Truth, reconciliation for Bosnia and Serbia?

In the wake of the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the presumed war criminal whose Bosnian Serb army slaughtered thousands of Bosniak Muslims during the Bosnian War from 1992-1995, Serbia has enjoyed a wave of diplomatic normalization.  The ouster of Milosevic successor Vojislav Koštunica marks the ascent of a pro-European Democratic Party (DS).  After withdrawing diplomats from those states that recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty earlier this year, Serbia’s pro-Western foreign minister declared that European integration is a top priority, and that diplomacy will resume.  Effectively, “Serbia is back in Europe.”

However, thirteen years after Karadzic’s most heinous crime against humanity – the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica – both Bosnia and Serbia remain themselves divided societies.  Particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, there exists the sentiment that “the prewar coexistence that Karadzic sought to wipe out has not been revived, and may never be.”  Tacit segregation dominates civil society; there are Muslim cafés and Serb cafés, for example, and communication between the two sides is “largely superficial.”  Though Karadzic’s arrest is reason to hope, the chief of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mladić, has never been caught.  There has been no Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Survivors of the massacre at Srebrenica, like famed author Emir Suljagic, doubt the potential for “truth” and “reconciliation” in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In short, these post-conflict societies contain seemingly intractable, insurmountable tensions. 

How do we move beyond them?

I believe a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is, in fact, a start.  Right now, the most prevalent impediment to cooperation is mistrust.  If the governments of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia could each ensure that victims and perpetrators could speak openly and without fear, under the protection of the state, the crimes of the war could be brought out of collective memory and into public discussion.

What do you think?