The Activity “Marking Unmarked Sites of Suffering” originated in 2014 at the Training for Trainers in Peacebuilding organised by the Centre for Nonviolent Action. Talking about sites of suffering, where the victims are usually from minority communities located in areas where the “majority” is not willing to have them marked by a memorial for political and ideological reasons courtesy of the war, we thought about ways to save these sites from oblivion. We also wanted to encourage people from the local communities to mark these sites appropriately, honour the victims and express grief over the loss of lives and human suffering. We therefore decided to implement an action that would highlight these sites and make them visible[1]. We set up a team and started preparing. We gathered available data online and through informal channels, thorough representatives of victims and veterans associations that we have worked with in the past. At the beginning, we were selective, focusing on sites of mass killings and camps. Mapping these sites, we were disheartened, both by the sheer number and amount of information about camps, which included detention facilities as a special category, and by the realisation that BiH was rife with such sites. And that most of them are unmarked. Through this process, we decided that we wanted our action to be recognised as credible and that we needed to safeguard against relativizing by citing only sites for which there are judgements that identify facts as indisputable. We later added sites for which trials are under way. We selected 24 unmarked sites, of which 6 are sites of mass killings[2] of civilians and soldiers, and 18 are former camps[3] where civilians and soldiers were exposed to various violence and in some cases killed. For each site, we compiled an explanatory note with information taken from the archives of the Court of BiH, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Appellate Court for War Crimes of the Republic of Serbia. We also used information available through the BIRN and Transitional Justice websites. To mark the site, we made a sticker with a message indicating the site of suffering and calling for solidarity with the victims so that what happened to them never happens again to anyone else.
The activity to mark these sites in the field was conducted in 6 localities. According to our initial plan, we wanted to mark Hotel Vilina Vlas and the bridge Stara ćuprija in Višegrad, the silo in Tračin near Hadžići, the barracks in Čelebići and the silo in Kaćuni near Busovača. After a joint visit of CNA and war veterans, we left out Čelebići because it was inaccessible, and we flagged the Museum in Jablanica as a potential site to be marked.
We started with Višegrad on 7 October 2015. Our first destination was the Vilina Vlas Hotel. On our approach, we were convinced we would find a deserted and run-down building. We thought we would “mark” it without difficulty and were a bit apprehensive about the Ćuprija because we had heard just before our arrival that its reconstruction had been completed and it was open for crossing. We were in for a shock when we reached the hotel. The parking lot was full of cars, there were taxis lining up, people coming and going. We had to change our initial plan as we went along. The hotel seemed to be stuck in time in the 1970s. The moustachioed receptionist with spectacles on the end of his nose slanted towards the desk in front and his eyes fixed on us sized us up and then proceeded with his business. Passing by the elderly guests who come here for spa treatments, we went up to the bar. The air was stuffy, damp mixed with tobacco smoke. We realised we were not going to be unnoticed, so we figured we would walk around a bit, take some photos and pick the right moment when there aren’t many people around to place our sticker. We went out and patiently waited for our chance. Just as we affixed the sticker to the façade by the disabled entrance, took a few photos and got into the car, it came unstuck. We affixed it again to the concrete part of the wall and took some more photos. It stayed in place. Just then, a group of 7 or 8 elderly guests came by returning from a walk and looked at the sign over our shoulders. They were quiet and did not ask us anything. We got in the car and left.
The bridge Stara ćuprija is still being reconstructed. From the direction of the town it is boarded up with plywood and there is only one entrance about a meter wide. On the other side of the bridge, there were many builders and equipment. It was raining and the bridge was deserted. We went to the centre of the bridge and affixed the sticker to the side wall so that it would be visible to passers-by coming from the direction of the town. We took a few photos, and then the problems with the sticker started. It went lopsided, then it got unstuck. In the meantime, the rain had stopped and the bridge filled with dozens of people who seemed to have been waiting for just that sign. A group of young men from Serbia, probably athletes, stood next to us. They were quite loud, taking photos and laughing. From time to time, one of them would look over at us having trouble with our sticker as we tried to find a surface it would adhere to. We were exasperated by this point, so we decided to go for a walk and come back later. Having cooled down a bit, we returned to the bridge and changed the position of the sticker. We chose the first frontal pillar of the bridge fence from the direction of the town, affixed the sticker and took some photos. The position was excellent, as soon as you approach the bridge, you can’t miss seeing it.
On our return, we wanted to scope out the facilities of the „Rasadnik” agricultural estate in Rogatica, which is also on our list and at the address there were a number of buildings that could correspond to the photos from the website we had. Given the rain and general tiredness, we gave up.
The next day, 8 October 2015, we went to Tarčin. The silo is large and located in the centre of the settlement. It is deserted, surrounded by a broken fence and appears menacing. A busy road runs alongside it. Encouraged by the previous day, without hesitation, we went to the main entrance and “marked” the door with our sticker. We stayed for quite a while, circling the building and taking photos. Passers-by would look in our direction and walk on without a word. Soaked with rain, we continued our journey towards Jablanica.
