My organization:
We gather together survivors from the most notorious camps (Omarska, Trnopolje, Keraterm) in BiH. Our politics is anti-nationalistic and a politics of reconciliation with dealing with the past and with no influence on interpersonal relations in our city. We are pretty good but highly sensitive!
Examples of concrete activities I have organized/am organizing in the field of “dealing with the past”:
Organization of regular annual visits of the former places of detention, camps and execution sites
Education for groups of young people and students
Legal aid for members of our association and cooperation with local and international associations in this field
Concrete challenges I am facing in my “dealing with the past”-related work:
Resistances of the local population and authorities
general situation in the country as the lack of will in the state, the overall difficult economic and political situation in the country
the lack of will from the international community which plays a big role in BiH
donors are leaving and there is no assistance from the local and other levels of authorities in BiH
My personal link to/interest for the topic of “dealing with difficult pasts”:
I am the only employee of the association and somebody who has been listening for years the stories of more than 10.000 persons. I also survived the camps and the ethnic cleansing and am a member of a family whose father has been killed. Apart from that, I am determined to stay in BiH which is not the existing trend and I will continue living in Prijedor. After so many years of work in this field, at a certain moment a person becomes a part of this small group of almost irreplaceable persons which we represent. Also, after listening of a huge amount of horrific confessions, you become emotionally connected. The war and war suffering become an unbreakable part of your character and something that determines me and my life.
Contact: