Katarina Risti Perpetrators Emotions and Transitional Justice in former Yugoslavia

For centuries, perhaps millenia participation in war has been universally considered the primary form and activity in which patriotism manifests itself,i claims Somervile, appealing to general agreement. In nation-state warriors, soldiers and generals, became new secular heroes of the country. In his seminal work on nationalism, Anderson confronts near pathological character of nationalism and hatred of Other with positive effects of nationaslims, since it inspire love, and often profoundly self-secrificing love. The cultural products of nationalitm - poetry, prose fiction, music, plastic arts show this love very clearly in thousands of different forms and styles.ii But this is only half true it is selfsacrificing love is most profoundly shown or rather tested in the war. Transitional justice brings unexpected and unwanted turn in nationalist narrative of war, wher national heroes, instead of fame and glory, receive indictments for war crimes, and end up in a prison cell. Do new surcumstances in any way influence their emotions, and the way they portray their role in the conflict, regarding the crime and punishment. In other words, what is the roll of transitional justice mechanism in regard to perpetrators emotions? Do they express remorse, guilt, indifference or hatred? What language is used by perpetrators when they refer to their emotions, whether in guilty pleas, media interviews, or autobiographies? Through out the text I compare several convicted war criminals from former Yugoslavia who published diaries during the prison time (Plavsic, Sljivancanin, Lukic) and compared them to famous nazi convictees, namely Speer, Hoess and Eichmna. Five main categories in which emotions are depicted: 1. Trivia (personal) banality of evil. 2. The nation (blame, guilt/ love, passion, honor, loyalty, betrayal, sacrifice,), Within the frame of constructivist approach to nationalism (Anderson, 2006; Billig, 1995; Gellner, 1983; Smith, 1991) where loyalty toward the nation is neither primordial nor natural, but rather constructed through different ideological regimes, 3. The victims (remorse, shame, guilt/ indifference, pride). but importance of emotions in war mobilization and de-mobilization has been under-researched (Scheff, 1994; Stets, 2006). 4. The conflict (crime). 1

5. The punishment.

Perpatrators are banal

In order to illuminate the relation between parpatrators and emotions, we can start with classical work, namely Arendts book Eichman in Jerusalim, where the famous claim of banality of evel is formulated. Arendts analysis of burocratic perpetrator, in contrast to outrageous crimes he was accused for forms the essence of this banality. She was strucked by the picture of small biroucrate, secreter at the meetings of Heinrich and Himmler, a man who spoke only about his career with passion and love. This focus on personal, and in the context of crimes, trivial issues, is the main topoi of all perpatrators written materials. It is also the place where most emotional expressions, words and frazes are to be found. Banality of perpatrators consists in their common dedication to themselves their family, their prison life, conditions, fears and sorrows. Intense feelings which are expressed regarding those two topics are in a sharp contrast to pravailing silence on crimes and victims which is characteristic of all material analysed. Family If lookning for sincery, repeatative emotions in testemonies of perpatrators, we will find that perpetrators families play the most significant role in biografical narratives. Those are the places where emotions are socialy admissible and expected, and they use pages and pages in revealing how sad and despair after the visit, After the visit, I return to the cell with tears in my eyes,iii sadness for not participating at family getherings, and celebrations, emotional strenght when dealing with the outside world but weekness when talking to children I call firends, and they all encourage me, and I try to make jokes. But when I call my doughers my voice trumbles.iv Family is also constant source of joy and happiness. Interestingly, Biljana Plavsic, referes to this feature of having feelings only for the own family when she speeks about president of RS Karadizic and president of Serbia Milosevic she notices: "They both feel sufferings only of their families and no one else. When they mention names, especially Milosevic's wife and possibly her connection with the murder of Stambolic and when he talks about his son Mark, his family, you see that this man has a feelings, you recognize that man is capable of suffering, that he is capable to defend his family. I was glad to recognize a soul in this body. But outside the narrow circle of his family, there is no one to whom he could flash the damar and one of his nervous system. v

Hoess regrats he and his wife and children did not take poison after learning that Hitler was dead: now we, too, must go! With the Fhrer gone, our world had gone. () We wanted to take poison. () Nevertheless, because of the children, we did not do this. For their sake we wanted to take on our own shoulders all that was coming. But we should have done it. I have always regretted it since. We would all have been spared a great deal, especially my wife and the children. How much more suffering will they have to endure? We were bound and fettered to that other world, and we should have disappeared with it. vi Love for the children, emotional pain for the suffering they have to undergo, sacrifise for the sake of the children, regret he did not or could not save them.

