By Maria BrundinToo little, too late - whatdoes Serbia’s apologyreally mean?100 000 people died during the war inBosnia-Herzegovina, a battlefront forgenocide during the Balkan Conflict.In 1995 the Bosnian town of Srebrenica was a UN safehaven under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers andtens of thousands civilians had taken refuge there.By July the town was under siege, with 600 lightly armed Dutchpeacekeepers facing off against the Serbian forces. Food was running outand as pleas to NATO for help failed, Serbian forces overran the town.Roughly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in fivedays. Witnesses tell stories about men being forced to digmass graves before being shot into them.In 1999 UN apologised in a self-critical report, sating that they“failed to do our part to save the people of Srebrenica from the Serbcampaign of mass murder”.General Ratko Mladic, Radislav Krstic, regional leader Radovan Karadzic and former Serbianpresident Slobodan Milosevic, along with a number of others, are indicted by the InternationalCriminal Tribunal in The Hague for crimes of humanity committed at Srebrenica.
On the 31st of March, Serbia made an historical move and apologised for theSrebrenica massacre of roughly 8000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995. After a 13 hour longdebate at the parliament, broadcast live on television, a resolution was passed bytwo votes. The resolution expressed sympathy to victims and apologized for not doingenough to prevent the killings, but avoided calling the killings ‘genocide’.SPLITThe country remains split over the move, both within theparliament and within the general populace.A dozen protesters stood outside the parliament, somecarrying pictures of wartime leaders General Ratko Mladic andRadovan Karadzic, who is on trial in the International CriminalTribunal in The Hague for the Srebrenica genocide.A second group carried signs saying: ‘Srebrenica was not inmy name.’Opposition deputy Velimir Illic said “the crime was nogreater than in other places, We can’t put everything else offto the side”, referring to other war crimes that been committedduring the Balkan Conflict.Others, such as liberal parliamentarian Cedomir Jovanovic,criticized the resolution for not recognizing the killings inSrebrenica as genocide. “Our society does not have thesufficient strength“, he remarked to the parliament after failingto get a different resolution passed.POLITICAL AIMSThe ruling coalition of President Boris Tadic’s pro-westernDemocrats and the Socialists, who were lead by SlobodanMilosevic, hope that the resolution will win EU and investorfavor.President Tadic called it a display of patriotism and PrimeMinister Mirko Cvetkovic said that the move “is an event thatin the long run should open the doors for future cooperation”with Bosnia and other countries in the region.In December 2009 Serbia applied for EU membership buttalks can not start until Ratko Mladic is captured and broughtto The Hague.Hailed as a hero by many Serbs, Mladic is believed to behiding in Serbia.BOSNIAN RESPONSEA Western diplomat, stationed in Bosnia at the time of thegenocide said that passing the resolution without arrestingMladic meant little.“As a substitute, it’s offensive, it’s an insult,” the diplomattold Reuters.In Bosnia many said the resolution was too little, too late.“There is no apology for the crimes”, said Munira Subasic,the head of a Srebrenica women’s association, who lost herson and husband in the genocide. “Justice can only be servedonce all the criminals responsible for the atrocity are namedand held accountable”.OTHER APOLOGIESEven though apologies are rare in the political sphere, othercountries have apologised for past behaviour.Roughly two years ago Australia apologized to its nativepopulation the Aborigines for child abduction, genocideand decades of discrimination. South Africa apologised forApartheid in 1992, Bill Clinton apologised in 1998 for theAfrican slave trade and countries like Canada and Norwayhave made similar apologies to their indigenous people.There are many others that are unlikely to ever get anapology.Russia will probably never apologise for its actions inChechnya, and the Chinese government are highly unlikelyto ever recognize the ethical cleansing during the CulturalRevolution.The day Israel and Palestine recognize each other’s sufferingand wrong doings, the conflict can finally see an end. Thesame goes for Pakistan and India.However, if the Serbian apology proves to be a positive stepfor talks about future EU membership, Turkey might considerapologizing for the genocide of Armenians.FUTURE FOR SERBIARegardless whether the apology is sincere, or just a politicalmanoeuvre, Serbia has recognised that it is responsible for thedeath of thousands of civilians/innocent men. No longer cananyone claim that the massacre never took place.As Jelena Kosovac , a retired nurse told Swedish Radio inBelgrade, “It is a necessity for the people of Serbia to knowabout this.” She said that, in particular, young people mustlearn what really happened during the war.Halfhearted apologies such as this rarely have any significanteffect on those the apology is directed towards, and its affecton diplomatic relations with neighboring countries willprobably not be of great importance.There is still a long way to go. First the country must dealwith its internal differences over the issue and then takefurther measures to prove the apology is sincere.Despite this, it is a step in the right direction.Serbia has realized that to become a modern society it mustconfront its past.“Right actions in the future are the best apologies forbad actions in the past.” Righteous actions are a rarity in thepolitical game – let us hope this is more than that.For more information about the prosecutions visit The Hague’s webpage; www.haguejusticeportal.netInternational <strong>Politics</strong>29
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