Dealing with the past is a broad subject; it encompasses many processes that a society can undergo when addressing violence and political oppression in its past. In previous issues we have explored abstract and emotional topics such as the remembrance of the past, the commemoration of known and unknown heroes and how survivors deal with trauma.
This time, we have dedicated the newest issue of Balkan.Perspectives to the more technical and political matter of peace agreements. Not that this more rational subject is any less important. Peace agreements set the ground for everything that comes after a war. They are the outcomes of diplomacy and often assume different forms. Some peace agreements simply stop the violence whilst others define clear guidelines for the post-war period and bring about institutional reform.
After the turmoil in the 1990s, the political landscape in the Western Balkans has been shaped by several peace agreements and diplomatic negotiations. We will present and discuss some of them in this issue.
First there’s the Dayton Agreement, the peace agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War. There are a lot of things that have been said about Dayton. Instead of continuing the discussion further, we present the different voices prevalent in the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the 20th anniversary of the agreement in 2015. The different headlines clearly show that opinions are divided, and that there is still not a clear and final verdict on the Dayton Agreement.
International diplomacy involving warring Balkan states continued in the 1990s, the next set of negotiations taking place in 1999 in Rambouillet, between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and a delegation of Kosovo-Albanians. The NATO drafted agreement was eventually not accepted by the Yugoslav delegation, an outcome that led to the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO. The negotiations and its results are still contested. Julijana Mojsilović takes us back in time and allows us to relive the negotiations.
Just two years later, the spotlight was on Macedonia to sign an agreement. The Ohrid Framework Agreement was signed between the Macedonian government and representatives from the Albanian community in Macedonia, ending the violence between both parties. We explore how the agreement is seen today by representatives of civil society in Macedonia. Furthermore, we interview Vlado Popovski who took part in the negotiations, he gives us his first hand insight into the process at the time.
The negotiations continue to this day, as talks continue between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels. Whilst these discussions are not to be understood as forming a peace agreement, they are contributing to the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Our analysis of the negotiations, written by Andreas Berg, is rather pessimistic regarding the two nations’ process of dealing with the past, but welcomes the talks as a first step in a long process towards peace.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading this new issue of Balkan.Perspectives: BalkanPerspectives_Papers for Peace_Eng