Prison Second, for perpetrators emotionally charged topic are the prison conditions. Theye express sorry for the lost freedom, and remark with sadness, like Eichman, to the time when they were "in full possession of my physical and psychological freedom" vii Fear and concern for the personal health, which is demaged by the prison conditions, is expressed within the context of truth telling. For example, Biljana Plavsic recalls that in fall 2003 she had serious health problems () Sufficient cause for concern and fear that I will not get to tell the truth about the events of which I was a witness. viii The overwellming focus on personal problems, health, the prison condition is common to all war criminals. The de-contexutalization is complete, there is no perspective of crime and reposnsiblity. For example Sljivancanin, who was arrested on his 50th birthday, openes the book with: "I celebrate my fiftieth birthday in the police station in Street 29 th.ix It is self-pitty and remorse, absourtdity of this situation that he is complaining about. Prison is described as place where detainees are harassed, tortured and mentally killed. They are tortured by constant check ups and lights in the cell." Furthermore, it is a place of constant humiliation and degradation. As Sljivancanin explaines: "They're trying to humiliate me when they cuffed me and take through basement corridors of the courthouse."

Nationalism and Emotions: love, duty, pride, honor, joy, sadness, fear, empathy, betrayal, dissapointment Constructivist approach to nationalism has detected many important features of the phenomena: defined as imagened community which resembles cultural and religious forms of identification rather than ideological, x its connection with print capitalism and modernity at large, situating itself as invented traditionsxi, need to creat cultural homogenity in industrial 3

society,xii all those elements still miss the main question which arises in the conenction between nationalism and conflict why are people so willing to die for the nation? Drawing upon this lack of research on emotional elements in nationalism in scholary research, Walker Connor points out that the essence oft he nation is psychological [emotional] bound that joins a people and differentiates it. xiii The need to establish and confirm this emotional bound explains, according to Connor, importance of myths of common origin and shared blood, felt common history, and magical transformation of words into emotional symbols (motherland, fatherland, ancestral land, sacred soil). Narratives of national history, as noted by Bruce McDonald, succesfuly create secular heroes, saints, and great leaders and rejoins the nation in the dreams of glorious destiny and promise of restoration and dignity.xiv The main role in these plots is often reserved for heroes of the war. Therefore we will explore in the second part relation between ethnonationalist ideology and emotions, as it was performed by the accused and convicted war criminals. Love for the homeland (patriotism) If we turn to the literature to see what patriotism means, we will find that it includes love for the country, or nation, strong feeling of attachment toward it etc. It is important to stress here that many authors make distinction between what is usually called patriotism, which is simply love or attachment toward the own country/people, and the nationalism, which could also include negative emotions toward the others. xv Patriotism is considered for positive value in most of the societies, it is praised and celebrated, and it is everything but unexpected that accused will point to their patriotic feelings, love of homeland. It seems that difference between patriotism and nationalism should not be seeked in the level of dedication and devotion, but rather patriotism is the name for our love which is very tolerant toward the others, while nationalism is ascribed to others, whose love toward their country is perceived as aggressive and threatening, and secondly patriotism is cold nationalism, while nationalism is hot patriotism. The difference is in sicrumstance, economic crises, threat etc, not in the quality of the attachment. Since crimes are denied and any personal guilt is rejected, the acusations are interpreted as charging innocent persons for the love for the homeland. This position is perfectly expressed by Sljivancanin who says: Is it a sin that I loved my fatherland? xvi Or, as Plavsic referes to Serbian entity in Bosnia created in the war, and through the ethnic cleansing and genocide she was accused for: our precious gemstone, Republika Srpska.xvii What kind of love is that, when persons dedicate their life to it, and sacrifise their freedom for it. Interestingly, emotion of love usually does not refer to the concreat country, political 4

regime of individual human beings. Rather they represent attachment to abstract, idealized entitites like people or volk. Plavsic: I'm telling the truth about my people and in order to take off layers of lies and prejudices that were unleashed during the war on the Serbian people. (...) I am not defending the regime (or individuals) but the people.xviii This is key element the object of love, devotion and defence is very abstract idealized version of people so it can not be falsified with experience, neither in positive attituted towar d the same groupe, nor the negative to others, exactly because of its emotional essence and abstract nature.

When Plavsic claims for herself proudly, that she is nationalist, she actually claims that she is real patriot, without even being aware of strange consequences for others this nationalism has. For instance, she uses the expression lebensraum without even envoking potential implications of this term: Milosevics foolish and irresponsible politics has reduced Serbian zivotni prostor lebensraum for tens of thousands of square kilometers (Serbian Krajina and Kosovo and Metohija).xix Her reference to nation are actually biological and clearly racest, since she uses expression as 100% Serb (both parents) or 50% Serb (Muslim father). After claiming her devotion and love for the nation, racism and ethnic cleansing project are presented as normal, regular job nation has to do.

Empathy with the suffering of us-victims Pain for the wounds of their own people, and this is classical artistic expression of nationalist sentiment. Being hurt by the situation of the people, the whole people, feeling people as group with which emotions are shared. There are number of political speeches, artistic works and so on which testify on this particular feature. Biljana Plavsic, entered the politics because she was asking what is happening with mine, Serbian people, because their suffering and tragedies from the recent past I remember well, and it still hurts mexx Sadness, Fear We-victims I already mentioned that Serbian nationalist narrative was constructed on the century long victimhood of Serbian nation, and exclusive victimhood position. Ideological framing, which Arendt simply calls lies or propaganda, manipulation, strongly appeal to emotions of the readers, using mainly victim-centred propagandaxxi In the case of Germany it was "the battle of destiny for the German people" that it' was a matter of life and death for the Germans, who must annihilate their enemies or be annihilated.xxii In the case of former Yugoslavia all nations claimed for themselves main 5

