The idea of organising of the international round table “How to Reach the Truth?” came as the result of the IKV/Pax Christi meeting with partner organisations from Western Balkans, which was held in Mavrovo (FYR Macedonia).

The international round table is aimed to reaffirm need for establishment of truth, prevent politicisation of material evidences about the crimes committed in the wars at the territory of former Yugoslavia, as well to determine the role of non-governmental organisations and media in the process of finding the answer to the question "how to reach the truth?".

Forum of Tuzla Citizens, together with IKV, selected the particular groups of people that should be invited to the round table. We agreed that participants should come mostly from the non-governmental organisations from BiH, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia in order to have regional approach to the subject. It was also decided to invite professors from different faculties (like Philosophy Faculty, Faculty of Political Sciences, etc.), as well representatives of different organisations that are dealing with missing persons and truth and reconciliation and representatives of media in order to have multidisciplinary approach to the subject.

The list of participants:

Bosnia and Herzegovina:
1. Branko Todorovic, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights RS
2. Miodrag Zivanovic, Philosophy Faculty Banja Luka
3. Gajo Sekulic, Faculty of Political Sciences Sarajevo
4. Mirsad Tokaca, Information and Documentation Centre Sarajevo
5. Slavo Kukic, Prof., PhD sociologist, Mostar
6. Vehid Sehic, Forum of Tuzla Citizens
7. Lidija Zivanovic, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka
8. Senad Pecanin, Magazine “BH Dani”, Sarajevo
9. Marko Divkovic, Free Europe
10. Maja Marjanovic, Dayton project Sarajevo
11. Selim Beslagic, BiH MP
12. Sinan Alic, Foundation “Truth, Justice, Reconciliation” Tuzla
13. Oliver Jovic, president of the Assembly of Forum of Tuzla Citizens
14. Aleksandra Letic, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights RS
15. Vedrana Subotic, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights RS
16. Tijana Milic, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights RS
17. Amir Kulaglic, Women of Srebrenica
18. Nerma Jelacic, BIRN
19. Snjezana Filipovic, Information and Documentation Centre Sarajevo
20. Branka Rajner, Human Rights Office Tuzla

Serbia:
1. Sandra Orlovic, Humanitarian Law Fund Belgrade
2. Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights, Belgrade
3. Sasa Popov, Centre for Regionalism, Novi Sad
4. Nadezda Gace, Belgrade
5. Dragan Banjac, freelancer, Belgrade
6. Semiha Kacar, Committee for Human Rights in Sandzak, Novi Pazar
7. Tamara Kaliterna, Women in Black, Belgrade
8. Bogdan Ivanisevic, consultant of the NGO Coalition from the territory of former Yugoslavia
9. Pavel Domonji, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Novi Sad

Croatia
1. Vesna Terselić, Documents – Centre for Facing with the Past, Zagreb
2. Zoran Pusic, GOLJP, Zagreb
3. Dr. Mira Ljubic Lorger, politologist, Split
4. Pero Jurisin, freelancer, Split
5. Jaroslav Pecnik, Croatian Helsinki Committee – cooperation centre Osijek
6. Katica Pecnik, Croatian Helsinki Committee – cooperation centre Osijek

The Netherlands
1. Puco Danilovic, IKV

The international round table titled “How to Reach the Truth?” was held on November 10-11, 2006, in hotel “Tuzla”, in Tuzla.

At the first day of the round table, Vehid Sehic, the President of Forum of Tuzla Citizens, gave the welcome note and the short analysis of previous experiences related to the topic “How to Reach the Truth?”, which were made at the territory of former Yugoslavia, as well as the overview of the positive experiences from the other parts of the World.

After this general introduction to the topic by Vehid Sehic, Senad Pecanin from weeklky magazine “Dani”, Branko Todorovic from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in RS and Slavo Kukic, sociologist presented the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina related to this topic from different perspectives (journalist, human rights activist and analyst).

In the second part of the morning session, Biljana Kovacevic – Vuco from the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights, Sandra Orlovic from the Humanitarian Law Fund and Sasa Popov from the Centre for Regionalism from Novi Sad had the opportunity to present the situation in Serbia concerning the issue of facing with the truth and reactions and the attitude of the official government and citizens related to this topic.

After those speeches, participants participated in 60 minutes long open discussion.

In the afternoon session of the first day of the round table, participants had the opportunity to find out more about the situation in Croatia related to the facing with the past, dealing with the truth and relation toward the Hague Tribinal. The speakers were Vesna Terselic from the Centre for Facing with the Past – Documents, Zoran Pusic from the Group for Human Rights and Pero Jurisin, freelancer from Split.