When we arrived in Jablanica, we saw a crowd in the parking area in front of the Museum. A driving test was being conducted, there were test commissions, police officers, and an audience. We walked around, saw the cannon and the train car, and when a group of visitors left the Museum, we affixed our sticker to the window by the entrance. But it was in the shadow and we couldn’t get a good photo that would show the whole building. As we milled about, we heard a raised male voice from inside the museum, and then a cleaning lady appeared and looked at us with slight confusion before proceeding to take her cleaning tools, a mop and bucket, and calmly washed them in the fountain in front of the entrance. The scene was surreal and we assumed she had been sent out to check on us. We then affixed the sticker to a fence wall in front of the museum, but it kept falling off, so we affixed it to the fence itself. We didn’t like how it looked there, though. At that moment, a group of bikers with Czech flags attached to the antennas of their bikes descended upon the pedestrian zone, complete with stairs, of the plateau in front of the Museum. They started their performance with a lot of loud revving and speedy driving around. People gathered, a few young men came out of the youth association rooms located at the Museum. We took advantage of the situation and affixed a sticker to the large glass wall. We took photos, the Czechs left, and some of the young men looked at us, went into the Museum, came out and looked at us again. But nobody said a word. We moved on and decided to go to Busovača via Bugojno so that we could check out the Iskre Stadium. Passing through Gornji Vakuf, we dropped in on our friends, war veterans. We told them about what we were doing. Their support was a big encouragement to continue our activities.
In Bugojno, we parked in the Jaklić neighbourhood where the Iskre Stadium is located. The scene in front of the stadium fed into the dark scenario in our imagination: there was a man in a camouflage jacket with a large axe, chopping wood. He just looked at us and went on with his business. Inside the stadium, a few athletes were training, and the lot in front was empty. We affixed the sticker to the fence and took photos. On two occasions, a man, probably a guard, came out of the rooms located underneath the seating area, but he did not ask us anything. At the end, we took the sticker off because it was intended for the silo near Busovača. We thought about leaving the sign in Cyrillic that we had with us, but feared it might cause problems for the local Serb community, so we decided against it. We realised we could mark the site here without difficulty in the future. We had previously feared this would be very difficult to do in Bugojno.
Late in the afternoon, we reached the silo in Kaćuni. The building itself cannot be accessed, there is a fence around it, and a flock of sheep in the yard. We were most afraid of the potentially armed shepherd who might think we were there to “pick up” a lamb from his flock. We affixed the sticker to the gate and took photos. It stayed in place. People and cars passed by, but took no notice. Some peered from the nearby houses, but nobody approached or asked us anything. The sheep followed our movements as if they were hypnotised, crowding around the fence where we stood, so at times it looked like a rehearsed circus show. Having finished with this Bosnian version of Twin Peaks, we felt relieved. On our journey back, we dropped in on our friend from the Camp Survivors Association in Busovača. After we showed him some of our photos, he was very excited and congratulated us on our courage.
Having marked these sites of suffering, we continued our activities by setting up a Facebook page where we posted a brief background to the activity and photos of places marked by our sticker and descriptions of the significance of these places in terms of war events and trials. We then did a targeted promotion of the marked sites in the local communities where they are located[4].
Our Facebook activity was perceived and followed-up in different ways. We received a lot of support, most people who visited the page clicked “like” and there were some compliments for the initiative[5]. We also got media support from the Lupiga portal[6]. Also, after targeted promotion in towns located within a 20 kilometre radius of the sites of suffering we marked, most people supported us. As for negative criticism, we first need to mention that despite a clear explanation of which sites we were marking and for which reasons, we received comments that there were other sites of suffering in these places and that we were playing favourites with victims. There were also those who wrote obscenities and insulted other commenters based on their nationality or religion, so we decided to delete some comments. This action has shown that our society has a deep-seated desire to honestly face the past, but also harbours different perspectives on the events of the war, denial of responsibility of perpetrators belonging to one’s own ethnic group and a refusal of communities to deal with this problem. We hope that with this activity we have managed to cause at least some ripples across the sludge in this stagnant pond we share, where 20 years have not been enough for us to understand that the loss of every single human life meant that there were fewer of all of us together
Čedomir, Dalmir and Amer
[1] For more see the Facebook page Unmarked Sites of Suffering: https://www.facebook.com/Neobilje%C5%BEena-mjesta-stradanja-1688400441404563/?fref=ts
[2] Kazani-Sarajevo, Zemljoradnička zadruga Kravica-Bratunac, Branjevo-Zvornik, “Stara Ćuprija”-Višegrad, Brčanska Malta-Tuzla, Korićanske stijene-Skender Vakuf/Kneževo
[3] „13. Kilometar”-Kamenica/Zavidovići, Crkvina-Šamac, Silos-Tarčin/Hadžići, Stadium NK Iskra-Bugojno, Hunting Lodge “Franjo Herljević”-Kamenica/Zavidovići, Primary School in Donja Mahala-Orašje, Čelebići-Konjic, Manjača-Banja Luka, Trnopolje-Prijedor, Hotel Vilina Vlas-Višegrad, Vojno-Mostar, Rasadnik-Rogatica, Cultural Centre Čelopek-Zvornik, Museum of the Revolution-Jablanica, former barracks „Viktor Bubanj”-Sarajevo, Silos-kaćuni/Busovača, Batković-Bijeljina
[4] For more see the Facebook page Unmarked Sites of Suffering: https://www.facebook.com/Neobilje%C5%BEena-mjesta-stradanja-1688400441404563/?fref=ts
[5] Statistics on the Facebook action available at: Facebook activity results
[6] For more see: http://lupiga.com/vijesti/obiljezavanje-neobiljezenog-putevima-nepriznatih-ratnih-zlocina-bih