victims-status, in so called comparative genocide debate (Balkan Historikerstreit) refered mainly to memories of WWII, where each side found proof of its victimization and subjection to genocidal attempts of the opposite side (Chetniks and Ustashas). All sides equally claimed that are prosecuted as Jews during Holocaust, aspiring for the status of the ultimate victims, and that the opposite side has centuries long dream of annihilating them. As MacDonald showed, these basic claims came in media propaganda, scholars books and artistic works. They served as a distorting mirror, which unabled each side to deny its own accomplances and point out to the crime of others. Perfect example of this distortion is use of the fraze defence of the unarmed people which became so notorious in Serbia and by minorities, firstly because it perfectly veils the fact that Serbia was by far the best armed, secondly because it veils the aggressive goal of the war, calling it defence, and thirdly because it appeals on emotions of readers to help unprotected brothers and sisters who are obviously attacked. That defence of the unarmed people was the main aim of their war angagman, is never doubted by authors they all repeat this phrase pretty certain in its magical covering abilities. For example, Plavsic talks about beginning of war year 1993, she said The Year 1993rd was marked by the most tragic events such as the bloody Muslim feast on the Christmas, 7th January in Eastern Bosnia, the continued killing and torture of Serbs in Sarajevo and in opened camps in Herzegovina. () On the front, there is nothing new. We still hold more than 70% of the territory. xxiii The most of the crimes committed in 1993 were committed exactly on the 70% of territory which was held by Bosnian Serbs. As a metter of fact, majority of crimes was committed in 1992 and 1993, when non-serb population was expelled from what is seen as Serbian land. Nothing of this was accnoledged neither in public, nor then years after in memories. What's left of the Serbs that live in these areas, which are still there, it's the rest of the slaughtered people. I met a man, unfortunately, he is not the only one, whom the Muslims in the Second World War, slaughtered the entire family and only he was left, the orphan. Now Izetbegovics butchers slaughtered his family, wife and children. Dear God, have mercy on us and all who have experienced such a tragedy. xxiv This paragraph clearly invokes sorrow over the Serbian destiny, fear from the other, and proof that genocide is taking place right now, right here. It calls the reader to stood up, and resist this victimhood, to prove that all those victims did not sacrifice for nothing. Here it should be pointed out that the nation does not only provides heritage of historical, heroic and victorious, but also heritage of victimhood. Nations herite their victims, they become part of 6

the value, they prove that importance of the nation is greater than the individual life. Historical victims are by far the most important resourse in future conflicts, and nations are right in treating them with respect. Duty to homeland Another person accused for war crimes in Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic formulates that this love for homeland corresponds to the certain duties that person is obliged to to for his country: I certainly did not want to be an active politician. But, I was willing to sacrifice a lot of time and energy to help as much as I can to establish SDS. (...) My understanding of the human condition is that one must perform all duties - that appear before him with all his abilities. Duty is something that makes you a man, especially if it relates to your obligations to others. There are things that have to be done without asking questions and you need them they had performed in line with your heart and duties. xxv The reason they went to war is to defend the pride, dignity and honor of their people. In the last scene of the war, their prison cell, they are still doing the same, defending national pride, dignity and honor. According to Hoess, the order to externate all Jews was certainly an extraordinary and monstrous order. Nevertheless the reasons behind the extermination program seemed to me right. I did not reflect on it at the time: I had been given an order, and I had to carry it out. Whether this mass extermination of the Jews was necessary or not was something on which I could not allow myself to form an opinion, for I lacked the necessary breadth of view. xxvi career Revival of ethnic nationalism in mid 80s, which culminated in the ethnic wars in 90s, was perceived by many as return to the ruths, as overcoming of communist false ideology of brotherhood and unity between all nations and ethnicities in former Yugoslavia. There was exitment, the feeling of taking part in something great, something bigger than individuals, taking part in one historical moment. For many intellectuals, artists, politicians nationalism became job. They committed themselves willingly and emotionally to their new careers. As Plavsic said I was happy to help my Serbian people. Arendt also referes to Eichman : He was joyful to do this task: Jewish question. "xxvii They were taking part in the great achievement and historical solution and great achievement of their country. They suffer when their dedication is not recognized, or when they are unabled to fulfill their plans: This inability on the part of my superior to understand me brought me to the verge of despair. I put all my ability and my will into my work; I lived for it entirely; yet he regarded it as though this were a game or even a hobby of mine, in which I had become too absorbed and

