Penguin Group, 1988), 17-18.
32. Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness (London: Rider, 1999), 30
33. Ernest Renan, 'What Is a Nation?' in The Nationalism Reader, ed. Omar Dahbour and Micheline R. Isray (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995), 145.
34. Michael Ignatieff, The Warrior's Honor (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 170
35. Anne Heimo and Ulla-Maija Peltonen, 'Memories and Histories, Public and Private: After the Finnish Civil War,' in Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, ed. Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone (London: Routledge, 2003).
36. Robert M. Hayden, 'Schindler's Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing and Population Transfers,' Slavic Review 55(4) (1996): 743.
37. Cited in Kevin Lewis O'Neill and Alexander Laban Hinton, 'Genocide, Truth, Memory and Representation: An Introduction,' in Genocide: Truth, Memory and Representation, eds. Alexander Laban Hinton and Kevin Lewis O'Neill (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 15.
38. Thousands of these Hutu have never stood trial and hence their guilt cannot be assumed. In some cases, however, convicted génocidaires have been granted early release in order to ease the strain on Rwanda's overcrowded prison system.
39. See, for example, Jean Hatzfield, The Strategy of Antelopes: Rwanda after the Genocide (London: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)
40. Susanne Buckley-Zistel, 'We Are Pretending Peace: Local Memory and the Absence of Social Transformation in Rwanda,' in After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, ed. Phil Clark and Zachary D. Kaufman (London: Hurst and Company, 2008), 138.
41. Rosalind Shaw, 'Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2) (2007): 196
42. István Rév, cited in Richard S. Esbenshade, 'Remembering to Forget: Memory, History, National Identity in Postwar East-Central Europe,' Representations 49 (1995): 86.
43. Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, ed. and trans. Lewis A. Coser (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 38.
44. Tony Judt, 'The Past Is Another Country: Myth and Memory in Post-War Europe,' Daedalus 21 (1992): 99
45. Prosecutor v. Mile Mrksić, Miroslav Radić, Veselin Šljivančanin and Slavko Dokmanović, ICTY Amended Indictment, Case No. IT-95-13A-1 (2 December 1997), § 2.
46. Bette Denich, 'Dismembering Yugoslavia: Nationalist Ideologies and the Symbolic Revival of Genocide,' American Ethnologist 21(2) (1994): 367-390
47. Vojin S. Dabić and Ksenija M. Lukić, Crimes without Punishment: Vukovar, Sarvašand Paulin Dvor (Vukovar: Women's Association of Vukovar Community, 1997).
48. Prosecutor v. Mile Mrksić, Miroslav Radić and Veselin Šljivančanin, ICTY Trial Chamber Judgement, Case No. IT-95-13/1 (27 December 2007), § 26.
49. Adam LeBor, Milošević: A Biography (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
50. Christopher S. Stewart, Hunting the Tiger: The Fast Life and Death of the Balkans' Most Dangerous Man (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007).
51. Dean Ajduković and Dinka Corkalo, 'Trust and Betrayal in War,' in My Neighbour, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, ed. Eric Stover and Harvey M. Weinstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
52. During the war in Vukovar, Borovo Komerc functioned as a makeshift hospital and shelter. Today, almost none of the building remains.
53. Cited in Milan Paun and Valerija Lozančić, 'Sudbine skrivene u ladicama Srbije,' Vukovarske Novine, 25 November 2011, 4 (author's translation). It is interesting to note that Kandić uses the Croatian words for September and November (Rujan, Studeni), rather than the Serbian words (Septembar, Novembar). Given that language issues are extremely sensitive in the former Yugoslavia, it is likely that Kandić deliberately used Croatian words in order to avoid being seen as provocative or pro-Serb.
54. Cited in Romana Bilešić, 'Intervju: Sina želim odgojiti kao što je mene moj tata Siniša.. .,' 24 Sata, special memorial edition, 17 November 2011, 31 (author's translation).
55. To cite Barbara Matejčić, 'Today Vukovar is embedded in Croatia's collective memory as a symbol of suffering and pain.' Barbara Matejčić, 'Vukovar Still Imprisoned by Its Bloody Past,' Balkan Insight (12 February 2012), http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/vukovar-still-imprisonedby-its-bloody-past (accessed 22 October 2012).
56. Personal interview, Vukovar, Croatia, 14 July 2011
57. See also, Nick Jardine, 'Bruisings, Burnings and Beatings: Europe's Worst Soccer Hooligans,' Business Insider (28 September 2011), http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-worst-soccer-hooligans-2011-9?op=1 (accessed 22 October 2012).
58. Danijel Rehak, Through the Roads of Hell: Through Serbian Concentration Camps 1991. .. Into 21st Century (Zagreb: Croatian Association of Camp Inmates of Serbian Concentration Camps, 2008).
59. Personal interview, Borovo Naselje, Croatia, 2 August 2011
60. Author's translation
61. Fracisco Ferràndiz, 'Cries and Whispers: Exhuming and Narrating Defeat in Spain Today,' Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 9(2) (2008): 177
62. Martha Minow, 'The Work of Re-Membering: After Genocide and Mass Atrocity,' Fordham International Law Journal 23 (1999): 430
63. Author's translation
64. Dubravka Ugrešić, 'The Confiscation of Memory,' New Left Review I/218 (1996), http://www.newleftreview.org/I/218/dubravka-ugresic-the-confiscation-of-memory (accessed 22 October 2012).
