Regional Consultation with Artists
Haris Pašović, Professor and Film Director, Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts, BiH:
If one speaks of an instrument that would get us closer to our ideal model of resolving our historical memory problem, which is not strictly an artistic instrument or an artistic instrument at all, but a social and political one, and perhaps an anthropological instrument, for me it is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the equivalent of this commission, as we know it from South Africa. I would also appreciate it if we, on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, had a commission, which would enable people bearing the burden of war crimes inside themselves, and those bearing the burden of victimhoood, to communicate at a broader level because these crimes are massive and the victims many, and courts will only be able to resolve this issue partially.
On the other hand, I believe that what we artists, by being in a reality that is in a way more dedicated to the past or that is more dedicated to the present or the future, that each one of us, according to our feelings, needs, gift, and opportunities, shares a common position to build a better world in which we would all be able to live in an honest manner without becoming witnesses or perpetrators again of atrocities that we have already gone through.
On December 11, 2006 the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed a compensation lawsuit against the Republic of Serbia on behalf of Šefćet Mehmedović, a Bosniak from Novi Pazar, for ethnically motivated torture committed against him by police inspector Bratislav Gerić, an unidentified inspector known by his nickname “Nino”, and several other unidentified members of the Novi Pazar Internal Affairs Secretariat (SUP Novi Pazar) in May of 1994. As a result of the beating, the health of Šefćet Mehmedović is permanently damaged.