which prevented me from taking the broader view. joy, exictment, enjoyment, dedication Therefore they took pride for participating in it: By the will of the Reichsfhrer SS, Auschwitz became the greatest human extermination center of all time. xxviii Individual gain from participating in national cause: Individuals are not only disinterested in sacrifice for the nation, their higest reword is that they are saculary herorised in national narratives. Plavsic was called empress, Bilja, mother, sister, helper she was happy to help Serbian peoplexxix Remorse and pity for not being able to exercise their duty more effectively: Or he was reminded by his superior that his greatest mistake was in doing everything myself instead of delegating the work to my responsible subordinates. The mistakes that they would make through incompetence I should simply accept. I should become reconciled to that. Matters cannot be expected to run just as one wants always. remorse, self-pitty In order to understand this portrayal of their career, we need to remember that their carrier is nothing but embodiement of their love for the nation and duty to the nation. Their career is sacrifice for the nation. Therefore only nationalism understood as an ideology which prescribes not only cognitive and moral but also emotional regimes. Ideology and society Arendt precisely showed that Nazi-ideology worked as protective shield provided possibility of perpetual denial, since Eichmann needed only to recall the past in order to feel assured that he was not lying and that he was not deceiving himself, for he and the world he lived in had once been in perfect harmony. xxx It is the same form of agreement between society and war criminals which is constantly invoked in biographies and diries, where political elites, and other public speakers clearly sided with them. For instance, before Sljivancanin was transferred to the Hague prison, he met with minister of defence, and general of Serbian army. Here is an extract from that meeting, as it was written by SLjivancanin in his diary: General Krga said nothing. He was looking at the floor all the time. The minister promised at the end, that the state will not forget me, and that the Army will do do everything thay we help me in the trial. When we parted, General Krga cried. Minister Tadic strongly shaked my hand and said: You are an honest and strong man. I believe that you will win.xxxi

Altough literature on transitional justice is rich in analyzing shame and guilt, we do not find it in war criminals account, at least not where it would be expected to be. For instance, emotion 8

of shame is constantly ascribed to those who are arresting the war criminals, who are betraying national interest and not the the accused. Sljicvancanin shows that those who are arresting him, are confessing the shame: Mister colonel, it is not our fault. We received the order (to arrest you). Did I deserve that? They were silent. xxxiiSoldiers are excusing themselves, they are silent since there is no possible justification to arrest former colonel. Sljivancanin confront them with the guilt, and they are ashamed. They are also betrayed by their country. For instance Sljivancanin says: During the walk Pasko told me that Croatian state bought houses or a flat and and car, for all Croats, who are in The Hague, and the state gives money to their families. Every month, family members travel to The Hague, and all expences are payed by the state. (...) How is your state helping your family? he asked me at the end. I was silent, ashamed because of someone else's embarrassment. "xxxiii This ist he only moment in Sljivancanin diary where the feeling of personal shame is expressed. pitanja koja me zaista bole: Zar je ovo Srbija za koju si se borio? Zato su te prodali? Zato ute ratni drugovi?xxxiv My biggest problem is (...) why my state arrested me, and innocent sent to prisonxxxv Crimes: Moral indifference

Denial of responsibility for crimes leads to moral indiference, and lack of any emotions in regard to crimes. In his seminal book on denial, Cohen differentiates between several different types of denial as they are performed by perpetrators: denial of knowledge, denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victims. He analyzes every type by showing what are the most common accounts. Interestingly, emotions are not part of the analysis, and he mentions only moral indifference. It seems that underlying assumption of his analysis is that societal norms are still sailent, and that perpatrators persist in denial only to be able to avoid emotional response. As long as they deny personal knowledge, or responsibility, they can avoid any shame and guilt. Interestingly, the question of knowledge is addressed soley in its rational, cognitive dimension. There is not even possibility that one might feel something is wrong, while vitnessing deportations of thousands of Jews on the railways. Perhpas it is easier to claim not knowing, than not feeling, because being human implies to have feelings toward the innocent who suffer. Being human does not imply having knowledge in regard to who, who, when, how many etc, and all those elements are frequently denied by perpetratos. But feeling nothing toward the victims? This moral void testifies of their inhumanity, of their incapability to remain what we call human. Lack of emotions, rather than lack of excuses and justification is what turns war criminals in monsters. 9

Rejecting personal guilt, leads them to the notion that all other accused are also victims oft he process, and they reject any validity of the accusations. One of the consequences is that all accused are seen as victims of fals accusations. For instance, talking about Milan Lukic, Sljivancanin mentioned that he was accused for crimes against Muslims in Visegrad but simply ignors it and continues: Prison puts together people which could not be together in real life. He is an excellent sportmen, fast and strong.xxxvi There would be nothing surprising in this statement, when we would not know that Lukic was convicted to life sentence for burning two houses full of women, elderly and children alive. It is will not to know, not to inquire, not to ask questions, in short not to care about victims. Moral blindness, unwillingness to know, perhpas mask existential fear of the very possibility that charges are true. Cohen is right to claim that cultural denial encourage turning a collective blind eye, leaving horrors unexamined or normalized as being part of the rhythms of everyday life. xxxvii On emotional level of the group, inability to mourn, to empathize with victims is remarkable. Even when crime itself is recognized, the shame is transferred to someone else, someone who is never identified by name, position and relation to the accused. The shame is apstract and should be applied to the events, rather than to the people: I told to Lukic it's a shame what happened in Ovcara and that it could be done only by inhumans. They defiled all who have honestly fought in Vukovar, defiled the dead and wounded, especially members of the Guards Brigade, to which this infamous court by accusing me, trying to impute a crime they did not commit.xxxviii Finally the whole war is shameful. When talking about the accused war criminals from other croups, they easily come to conclustion that the whole war ist o be shamed: Maki, it is a shame that we were killing each other. It is a shame that we have fought and destroyed each other, what has been gained for hundreds of years. We had a nice home country and we could have lived together. If it was no longer possible to live together, we should have aparted in a nice way, without killing, destruction and arson.xxxix The accusations in indictment raise anger and rage: I start to translate the indictment. I was angry, because many lies were ritten, more precisely, one lie follows another xl When directly talking about crimes, language transfers what Arendt defined as language rules full of euphemism, avoidance of real names, lies etc. For instance, there is a phone recording of general Krstic, convicted for genocide in ICTY, where he talks about pakeges referring to Muslims which are to be executed. But the aim of this language, according to Arendt is not only to lie, or keep them ignorant about their acts but but to prevent them from equating it with their old, normal knowledge of murder and lies. 10

