An Ethnography of Contested Return: Re-Making Kozarac
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An Ethnography of Contested Return: Re-making Kozarac Phd Dissertation Sebina Sivac-Bryant, UCL December 2011 Supervisors: Michael Stewart & Dennis M.Last Acknowledgement: I am grateful for the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council Page 1 of 235 Abstract This PhD dissertation looks at the experience of a small returnee community in Kozarac, North-West Bosnia. It is a longitudinal study of a group of people who set out to reclaim their homes and rebuild their community after expulsion and violence at the hands of their neighbours. The aim is to investigate how these traumatic experiences were utilised as a motivational vehicle for the return, and how they influenced the character of the post-return community. The study also looks critically at the “memory industry” and trauma studies that claim to put the victim at the centre, but sometimes, through their intervention and focus on narrative, actually deprive their subjects of agency. Returning home is explored as a journey in which social actors actively seek to re-establish social and individual relations as part of a process of recovery, focusing on how they use rituals of mourning and remembering to do so. The thesis centres around a qualitative case study based on several years of participatory observation. Avoiding interviews, my aim was to reach a deeper understanding of the communal everyday social practices and individual coping strategies in a place that continues to be burdened with the legacy of a violent past, embodied in its physical landscape and asymmetrical power relations. I also consider the international dimension to the locale, and the role of international actors, considering whether local power struggles are only the result of the war experience and a continuation of nationalist post- war politics, or whether the presence of international agencies may also have had “unanticipated consequences” in contributing to a lack of progress in Bosnian society. The study draws from various anthropological sources on memory and social reconstruction, but also clinical and cognitive psychologists’ analyses of what the experience of forcible expulsion entails for an individual and their health. Whilst some studies have concluded that people have relocated within the country in search for safety and economic advantages within their own ethnic group, my findings illustrate that emotional ties to the original home, for the inhabitants of Kozarac, remain the key driver for return. However, the study also suggests that post-return, the Kozarac community has moved on to focus on other issues that will ultimately determine whether the community can be sustained over time. Page 2 of 235 Vandalised sign at the entrance to the town of Kozarac Page 3 of 235 Table of Contents Abbreviations!.............................................................................6 Introduction!................................................................................7 Notes on Methodology!................................................................................7 Resilience in War Trauma Survivors: A word on theoretical considerations !..................................................................................................................12 How does a community that suffered ethnic cleansing and expulsion remake itself in a situation of contested return?!........................................25 Outline of Chapters!...................................................................................26 Chapter 1: The Army of the Dispossessed!............................30 The Formation of the "#th Brigade!............................................................32 The Croat-Muslim War in Central Bosnia!..................................................40 Conquering Mount Vlasic, overcoming fear!...............................................46 The Journey Home!....................................................................................52 Dayton Peace Plan: Legalising division!.....................................................56 Chapter 2: Return!.....................................................................65 Spontaneous Return "$$%-"$$$!.................................................................68 Kozarac: Contested Return!.......................................................................71 War crimes, fear and delay!.......................................................................75 The Role of Srcem do Mira!.......................................................................78 Online community as a network bridge!.....................................................85 Chapter 3: Victimhood and the Politics of Remembering!....90 On Loss: “As If They Were Present”!.........................................................96 Unearthing the Missing!.............................................................................97 At Home: Group Belonging as Communal Healing!.................................108 Rebooting Community!............................................................................115 Mass Funerals: “Come Remember with Us”!...........................................117 The religious dimension of funeral practice!............................................123 The Memory of Bones!.............................................................................129 Page 4 of 235 Kamicani Cemetery: “Our best memorial”!...............................................132 Chapter 4: Imposed Reconciliation and The Project to Commemorate the Former Camp of Omarska!....................137 On Collective Remembrance of the Camp!.............................................144 Approaching Mittal Steel!..........................................................................151 The Mediators: Soul of Europe!...............................................................152 A Framework of Mediation: Critical Yeast, not Critical Mass!...................153 Closed-door Negotiations!........................................................................156 The Survivor Community!........................................................................161 Online Debate: A new public sphere!.......................................................163 Online Petition: Moving towards structure!...............................................168 Chapter 5: How Would Justice and Healing Look Like If Victims Were Consulted?!......................................................173 The Making of Local Experts!...................................................................175 Svjedocenja: Bearing witness within the survivor community!.................183 Telling the Story: Creation of a survivor and its social implications!.........190 An Experience of Telling: The “Torture of Witnessing”!............................196 The Futility of a Violent Story!..................................................................198 Conclusion!.............................................................................205 Re-making Kozarac!.................................................................................205 Bibliography!...........................................................................209 Books and Publications!...........................................................................209 Documentaries!........................................................................................231 Research Aids!.........................................................................................231 Websites!..................................................................................................232 A list of Prijedor’s non-Serb intellectuals who were killed as part of the Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing in the area!...................................233 Photo Credits!..........................................................................................235 Page 5 of 235 Abbreviations ARBiH: The Army of Bosnia and Hercegovina CEH: Commission for Historical Clarification DPA: The Dayton Peace Accords ECMM: European Union Monitoring Mission HOS: The Croatian Defence Force (right-wing militia) HV: Croatian Army HVO: Croatian Defence Council (in Bosnia) HRW: Human Rights Watch JNA: Yugoslav National Army ICG: International Crisis Group IDP: Internally Displaced Persons ICTR: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTY: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia IFOR: US-led NATO peace Implementation Force IWPR: Institute for War and Peace Reporting NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO: Non-governmental Organisations OHR: Office of the High Representative (of the United Nations Security Council) OSP: Owen-Stoltenberg peace plan OSCE: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe RDC: Research and Documentation Centre RS: Republika Srpska SFOR: NATO-led Stabilisation Force SoE: The Soul of Europe VRS: The Bosnian Serb Army VOPP: Vance-Owen Peace Plan UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency UNPROFOR: UN Protection Force TO: Territorial Defence Page 6 of 235 Introduction This thesis is essentially the story of a group of people - from my own home region, but most of whom I did not know upon starting on my research journey - who have been individually and collectively picking up the pieces of their lives after the trauma of ethnic cleansing. I have followed their progress over a period of eight years as they attempted to return to the town of Kozarac, which had been comprehensively destroyed, and recreate their community in the middle of an aggressively nationalistic new