una svolta?

[Paola Lucchesi <paola.lucchesi@mail.inet.it>]

Piu' tardi cerchero' di trovare il tempo per tradurre questa notizia, visto
che in tanti mi hanno segnalato di avere problemi con l'inglese.

Non ho abbastanza parole per dire quanto sia importante.

Kostunica lancia una commissione d'inchiesta sulle guerre in Slovenia,
Croazia, Bosnia e Kosovo.

Sono molto ammirata. Soprattutto perche' non ci sono voluti anni per
prendere una decisione del genere.

E' un compito pesante, e ci vuole un bel coraggio politico per proporre una
cosa del genere (sicuramente non la mossa piu' popolare che un presidente
possa intraprendere con una situazione psicologica come quella della
Jugoslavia di oggi).

Ecco, gia' che si parlava di Croazia, la' per esempio la forza di fare una
vera politica d'inchiesta sui retroscena del '95 (o anche certe brutte
storie del '91), ancora non l'hanno trovata. Farebbe un sacco di bene a
tutti.

Per assurdo, magari l'esempio lo prenderanno proprio da Belgrado. La vita
ha piu' fantasia di noi :-)

buon lunedi'

paola



http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010408/1/m8x5.html

Sunday April 8, 9:24 PM

Yugoslavia says ready to confront recent history with truth commission

BELGRADE, April 8 (AFP) - While the UN demands the immediate extradition
of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic on war crimes charges, Yugoslavia is
seeking to prove it can reckon with its own recent past with a South
African-style truth commission.
    Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who defeated Milosevic in
elections last September, launched a truth and reconciliation commission
this week modeled on the South African body created in 1995 to probe
human rights violations committed under apartheid.
    Kostunica's advisor on human rights, Gradimir Nalic, told AFP in an
interview that the commission aimed to take an unflinching look at the
conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo that left hundreds of
thousands dead and traumatized millions more.
    "Our focus is on the four wars, to see how they were prepared, why
they happened, who was involved, who was really in charge," said Nalic,
who has been closely involved in the creation of the body.
    The commission, which may take up its work as soon as late April, is
intended to run parallel to public prosecution and offer a space outside
a courtroom for officials and ordinary citizens to tell what they know
about this bloody chapter of Yugoslav history.
    "There is no one is this country who doesn't have a story to tell,"
Nalic said. "They are searching for a place to come with their stories
and broken lives."
    The commission is comprised of 19 lawyers, historians, psychologists
and journalists who range from dissidents to repentant collaborators
with Milosevic's 13-year regime.
    "If you want true reconciliation, you have to a group that
represents society," he said.
    Nalic acknowledged the commission's task was something like hitting
a moving target.
    "Some could call it 'mission impossible' because the wars are not
over -- thousands have not been able to return to their homes and Serbs
are still being targeted" by ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia and
UN-run Kosovo province, he said.
    He also mentioned 400 ethnic Albanians still in jail on alleged
crimes committed in Kosovo and thousands still counted missing after the
war.
    "But we must start immediately. We have to set an example and come
forward to tell the truth," he said. "We have got to prevent a kind of
public amnesia from spreading."
    Nalic said the commission's initial aim was to try to help heal
wounds within Yugoslavia but also hoped to serve as a mediator between
the country and its neighbors.
    "If you want to have the whole picture, one of the aims will have to
be to create links with similar commissions that need to be established
in the other republics of the former Yugoslavia," he said.
    "It is not enough to reconcile with the citizens of Serbia."
    As in South Africa, amnesty from criminal prosecution or lesser
sentences could be offered to those who testify before the commission,
which will be the prerogative of the country's courts, Nalic said.
    Nalic said that the commission would also address the role of the
international community in the conflicts and what he called its
sometimes contradictory relationship to Milosevic.
    "First he was the 'Balkans Butcher', then the guarantor of the
Dayton peace agreement (that ended the Bosnian war)," he said. "This was
something of a ridiculous situation."
    Milosevic was jailed last Sunday on Serbian charges of abuse of
power and corruption.
    He also been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes allegedly committed in Kosovo,
but Yugoslav officials are resisting a UN demand to hand him over
immediately and want to first try him in Belgrade on the domestic
charges.
    Nalic says he has been reading reports from the South African
commission and a similar body created in Chile for guidance, as well as
transcripts from the Nuremberg Nazi trials.
    "After what has happened in history, we never expected this to
happen in Yugoslavia," he said.
    "Aside from the killings and displacement, 35,000 well educated
young people have left the country and most will not be coming back.
People my daughter's age -- she is 16 -- are suspicious that we cannot
offer them the better life we have promised them."
    "I don't feel very optimistic," Nalic admitted. "It is going to be a
long and painful process."

Copyright © 2001 AFP