Reconciliation

Beside red carpets, movie screenings, panel discussions and glitzy parties, in its "Dealing With the Past" programme, the Sarajevo Film festival lets visitors learn about the past, reconciliation and how different societies deal with conflicts and their consequences. 

A report more than five years ago by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission detailed harsh mistreatment inflicted on Indigenous children at the institutions

The Truth is out there!

On the bench opposite them would be the perpetrator who had committed the actual crime, and he would tell the story of how he and a certain colleague had stopped two boys on the side of the street, checked them, drove them somewhere in the dark and finished them off. He would reveal to the mother in detail how her son was actually murdered and where they buried his body.

A survey by the NGO Integra published on Wednesday suggested that while people in Kosovo believe that it is important that the truth about the 1998-99 war be known, only a minority know about President Hashim Thaci's initiative to set up a truth and reconciliation commission.

A report by Impunity Watch says the “highly troubled” state of transitional justice must be addressed urgently in the Balkans, where war crimes prosecutions are declining and nationalist rhetoric persists.

The Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo said that school textbooks should include a chapter on transitional justice, teaching pupils about war crimes trials and how to deal with the past.

President Hashim Thaci announced a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he said was intended to encourage mutual forgiveness among Kosovo’s Albanians and Serbs.