Finds peace in the mass graves
Archaeologist and research fellow in risk management and societal safety at the University of Stavanger, Kirsten Juhl, has dug out bodies from mass graves in the former Yugoslavia. That way, those who mourn can bring their dead home, and war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic can be tried. Now she is researching how peace can finally take hold.
The wars in the Balkans in the 1990s resulted in about 40 000 people going missing, of those, as many as 30 000 in Bosnia-Herzegovina alone. As early as 1992, the UN expert committee for the former Yugoslavia pointed out that severe crimes against humanity were being committed, a vast number of human rights violations and unlawful executions were carried out, which resulted in large number of mass graves. This led to the formation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague in 1993. From 1996 to 2001, the tribunal investigated a number of mass graves. The work has since been followed up by local authorities with help from The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).
– In Bratunac we dug up Bosnian Muslims, who now call themselves Bosniaks. They were well preserved and easily identified as they were in body bags. You could see facial features. A mother lay with a child at full term in her stomach; she had been shot in the side, just where the foetus lay, explains Ms Juhl. She was assisted by The Norwegian Refugee Council and The Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights (Nordem) for three months in 2005.
It is however, the many secondary graves with body parts spread over several graves which have given rise to the need for international help, and the development of special methods of identification by DNA.
Peace is being built bit by bit.
There are many painful memories and wounds to heal in the Balkans, and archaeology is an important tool in peace and reconciliation work. Working towards digging up and identifying people in mass graves has three purposes. One is to obtain historical documentation for posterity. The second is to gather evidence for the ICTY in The Hague. Karadzic will probably be judged thanks to pieces from the past which archaeologists have dug up. The third goal is to honour family members' right to know what has happened.
Till now, more than 4 500 individual or mass graves have been found and more than 15 000 bodies excavated. The ICMP is systematically taking blood samples from close relatives. Since 2001 they have identified about 14 000 bodies which have been given to their families in order to give them a dignified funeral. About 12 000 are from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and about half of these are from Srebrenica.
Lacking confidence
As an archaeologist, Ms Juhl found however, that the work she was doing was not enough.
– Although everyone who was missing a family member should have been able to bring home their dead, that in itself probably wouldn't change what we struggle with the most: which is that people do not trust each other or the authorities. They have gotten tangled in a social trap: Even though everyone knows that co-operation is for the best for everyone, no-one dares co-operate, since they can't be sure that "the others" will also co-operate. They have experiences which indicate that they can't trust "the others". There is no trust between the different ethnic groups. "Some of the others are to blame for my suffering" is a strong feeling with many, Ms Juhl explains.
She has based her research on official documentation and has interviewed key persons in the conflict, among others representatives for the local authorities behind investigations of mass graves, as well as representatives of families of the missing people.
– Everyone says they are happy that Karadzic has been caught and prosecuted, but many say that does not change their pain. They don't believe in justice, and have no confidence in either their own authorities or the ICTY in The Hague. To them, politicians are rotten, the judge rotten, and the whole process rotten, says Ms Juhl.
Institute for missing persons
In her doctorate, she explores the conditions for solving the problems in the region so that a basis can be created for societal safety in The Balkans. In the former Yugoslavia, this safety is fragile. She is looking at, among other things, the law regarding missing persons which was passed in 2004 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the state institute for missing persons, which was formally established in 2005, but which has only just started to function this year – in 2008 – thirteen years after peace.
– The local commissions for missing persons have always just excavated "their own". The one commission – in the federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina - has searched for Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks, while the second commission – in the Republika Srpska – has searched for Bosnian Serbs. This means that the commissions for all these years since peace was declared, have contributed to a polarisation and distrust between the groups, Ms Juhl explains.
She is afraid the ethnic oppositions have been maintained in such a way that there is a real danger that there will be no safety in future. She thinks the new state institute for missing persons can help the Balkans out of the social trap.
– The various groups now need to work closely in the same institute, and in this work, it isn't possible to consider ethnicity or group. When work is lifted from the autonomous units to a common institute at state level, the Bosniak, the Serbian and the Croatian director have to work together. They have to speak with one voice if they are to have any credibility. As Ms Juhl explains, the creation of the Institute for Missing Persons is therefore a huge gain for peace and societal safety.
From ethnic to human discourse
– So far it has been a power struggle as regards information. The Serbian victims get no information from the Federation and the Republika Srpska gives little information back. We are talking about both mistrust and downright obstruction. With the Institute for Missing Persons it will now hopefully be harder for the ethnic authorities to not want to share information, she says. They can no longer be sure that it is "the others" and not their own they create obstructions for.
Ms Juhl thinks it is imperative that the Institute manages to create mutual trust and a will to co-operate among the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, so that they start to think and talk about events in a different way.
– They have to go from an "I'm just looking for my people" to an "everyone should find everyone" attitude. She points out that there is an enormous challenge here in terms of changing the public discourse from revolving around ethnicity to revolving around human rights.
Trust gives increased societal safety
Radovan Karadzic will probably be convicted for his leadership which caused suffering for so many people. But according to Ms Juhl, this sentence will not immediately assure people of peaceful co-existence in the future.
– You don't build a new society by sentencing war criminals, it's just one piece. Rebuilding society takes a long time. Besides, it is not desirable to restore it to exactly what it was. That's what led to war in the first place. Something new needs to be established if we want to ensure that nothing like it happens again. A communal and reunited memory needs to be established, so that it is not up to each person to remember just the injustice which was committed to their own, but also that which was committed towards "the others". If the Institute for Missing Persons succeeds in creating trust between groups, it would lead to these memories and these human rights applying to others as well. In this way, you hopefully also get increased societal safety, so that no-one in future will think of human rights violations as a valid way of solving issues, she says.
Text: Karen Anne Okstad
Translation: Linda Johnsen
