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.