Unfortunately, participants from Montenegro and Macedonia were not able to come to the international round table, so we could not hear their situation and experiences. However, Semiha Kacar from Committee for Human Rights in Sandzak presented the situation in this area, which is very specific.

Originally, it was planned that in the second part of the afternoon session participants should be divided in the working groups with three specific topics (What makes the finding of missing persons difficult; How to reach the truth; and Media and the truth) in order to reach joint conclusions at the end of the conference. However, through joint and lively discussion participants concluded that such approach to the subject how to reach the truth is too ambitious and they agreed to continue discussion in plenum and to try to reach general directions for the future work.

On the second day of the international round table “How to Reach the Truth”, the general directions were presented to all participants, minor changes were made in term of terms used in the document and all the participants agreed upon it and adopted it. The text of the documents follows:

Conclusions from the International Round Table “How to Reach the Truth?”

Summary
Analysing effects of the international round table “How to Reach the Truth?”, it can be concluded that all participants very deeply and objectively, but at the same time critically, lighted up the role of the non-governmental sector and media in fact finding from our recent past, for period 1990 – 2006, which would contribute to objectiveness of the war period especially.
Special quality to the work of the round table was given through the fact that the profiles of the participants were different: lawyers, professors, psychologists, sociologists, political analysers, peace activists, people of different perspectives toward life, so the issue how to reach the truth was discussed through multidisciplinary approach.
The main topic of presentations of all participants was the role of current political elites, domestic courts, media, non-governmental organisations, as well of the International Tribunal for War Crimes in The Hague in three states of the region – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, in building of the trust among the citizens, but at the same time in fact finding, i.e. truth finding.

Analyse of the situation of the region
Speaking about the role of the current authorities in those three states, there is unique conclusion that, beside unique political attitude, there must be absolute cooperation with The Hague Tribunal, which is also an international obligation of those states, but also condition for entering the European institutions, although they are still doing many things that prevent establishment of true facts.

Croatia, who fulfilled its obligations toward The Hague Tribunal, which gives impression that there is general political and social consensus in lightening up of the war past in this state, and also processing of all those who are suspected of war crimes in front of domestic judiciary, takes this assignment selectively.

The best illustration is the case “Glavas”, who is one of the founders of the ruling party HDZ, but also one of the most important members until two years ago. His role in the war in Croatian in 1991-1992 was always known, since there were many proofs. Only when he left the ruling party HDZ and became its political opponent, investigation against his was started due to suspicion that he made war crime in Osijek.
If we add to this the fact that in the management of that party there are still individuals who are at very important political positions in the state, and who are suspected of participation in the war crimes and no measures are taken against them, the conclusion is that politics is still controlling part of the judiciary and security system. Legal charges are taken only when the individual becomes political opponent.

It is important to point out that part of Croatian public still believe that in a defensive war anything is allowed, even mass destruction of the enemy, because it cannot be war crime.

This is the characteristic of the perception in the other two states, BiH and Serbia. Although Serbia has not “officially” participated in the war, nor there was war at its territory, which is the only truth, around 800.000 citizens of Serbia feels direct or indirect consequences of war.

Speaking about the relation of those three countries toward establishment of the truth, the most difficult situation is in Serbia, not only because they have not achieved full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal (they have not extradited Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic and another three persons suspected for crimes in BiH in Croatia, for whom Serbia provided shelter). Also because of the fact that the strongest political party in Serbia – Serb Radical Party, whose leader Vojislav Seselj is in the Hague temporary arrest, still advocates war as the mean for achievement of political goal: Great Serbia with borders Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica, which is also secretly supported by some other ruling parties. Unfortunately, that shows that still large part of the public, i.e. citizens of Serbia, is not ready to face the past, meaning to face the truth.

Although there are several trails going on in Serbia related to the war crimes in BiH and Croatia, it can be concluded that they are doing everything to prove that those crimes have nothing to do with the regime of Slobodan Milosevic back in that time. In this way, they are trying to amnesty decision-makers of those crimes, which will satisfy the justice only partly.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the situation is specific because of its constitutional structure at the first place – the existence of two entities – Federation of BiH and Republic of Srpska. All actors of the political life in BiH are for full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, which is partly achieved. Most of the suspected surrendered themselves voluntarily, but it has to be pointed out that most responsible ones for the war crimes (Krajisnik, Krstic, etc.) were arrested by the international military forces, not by the state ones, i.e. entity ones. That is the reason why representatives of the international community still request full cooperation from BiH, i.e. Republic of Srpska.

