Silencing Justice: War Crime Trials and the Society in Former Yugoslavia
Silencing Justice: War Crime Trials and the Society in Former Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: The article examines political and media discourses on war crime trials in former Yugoslavia and their relation to transitional justice norms. The main aim is to explain the modest results of the ICTY in triggering the process of dealing with the past in the region. Discourse analysis has been utilized to analyze about 5000 articles published in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Serbia in the period 2001-2011. The study shows that the three countries constructed a significantly different memory of war crime trials, mainly in accordance with the claims of dominant ethno-nationalist discourses. In Serbia, the trials are seen as yet another tool used by the international community to victimize and humiliate Serbia. In Bosnia, war crime trials are a confirmation of the genocide narrative and the status of the war’s greatest victims. Finally, in Croatia, the war crime trials are accepted only to the extent they confirm the “Homeland War” narrative. Interpreted solely in an ethno-nationalist frame, war crime trials could so far not contribute significantly to reconciliation and dealing with the past, but they did provoke debates and provided a challenge for dominant war narratives throughout the region.

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