This article analyzes the continuation of anti-war groups and activists in Serbia who were in opposition to wars in the 1990s and, in the decade after October 2000, are still in struggle. Activism often analyzed as part of the “Dealing with the Past Projects” is here analyzed in the context of social memory studies contributing to the understanding of current memory work and memory activism in Serbia. Drawing on Eviatar Zerubavel’s analysis of calendars as sites of social organization of national memory, this text looks at the emergence of alternative calendars as formed and created by anti-war and human rights activists. By analyzing the emerging alternative civic calendar in Serbia, I discuss memory activism as related to the commemoration of the Siege of Sarajevo and the Omarska concentration camp. I then extend my analysis on what I see as the most apparent and significant day on the emerging civic alternative calendar: 10 July annual commemoration of the victims of Srebrenica taking place for the last two decades at the heart of Belgrade’s city center, Republic Square.
This article discusses anti-war and anti-nationalism activism that took place in Serbia and, particularly, in Belgrade during the 1990s. It analyzes anti-war activism as aiming to combat collective states of denial. Based on fieldwork research conducted in 2004 -05, and particularly on an analysis of interviews conducted with anti-war activists in Belgrade, this text closely analyzes the nuanced voices and approaches to activism against war among Serbia's civil society in the 1990s. The article highlights the difference between anti-war and anti-regime activism, as well as the generation gap when considering the wars of the 1990s and their legacy. Finally, this text emphasizes the role of Women in Black as the leading anti-war group in Serbia, and examines their feminist street activism which introduced new practices of protest and political engagement in Belgrade's public sphere.We are still far from understanding that there exist a whole range of layers of responsibility for the crimes committed: for remaining silent, for forgetting, for hatred, for media propaganda. The Responsibility for remaining silent includes both agreement and awareness of repressionbut also admits shades of doubt. (Papic 135; italics added)
This article examines memory activism among the young generation of activists in Serbia, born during or toward the end of the wars of the 1990s. By analyzing the actions of members of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), a Belgrade-based nongovernmental organization, as memory activism, this article aims to deepen the analysis of and discussions about current mnemonic processes in Serbia and to point at a dynamic space of action and engaged citizenship. I discuss the actions and positions of those young activists as related to the contested memories of the wars of the breakup of Yugoslavia and to the legacies of the 1990s. More specifically, I analyze their responses to, and interactions with, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicts who returned to Serbia and reclaimed their engagement in public life. The text is based on data collected in several stages of field research since 2010 that included observations of and in-depth interviews with YIHR activists in Serbia. It addresses the following main questions: What constitutes memory activism in Serbia? What new tactics do the young generation of memory activists employ and how innovative are their practices when engaging with the public on issues related to challenging silence and denial in their society? How do they articulate their claims and demands as related to the issue of returning ICTY convicts, and especially of those who are now public figures in Serbia? I conclude that at the heart of memory activism as examined in the case of Serbia stands a regional and even transnational network of mnemonic practices, revolving around similar mnemonic battles, taking place in some of the other successor states of the former Yugoslavia as well. As such, further analysis of memory activism in the postwar post-Yugoslav sphere will require additional empirical and analytical research of this region as a region of memory.
This chapter begins by placing the discussion of memories of the wars of the 1990s in the broader context of experiences and memories of everyday life in Serbia at the time. These are largely unwanted memories that people would rather avoid, and yet often reference in passing, especially in the context of unexpected disruptions to their daily routine. The chapter analyses how these memoryscapes shape the actions and claims of memory activists as they critically engage with knowledge about that decade. It also traces the editing and shaping of the new (post-Yugoslav) calendar of Serbia and its very limited engagement with the wars of the 1990s.
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