65. A former camp inmate, for example, argued that although some Serbs spared Croat lives, they would save one Croat only to kill several others. Personal interview, Vukovar, Croatia, 24 July 2011.
66. Personal interview, Vukovar, Croatia, 15 July 2011. The co-president of HLSKL, moreover, claimed that Serbs who saved Croats do not want to speak about it, adding that this is one of the reasons why the complete truth about the war in Vukovar will never emerge. Personal interview, Borovo Naselje, Croatia, 2 August 2011.
67. James M. Mayo, 'War Memorials as Political Memory,' American Geographical Society 78 (1988): 75.
68. Personal interview, Borovo Naselje, Croatia, 2 August 2011
69. Personal interview, Vukovar, Croatia, 18 July 2011
70. The branitelji graves, which are beautifully cared for, are in fundamental contrast to a small graveyard in the Sajmište area of Vukovar. This graveyard, where 26 Serb combatants are buried, is neglected and overgrown.
71. According to one source, 400 female branitelji fought in the war in Vukovar. Sanja Butigan, 'U bici za Vukovar cijela Hrvatska,' 20 Godina: Vukovar 1991-2011 - Sjećanje na Hrabre Ljude, special supplement in Glas Slavonije, 18 November 2011, 3. The vast majority of combatants on both sides, however, were men.
72. Marie Smyth, 'Putting the Past in Its Place: Issues of Victimhood and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland's Peace Process,' in Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict, ed. Nigel Biggar (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003), 142.
73. Brandon Hamber and Gráinne Kelly, 'Beyond Coexistence: Towards a Working Definition of Reconciliation,' in Reconciliation(s): Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies, ed. Joanna R. Quinn (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009).
74. Louis Kriesberg, 'External Contributions to Post-Mass-Crime Rehabilitation,' in After Mass Crime: Rebuilding States and Communities, ed. Béatrice Pouligny, Simon Chesterman and Albrecht Schnabel (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2007).
75. Nigel Biggar, 'Conclusion,' in Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict, ed. Nigel Biggar (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003), 309.
76. Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1980), 143
77. Pierre Hazan, Judging War, Judging History: Behind Truth and Reconciliation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010), 155
78. Personal interview, Vukovar, Croatia, 22 July 2011
79. 'Reakcije stradalnika,' Vukovarske Novine, 12 November 2010, 3
80. Ho-Won Jeong, Peacebuilding in Postconflict Societies: Strategy and Process (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005)
81. See, for example, Paul B. Miller, 'Contested Memories: The Bosnian Genocide in Serb and Muslim Minds,' Journal of Genocide Research 8(3) (2006): 311-324.
82. Ger Duijzings, 'Commemorating Srebrenica: Histories of Violence and the Politics of Memory in Eastern Bosnia,' in The New Bosnian Mosaic: Identities, Memories, and Moral Claims in a Post-War Society, ed. Xavier Bougarel, Elissa Helms and Ger Duijzings (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
83. The author took part in the main memorial events (18-20 November 2011) as a participant observer
84. During her speech at a memorial event at Borovo Komerc on 19 November 2011, however, the head of the Vukovarske Majke (Vukovar Mothers) publicly acknowledged those Serbs who fought on the side of the branitelji, describing them as heroes. In what undoubtedly represents a small step forward, she added that while up until recently flowers were only laid on the graves of Croat branitelji, the members of her association now honour the graves of all branitelji, regardless of ethnicity.
85. Blago Zadro was a Croatian branitelj who was killed during the war in Vukovar. For local Croats, he is a war hero, and both a street and a school are named after him.
86. Cited in Amalija Lovrić, Milan Paun and Valerija Lozančić, 'Ne zaboravite Vukovar,' Vukovarske Novine, 25 November 2011, 3
87. Dražen Ciglenečki, 'Vukovar konačni pobjednik,' Novi List, 19 November 2011, 3 (author's translation)
88. Cited in Mario Mihaljević, 'Vukovar ne smije ostati zatočen u ratnoj prošlosti,' Glas Slavonije, 18 November 2011, 7
89. Cited in Sanja Butigan and Mario Mihaljević, 'I prije dvadeset godina znali smo da je Vukovar pobjednik,' Glas Slavonije, 19-20 November 2011, 2 (author's translation)
90. Cited in Sanja Butigan, 'Dok ne vide Vukovar, ne mogu znati što su Vukovarci prošli,' 20 Godina: Vukovar 1991-2011 - Sjećanje na Hrabre Ljude, special supplement in Glas Slavonije, 18 November 2011, 5
91. Stef Jansen, 'The Violence of Memories: Local Narratives of the Past after Ethnic Cleansing in Croatia,' Rethinking History 6(1) (2002): 77-94
92. Ewa Wolentarska-Ochman, 'Collective Remembrance in Jedwabne: Unsettled Memory of World War II in Postcommunist Europe,' History and Memory 18(1) (2006): 154
93. George Orwell, 1984 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1954), 31