The undisputable fact is that the war in BiH left the most difficult consequences. The cruelest, the worst war crimes had happened at the territory of BiH (Srebrenica), where SR Yugoslavia, but also Croatia were directly involved, but that is being tried to neglect these days both in those states, but also in BiH itself. The result of that is creation of three war truths, three war histories that are contradictory to each other, which makes path to the establishment of the facts even more difficult – the truth about the war itself, the consequences of that war, but at the same time also building the trust and understanding among the citizens of BiH. That is why in BiH exist four contradictory blocks: three nationalistic ones, which are trying to show their role in war in the way that the crimes were done only by the other and that they (the others) are responsible for everything that had happened, and they are, unfortunately, majority today. The fourth block, consisted of several civic initiatives, is trying to show the facts from the war period objectively, and they represent originators of the building of integral bh. society.

The relationship of the authorities toward NGOs
Non-governmental organisations in those states are mostly dealing with protection of human and civil rights, but at the same time they are struggling for punishment of all war criminals, no mater on their ethnic background, and they present the facts about that or they present material proofs about the number of war victims, etc. Speaking about the relation of the authorities in those states toward non-governmental organisations that relationship is selective.
The authorities have very negative attitude toward non-governmental organisations that are struggling for the truth about everything that had happened, calling them traitors and hireling organisations. At the same time, they have very supportive relation toward such organisations in other two states and very often they use results of those organisations to try to Satanise the others and justify themselves.

Media
Unfortunately, many media are behaving in this situation as authorities do. Serious danger are many non-governmental organisations, which are under the cover of protection of human rights, but are really service and tool of the authorities and certain political elites, which are the biggest obstacle in the process of facing with the past, which means with the truth as well.

Besides existence of many material proofs about committed crimes at the territory of former Yugoslavia, the concerning fact is that executors are still not available to the judiciary in those states. At the same time, the actors of the political life are abusing them in the certain moment, usually in the clash with political opponents or in the pre-election campaign, which means – it is not aimed to establish the truth. That form of the truth abusing should be prevented and everything should be done to make all the proofs available to the prosecution offices and courts, and by doing so, to the public in those states.

The participants of the round table gave special focus to the behaviour of the journalists and media in the pre-war, war and post-war period. The large number of the journalists placed themselves into the service of the warmonger policy. The truth and complete information lost the importance among the most of the journalists, and those who did not want to betray professional ethics lost the opportunity to work in any media. After decision-makers and executors of the war crimes, ethnic cleansing, destruction, etc., the biggest responsibility lies at media and journalists who created the environment where they affirmed hate toward the others, revenge, created national heroes out of those who committed war crimes through their war reporting and comments. Through such relation, many of them directly supported war crime and became co-executors of the war crimes. The fact is that none of the journalist will be brought to trail at the Hague Tribunal, but that should not be the obstacle for the domestic judiciary to start the processes against those journalists where many material proofs exist. It is the huge assignment and the obligation that lies in front of actors of civil society, who are aware of the fact that the justice will never be satisfied, but it will be huge injustice if none of the journalists is processed. Having in mind the fact that many of them are still present in media, through their shows they communicate with the public, and some of them still have significant influence and political power. The fact that many of them are protagonists of freedom of media, as well the right on freedom of thought and speech is moral collapse. On the contrary, the journalists who did not want to be part of the criminal machinery, still cannot find their media space.

Analysing today's situation of the media at the territories of those countries, there are only few media, which, in their editorial policy, have both professional and citizens' courage to objectively present information about the war, war crimes and consequences of the war. Not a single journalist, who wrote in accordance with the actual authorities, did not have any inconvenience, while those who bravely confronted nonsense are either killed, or became permanently disabled, or are living under constant pressure and threats. This fact shows that the truth and justice are still not part of everyday life in those states.

Institutionalisation of facing with the past – Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The ideas about establishment of institutionalised forms that would deal with establishment of facts about the wars and their consequences at the territory of former Yugoslavia (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) had different reflections in public in BiH, Croatia and Serbia.

Forum of Tuzla Citizens, which sent appeal to the non-governmental organisations, political parties, religious communities and some other institutions to support establishment of Commission, started the first initiative for establishment of such commission in BiH in 1998 and it got wide support, even from those whose political responsibility is out of question. However, it stopped there, since the draft of the Law on Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was submitted to the Presidency of BiH and Minister for Human Rights in 2001, ended up in a drawer.
The idea was actualised recently, so the parliamentary task force, which made the new draft of the Law, was established.