Fear and threat Practised and celebrated nationalism of the other is perceived as threat and fear, while the same invoked by the in-grpoup, like revivel of Serbian victimhood, opening of graves, and orthodox liturgy for the victims from WWII, is not seen as spreading the fear, but rather returning the deabthe to the ancestors. The fear, and defence from the enemy is expressed as the main reason to enter the war. In her guilty plea, Plavsic said: At the time, I easily convinced myself that this was a matter of survival and self-defence. In fact, it was more. Our leadership, of which I was a necessary part, led an effort which victimised countless innocent people. Explanations of self-defence and survival offer no justification. (why?) fear, a blinding fear that led to an obsession, especially for those of us for whom the Second World War was a living memory, that Serbs would never again allow themselves to become victims. (..) In this obsession of ours to never again become victims, we had allowed ourselves to become victimisers.xli Remorse, repentance Finally accused usually express remorse and repentance, but not regarding the crimes and victims, but regarding the corrupted leadership which betrayed sacred goals of the war. One could hear that in Speers testimony, where he several times repeated that he is sorry, and that it is terrible what happened to German people betrayed and destroyed by Hitler. Similarly Plavsic invokes that Serbian leadership betrayed people, since they sold ammunition to enemies, stole humanitarian aid etc. What is common in those and similar accounts is shared sense of sorrow and remorse for the we-victims (that does not change), and transfer of blame from enemy to leadership, which allow to maintain the goal, as perfectly suitable, but to reject weak or incapable leadership. Even when pleading guilty, they are causious that no guilt is ascribed to their nation, so Plavsic: I have accepted responsibility for my part in this. This responsibility is mine and mine alone. It does not extend to other leaders who have a right to defend themselves. It certainly should not extend to our Serbian people, who have already paid a terrible price for our leadership. The goal was right, although some particular instances were wrong, and those instances are to blame leadership, since they criminalized the secreat goal. As Hoess claimed: in my opinion the necessary extension of living space for the German people could have been obtained by peaceful means.xlii

Victims Inability to mourn 11

In groundbreaking work on post-war German collective emotions, Alexander and Margaret Mitcherlich coined now famous fraze of unfaechigkeit zu trauen. They approach is one of social psychology, they use Freudean psichoanalysis and aply it to the german society. One of the main conclusions of the book, is that there is pathological inability to mourn the victims of Nazi regime. One of the most striking features of this phenomena is denial of the crimes, already addressed by many authors, as collective silence. Emotionally this silence is usually connected with complete moral indifference, detected by Cohen, in his pathbreaking anaylsis of Denial, as one of the quintessential features of neutralization techniques in context of ideologiesxliii To the question how is this possible, Cohen answer is that it is ideologicaly produced societal agreement: They are embedded in popular culture, banal language codes and state encouraged legitimations. (...)xliv If perpatrators and nations do not mourn the victims, how they speak about them? Firstly, and most importantly, they express no hate, sometimes they even claim that they were halping the victims, and that they were betrayed by them. Finaly it is the victims who are filled with hate, presented as fanatics and inhumans, who deserve nothing but content. We dont hate The first striking and so Arendt terrifying features of this state of mind is lack of hatered. Eichmann, Sperr, but also most of the war criminals in former Yugoslavia report no hatered toward their victims. What Arendt finds particulary terrible, is that Eichman by no means is not the person overwhelmed with hate toward Juews. Worse, she says his was obviously also no case of insane hatred of Jews, of fanatical anti-Semitism or indo ctrination of any kind. He "personally" never had anything whatever against Jews; on the contrary, he had plenty of "private reasons" for not being a Jew hater. "xlv 14 Of course one can ask why is this worse and the answer is striking hatered can explain easily atrocities. Hatered makes atrocities believable, understandable. We can imagine someone who is possessed by insanity of emotions, by total emotional black out, to act like that. To hate to extent to kill. But what if, it has nothing with emotions. What if it is rational, rather than emotional decision? What if there is no hatered? In the case of Plavsic and Sljivancanin, they constantly repeat they never hated any of other nations. Sljivancanin said It is the worst lie of all that I ever hated other ethnicities or I never hated Croats, people with the same habits, language and customs, as my people. Members of paramilitary forces in Vukovar called themselves Ustasha .. for attacks on my 12

