Preparing The Work on Dealing With the Past in a Community
Preparing The Work on Dealing With the Past in a Community

Author(s): Emina Bužinkić
Subject(s): Education, Civil Society, Recent History (1900 till today), Studies in violence and power, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Documenta - Centar za suočavanje s prošlošću
Keywords: civil society; dealing with the past; community; war; peace-building; Croatia; peace activism; MIRamiDA; mediation; intervention; education;
Summary/Abstract: Dealing with visible and invisible consequences of the war puts in front of us a long-term and difficult task of establishing sustainable peace, peace which creates a possibility of deconstruction of power, building equality and establishing the culture of respect and non-violence. Peace does not merely mean the absence of war, but establishment of lost trust with the creation of just socio-economic and political conditions for life in a community. Visible consequences of the war are images of severe human suffering and losses, mine fields and echoes of explosions even after the war, severe poverty, material devastations with completely or partially ruined cities, villages and infrastructures, as well as lower possibilities of quality education, work and continuation of life. There are also invisible, deep consequences which often, years after the war, escalate into another, renewed conflict. They are hidden in people’s attitudes and views which are often transferred from one family generation to another, so that new generations grow up with messages of violence, pressure for revenge and further deepening of trauma, which can also be reflected in social structures, legal hierarchy and human rights.

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