The uncertain fact is that such commissions had certain results only if they were established just after the war or any other kind of conflict or when there was united political will to establish the truth, which is not the case in BiH even today. The reasonable question to ask would be if possible future commission will be able to realise the assignment that will be placed in front of it.

The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Serbia, in 2002, by the president of Serbia in that time – Vojislav Kostunica, decreased the value of this idea, since the assignment of that commission was not to establish the truth, but to point out that the crimes were committed by all (three) sides in BiH. Especially, they tried to equalise those crimes and by doing so to establish reconciliation among three sides in BiH, and at the same time between BiH and Serbia. It should be pointed out that the founder of the commission, Vojislav Kostunica, was the biggest opponent of the Hague Tribunal and the man who gave absolute support to all those who have been suspected for war crime. Some of the members of that commission supported his attitude. This commission stopped working after a year, which is the best thing that could have happened.

Croatian public has never accepted such idea, there was no political will for establishment of a commission. The proof for this is Declaration on homeland war, which was adopted by Croatian Parliament in 2004, which is shameful document in we are speaking about the relation of Croatia toward the war in BiH 1992-1995.

The role of the International Tribunal for War Crimes in The Hague and of domestic judiciary and prosecuting institutions should be pointed out. The positive role of the Hague Tribunal in clearing the crimes at the territory of former Yugoslavia is out of question. The fact is that untouchable war criminals (presidents, generals, many politicians) had been prosecuted, which opened the space to the domestic institutions to continue with processing of all those suspected for war crimes and who are not in the jurisdiction of the Hague Tribunal. It is certain that the work of those courts will partly satisfy both the justice and the truth. However, it is also the fact that in many processes the material truth could not be established, since the courts work according to strict rules and can take into the consideration only trustworthy material proofs. Some of the suspected will be released since there will be no such proofs, especially having in mind the fact that the authorities in those three states did everything to destroy as much as possible proofs.
That is the reason why we have to create environment for establishment of political and moral responsibility of all those who could, but did not, prevent creation of the environment where all moral values of the life are destroyed.

The attitude of the participants of the round table was not to bring the conclusions, since that would be too ambitious in relation to the truth as absolute value, since that aim is not reachable and impossible to achieve.
However, that is the reason why one should struggle for the truth permanently, which will be the task of all those who care for restoration of moral values in this region.

Most of the media reported about the holding of the round table in Tuzla. Local and cantonal radio and TV stations, but also different newspapers in the country and abroad published the articles with the statements of some of the speakers and with the main points of the discussion. Here is the text of Tamara Kaliterna (journalist, member of the association “Women in Black” from Belgrade), published in the newspapers “Republika”:

