EU: Reconciliation in the Balkans means confronting the past and introducing the rule of law

For the European Union, reconciliation in the Western Balkans means confronting the legacy of the past in the context of strengthening the rule of law, human rights and equal treatment for all.

This was stated today in Sarajevo by David Hudson from the General Directorate for Neighborhood and Enlargement Policy of the European Commission at the end of the 11th Forum for Transitional Justice in Post-Yugoslav Countries.

Hudson assessed that progress in reconciliation is visible among ordinary people, which is also proven by the fact that the Forum gathered people from all the countries of the region where there were conflicts - both perpetrators and survivors and demobilized fighters, who sit together and discuss common interests , "in order for each of them to reach their own personal peace".

He also said that the forum was held at an important time, because next week the EU Strategy for the Western Balkans will be published, an integral part of which will be reconciliation, and other activities to improve the reconciliation process are coming up in order to improve the position of the victims.

The coordinator of the Regional Commission for the Determination of the Truth about War Crimes (RECOM), Nataša Kandić, stated that there is a willingness on the part of regional political leaders to recognize the importance of the issue of naming victims, but also that the EU must encourage them to continue working on it.

Stating that both Croatia and Slovenia, which are now EU members, were part of Yugoslavia, she pointed out that "we cannot pretend that some of the victims no longer belong to the post-Yugoslav countries and that they are now victims from the EU".

"The attitude towards the victims and the shared past must have a lot of dignity," Kandić stated.

Croatian political analyst and human rights activist Žarko Puhovski assessed that in the process of reconciliation, no significant progress is being made and that there are many elements that are pulling back.

"This is not only related to political leaders, although their responsibility is great, but that among a significant part of politically active citizens there is an atmosphere of trying to forget the past and crimes or attributing them only to the other party," said Puhovski.

He added that the Croatian political elite does not want cooperation on these issues, considering it to be some kind of reconstruction of Yugoslavia or sharing the blame.

Puhovski also emphasized that the share of politically active right-wing nationalists in Croatia is growing, which coincides with trends in the EU.

The work of the Forum was attended by 70 delegates of the Coalition for RECOM and a hundred participants from civil society, the academic community, researchers of transitional justice, domestic state and international organizations, as well as institutions dealing with the establishment of the rule of law, damaged by severe violations of human rights in the wars of the 1990s. year.