troops is the most responsible HDZ. Everything could have been resolved peacefully. YPA only did what the Constitution required them to do.xlvi Moreover, he was helping them maybe Croats whom I helped and saved their lifes will call? Doctor Matos and his family, for example.xlvii Hatered is always ascribe to others, while love and sense of belionging is preserved for us. "In Bosnia animosity towards the YP army is increasing (...) What caused this rapid change? Who filled this people with so much hate in a few months? Where they were trained to hate like this, I asked myself. Anyway it has to be prepared for long time, because I can not belive that emotions can be so quicly directed in dictated direction"xlviii Witnesses are seldom perceived as victims, but rather as fanatics, filled with hatered for Serbs. Hence they are discredited as witnesses, and their testimony is a product of the hatered and ideological bias against Serbs. They testify only about Serbian aggression, and completly deny any Serbian victims and Croat defendants. For example Sljivancanin comments on the testimony of doctor Juraj Njavro: It was an outburst of hatred and lies against the Serbian people and the YPA. Instead of (answers to questions) held the political speeches of the new Croatian State and a great terror survived by Croatian people from the YPA aggressor and Serbo-chetniks. About Croatian police and paramilitary he knows nothing. xlix Another witness, former YPA officer all the time during the testimony did not uttered a single good word about the army which once belonged! And where he sworn in! Such questions are not asked in court, but I'd like to aks him why did so many years in the JNA? (...)It's really sad when in the International Court testimony about one army is given by - a deserter!"l Another witness also knows all about the "aggressor JNA and SerboChetniks" and regarding the Croatian militica she knows only that they are the heroes of the war." li Finally, when talking about witness who lost her husband, and another members of family in Ovcara, Sljivancanin admits: It's not easy for her because she survived family tragedy. But that's not the reason to falsely accuse other people."lii Disapointment They told me that the wounded were amazed and even more surprised that they were attacked by those with whom they were together yesterday, a few of their elders had betrayed them and violated the oath. Their faces show the pain of their wounds, but even more pain of treason.liii "And we Sarajevans we were full of memories, bitterness and unforgivness to those who cast us out of our city. The bitterness and regret referr to our former friends, neighbors,

13

colleagues, acquaintances Muslims with whom we grew up, went to school together and lived together.liv Not only that victims betrayed their friendship, and filled with hate, they are also portrayed as fanatics, who deserve nothing but content: war criminals attribute crimes to the enemy, and their fanatical will to secrify their only people in order to aquire support from international community, or provoke revenge. According to Plavsic, Muslim leader Izetbegovic needed a war, everything was pointing in that direction. He probably, just like Tudjman in operation Storm, forced the military conflict, because he believed that was the way to strengthen his nation in patriotic terms. In particular, it was necessary for Muslims, because that is how nation was created, according to Alia. Especially it was necessary for the nation which has just emerged, which has no history, now rebellions, no wars of liberation, national heroes, its national holidays. Alija wanted, all which happened in Serbian history during the last millennium, to achieve in a few years. lv This interpretation of the Bosniak positi on in war is constantly invoked, and it explains number of Bosniak victims, which drasticly esceeds number of Croat and Serbian victims. According to Plavsic they have politics more victims, more disappeared so they invoke pit y in western world, and hatered toward Serbian people.lvi Serbian people are the ultimate victims of the war. Trial, testimonies, witnesses do not change what is known a priori, and moreover what is felt as personal pain, pain for the suffering of their own people, of their own flesh and blood. Victims are not humans

Dehumanisation is the final strategy in preparing human beings to cross one of the most sever taboos of social life, not to kill. What war experience shows over and over is the tremendous success with which dehumanisation has been deployed, in Ruanda by calling Huts cackroches in Bosnia, Bosniaks were called Balije, Turks, fanatics, Mujaheedins and so on. Dehumanisation of Jews during the WWII is still ofen quoted example of curios consecuenses of such psychological manipulation. The main goal of dehumanisation is to detach value of living human being from the victims. By doing so, humans are degraded to animals, tools etc. We need only to remember Aristotels famous pages on slaves and women, not proper human beings but tools to realize that ideology is capable to fully determine knowledge and values within society. In turn, behaviour of victims is than taken as a proof of their not-human nature. For inctance, Hoess wanders why some of the people already 14

