Beshlin: Little has been done to deal with the past

In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, little has been done to deal with the past and reconciliation, and the trends of recent years are quite the opposite, warned historian Milivoj Bešlin.

He said that with the return of "disguised" radicals to power in Serbia, the open rehabilitation of war crimes and those who were participants in the wars of the 90s began, and that the situation is no different in Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

"If after 2000 there was talk of dealing with the past and a critical departure from war crimes and the values ​​that led to them, today's trend is the opposite," said Bešlin to the MINA agency.

He said that the trend in today's societies is the reaffirmation of the values ​​that led to the war and the rehabilitation of war criminals.

"I'm afraid that since the war itself, we haven't been that far from any kind of confrontation with the past," said Bešlin.

He believes that nationalist rhetoric in the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia is intensifying because nationalism itself has not disappeared as a ruling ideological paradigm and as a key form of legitimation.

"You shouldn't complain about the rhetoric, because it only reflects the real state of the countries in the Balkans, because all of them, with the exception of Montenegro and partially North Macedonia, are countries that are fundamentally based on nationalism as the dominant legitimating basis and ruling ideology," Beshlin said.

He said that in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the war parties, that is, the war political structures that entered the wars, are in power and still insist on those values.

"They pragmatically spreading populism insist on nationalism in order to stay in power as long as possible," Beshlin believes.

He assessed that a large part of Europe, above all central and eastern, is covered by a wave of nationalism, xenophobia, hatred and populism.

"Nationalism is an important agent, because due to its existence and strength, the real issues that would bring us closer to Europe are not on the agenda. These are modernization, social reform and work on the rule of law," said Bešlin.

He assessed that all these things have been put aside and that he will wait until the eternal national issues, which have never been fully resolved, are resolved.

"In that particular sense, nationalism is an obstacle in joining the EU," said Bešlin.