The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
morial culture was <strong>to</strong> be forged, nationalism rehabilitated <strong>and</strong> antifascism<br />
called in<strong>to</strong> question. In Serbia, the etniks were celebrated as antifascists,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in Croatia, the Ustaša were revered as heroes <strong>and</strong><br />
defenders <strong>of</strong> their people. This process was underpinned by the disclosure<br />
<strong>of</strong> the covered-up crimes <strong>of</strong> the communist government at the end<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Second World War. To spread hatred <strong>and</strong> panic, Serb nationalists<br />
used the memory <strong>of</strong> the Jasenovac extermination camp, in which the<br />
Croatian Ustaša had killed thous<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Jews, Roma, Serbs <strong>and</strong> antifascists.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Croatian nationalists used the memory <strong>of</strong> Bleiburg, where<br />
partisans had killed thous<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> their opponents after the British had<br />
prevented their flight <strong>to</strong> the west. Like a boomerang, the suppressed<br />
s<strong>to</strong>ries returned <strong>and</strong> fostered the thirst for revenge.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> ideational connection which had arisen as ‘fraternity <strong>and</strong> unity’ in<br />
the common partisan movement, the link connecting the Yugoslav<br />
peoples which transcended all his<strong>to</strong>rical <strong>and</strong> everyday barriers, was thus<br />
broken. <strong>The</strong> last threads broke when the same massacred corpse was<br />
shown at the same time on the television news in Belgrade <strong>and</strong> in Zagreb<br />
– as the victim <strong>of</strong> Croats <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Serbs, respectively. Planned murders,<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten <strong>of</strong> moderate, peace-oriented <strong>and</strong> sensible people, spread<br />
fear which increased <strong>to</strong> panic. <strong>The</strong> tension produced the feeling <strong>of</strong> hav -<br />
ing <strong>to</strong> defend oneself <strong>and</strong> one’s own people, as the partisans <strong>and</strong> the<br />
other earlier heroes had done. In coloured uniforms obtained from a variety<br />
<strong>of</strong> modern armies <strong>and</strong> adorned with etnik <strong>and</strong> Ustaša decorations,<br />
the insanity <strong>of</strong> the civil war <strong>of</strong> the Second World War era was revived.<br />
<strong>The</strong> calls <strong>to</strong> ‘defend hearth <strong>and</strong> home’ returned as the terror, the suppressed,<br />
the unspoken, <strong>to</strong> the new generation. And the nerves <strong>of</strong> the<br />
people were stretched <strong>to</strong> the breaking point.” (Report, p.97)<br />
<strong>The</strong> reality <strong>of</strong> war finally shocked public opinion throughout Europe. Bosiljka<br />
Schedlich’s report recalls the atrocities <strong>of</strong> this war up through the<br />
Day<strong>to</strong>n Agreement, <strong>and</strong> asks:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> key question however is, who wanted the war <strong>and</strong> who was forced<br />
in<strong>to</strong> it. <strong>The</strong> Yugoslav people believed until the end that there would be<br />
no war – <strong>and</strong> that if there were, then only where both sides wanted it.<br />
Everyone ignored Kosovo <strong>and</strong> the Albanians. In the case <strong>of</strong> Slovenia,<br />
everyone was horrified. In the case <strong>of</strong> Croatia, everyone thought it must<br />
21