A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Difficult Road to Recovery

Over ten years have passed since the 1995 massacres at Srebrenica outraged and shocked the world. As these pages have shown, the road to recovery has been long and painful. There are outward signs of recovery, like the small vendors that have returned to the streets to sell local produce. Even some Muslim returnees have managed to restart a business and are making a living.

Just Desserts Omer Spahic (above) and his wife Dzemila run a small restaurant in the middle of town, where they serve soup, ghoulash and grilled meats. They left Srebrenca in 1992 and lived in Sarajevo until 2000, when they returned home. The International Rescue Committee helped them open their restaurant. Omer tends to main dishes, while his wife cooks the desserts. Their customers include Serbs that they served before the war, including police, municipal government employees, and other returnees.

But the prospects for the town remain in the balance. The number of Muslims that have managed to return is still tiny. Many would probably jump at the chance, and there is growing pressure on them to vacate their temporary homes in towns like Tuzla in the Federation, where they have lived in limbo for eight years.

But Srebrenica is still not welcoming. Many of their former homes are occupied by displaced Serbs who cannot themselves return home. The economy is still in ruins. War criminals still remain at large. It is slow, painstaking and expensive to identify the remains of the thousands of victims of the 1995 massacres. The prospects for the reconstruction of Srebrenica were probably not improved when nationalist parties on both sides -- the Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic -- increased their standings in the latest general elections, which took place on October 5, 2002.

How can this deadlock be broken? Until now, most hopes were pinned on the international community. But, as these pages have shown, the world showed little interest in rebuilding Srebrenica until 2000. Even since then, international efforts have been relatively half-hearted. The UNDP has launched a multilateral program of reconstruction, but this has not yet attracted as much support as its sponsors hoped. Overall, donors are disengaging from Bosnia. The international community’s current “High Representative” Paddy Ashdown will probably be the last to hold the post.

Srebrenica syndrome According to the prosecution team at the Hague tribunal, the women and children who survived the massacre remain severely traumatised. According to Vive Zene, an NGO that provides psychosocial support, widows who now head households have found it hard to conduct business in a largely patriarchal society. Very few have work, and almost all are haunted by a great sense of guilt at having survived. They also suffer from so-called "Srebrenica syndrome," which comes from not knowing about the fate of their menfolk. Bosnian Muslim women need a clear marital status, whether widowed, divorced or married: a woman whose husband is missing does not fit within any of these categories. Younger children who survived also suffer from low levels of concentration, nightmares and flashbacks as well as the absence of male role models. (Extracted from the case against Radislav Krstic)

This is not to underestimate the importance of the UNDP program, or of international efforts. Quite the reverse. The international community failed the people of Srebrenica during the war, and it has no right to walk away during peace. At the same time, it is absolutely clear that the main drive, and impetus, for the reconstruction of this deeply damaged society will continue to come from Bosnians, particularly those from the region.

Whatever progress has been achieved since 1996 is due to the efforts and courage of NGOs profiled on this pages, and their members. They represent the best chances for the Bosnia that was intended to emerge from Dayton. They practice tolerance, respect for cultural and religious diversity, reconciliation, and justice. They are the best hope for Srebrenica, and the international community’s best allies. They must not be abandoned.

Reluctant Donors

Even as the people and NGOs of Srebrenica demonstrate their resilience, aid donors and agencies are showing continued reluctance to fund reconstruction.

The UN Development Program (UNDP), which is coordinating the multilateral response, launched the $13 million, three-year ‘Srebrenica Regional Recovery Program’ on May 13, 2002. Thirty donors were invited, and as of August 31, $4.9 million had been pledged towards the target.

Remains without a name Forensic scientists examine remains at a mortuary in Tuzla: Many survivors of the 1995 massacre are deeply resentful of what they see as indifference towards the remains of their murdered relatives. The victims of the massacre were buried in mass graves. In late 1995 Serb forces returned to the graves, dug up the bodies, and did what they could to dispose of the remains. The rest were broken up, and their body parts intermingled. As a result, only 2,028 intact bodies could be exhumed. Additional gravesites have been located but have yet to be exhumed. Fewer than 500 of the 5,000 remains have been identified.

The program is meant to pick up where the emergency support left off, but as usual donors have proved far more reluctant to fund reconstruction and development than humanitarian needs. Srebrenica’s somber reputation, and the unresolved dilemma of how to punish the authors of the 1995 massacre, have made donors even more hesitant. As a result, many major donors – including the EU, Netherlands and the United States – have yet to announce contributions. The latest contributors are listed below.

Contributions as of October 1:

• Luxembourg $1 million
• UNDP Bosnia $150,000
• Serb Republic (pledged) $2.1 million
• Canada $66,000
• Denmark $92,000
• Italy $1,350,000
• Japan $100,000
• Norway $150,000
• UN Foundation $500,000
• UK $387,500