War Crimes Do Not Have Nationalities

The Mothers Appeal group in Gjakova mourn sons killed during the war (Photo: Elira Canga)

I knew it from the beginning; my story would not be easy to research or to write.

I am writing about war crimes because I believe that, after decades of wars, Balkan states are yet to really come to terms with these crimes, leaving the region mired in difficulties and unable to admit what happened in the past and look forward.

I became further convinced of this during my first research trip for my fellowship story in Kosovo last week.

I had hard time finding the right people to talk about war crimes and public attitudes and, crucially, real acceptance that they happened at all. When I did find interviewees, it was hard to fix meetings. It seems that postponing interviews or resisting firm dates for them is something of a Balkan habit!

It was difficult to convince everyone to talk about war crimes, but not so difficult to get them talk about daily politics.

Just like in Albania and many other Balkan countries, politics is the preferred theme and everyone will easily comment any political decision or event. When it comes to talking about real sorrows, however, things become difficult.

Most of the interviewers told me that many war crimes remain outside investigation remits because they are too complex, or lack witnesses. As time goes by, people tend to remain silent, preferring to let sleeping dogs lie.

Human rights activists, peace activists, EULEX investigators and journalists have helped me begin to understand why investigating war crimes is still at the beginning and why not much, relatively, has been done to clarify what happened in Kosovo during 1998-1999.

It was painful to visit and talk families of victims. I listened to members of an ethnic Albanian family in Gjakova, 79 kilometres from Pristina, and of a Serb family in Gracanica, 10 kilometres from the Kosovan capital.

They told me stories of extreme pain and sorrow. They made me reflect on two facts that we all know already: war crimes are not the preserve of particular nationalities and the sooner they are investigated the better it is for all.

“Regardless of what happened, ethnic Albanians and Serbs are looking forward to a better future in the newest country in the world”, Slobodan Petrovic, the Serbian decentralisation minister and vice-prime minister of Kosovo, tells me, via a translator.

But could they have a future together, while Albanian and Serb children go to the same school but at different hours and are taught different versions of history, as human rights activists have told me?

That seems to be really difficult. If the truth is not spoken aloud, many people will remain ‘hostages’ to the past.

Germany, my next destination for my research, has gone through this difficult process in its attempts to reconcile the nation with the Nazi crimes of World War II. It is a process that has lasted many years.

I still do not know exactly how difficult it was for the Germans, I will find out during next trip, but researchers seem to agree that without this process the future won’t be very prosperous.

Elira Canga is a Tirana-based journalist who is participating in the 2011 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

She will be writing regular updates on her investigation into how public recognition of war crimes in the Balkans and across Europe.