From the Archives: Decades after the violence of the Yugoslav wars, veterans are starting to heal and find reconciliation.
On November 28, 2016, Mile Milošević, president of the Serbian War Veterans’ Association, traveled to Sarajevo, where he met with Enver Krluć, president of the Veterans Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their countries had not long ago been mortal enemies. But on this day, they embraced and shared the same message: It was time to heal.
From 2012 to 2016, I undertook ethnographic field research in former conflict regions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, where I had the privilege of meeting survivors and veterans of the Yugoslav wars—including women who might not count as official “veterans” but who fought, just the same, to defend their homes. My colleague, photographer Robin Albarano, took portraits of survivors and veterans.
From 1991 to 2001, these nationalists implemented a succession of ethnically based declarations of independence, expulsions, and insurgencies. Approximately 140,000 people were killed, an estimated 50,000 women were victims of rape, and over 4 million people became displaced.
These challenges have turned many veterans’ associations into social welfare offices, which offer food and shelter to veterans in need. Veterans come together to help raise money for medical needs or to find employment. More than this, they bind together to heal their “moral wounds.” The term, coined by therapists working with U.S. veterans, describes the injury done to one’s conscience or moral compass in war.
Having interviewed hundreds of veterans and engaged in participant observation , I learned that veterans of the Yugoslav wars have a picture in their minds of what reconciliation should look like. They strive to connect with one another as former soldiers and bond over shared experiences. They may then lament what was lost in the war.
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