“W: You know doctor, there’s something else in all of us women. At least I think so. There’s something when they chased us out and said that it’s theirs –
B: This is our land, right
W: Yes. There’s something that wakes up inside you and you say “well, someone stayed alive”. I said, in Tuzla, they brought us to Kiseljak, kill but you can’t kill us all, their drivers. Someone will stay alive and come back. And stayed with me then, at least I think in all of us there is that which we’re carrying inside us to prove that they couldn’t (?) [kill] all of us. To prove that this is my field and this is my house. How it was to endure all that, but it’s mine. (..) …well this at least is mine, and it will stay mine and I think at least, that that keeps us women going. You killed my child so you can’t exactly…you see I have a grandkid, there’s someone who…you can’t. Take my house my land and my property (pause, people talking at the same time). That gave me strength, by God, and so does our work. Let it [not] be forgotten all that’s been done, cleaning up and reorganizing. (?) the yard like that, where should this go, the ruins, I want to fix it up, I want…”
Survivor tells how returning functions as a means to show the failure of the goals of the oppressor; a motivation to keep going
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.
