Radovan Karadzic, who was the Bosnian Serb political leader during the war and who is at the top of the international war crimes tribunal's most wanted list, was arrested in Belgrade (the Serbian capital) yesterday.
His military commander Ratko Mladic, who is also at the top of the most wanted list, is still in hiding.
For the article detailing Karadzic's arrest and a more complete background, go to this BBC link.
22 July 2008
20 July 2008
How Can You Forgive?
Yesterday I was talking with a friend from Bosnia on the internet. He had recently watched some news about Serbs in Kosovo. The story focused on the persecution the Serbs said they faced now that Kosovo has declared its independence. My friend was disgusted by this. He focused on one girl in particular. This girl said she was scared to leave the house because of her treatment by ethnically Albanian Kosovars. My friend cursed her as he talked about the long history of Serbian mistreatment of Albanians. "She is a liar. What about the killings, the torturings? People who see this news will never know the truth - will never know about the Serbian wrongdoings. This is why I cannot wait to leave, to get out of this corrupt place, this hellhole that is the Balkans."
While I don't know how valid that particular news was, I do understand his point about people having misconceptions of the truth...particularly concerning the recent history of the Balkans. I have encountered so many misconceptions about the people and war of Bosnia when talking about and fundraising for my program. One particularly memorable encounter occurred when someone told me that "it was terrible what those Muslims did to the Christians in Bosnia - especially since it is a Christian country." I held my tongue as a wide variety of retorts passed through my mind, saying only, "Serbian Christians actually perpetuated the acts of genocide, ran the concentration camps, and committed massacres in safe zones - all against Bosniak Muslims. And Bosnia has been a country of mixed religions and (until the 1990s) remarkable tolerance for at least a thousand years."
This was not an isolated event. I told my friend that he was right - that many Americans do not even know where or what Bosnia is, and those who do have an incomplete or incorrect knowledge of the war. I told him that the words Omarska, Trnopolje, and Srebrenica have no meaning in America, that although to me those words have the same meaning as Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
He said that he knew that, and added that the Serbian people themselves do not even know the meanings of those words. He told me a mutual friend of ours, a Serbian secondary school student, did not even know some of the concentration camps and massacres and existed and occurred until he started working with my organization and travelling to the camps and speaking to survivors. This friend was alive during the war, there were camps a short drive from his home, but because Republika Srpska has an independent education system, he never learned about what actually happened in Bosnia from 1992 - 1996.
I agreed that the schooling in incredibly imbalanced. I mentioned to him that in some of the Srpska schools I visited, there were pictures of war criminals hanging in places of honor on the wall. In the schools, students are taught that these criminals, these perpetrators of genocide, are heroes.
How can they learn? How can these people heal? I wondered as our conversation continued. These children, the Serb children, will never know and accept their own recent history. They will never be forced to reconcile the actions of their parents - to make their own peace and understand the whys and hows of Serbian civilian brutality durng the war. They will spend their lives thinking that they were the only victims in the twisted mess that was the Bosnian war. With these views, they will never be able to coexist. Their Bosniak counterparts will know what the Serb youth think and will not forgive. War will happen again.
Then my friend changed the subject. "I was so young during the war, and my mother and I moved to Germany - I did not face huge losses personally. But my father - he lost his parents, his brother, his best friend, his house - he lost everything that mattered to him besides my brother, my mother, and I. How can he forgive? I am so angry, but he has forgiven." He continued on, talking more about the atrocities of the war, but I was focused on the sentence he had just typed.
"He lost everything...but he has forgiven." The tension I felt started to dissolve, as I once again saw hope for Bosnia. My friend's father has forgiven. He does not hate based on a person's name or ethnicity. He - who knows as well as any other person in Bosnia the pain that was inflicted - can accept these events and forgive. If someone who has lost everything can forgive, so can the rest of the people of Bosnia.
Our conversationn gradually ground to a close. I was distracted by my thoughts. How did his father forgive while he did not? What does this forgiveness mean? Does he have Serb friends, or does he simply not hate all Serbs without cause? Can he talk with others about his forgiveness and spread the message of acceptance?
