GOTOVINA CASE - AN UNJUST CHARGE OR A DELIBERATELY ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA?

Author(s): Liviu-Alexandru Lascu / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2014

This article aims to analyze a recent and controversial decision of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, on November 16, 2012, which acquitted two Croatian generals, famous personalities of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, who had been tried for perpetrating several war crimes and crimes against humanity by participating to a joint criminal enterprise and for their responsibility as commanders for the criminal acts perpetrated by their subordinates. The Trial Chamber’s judgment which condemned these defendants was entirely overturned in a very surprising way, through Appeals Chamber doing a very original interpretation of some legal concepts on which, there was already crystallized a constant jurisprudence of this court.

Politika emocija i etničko nasilje: Zadar 1991. godine

Author(s): Vinko Korotaj Drača / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2022

The author examines ethnic violence against the Serbs in Zadar in 1990 and 1991 by using different written sources (newspapers, judicial documents, police reports, medical and forensic examinations and similar) as well as by interviewing people who lived in Zadar. The period in question is characterized by the first instances of ethnically motivated discrimination, evident in losing jobs, creation of the atmosphere of fear and mistrust, in destruction of property during the Zadar's “Kristallnacht” and after, as well as in activities of “Troikas” which were violently entering into flats and mistreated Serbs. The aim was – to make Serbs scared in order for them to leave the city. In October 1991 there was also a murder of three Serbs who were captured and held in an improvised prison. The author links these events with the discursive acting by state and local political elites and uses theory of cultural politics of emotions by Sarah Ahmed (“The Cultural Politics of Emotions”). Ahmed argues that emotional statements have also performative role, not only declaratory, as they can create, form and territorialize area of social relations. The role of fears and emotion of anger was big during the 1990s, but not adequately recognized in many studies on ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia. The author examines how did the political discourse that was articulated in Croatia since the first multiparty elections in 1990, influence the process of ethnic divisions and of formation of social situation in which interethnic violence became socially acceptable form of political activities. In addition, the article examines how did the Serbs feel about their victimization by others, as well about the lack of protection by state institutions.

Uloga ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova Republike Srbije u sprovođenju etničkog čišćenja albanskog stanovništva na Kosovu i Metohiji od 1998. do 1999. godine

Author(s): Zoran Todorović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2022

The paper presents a short chronology of the political conflict in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, until the constitutional changes of 1989), which in the 1990s turned into an armed conflict in which the security forces of the Republic of Serbia from October 1998 to June 1999, carried out a planned action of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians. In the action, several thousand Albanian civilians were executed extrajudicially and between 800,000 and 850,000 Albanians were forcefully expelled to Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper is based on the final judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by which the highest state officials and military and police generals in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia were convicted of joint criminal enterprise aimed at altering the ethnic structure in at least 13 Kosovo municipalities, especially in the period of the NATO alliance campaign from March 24 to June 12, 1999. The role of the Ministry of Interior in the joint criminal enterprise (JCE), as established by the ICTY judgments to the then Ministry of Interior leaders: Vlastimir Đordđević, head of the Public Security Department, Sreten Lukić, head of the Ministry of Interior Staff for Kosovo, (Vlajko Stojiljković, the Minister of Interior, was also accused, but he committed suicide in 2002) - is undoubted. Therefore, it calls for a public analysis and presentation of the role of this part of the repressive apparatus of the state of Serbia in the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians, as well as its role in the planned and systematic concealment of crimes. The concealment of the crime was conducted from March to June 1999 by the Ministry of Interior forces through secret operations of transfer of bodies of Kosovo Albanians from primary graves in Kosovo and their burial in mass graves at secret locations in Serbia. Three graves were discovered in 2001 and one in 2013, with the assumption that there are more because they are looking for another 1,086 Albanian victims and 562 victims of Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Egyptians, Ashkali and others.

The Position of Russian Diplomacy toward the Kosovo Issue (1998-1999)

Author(s): Muhamed Jashari / Language(s): English Issue: Sp. Issue/2022

The wars in Yugoslavia – both in Bosnia and later in Kosovo – unquestionably aroused the curiosity of the international community, including the Russian Federation. As a result of the war in Kosovo, namely with the NATO intervention, relations between Western countries and Russia entered a deterioration phase. Russian diplomacy after the 1990s consistently insisted that its status was equal to that of the Western countries, while even resolutely claiming that it was to be consulted when it came to the future of the security architecture in Europe. The purpose of this article is to present to the readers the role of the Russian Federation in the Kosovo war and Russia’s reaction to the NATO military intervention. As we will see, Russia’s main concern was the shape that international relations were taking in the post-Kosovo period, and NATO’s increasing role in the larger European security. In this article the main method which will be used is qualitative method. We will use the descriptive method also, to describe the developments that characterized Russian foreign policy in the period of Kosovo war. Secondary sources will be used as data collection such as government documents or publications from UN or NATO.

