Organised by the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo/Belgrade, with the support of the Jajce Culture Centre and the Veterans’ Association, the photography exhibition “War of Memories” was opened on Monday, 23 September 2019. At the opening of the exhibition, we organised a public discussion titled “From a War of Memories to Remembering the War” and this time subtitled “Fighters in War and Peace”
The very fact of former enemies attending the commemoration together, paying their respects to victims of all wars, sends the message that we are no longer enemies and that we never want to be enemies again. That the suffering, fear and pain we have all experienced connect us and bring us closer together. That we grieve and empathise with each other’s pain, to ease it, and to make sure it never happens again.
War veterans, former members of the Army of RBiH, HVO, HV, VRS and VJ laid flowers and paid their respects to civilians killed in Grabovica. “The killing of innocent civilians cannot be justified, and even today families are still looking for the remains of 17 of their beloved. We cannot turn back the time and put things right, but we want to show that, with all our differences, we can remember all victims together, honour them together and build a more just society,” said Amer Delić from the Centre for Nonviolent Action, a war veteran of the Army of RBiH from Zavidovići.
Our ninth action of marking unmarked sites of suffering is complete. This time, we visited sites in Mostar, Konjic, Sarajevo and Istočno Sarajevo.
At the initiative of our friends from Germany, Apatiner Gemeinschaft, the Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum (DZM) from Ulm and the Donaubüro invited us to a panel discussion on memory, reconciliation, and research on the Danube Swabians
We were glad that we were joined in Goražde by figures from its political life, who also have the power and responsibility to forge a different culture of memory
Overcoming official borders, but even more so, those that exist in people’s heads is the biggest challenge when it comes to peacebuilding in the region. Over its nine days of intensive activities, the Mir-Paqe-Мир training becomes a space for free exchange of opinions and for re-examining your own views. The Mir-Paqe-Мир training requires courage of the participants in deciding to face up to accepted and unconscious stereotypes imposed by our societies so as to transform them (at least) in their own minds.
The presence of our mixed group of war veterans from the region at the commemoration in Ahmići on 15 and 16 April 2019 completed a year-long journey along the untrodden paths of memory. Trusina – 16 April 2018 Ahmići – 16 April 2019.
“We are here to show by our presence that we can and must show compassion and respect not just for victims from our own people, but for others too. To show that there is another way. Then we can set the foundations for peace and coexistence in this region, which is our goal. So that our children never have to go through what we went through,” said Krešimir Ivančić, a veteran of the Croatian Army.