entering gas chambers would give information about places Jews are hiding: Was it for reasons of personal revenge, or were they jealous that those others should survive? Or little bit further: the attitude of the: men of the Special Det achment was also strange. They were all well aware that once the actions were completed they, too, would meet exactly the same fate as that suffered by these thousands of their own race, to whose destruction they had contributed so greatly. Yet the eagerness with which they carried out their duties never ceased to amaze me. (...) They carried out all these tasks with a callous indifference as though it were all part of an ordinary day's work. While they dragged the corpses about, they ate or they smoked. They did not stop eating even when engaged on the grisly job of burning corpses which had been lying for some time in mass graves. lvii Rutinization of mass killing, which was percuded in Auschwitz, and in Holocaust in general, already has been shown by Bauman, who argues that rutinisation, among other thins (orders, rutinisation, ) testifies of burocratic nature of the process, is still metter of wander when done by victims. The same stand of moral superiority, from which we today ask how Hoess could do something so grouse and repentant, is asked by Hoess regarding the victims: how could they?! The fact that he clearly judges those acts from the moral stand, undoubtedly proovs that he is not morally blind, as it is often claimed. Rather, he is selective (almost comically selecitve) in applying moral norms to himself and others. Ethical theory and criminal law allow that forced acts are not to be considered as morally blameworthy. In this sense, victims behaviour is understandable, but what remains horrifying is that opressors could run busnis as usual in extermination camp, without worrying about crossing any moral norms. Sorrow Denial of guilt does not neccesery mean that person is not sorry for the victims. On the contrary, all perpatrators easily and without any relactance acknowledge that they are sorry for all the victims methaphisically sorry, for victims of any war in any part of the world. Neccessery in this kind of acknowledgemnt i s the stress that sorrow applies equally to their and our victims, and that no personal guilt is included in this recognition. As Sljivancanin put it: I'm sorry for all the victims mentioned at the trial, but I'm not guilty for their death and that has been proven in court.lviii Reconciliation with victims, and the need to form some kind of reconciliation body which would promote it, as Arendt noted by Eichman but also by Himmler and Leylix. This outrageous clich was no longer issued to them from above, it was a selfs-fabricated stock phrase, as devoid of reality as those clichs by which the people had

15

lived for twelve years; and you could almost see what an "extraordinary sense of elation" it gave to the speaker the moment it popped out of his mouth.lx

Empathy with the victims What I found new in the readings of diaries, and what has been largly overlooked due to its assumed falsity, are the emotions of empathy with human suffuring, expressed by accused. Although their relation is not personal one, and no direct responsibility is recognized, but accused do express this sentiment. For instance, Auschwitz commander Hoess, in his authobiography states: Although I became accustomed to all that was u nalterable in the camps, I never grew indifferent to human suffering. I have always seen it and felt for it. Yet because I might not show weakness, I wished to appear hard, lest I be regarded as weak, and had to disregard such feelings. lxi That we should not dismiss this narratives as purly false or simply fake, confirms another scene, saved also by Hoess: One young woman caught my attention particularly as she ran busily hither and thither, helping the smallest children and the old women to undress. During the selection she had had two small children with her, and her agitated behavior and appearance had brought her to my notice at once. She did not look in the least like a Jewess. Now her children were no longer with her. She waited until the end, helping the women who were not undressed and who had several children with them, encouraging them and calming the children. She went with the very last ones into the gas chamber. Standing in the doorway, she said: "I knew all the time that we were being brought to Auschwitz to be gassed. When the selection took place I avoided being put with the ablebodied ones, as I wished to look after the children. I wanted to go through it all, fully conscious of what was happening. I hope that it will be quick. Goodbye!" lxii Later he concludes: There were many such shattering scenes, which affected all who witnessed them. Punishment and emotions When it comes to the punishment, many emotions appear sadness, sorrow for own destiny, betrayal of the state, feeling of sacrifies, or of being sacrifies, but shame and guilt are not among commonly expressed emotion. They are sorry for themselves: general Jokic who pleaded guilty also points out: I am not responsible at all for the events in Dubrovni k. Why did you then plaad guilty? I had to... Even after that, they gave me too sevire sentence...lxiii After the sentences were officialy suggested, Sljivancanin talks with his wife Disbelief. Pain. Resentment. A sense of injustice. But also a pride. lxiv He does not elaborate further 16

this sense of pride and it is not clear why would anyone in this situation, regardless of his felt personal responsibility, feal pride. One potential explanation is that pride and consolation for the verdict, are found in the nationalist claim that verdicts are not issued to individuals, but to the state. Sljivancanin reminds himself of this basic truth In prison, we often forget that every punishment given to the person, at the same time punishment for the state, that person comes from. lxv There is no guilt, because there is nothing to be guilty for, since ethnic cleansing is a side effect of all the wars in the Balkans and elsewhere. Also, it is certain that many thus saved their lifes.lxvi Crimes are historicised, and they are responded from memory of victimhood and crimes in WWII. For example, one of the crucial evidence that Plavsic knew about ethnic cleanising was her conversation with Ogata. Plavsic recalls this conversation, and says: When she continued without interruption to describe this phenomenon, I realized, I know it. I thought, who are you talking to about ethnic cleansing, nobody knows it better than me (..) I have watched with my own eyes the 1941st when the Ustasha, put five families Plavsic and Zivkovic with children and my old grandfather, who was then 80 years old, on the oxcart to the train and wagons, and than right to a concentration camp Slavonska Pozega. I saw that with my own eyes, that stayed recorde in my memory, Mrs. Ogata. And when I saw, in March 1992, the Serbs again, now in tractors, running away to save lives, I did not know it, and in both cases the name of ethnic cleansing. In this war, I fled with my family, to save live, and it's ethnic cleansing too. (...) Well I'm ethnically cleansed as well as 180 thousand Serbs from Sarajevo, but we do not make a drama out of it, let alone a worldwide problem. We are happy that we saved lives. And for me, then, Ogatas story of ethnic cleansing was not a horror as she presented from the position of her office. I remember I told her that this is a war, and in war, "Every bird fly to its own brood."lxvii The crime is normalized, but not as crime committed to others but as crime survived and suffered by our own people.

