“And the soldiers as soldiers I hold it against them because they could have sometimes given something that was packaged. When we came to the trash heap they could have given us (?) for the bags but sometimes they would take it and they would throw it. As far as they can, they throw it so you would have to go get it, you know. (..) – they throw it for us as far as they can (unintelligible) I came, they don’t come down, in two places they came down to us. I went there by foot, it came to more than two hours by foot, I walked. I had to get up early in the morning to make it up there so I can come back by the second shift (unintelligible) all while running“
Survivor narrates the dehumanization felt during war; she was the one assigned by her parents to go collect food at a trash heap, one of her key memories
Actor: Srebrenica survivor
Item type: Quote from group interview
Date: feb, 2023
DoJ Researcher: Siri Driessen
DoJ Research project: Back with a mission
Language: English
Original language: Bosnian
Context
Whereas much research in veteran care is characterised by a focus on the individual veteran and is conducted from a clinical perspective, in this study we use an interdisciplinary and relational perspective in which the encounters between veterans, their families and the local Bosnian population take centre stage. The knowledge gained from this will then be used to inform developments in national and international veteran care.
‘Back with a mission. Reconsidering return trips from a relational perspective’ iis an interdisciplinary research project that studies whether and how return trips to mission areas help war veterans, their partners and Bosnian citizens to give meaning to their war experiences.
In early 2021, the Dutch Ministry of Defence announced that it would organise return trips to Srebrenica for Dutchbat III veterans (stationed in Srebrenica during the genocide of July 1995) as a gesture of recognition and care. This project empirically analyses the encounters between Bosnian genocide survivors and veterans. It critically reflects on the possibilities and limitations of these encounters as a means of restoring relations between these different groups. In addition, a comparison is made with return trips to other areas of former UN missions, such as Lebanon.
The project builds on insights gained in an earlier pilot study (2019-2021) on return trips by veterans (which resulted in a report and recommendations for the itinerary of the trips). ‘Back with a mission’ is linked to the Dialogics of Justice research project at the University of Humanistic Studies and is a collaboration with Leiden University Medical Centre.
