Zagreb, November 16, 2021
On Saturday, November 13, 2021, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights Croatia organized a workshop on the occasion of the upcoming 30th anniversary of the fall of Vukovar. Our young activists from Croatia and Serbia attended the workshop.
During the workshop, we presented a brief chronology of war events related to Vukovar and showed survivors’ testimonies at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
We discussed what young people learn in schools in Croatia and Serbia related to atrocities in Vukovar and the wars of the 1990s, as well as the dominant narratives that exist in these two countries related to the crimes in Vukovar. We also talked about the war criminals’ presence in the public space through the example of Veselin Šljivančanin, a war criminal convicted for crimes in Vukovar in the Mrkšić et. al case. However, we also pointed out efforts by non-governmental organizations, such as the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia, against the glorification of war criminals.
Through regional work with young people related to the wars of the 1990s, we aim to remember all civilian war victims regardless of their national or ethnic identity and build a new generation of young people dedicated to human rights, justice, and reconciliation.