RECOM a Pointer for Future Peacemakers

SARAJEVO, June 27, 2011

RECOM is a pointer for future peacemakers and it is a necessary tool to build up relations in the region on healthy grounds, appreciation, openness, and respect, stated the Mayer of Sarajevo, Alija Behmen in the opening session of the International Forum on Transitional Justice in successor countries of the former Yugoslavia held in Sarajevo.

Behmen said that 13,000 civilians were killed in Sarajevo and for this reason Sarajevo and BiH should stand as a caution for evil not to recur.  “We have to dealwith the past so that the truth and justice can find their way. For this reason it is necessary to create a regional commission for establishing facts about crimes and other serious violations of human rights because this is our obligation to victims, and the obligation for a better future”, Behmen stated and added that we must not live in a lie. “We have to hear voices of victims. It is unacceptable to deny crimes. To deny a crime means to participate in it”, Mayer Behmen stated.

Director of the Humanitarian Law Center from Belgrade, Nataša Kandić, stated that today’s conference on transitional justice in successor countries of the former Yugoslavia aims at triggering debate with local institutions mainly, which should restore the rule of law and justice for past human rights violations.

“ Today, we speak about the justice from the perspective of victims, from the perspective of local  transitional  justice institutions, like the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, judiciary, respective ministries, from the perspective of science community, mainly from the perspective of the ones who are trying to find a way and tools to reach justice. We speak from the perspective of a particular coalition, which advocates for a common regional commission in this area, which would exist alongside war crimes trials, and which would be focused on victims, as opposed to trials, which are focused on perpetrators of war crimes”, Ms  Kandić stated.

The task of the initiative, according to her, is to convince and win support of local transitional justice institutions, like prosecutions and ministries, to accept that the process of dealing with crimes should receive an official state character.

Everything that has been done so far has a character of civil society endeavour, but there can be no successful process of dealing with the past unless the process is implemented by institutions, unless this process has institutional character, she claims.

“As of today, we, civil  society, have a task to slowly turn over the process of establishing justice to the hands of institutions, and our task will be not to let them stop, but to establish the regional commission for establishing facts about all crimes and all victims as a result of our efforts, Ms Kandić said.

International Forum on Transitional Justice has gathered a great number of representatives of victims’ families and missing persons from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, war veterans, government representatives, prosecutors, judges, attorneys, experts, and others.

Unlike previous forums, which focused on the debate regarding the establishing of RECOM, the objective of this forum is to consider and assess results of the transitional justice process from the perspective of victims, local and international transitional justice institutions, human rights organizations, and the Coalition for RECOM.