Council of Europe: Failure to face past endangers peace in Balkan region

The report stresses that when almost three decades have passed since the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia region, reconciliation remains elusive.

There are steps back in the process of dealing with the past, and this coincides with the wider decline in respect to human rights and rule of law in some countries of the region”, It says in the report.

Accounting for war crimes is far from complete, the report points out, <x0); thanks to the region, there have been multiple attempts to ensure criminal accountability, including a fully international crime court, domestic war crimes judgments, as well as internationalised or hybrid accounting mechanisms”.

War Crimes Accountability Efforts, as the report points out, are being damaged by The current “climate of denying war crimes and cloning war criminals”, as well as the lack of judicial co-operation among some of the countries, including continued refusal by these states to extradite their citizens, who continue to enjoy impunity.

There is an alarming trend towards ethno-nationalist discours, denial of crimes and deglarification of war criminals, which weakens efforts to confront the past. It is disturbing that such practices are accepted and actively pursued by politicians at the highest political levels and turned into strategies to raise votes and stay in power”, The report says, underlining among other things that extreme right nationalist groups “contribute to this discours, enjoying support from regional and international ties that made them serious risk factors to undermine efforts to prevent the repetition of violence”.

In view of the unstable context in the region, it is said that criminalising genocide and war crimes as a serious form of hate speech is necessary.

According to the report, although there has been slow progress in recognising the needs of rape survivors through their involvement as civilian victims of war in some national legislation, fears of stigmatisation and disfellowshipped criteria continue to make it difficult for them to obtain compensation.

“Searching for reparations through civil or criminal courts is a long and costly process and exposes victims to the risk of retraumatisation. In general, national authorities, in addition to compensation, have paid little attention to reparations in other forms, such as rehabilitation, satisphaciation through the discovery of truth, public apology and memory, as well as guarantees for non-recurition”, It's pronounced in the report.

It criticises the process of helping the missing persons' fate, which reportedly has marked decline in recent years, although nothing is known about the fate of nine thousand and 867 missing persons.

It is urgent that these remaining cases be resolved as soon as possible in order to end family suffering. The long time spent and the possibility of wrong identification before using the DNA test presents significant practical obstacles, while unfortunately the lack of political commitment for genuine regional co-operation in this area has become a major obstacle in recent years”, It says in the report.

The report calls for quick political reactions to avoid a return to massive violence in the region, stressing that the past creates deep divisions both inside and among countries of the region by contributing to a hate and divisive environment, which is reflected in the growth of hate speech, interethnic violence and intolerance.

The new “Brezas are growing up in separate societies, without real opportunities to interact with members of the other group or are being educated to view the “next” as a threat. The data on radicalisation of young people and some violent incidents involving young people constitute very serious concern”, It says in the report.

The report also highlights several shortcomings in the international community's engagement, including that of intergovernmental organisations and individual donor states.

“Responding engagement over time, establishing the environment's stability as a priority in dealing with the past; incompatible messages and access based on short-term projects are some of the causes, among other things, that have weakened the influence of international partners”, The report says as it points out that facing the past with a view to reconciliation and avoiding future conflicts requires continued efforts that must extend beyond a generation. / VOA