SRPSKI SVET

Author(s): Sonja Biserko / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 97/2022

Nakon što je propao pokušaj recentralizacije Jugoslavije, srpske elite su prešle na koncept ujedinjenja svih Srba i srpskih etničkih teritorija. Prekomponovanje granica, posebno u Bosni i Hercegovini, nije se moglo obaviti dobrovoljnim preseljavanjem. Zato su primenjene drastične mere zastrašivanja, proterivanja i masovnog ubijanja Muslimana/Bošnjaka kako bi se zamišljene srpske etničke teritorije “oslobodile” i tako priključile Srbiji. Ni nakon više od 30 godina od tog projekta nije se odustalo. Rat je zaokružio srpsku teritoriju u Bosni, koja je kasnije potvrdjenja i u Dejtonu 1995.

DJELOVANJA NA OSNOVI IZMIRIVANJA SUPROTSTAVLJENIH INTERESA

Author(s): Rusmir Mahmutćehajić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 97/2022

Kada je 1997. godine skupina bosanskohercegovačkih intelektualaca odlučila osnovati nevladinu organizaciju Međunarodni forum Bosna, tri su pitanja bila pred njima. Prvo, jesu li zbilja pluralnog bosanskohercegovačkog društva i njegove vladajuće ideologijske slike nužno u neizmirivome sukobu? Drugo, je li prijelaz od propadajućeg komunističkog/socijalističkog poretka prema uspostavi vladavine na osnovi prava i demokratskog legitimiranja vlasti uskladiv s djelovanjima uz poistovjećivanja politike i ideologije? I treće, je li moguće odrediti ideologijsku sliku zbilje i njene sadržaje koji svoje zagovornike nužno uvode u sukob s drugim ljudima?

MOSTARSKI MOSTOVI U RATU S AKCENTOM NA RUŠENJE STAROG MOSTA

Author(s): Zilha Mastalić Košuta / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 5/2022

The paper presents events from the recent, wartime history of Bosnia and Herzegovina related to the destruction and demolition of the Mostar bridges, links that connect the two banks of the Neretva River and whose destruction and demolition had multiple goals. In Mostar, an attempt was made to completely erase the existence of earlier cultures and traditions by demolishing bridges. By separating the coasts, he tried to divide the territory, threaten and destroy the population, cut the supply routes, put those defending their territory in a hopeless situation, and more. The emphasis in this paper will be on the destruction and demolition of the Old Bridge, the symbol of the city of Mostar and one of the most monumental buildings from the 16th century, both in Mostar and throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the sake of a clearer and more complete picture in understanding the circumstances of the war, in the introductory part of the work, a brief description of the events in Mostar from April 1992, from the official start of the war and the deployment of military units, to the orders and attacks of those who led to the destruction of the city and the suffering of the population, is given . In the first part of the work entitled Demolition and damage of Mostar's bridges, a brief overview of the demolition of Mostar's, mostly city bridges, which took place mostly in 1992, is presented. Also described are the so-called improvised bridges that were created in the places of collapsed bridges. The method of creating and making such bridges, which is described in this part, is also very interesting. In the second part of the paper entitled Destruction of the Old Bridge until November 1993, the destruction and damage to the Old Bridge, which began in April and May 1992 during the shelling of the city and continued in 1993, intensively after May 9, 1993, is described. In the third part of the work, entitled November 9, 1993, the demolition of the Old Bridge, the events immediately before the complete demolition of the Old Bridge, the circumstances and the manner in which the bridge was demolished, and the events immediately after its demolition are described in detail. In the last part of the paper, entitled Responsibility for the demolition of the Old Bridge - reactions, shifting of blame and manipulation, the reactions to the demolition, domestic and international, attempts to shift the blame from those responsible and to cover up the real truth and manipulation related to it are shown. This part also presents the conclusions from the judgment of the International Court in The Hague, in which, among other things, the responsibility for the demolition of the Old Bridge was considered and established.

Odnos međunarodne zajednice prema zločinima nad civilima za vrijeme Agresije na Republiku Bosnu i Hercegovinu 1992-1995.

Author(s): Muamer Džananović / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 91/2022

The world political and military powers which had the most significant role in shaping the events that were taking place by the end of the 20th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, have delayed or avoided taking steps in preventing and, eventually ending the aggression and the genocide against peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The member states of the EU and the United Nations Security Council with their differing political stands demonstrated a lack of will to end the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina thus marginalizing all the principles of International law. In this article, we focused on a number of topics in the light of various sources regarding the decisions or statements of decision-makers who had the power to change the course of the events that took place in the nineties of the 20th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first topic of significance here is the interpretation in the public discourse of American, British, French, and others officials of the nature of the “conflict” that was taking place here and the reasons they quoted for not interfering therein. The next focal point is a detrimental decision taken by these powers to enforce an embargo on the imports of weapons by which the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina were denied their right to self-defence. A number of resolutions were brought by the UN Security Council, however, none of them made significant progress in the line of the protection of the civilians in the cities under siege. Here we particularly focused on the Resolution that declared safe zones. Deliberate evasion on the part of these world powers of the use of the term genocide in their public discourse is also a topic in this paper wherein we attempt to present their attitude towards crimes against humanity that literally took place right before their eyes. We here, on the bases of G. H. Stanton’s “phases of genocide” make a claim that the international community took part in what was asserted by Stanton as “the last phase of genocide”- denial of the genocide committed against Bosniaks. In this article, we affirm that the world powers that influenced important decision-making in the nineties of the 20th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina are responsible for numerous crimes committed by failing to prevent the escalation of the war and crimes therein.

OSNOVNA ŠKOLA U KORAJU

Author(s): Alija Hamzić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 14/2022

The establishment of the Primary School in Koraj in 1882 is one of the most significant events in the rich and centuries-old history of this place. With the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia in 1878, in just over three years, the local religious scholar Mehmed ef Abdurahmanovic and the mayor of the municipality Sacir effendi Begic, managed to get the new authorities to open an elementary school in Koraj, which at that time meant epochal progress for the Koraj area and its residents as well as the surrounding villages with Orthodox population, which, time will tell, will be a far-sighted window into the world and the new perspective in the emancipation of the local population in step with modern models and trends of human civilization, European and world order. In the first school year 1882/83, 60 students were enrolled in the year, the classes were taught by teacher Arif effendi Muhic, and it was also attended by children from the surrounding villages with Orthodox population, Tetima (Milino Selo), Puskovec and Bobeti Brdo. The elementary school in Koraj shared, throughout the history of its creation and work, the fate of its residents and the town itself, when it stopped working on two occasions in the last eighty years, from 1941 to 1945 and from 1992 to 2005. Namely, Koraj, as a local micro-social and ethnic community of Bosniaks in a period of fifty years (1941-1992), was twice exposed to Serbian armed aggressive attack with the intention of destroying and annihilating the Bosniaks on this small piece of Bosnian land.

Državni teror kao conditio sine qua non svake Jugoslavije

Author(s): Ivan Bubalo / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1+2/2022

Od prve polovice 19. stoljeća razvija se velikosrpski projekt koji za svoju bitnu sastavnicu uključuje genocidnu komponentu. Nakon velikosrpskoga nacionalnog programa Vuka S. Karadžića „Srbi svi i svuda“ (1836) i „Načertanija“ Ilije Garašanina (1844), godine 1902. Nikola Stojanović objavljuje u beogradskom Srpskom književnom glasniku članak (na temelju jednoga svoga ranije održanog predavanja na godišnjoj skupštini Srpskoga akademskog društva Zora iz Beča) pod naslovom „Srbi i Hrvati“, koji je potom pretiskan u zagrebačkom Srbobranu (glasilu Srpske samostalne stranke). Ubrzo je u Novom Sadu objavljeno i 2. izdanje s Pogovorom, da bi članak poslije postao općepoznat pod kolokvijalnim naslovom „Do istrage naše ili vaše“, što je zapravo citat iz samog teksta te savršeno sažima temeljnu autorovu tezu.

У предасима између битака: Прво фудбалско првенство Републике Српске Крајине 1992/1993.

