commemoration

“Easy Notes” for Difficult Commemorations

“Easy Notes” for Difficult Commemorations

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 from the Region at the Commemoration in Ahmići: We Need to Remember All Victims

War Veterans from the Region at the Commemoration in Ahmići: We Need to Remember All Victims

“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.

Joint Visit by War Veterans to the City of Niš and Participation at the Commemoration in Aleksinac

Joint Visit by War Veterans to the City of Niš and Participation at the Commemoration in Aleksinac

Since 2008, the Centre for Nonviolent Action, with offices in Sarajevo and Belgrade, has been organising visits by groups of war veterans from Croatia, Serbia and BiH to sites of atrocities against civilians and soldiers committed in the recent war and to official commemorations honouring victims, organised by local and state authorities and victims associations.