As poet Mak Dizdar describes in “Blue River” there exists a country: “Beyond dread, beyond doubt, beyond nine, beyond ten, deeper and stronger, beyond silence, beyond darkness.” It is here that a good country exists. A country shaped like a heart. That country’s name is Bosnia-Herzegovina and a strange people live in this heart-shaped land.
From dawn till dusk in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, transition always entails a dose of risk. Most of the time, it is simply fear of loss and failure. Our environment was unfortunately struck by both. Everything that once was is lost, and the fear of what will come tomorrow continues.
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.