How can you forgive? What is needed most for this wounded but wonderful country is not development or infrastructure or an increase in capital, but forgiveness, acceptance and healing. The biggest danger Bosnia faces is another war.
I think the key to forgiveness is education, poverty reduction, and healthcare.
If people are educated about the war, they will begin to accept.
If people have the ability to live, and the tools to make a living, they will move on.
I do not know how to implement this idea on a larger scale, for more than the 42 children in the Mostar orphanage and the kids I have met during workshops and camps. Despite this, I have hope. My friend's father gives me hope. He has forgiven. Others can too.
While I don't know how valid that particular news was, I do understand his point about people having misconceptions of the truth...particularly concerning the recent history of the Balkans. I have encountered so many misconceptions about the people and war of Bosnia when talking about and fundraising for my program. One particularly memorable encounter occurred when someone told me that "it was terrible what those Muslims did to the Christians in Bosnia - especially since it is a Christian country." I held my tongue as a wide variety of retorts passed through my mind, saying only, "Serbian Christians actually perpetuated the acts of genocide, ran the concentration camps, and committed massacres in safe zones - all against Bosniak Muslims. And Bosnia has been a country of mixed religions and (until the 1990s) remarkable tolerance for at least a thousand years."
This was not an isolated event. I told my friend that he was right - that many Americans do not even know where or what Bosnia is, and those who do have an incomplete or incorrect knowledge of the war. I told him that the words Omarska, Trnopolje, and Srebrenica have no meaning in America, that although to me those words have the same meaning as Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
He said that he knew that, and added that the Serbian people themselves do not even know the meanings of those words. He told me a mutual friend of ours, a Serbian secondary school student, did not even know some of the concentration camps and massacres and existed and occurred until he started working with my organization and travelling to the camps and speaking to survivors. This friend was alive during the war, there were camps a short drive from his home, but because Republika Srpska has an independent education system, he never learned about what actually happened in Bosnia from 1992 - 1996.
I agreed that the schooling in incredibly imbalanced. I mentioned to him that in some of the Srpska schools I visited, there were pictures of war criminals hanging in places of honor on the wall. In the schools, students are taught that these criminals, these perpetrators of genocide, are heroes.
How can they learn? How can these people heal? I wondered as our conversation continued. These children, the Serb children, will never know and accept their own recent history. They will never be forced to reconcile the actions of their parents - to make their own peace and understand the whys and hows of Serbian civilian brutality durng the war. They will spend their lives thinking that they were the only victims in the twisted mess that was the Bosnian war. With these views, they will never be able to coexist. Their Bosniak counterparts will know what the Serb youth think and will not forgive. War will happen again.
Then my friend changed the subject. "I was so young during the war, and my mother and I moved to Germany - I did not face huge losses personally. But my father - he lost his parents, his brother, his best friend, his house - he lost everything that mattered to him besides my brother, my mother, and I. How can he forgive? I am so angry, but he has forgiven." He continued on, talking more about the atrocities of the war, but I was focused on the sentence he had just typed.
"He lost everything...but he has forgiven." The tension I felt started to dissolve, as I once again saw hope for Bosnia. My friend's father has forgiven. He does not hate based on a person's name or ethnicity. He - who knows as well as any other person in Bosnia the pain that was inflicted - can accept these events and forgive. If someone who has lost everything can forgive, so can the rest of the people of Bosnia.
Our conversationn gradually ground to a close. I was distracted by my thoughts. How did his father forgive while he did not? What does this forgiveness mean? Does he have Serb friends, or does he simply not hate all Serbs without cause? Can he talk with others about his forgiveness and spread the message of acceptance?
How can you forgive? What is needed most for this wounded but wonderful country is not development or infrastructure or an increase in capital, but forgiveness, acceptance and healing. The biggest danger Bosnia faces is another war.
I think the key to forgiveness is education, poverty reduction, and healthcare.
If people are educated about the war, they will begin to accept.
If people have the ability to live, and the tools to make a living, they will move on.
I do not know how to implement this idea on a larger scale, for more than the 42 children in the Mostar orphanage and the kids I have met during workshops and camps. Despite this, I have hope. My friend's father gives me hope. He has forgiven. Others can too.