On November 24-25, in Tuzla, at the international round table was discussed “How to reach the Truth?”. The organisers were Forum of Tuzla Citizens (FTC) and Dutch organisation IKV.
People from just some of the parts of former Yugoslavia that were in war – Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia participated at the international event. People from Kosovo and Montenegro were not there, although the round table was aimed to re-affirm need for the truth, and to prevent politicising of the proofs on war crimes.
Firstly, Truth and Reconciliation Commission was tried to be established in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also existed in Latin America and South Africa. Religious leaders supported the idea, but only if the responsibility of the religious communities for war in Bosnia will not be investigated. The establishment of the Commission was supported by 154 non-governmental organisations. The structure of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in SRY, which was appointed by Vojislav Kostunica, with honourable exceptions, disqualified similar commissions on the territory of former Yugoslavia, said Vehid Sehic, the president of FTC.
“They keep us chained to our past”, said Sehic, who believes it is immoral to deprive the truth from the victims.
At the monument of 71 citizens of Tuzla that were killed on May 25, 1995 it is written that they were killed by the shell of chetniks' and fascists' criminals. The parents of the child, who was almost three years old and who was killed on Youth Day, know very well that chetniks and fascists are synonyms and that there is no negotiation with “ravnogorci”.
Last week, Federation BiH celebrated November 25, the Day of ZAVNOBIH. In Mrkonjic Grad, on November 25, 1945, BiH state was created. RS neglects that day. Mrkonjic Grad belongs to RS – Serb part of BiH.
Senad Pecanin, the director of magazine “Dani” said that the best Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the one in the International Court of Justice, and there the judgement will be passed on Serbia for genocide in February. “Reisu l ulema Mustafa Ceric, bishop Nikolaj, nor Cardinal Vinko Puljic have the authority to be in the Commission. All parties are proud of the result of the war policy. If there is no the Hague, Radovan Karadzic would be legitimate candidate for BiH Presidency, and Ratko Mladic would be in the headquarters of the Bosnian army”, said Pecanin.
The sociologist from Mostar, Slavo Kukic, presented the fact that in Federation BiH there is 70% of the Hague Tribunal, and in RS 47%. In addition, the citizens of RS are not ready, as the population of Federation is, to show the period 1992-1995 in the history textbooks, since they “provoke hate”.
In Bijeljina, RS, there are many bronze monuments at the small, central, city space. At the first one, Karadjordjevic Oslobodilac (the liberator) squeezes with horse and brandish with sword above heads of three people at the ground. At the other one, two colossal male figures in the aesthetics of four C. Both of the monuments are war heritage.
Selim Beslagic, the war mayor of Tuzla, and now SDP (Social-Democratic Party) representative told us that at the location Crni Vrh 600 of Srebrenica people exhumed in these November days. Crypts are about 80 m from the road Zvornik-Tuzla. That's how far is the place of execution of Ivan Stambolic from the road at Fruska Gora. At Crni Vrh, a mother with two children is exhumed. Some people that were killed were tied with belt, taken from the clothes factory “Standard” in Zvornik. When exhumation started, the owner of the land asked forensics: “Who will pay for the digging at my land?”. He asked no questions when people from Srebrenica were buried there in the summer 1995.
Stara Pazova is the twin-city with Srebrenica. In 1991, that was the place of departure of chetniks' dukes, hordes known as “Dusan Silni” and “Beli orlovi”, whose credits of past labour are discussed at the Hague tables.
Mirsad Tokaca, the president of Investigation and Documentation Centre from Sarajevo, independent missing persons commission for the territory of the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that there were three ethnic commissions in BiH. Each of them was trying to find only their people. Since then, until now, still there are 14.000 missing persons. That is 90% of all missing persons from the territory of former Yugoslavia.
Tokaca's centre cooperates with colleagues from Croatia and Serbia, including Kosovo. “The truth is the best when it is based on cold factography. Montenegro is welcome to join us in order to end up with myths”, said Tokaca.
Zoran Pusic from Citizens' Board for Human Rights from Zagreb evaluated that the case of Branimir Glavas marked the end of loud “Croatian silence”. “The most valuable testimonies are of people who participated in the crimes or did crimes”. When they accuse each other in details, that sobers the public up. When the trial to Mirko Norac for the crime in Medacki dzep was starting, people in Croatia started wearing T-shirts with prints “I am Norac”. When he was sentenced on two digits years in prison, they changed the T-shirts with prints “I am not Norac”. The criminals are cowards and they like to hide behind common nouns “Croats” or “Serbs”, said Pusic.
There is no direct traffic connection from Tuzla to Belgrade. My colleague and I ask two passers-by where is the bus station. One of them is trying to explain: “Go to the left, 200 m, and then to the right, then over the bridge, and then straight on”. She turns to her friend: “Just give them two marks for taxi to make it easier for them”.
“What else we had to do to them to start hating us”, asked my colleague when we moved away a bit.
“I sent the good shield to protect me / I thrown it, as good as it is, since it bothers me”, Mak Dizdar suspected war period for Bosnia.
The common thing in both Dayton parts is that no public clock is in order.

Tamara Kaliterna

AF: Human rights for half a Euro
In “Merkator” in Tuzla, which is as big as the Belgrade one, Merhamet announces public kitchen: “Donete one KM today. We will feed one persons tomorrow”. One KM equals half a Euro.
“Balkan Yearbook of Human Rights” in English language is offered to the participants of the “round table”. Two citizens take the yearbook and put it in the “Merkator” bag. When they were asked if the knew English, they responded negative and added: “It would be better if they gave us something concrete”.

AF: Deaf and dumb in three languages
Miodrag Zivanovic, from Philosophy Faculty in Banja Luka, reminded that Bosniaks returned to Fazlagica kula, who coexist together with Serbs. Envious people are saying that “Bosniaks brought with them their cattle, but Serb cattle doesn't allow them to graze.” The introduction of the central news for deaf and dumb at Federal TV station provoked the questions – in which language the interpreter interprets to deaf and dumb viewers. It was suggested that there should be three gesticulations for deaf and dumb – Bosniak, Croatian and Serb one. In the international train from Zagreb to Ploce, train dispatcher in Banja Luka asked the passengers to go to Croatian of Federal car, and the car of RS railroad to be disconnected. “Not so many people feel Bosnia as their state”, pointed out Zivanovic. “At the first place is European identity, followed by ethnic identity. At the last place is the state identity”, said Zivanovic.