A road toward national reconciliation

A road toward national reconciliation

Mochtar Buchori, Jakarta

As the world commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Srbenica
massacre this month, many people in the former Yugoslavia were
still trying to heal the wounds of war, restore damaged
relationships and reconcile their differences.

Ten years after the Bosnian war finally came to an end, the
hostility and distrust that exists between Muslims and Christians
is still visible.

In this difficult atmosphere, however, there are still many
people who are examining their souls, scrutinizing their
consciences and wondering what they could have done to have
stopped this atrocity from taking place.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs massacred more than 7,000
Bosnian Muslims, men and boys, in the town of Srbenica. The town
had been earlier declared a "safe area" by the United Nations and
was protected by a Dutch UN contingent of 400 lightly armed
soldiers. This small force was totally powerless in the face of a
formidable military led by Gen. Mladic. Requests by the Dutch
troops on the ground for air support from NATO were completely
ignored.

Two important questions arise from this event. What parties
should shoulder the blame for the massacre and how can
reconciliation be achieved?

According to William H. Montgomery, the former ambassador to
Croatia and later to Serbia and Montenegro, there are not enough
admissions of guilt and indications of remorse on the part of the
big parties involved in the conflict. There has not been a single
statement of apology, admission of guilt or regret from those
occupying leadership positions within UN Security Council, the UN
Protection Force, or the powerful member states within the UN, as
Montgomery wrote in his opinion piece "There's enough blame for
us all", in the International Herald Tribune (July 12).

However, there is more than enough pressure on the peoples in
the former Yugoslavia to admit their guilt and acknowledge their
mistakes. This is lamentable, since the part of the international
community in the conflict is, in my understanding, not less than
that of the Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Albanians and the people of
Montenegro.

There are many stories, however, telling of individuals on
both sides of the conflict who acted bravely and humanely. There
are also stories about the humiliations suffered by members of
the peacekeeping force when they were forcibly unarmed by the
Serbs and treated as prisoners of war.

Reports of the attempts to reach reconciliation are often
filled with repeated failures, disappointments, and unfulfilled
hopes. They are tales of efforts to conquer feelings of hatred
and prejudice and to build new relationships based on trust and
empathy.

A significant achievement in this regard has been accomplished
by two Dutch film-makers, Eric van den Broek and Katarina Rejger,
who created the "videoletters" project to promote peace and
understanding.

Targeting people who were once friends but were then separated
by the bloody nationalist conflict, as van den Brook says, the
project "is about people, and not about politics."

Once a person agrees to make a videoletter it is sent to the
recipient, who can choose to accept or reject it, and then, after
viewing the message, whether to reply. The results of the project
are touching and often heart-wrenching.

Through these videoletters, many people were reunited. Ivana
Nicolic, a Serb, met Senad, a Muslim boy with cerebral palsy, who
Ivana had adopted in a hospital in Belgrade before the conflict
broke out.

Nenad and his friend, Rudjer, a blind boy, were inseparable in
Belgrade. When Rudjer's family, who are Croats, were threatened
by the violence, they moved to Croatia. Ten years later, Nenad
send a videoletter to Rudjer and his family. Deeply touched,
Rudjer, who is now an organ player and composer, responded and
included a brief organ recital in his reply. They are now in
regular contact.

While not every videoletter receives a reply and many endings
are not so rosy, the project has been growing in popularity.

Upon reading these stories I cannot help wondering why we
cannot try to do something similar in our country.

The many conflicts that have taken place here have created
many wounds and divisions in the nation. The Semanggi and the
Trisakti and Tanjung Priok incidents, the May 1998 riots and the
many other conflicts in Poso, Ambon, West Kalimantan, Aceh and
Papua have created latent or outright feelings of hostility and
prejudice among many peoples that have not been addressed.

No one involved in these events has ever publicly admitted any
guilt; whether it is personal responsibility or the
responsibility on behalf of the group they were in.

The nation cannot move forward and away from these incidents
unless it casts off this burden.

The writer has a doctorate in education from Harvard
University.