In disadvantaged and dismantled societies, Transitional Justice (TJ) will lose all credibility if it has not dealt with social injustice, corruption, exploitation of resources and economic violence. Moving towards reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina requires the rethinking of TJ from the very beginning, while inclusion of economic and social rights is essential for TJ effectiveness.
In 1984, viewers from across the region laughed at the skit “Nadrealisti” in which Rizo sells the City Hall of Sarajevo to American tourists for 25,000. Today, 30 years later, we have representatives of the city administration and employees of the National and University Library in Sarajevo.
The peace that the Yugoslav people once built has been destroyed; all because of the stereotypical claim that the hatred between the nations of Yugoslavia was ever-present. This hatred was fabricated by the ruling elites who wanted to teach Slavs how to be civilized and democratic.
Youth in Bosnia-Herzegovina live together and only an occasional "report" reminds them of how they are ostensibly divided. It is often said that transition is not a process, but a permanent state of society in BiH. Since the end of the war, we have been working on reconciliation.
Tuzla, an example of multiculturalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina, does not experience issues related to national identity as much as other areas, but this merely raises more questions. “Why is Tuzla not progressing despite such an advantage?” Mirza Haličević reports.
The greatest obstacles in achieving reconciliation are public discourse, the absence of an agreed upon view of the past, and the nationalist rhetoric and hatred imposed upon us by the ruling elites. The dynamic process of transitioning from a socialist society to a society described as brutally capitalist, with clear nationalist features, has left its …