Shame and Guilt Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride are members of a family of self-conscious emotions that are evoked by self-reection and self-evaluation. This self-evaluation may be implicit or explicit, consciously experienced or transpiring beneath the radar of our awareness. But importantly, the self is the object of these self-conscious emotions.lxviii How she addmits the guilt: (Patriarch) came to me, to bless me in my intention to admit the guilt and to tell the truth I did not issue orders or enforce them. lxix 17

Finally, according to convicted war criminals, who should be punished, held responsible and ashamed of what crimes? Leaders, which used the people, took them to sufferings, although the goals were the right ones.

18

Benedict R. O'G Anderson, Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Rev. ed (London ; New York ;: Verso, 2006), xv, 240 p. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, Penguin Classics. (New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2006), xxiii, 312 p. Stanley Cohen, States of Denial : Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering (Cambridge, UK: Malden, MA : Polity ; Blackwell Publishers, 2001), xvi, 344 p. Walker Connor, "Beyond Reason: The Nature of the Ethnonational Bond," Ethnic and Racial Studies 16 (1993), 373-389. Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 150 p. Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz (London: [s.n.], 1959). David Bruce MacDonald, Balkan Holocausts? : Serbian and Croatian Victim-Centred Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia, New Approaches to Conflict Analysis. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), xii, 308 p. Biljana Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru (Banjaluka: Trioprint, 2005). Veselin ljivananin, Branio Sam Istinu (Beograd: Novosti, 2012). John Somerville, "Patriotism and War," Ethics 91 (1981), 568-578. Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country : An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 206 p.

John Somerville, "Patriotism and War," Ethics 91, no. 4 (1981): 568. Benedict R. O'G Anderson, Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Rev. ed. (London ; New York ;: Verso, 2006), 141. iii Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 13 iv Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 25 v Biljana Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru (Banjaluka: Trioprint, 2005), 130. vi Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz (London: [s.n.], 1959). vii Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, Penguin Classics. (New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2006), 26. viii Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 175.
ii ix x

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 6

Anderson, Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. xi Hobsbawm ed. Invented Traditions xii Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983). xiii Walker Connor, "Beyond Reason: The Nature of the Ethnonational Bond," Ethnic and Racial Studies 16 no. 3 (1993): 377. xiv David Bruce MacDonald, Balkan Holocausts? : Serbian and Croatian Victim-Centred Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia, New Approaches to Conflict Analysis. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), 23. xv Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country : An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).
xvi xvii

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 79

Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 133. Ibid., 138. xix Ibid., 49.
xviii

19

xx

Plavsic, Svedocim, p. 9 MacDonald, Balkan Holocausts? : Serbian and Croatian Victim-Centred Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia. xxii Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, 25. xxiii Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 2, 10. xxiv Ibid., 2, 26.
xxi

xxv

<http://www.nezavisne.com/novosti/bih/Intervju-sa-Karadzicem-Ne-bih-zrtvovao-mir-za-nezavisnost-RS-131484.html>

xxvi

Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz. Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, 26. xxviii Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz. xxix Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 127. xxx Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, 25.
xxvii xxxi

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 11 Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 6 xxxiiixxxiii Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 36
xxxii xxxiv xxxv xxxvi

Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 13

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 136

Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 170 Stanley Cohen, States of Denial : Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering (Cambridge, UK: Malden, MA : Polity ; Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 101.
xxxvii xxxviii xxxix xl

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 104 Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 289

Veselin ljivananin, Branio Sam Istinu (Beograd: Novosti, 2012), 33.

xli
xlii

(Biljana Plavi, sentencing hearing, 17 December 2002)

Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz. xliii Cohen, States of Denial : Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering, 77. xliv Ibid., 76. xlv Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, 14.
xlvi xlvii

Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 72 Sljivancanin, branio sam istinu, 12

xlviii xlix

Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 1, 35. ljivananin, Branio Sam Istinu, 142. l Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 145 li Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 147 lii Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 152 liii Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 38. liv Ibid., 45. lv Ibid., 37. lvi Ibid., 97. lvii Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz. lviii Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 217 lix Arendt: Labor Front leader Robert Ley (who, before he committed suicidein Nuremberg, had

proposed the establishment of a "conciliation committee" consisting of the Nazis responsible for the massacres and the Jewish survivors) but also, unbelievably, with many ordinary Germans, who were heard to express themselves in exactly the same terms at the end of the war
lx

Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil, 26. Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz. lxii Ibid. lxiii Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 75 lxiv Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 200 lxv Sljivancanin, Branio sam istinu 286 lxvi Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 104. lxvii Ibid., 103. lxviii Moral Emotions and Moral Behavior June Price Tangney, ,1 Jeff Stuewig, 1 and Debra J. Mashek2 lxix Plavi, Svedoim: Knjiga Pisana U Zatvoru, 129.
lxi

20