Author(s): Milan Gulić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2023

The article describes the circumstances that led to the revival of sports events in the territory of the Republic of Srpska Krajina in the second half of 1992, temporarily interrupted due to the war. First competitions started in football, by far the most popular sport. After the first part of the competition had ended according to the regional principle, the winners of the five regional competitions met at the final tournament in Glina at the beginning of August 1993. The title of the first champion of RSK was taken by the host team, Banija from Glina, ahead of Šparta from Beli Manastir. The paper was written on the basis of press and publications from Krajina and sports press from Serbia, relevant literature, material from Croatian archives and published memories.

Италијанска спољна политика и распад Југославије (1989–1992)

Author(s): Andrea Vento,Sergio Vento / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2023

This testimony is the result of an interview that political scientist and journalist Andrea Vento conducted with his father Sergio Vento, the former Italian ambassador to Yugoslavia.

Kronotop egzila u postjugoslavenskom romanu

Author(s): Miranda Levanat-Peričić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2019

Although the chronotopic approach to the novels of exile is almost self-explanatory, certain specifics expressed by post-Yugoslav exile narrations evoke a separate chronotope interpretation. First and foremost, post-Yugoslav literature is additionally encumbered with the identity issue because the abandoned areas of the nineties for the exiled writer do not disappear at a metaphorical level, by turning into a mnemotope, but in the actual break-up of the political entity, the imaginary supranational heritage transforms itself into a kind of counterculture, mostly affirmed by exile writers. Therefore, returning to the abandoned place often becomes possible only as a return to the past. In this paper, the literary theme of exile will be followed comparatively, starting from the reflective nostalgia in the prose of Dubravka Ugrešić (The Ministry of Pain), through a global exile which reflects the history of the relationship between European persecutions and America as an unfair homeland, which breaks all identity support in the novels of Aleksandar Hemon (The Nowhere Man; The Lazarus Project), to the intra-Yugoslav, “hereditary” exile in the novels of Goran Vojnović (Chefurs Raus!; Yugoslavia, My Homeland), which fathers left to their sons like a curse of the genus. In the texts mentioned above, the chronotope of exile is dealt with at the level of genre, as the major, supreme chronotope, which includes or opens space to a series of specific local chronotopes, which are fundamental to exile narration. These motifs are also encountered in other genres, but in exile narration they are the bearing pillars of the genre. They are, by their nature, chronotopic because they are realised through the binary spatial-temporal categories of presence and absence, affiliation and non-affiliation, anchoring and nomadism. In this paper, I will look at three such chronotope motifs: 1) the motif ofhome as a non-place or a place of absence; 2) the motif of other/mirror country and other/“mirror” history; 3) the motif of return and travel (by train), which regularly invokes the stereotypical representation of the place and the past.

Boravišta komike u dramama o novobalkanskom ratu u Bosni i Hercegovini

Author(s): Sava Anđelković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2012

The author deals with drama texts written in the BCMS language about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995, and discusses comic and humourous elements in them. He determines the function of the comic in the plays of authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Almir Imširević (If This Were a Performance…) and Zlatko Topčić (Happy New Year 1994!!!); from Croatia: Damir Šodan (Protected Zone); and from Serbia: Isidora Bjelica (The Saga About UNPROFOR) and Goran Marković (The Theatre Tour). He concludes that Šodan means to convey that the former common state (Yugoslavia) used war to treat the madness which had struck all levels of society. Imširević speaks about love, which constantly tries to overshadow hatred in his play, with “characters and witnesses” that should point out the culprits, but since it is nevertheless impossible to do so, the verdict is left to swearwords. Bjelica tries her hand at the genre of “propaganda drama”, using militant humour to try to prove that the Serbs (especially in Bosnia) are the most courageous. Marković manages to amuse with an interesting play about actors in the war, but does not succeed in equalizing the misdeeds of all the belligerents. Topčić shows how war frightens and destroys, but his subconscious and implicit thesis is that life is killed by war itself, and not by the shell fired by a warrior.

