The initiative set in motion by three NGOs from three former Yugoslav republics - Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) from Serbia, Documenta from Croatia, and Research and Documentation Centre from Bosnia and Herzegovina, until now have been supported by 108 organisations and 155 individuals from the republics successors of the former Yugoslavia.
Natasa Kandic, the HLC President, has announced that next year the Civil Society Coalition, with the aim of supporting the Regional Commission (REKOM) foundation, will start collecting half a million signatures for the REKOM foundation. She has also added that at the end of 2009 the Coalition will submit request for the REKOM founding to the national parliaments.
Although the REKOM should be dedicated to "the fates of missing persons and crime victims" and reaction to "the regional silence and impunity", no government in the region has reacted to this initiative for the time being.
Vesna Terselic, director of the Zagreb-based Documenta, explains this phenomenon by saying that this suggestion has not yet been presented to the national governments. She has also added that first it was necessary for the law group to define main characteristics of the REKOM that should include the term of office and selection of the Commission members, as well as the type of crimes the Commission would deal with.
Individual international experts and victims` organisations doubt this idea could be realised, stating the states that had emerged as a result of Yugoslavia break-up, have not achieved enviable cooperation, especially in the sphere of the truth on wars determining.
However, Terselic indicates that regarding the war crimes processes courts and prosecutors` offices have achieved functional regional cooperation.
"Clearly, regional courts` cooperation could be even better but it has already been functioning in the way that enables states` cooperation when the Truth Commission is in question. Our initiative is complementary with war crimes trials in local courts," says Terselic.
She is also adding that the Commission could help in determining individual responsibilities and truth discovering since, say, in Croatia there are only 25 to 30 war crimes trials yearly and there is so many unresolved cases. In the Balkans conflicts from 1991 to 1995 and 1998 to 2000, more than 120,000 people were killed while 17,000 more are missing. Although at the ICTY and local courts war crimes trials are still in progress and in the countries of the region national truth commissions have been established, peoples in the region are still divided by different views of the same war events.
Since the economic and cultural cooperation in the region has been rushing off, some experts think it should not be insisted on the establishing of the whole truth that has been inevitably heating up certain sort of anxiety. Although justice and crimes punishment are important European values, avoiding the whole truth establishment after the evident crimes have been done would not be something new in the countries getting closer to the states of the European Union.
Silence or the so-called "Pact of Oblivion" of the past crimes has been the pillar of the Spain`s peaceful transition into democracy when back in 1975 General Francisco Franco died after almost 40 years of his dictatorship rule.
Regardless of, as it has been estimated, half a million people who had died in the Spanish Civil War, as well as numerous victims of the Franco regime, crimes done have never been investigated. Under the reconcilable authority of the King Juan Carlos, Spain has thrown its bloody past into the background while the European Community has supported its European integration regardless the unprocessed crimes.
Only 69 years after the Civil War ended and 33 years upon Franco`s death did the Spanish high investigative judge Baltasar Garzón make the move towards the first investigation of the fate of tens of thousands of people who have disappeared during that period. A month ago, judge Garzón launched an inquiry including, among other things, exhumation of 19 mass graves. It is believed that in one of the graves could be found remains of the great Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca.
"What happened in Spain between 1936 and 1951 was a crime against humanity," maintains judge Garzón known for his indictments for crimes against humanity and terrorism against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as well as the Al-Qaeda and ETA leaders.
This case has stirred controversy from the past, among other things, because the judge Garzón has focused only on the investigation of crimes done by the Franco supporters and not the communists who had been thrown off power by the Fascists.
Although several analysts consider this special "Pact of Oblivion" good solution for the Balkans also, Vesna Terselic says that exactly the example of Spain is the proof for the necessity of establishing the truth and avoiding historic amnesia.
"Spain is the proof of the fact that it is impossible to hide and be silent about crimes for ever. After several decades, the time has come for them to document crimes, exhume graves, and make indictments although most of criminals have been long dead. Spain proves that facing the past is inevitable," emphasises Terselic.
Nevertheless, she adds she does not believe the EU would require the Western Balkans states to fully investigate all the crimes and establish the truth.
"Since we already know this is not the case with Croatia, I am sure this would not be the condition for the other states` joining the Union," she observes adding that in cooperation with the European administration the biggest mistake has been not doing more in finding out the fates of the missing people. However, she is adding that regarding this issue, neither national governments in the region nor the European Commission would so easily change the political attitude.
* Nenad Radicevic is a foreign affairs journalist with Politika daily