15 July 2008
Some Pictures From Mostar
Check out our TWI page for some other updates from my time in Mostar. TWI Page
With Belma and Jasmina, two of the younger girls, during class. Belma (right) is 7 but cannot speak more than a few words in Bosnian. She did not understand that Laura and I spoke English instead of Bosnian - she just thought she was having trouble understanding us and that we were strange. She called me "luda" (crazy girl) because of my inability to speak Bosnian. She was one of my favorites: a major troublemaker but also so sweet.
This is Petchuka (spelling nowhere near correct). She is 5 years old and a real handful. She is one of the youngest at the orphanage, so the older girls love to make her say crazy things in Bosnian. We think Petchuka has one of the worst learning disabilities. She is not in school and stays behind when a lot of the other children go on trips. She's a sweetheart and I really bonded with her during the program.
With Belma and Jasmina, two of the younger girls, during class. Belma (right) is 7 but cannot speak more than a few words in Bosnian. She did not understand that Laura and I spoke English instead of Bosnian - she just thought she was having trouble understanding us and that we were strange. She called me "luda" (crazy girl) because of my inability to speak Bosnian. She was one of my favorites: a major troublemaker but also so sweet.
This is Petchuka (spelling nowhere near correct). She is 5 years old and a real handful. She is one of the youngest at the orphanage, so the older girls love to make her say crazy things in Bosnian. We think Petchuka has one of the worst learning disabilities. She is not in school and stays behind when a lot of the other children go on trips. She's a sweetheart and I really bonded with her during the program.
With some of the older kids during our field trip. We went to four places near Mostar that are important to Bosnian history or major landmarks. This is Kravice, Bosnia's largest waterfall.
Trnopolje and Omarska II
The day after we visited Trnopolje, we visited Omarska. Omarska was the site of the most brutal concentration camp during the war. The people who ran the Omarska concentration camp were civilians, not members of the armed forces. It was located at a mine that operated throughout the concentration camp's existance and that continues to operate today. Survivors and activists are attempting to have at least part of the site made into a memorial, but they have had limited success.
Emsuda showed us the building that most detainees were held in. We were not able to get very close since mining work was occuring during our visit in the afternoon. We did however, enter the "white house" a small white building that was the center of the Omarska concentration camp. No one who entered survived, and every morning there would be bodies piled outside the house. The day the concentration camp was shut down, there were people inside the house. Some of those people were still alive. Their descriptions of the torture and horrifying things within is chilling and shocking.
Emsuda told us many more stories of Omarska. During one Serbian holiday, the guards at the concentration camp built a huge fire. They spent the day torturing the detainees, then throwing their bodies - some dead, some alive - onto the fire. Those who survived say that during that day, they wished they were dead. The survivors were forced to watch the torturings and burnings and say that at that point, they would have preferred death over continuing to watch. Emsuda finished the story by saying that her brother was one of those who died on that day.
The stories continued as we walked around the grounds. Hearing about these horrible things as I walked upon the ground where these things occurred was overwhelming. Even more shocking was watching the workers at the mine only feet away. These workers knew the stories of the buildings in which they worked. Some had even participated as guards at the concentration camp. Despite this, and despite their knowledge of the reason for our visit, they continued to work uninterrupted. They did not seem to care about the terrible history and importance of Omarska.
Emsuda showed us the building that most detainees were held in. We were not able to get very close since mining work was occuring during our visit in the afternoon. We did however, enter the "white house" a small white building that was the center of the Omarska concentration camp. No one who entered survived, and every morning there would be bodies piled outside the house. The day the concentration camp was shut down, there were people inside the house. Some of those people were still alive. Their descriptions of the torture and horrifying things within is chilling and shocking.
Emsuda told us many more stories of Omarska. During one Serbian holiday, the guards at the concentration camp built a huge fire. They spent the day torturing the detainees, then throwing their bodies - some dead, some alive - onto the fire. Those who survived say that during that day, they wished they were dead. The survivors were forced to watch the torturings and burnings and say that at that point, they would have preferred death over continuing to watch. Emsuda finished the story by saying that her brother was one of those who died on that day.