Usporedno čitanje bosanskohercegovačke i hrvatske dnevničke proze za djecu i mladež (Zlatin dnevnik Zlate Filipović i Mali ratni dnevnik Stjepana Tomaša)

Author(s): Dragica Dragun / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2012

The paper represents a comparative analysis of two diary specimens. It considers the non-fictional (Zlata’s Diary) and the fictional (Small Wartime Diary) of two diary subjects – Zlata and Cvijeta and their observations regarding two war-stricken areas – of Sarajevo and Osijek, Bosnia and Croatia. The diaries are recognised as a source of psychological self-help, but also as documents of the specific time. The central topic is the war, which both in Osijek and in Sarajevo brings about destruction of towns, families, friendships; death... Both diary subjects are more or less of the same age and they spend the described period of their childhood in a cellar – place of conditional safety, or separated from their parents. They both notice the consequences and traces of war primarily on the people closest to them. Although the central line of both stories is the war, both Zlata’s and Cvijeta’s records deal also with some topics which are not related to the war, whether on the social, cultural or personal level (the ones which are most frequently recorded in diaries), which are however only temporary digressions sprung from the need to take a distance from the existential anxiety of the girls who, faced with a tragic, wartime context, reach maturity before their time.

Hrvatsko-bosanskohercegovačka paralela u ženskom ratnom diskursu

Author(s): Emilija Kovač / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2012

The paper elaborates the parallel between two different literatures, which, having been shaped by similar conditions (they were both determined by war, which shifts the focus to the issue of both individual and group identity), provide context for one another. The elaborated writers (Ružica Hrnjkaš and Emica Rubil) belong to a group that cultivates the war discourse in its narrow sense (the original accounts of war) by witnessing the reality carved into the body. The strong reality of the time launched a restoration of mimeticity as a productive poetic principle. The context of war and the immediate involvement of the authors in the current state of affairs mobilize emotional and positive energy while also infusing the text with a clarion call. The low degree of fictionalization suits the documentaristic and enlightening tendencies well. Its ideologicity imposes itself as an important structural layer: it is traditionalistic, authenticated by the group’s modus vivendi. Absence of quality characteristic for a women’s writing is evident. Even if the chosen women writers do not spearhead the aesthetic assessment of the text, they are crucial as witnesses of the time, writers whose words are authentic and confirmed by personal experience.

Egzil i slika domovine u poeziji Jozefine Dautbegović

Author(s): Naida Osmanbegović / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/2012

In the paper, I tried to elaborate the meaning of exile and homeland, recognizing this as a symbol (and problem) of the whole 20th century literature and culture, but also as one of the most interesting relations in Jozefina Dautbegović’s poetry. Esthetisizing the situation of exile, the poetess showed / proved continuity of nomadism and legitimated historical chronologicum from Jewish refuges and Moses to post-Dayton BosnianHerzegovinian refuges. Direct poetic expression (revised in Polish poetry) emerges as necessity in the mechanisms of writing war trauma and post-war existential and social horror. The homeland (Bosnia) becomes a synonym for eternal war chaos, but also a key concept in the clash of modern and postmodern cultural paradigms.

U potrazi za identitetom (Mraz i pepeo Jasne Šamić)

Author(s): Anisa Trumić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/2012

The novel Frost and Ashes by Jasna Šamić is marginalized and critically under-treated as the most of novels written by women, so it might be said it has been neglected. This is why this paper deals with detailed reading of the novel and interpretation of its meanings, especially interpretation of the novel’s three main characters, more precisely interpretation of various identities represented in the novel, interpretatation of their struggle to realize their own identity, for their effort to be what they really are in culture which dictates and prescribes norms of behavior of both the collective and each particular individual within that society. Of course, the paper didn’t intend to gather and interpret all aspects of the novel, which are numerous, but to bring the novel to readers and encourage its future interpretations.

First Steps Towards a Fruitful Analysis of the Causes and the Outcome of the Kosovo Crisis

Author(s): Jan Pelikán / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Armija i Slovenija 1984.–1991. godine

Author(s): Davor Marijan / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2021

Based on an analysis of archival sources and literature, the author considers the formation of the Slovene independent and democratic country, especially from the point of view of the formation of the Slovene armed forces, which had to be reshaped by the emerging new country, while at the same time dealing with aggravated relations with the Yugoslav federal authorities, especially the Yugoslav Army, which was seizing power in the federal state. The opposition was also against the formation of the country’s own, Slovene army. Thus, the defence system and its leaders, especially Ministers Janša and Bavčar as well as Prime Minister Peterle, were faced with difficult decisions. In spite of the real war threat, scarce resources were available to the defence department, and these had to be devoted almost entirely to arms procurement. The awareness of the importance of armed forces for the defence of Slovenia’s sovereignty helped to form the armed forces, the Territorial Defence of the Republic of Slovenia, through a project named Manoeuvre Structure of National Protection. Together with militia, civil defence and support of the civilian population, the Slovenian War of Independency was won.