‘Justice without reconciliation’: International youth seminar on war crimes and trials

The third cycle of the international seminar ‘Justice without reconciliation’ gathered 20 young people from France, Germany, Kosovo and Serbia and offered to them the opportunity to learn and discuss the role of trials and other mechanisms in dealing with the past, towards reaching reconciliation in the post-conflict countries. The third phase of the seminar held in Kosovo and Serbia from 25.10 – 02.11.2016 included field visits, presentations and discussions with experts, judges and survivors of the recent war in Kosovo.

Some of the highlights of the part of the seminar held in Serbia were: visit to the former Second World War concentration camp – ‘Staro Sajmiste’; meeting with judges of the Department for War Crimes in the High Court in Belgrade; discussion with Natasa Kandic (RECOM Initiative) on how civil society can contribute to the prosecution of war crimes, and visit to Batajnica, where in 2001 mass-graves with bodies of Albanian civilians killed in 1999 in Kosovo were discovered.

The second part of this international seminar took place in Kosovo. The group met with survivors of the 1999 war: Saranda Bogujevci, survivor of the Podujevo massacre and co-author of the exhibition “The Bogujevci – a visual history”; Gramos Berisha, survivor of the massacre of 48 - Berisha family members; Lush Krasniqi witness of the separation and removal of his family(Meja massacre). Within the seminar the participants also met with Zoran Ćirković, representative of the village Staro Gracko, related to the massacre of July 1999.

The first two cycles of the international youth seminar on war crimes and trials took place in Germany, Netherlands and France, where the participants learned and discussed about the judicial, political and societal implications of war crime trials in Europe since 1945.

The seminar cycle ‘Justice without reconciliation’ was organized by Community Building Mitrovica, Max Mannheimer Studienzentrum Dachau, ALTEA France, Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia, Humanitarian Law Centar Kosovo, and the Franco-German Youth Office. The project is part of the South Eastern European Initiative of the French-German Youth Office (FGYO), which also funded the project.

MinoritiesOthers