The stories continued as we walked around the grounds. Hearing about these horrible things as I walked upon the ground where these things occurred was overwhelming. Even more shocking was watching the workers at the mine only feet away. These workers knew the stories of the buildings in which they worked. Some had even participated as guards at the concentration camp. Despite this, and despite their knowledge of the reason for our visit, they continued to work uninterrupted. They did not seem to care about the terrible history and importance of Omarska.
07 July 2008
Back in the US
I am now back in the United States. I will be in New Hampshire from Monday through Saturday. Afterwards I will be back in New Jersey.
I will continue updating this blog for the next few weeks since I still have many more things to write about.
I will continue updating this blog for the next few weeks since I still have many more things to write about.
03 July 2008
Trnopolje and Omarska
On Monday and Tuesday nights our group stayed at a peace center in the town of Kozarac. Kozarac is a predominantly Muslim town in Republika Srpska (the Serbian entity within Bosnia). It is also located near a string of concentration camps. We visited two of them during our stay.
The first was Trnopolje. We visited with a woman named Emsuda. She runs the peace center and was also detained in Trnopolje during the war. As we visited the site she told us her story. She was "lucky" - her family secured a small room near the rear of the building, so they escaped the notice of the Serbs who every night went through the camp raping, torturing, and shooting the detainees. Her other stories, compiled from various victims, were horrifying. Family members were forced to rape each other, torture was commonplace, and the shooting started at sunset and went on until dawn. Trnopolje was one of the more well known concentration camps - the pivotal image of the war (starving men behind barbed wire) was taken there. As a result, the camp was shut down relatively quickly.
The camp was run in a school and adjacent building. Today the school is once again in use and Bosniak children must attend school in the very rooms were their parents were detained. The adjacent building was used as a discoteque for years. As we walked the grounds, I noticed beer caps everywhere. There were children playing football in the field. There is a complete lack of respect for the suffering people faced there. Even worse, at the front of the building is a memorial to the fallen Serb soldiers. This is completely disrespectful because no Serb soldiers died in the area, so its placement is purely for the purpose of distorting history. The camp I visited last year had a memorial and was no longer used, so seeing this was very shocking to me.
Emsuda has been working to have the memorial removed. She has had some success. Schoolchildren (including Bosniaks whose parents were detained at the camp) used to be required to place flowers at the memorial on holidays. That is no longer allowed, although she still sees flowers placed there on holidays. Hopefully the memorial will be moved in upcoming years - once that is done, acceptance and healing can begin.
The first was Trnopolje. We visited with a woman named Emsuda. She runs the peace center and was also detained in Trnopolje during the war. As we visited the site she told us her story. She was "lucky" - her family secured a small room near the rear of the building, so they escaped the notice of the Serbs who every night went through the camp raping, torturing, and shooting the detainees. Her other stories, compiled from various victims, were horrifying. Family members were forced to rape each other, torture was commonplace, and the shooting started at sunset and went on until dawn. Trnopolje was one of the more well known concentration camps - the pivotal image of the war (starving men behind barbed wire) was taken there. As a result, the camp was shut down relatively quickly.
The camp was run in a school and adjacent building. Today the school is once again in use and Bosniak children must attend school in the very rooms were their parents were detained. The adjacent building was used as a discoteque for years. As we walked the grounds, I noticed beer caps everywhere. There were children playing football in the field. There is a complete lack of respect for the suffering people faced there. Even worse, at the front of the building is a memorial to the fallen Serb soldiers. This is completely disrespectful because no Serb soldiers died in the area, so its placement is purely for the purpose of distorting history. The camp I visited last year had a memorial and was no longer used, so seeing this was very shocking to me.
Emsuda has been working to have the memorial removed. She has had some success. Schoolchildren (including Bosniaks whose parents were detained at the camp) used to be required to place flowers at the memorial on holidays. That is no longer allowed, although she still sees flowers placed there on holidays. Hopefully the memorial will be moved in upcoming years - once that is done, acceptance and healing can begin.
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