Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T12:00:55.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mediating international and domestic demands: mnemonic battles surrounding the monument to the fallen of the wars of the 1990s in Belgrade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Lea David
Lea David*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
*
∗Email: lead@post.bgu.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article I present a decade-long affair over the erection of the Monument in Belgrade to those killed in the wars of the 1990s where the official Serbian policy was to manage its contested past through cover ups and cultural reframing rather than public acknowledgement. I demonstrate here that, though the open competitions to erect a monument dedicated to the fallen of the wars of the 1990s were an opportunity to negotiate different mnemonic agendas, the ruling political elite, as the dominant actor, promoted Serbian victimhood as it meant to bridge gaps in the opposing domestic and international demands. I suggest here that the mnemonic battle in present-day Serbia proves to be an exemplary case of how a post-conflict nation state mediates its contested past when caught in the gap between the domestic demands and those of international relations.

Keywords

mnemonic battleSerbiamonumentwar veteransBelgrade municipalityMonument Group
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , July 2014 , pp. 655 - 673
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilar, Paloma. 1999. “Agents of Memory: Spanish Civil War Veterans and Disabled Soldiers.” In War and Remembrance in Twentieth Century, edited by Jay, Winter and Emanuel, Sivan, 84–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Jeffrey. 2004. “Toward a Theory of Cultural Trauma.” In Collective Trauma and Collective Identity, edited by Jeffrey, Alexander, Ron, Eyerman, Bernhard, Giesen, Neil, Smelser, and Piotr, Sztompka, 1–29. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ashplant, Timothy G., Dawson, Graham, and Roper, Michael, eds. 2000. The Politics of War Memory and Commemorations. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(Belgrade City Assembly)., BCA 2002a. Odluka o podizanju spomen-obeležja u Beogradu žrtvama ratova 1990–1999 na prostorima bivše Jugoslavije. No. 6-153/02, May 31.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2002b. Agenda. September 4.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2002c. Podsetnik. September 4.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2002d. Protokol. September 18.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2002e. Zapisnik sa sednice Odbora za sprovodenje odluke o podizanju spomen-obeležja žrtvama ratova 1990–1999. September 18.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2002f. Odbor za spovođenje odluke o podizanju spomen-obeležja u Beogradu žrtvama ratova 1990–1999 na prostorima bivše Jugoslavije, Konkurs.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2004a. Zapisnik sa treceg zasedanja komisije. January 24.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2004b. Službena beleška sa sastanka sa gradonačelnikom Radmilom Hrustanović u vezi sa konkursom za spomenik Žrtvama rata i braniocima otadžbine 1990–1999.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2004c. Zapisnik sa javne rasprave na temu konkursa za podizanje spomenika u Beogradu održane. 25 June 2004. godine sa početkom u 18 časova u Umetničkom paviljonu Cvijeta Zuzorić.Google Scholar
BCA (Belgrade City Assembly). 2004d. Premet: Mišljenje na rad odbora za sporvođenje odluke o podizanju spomen-obeležja u Beogradu žrtvama ratova 1990–1999 na prostorima bivše Jugoslavije. April 30.Google Scholar
(Belgrade City Assembly)., BCA 2005. Odluka o podizanju spomenika “Žrtvama rata i braniocima otadžbine 1990–1999. March 31.Google Scholar
(Belgrade City Assembly)., BCA 2006. Konkurs za idejno rešenje spomen obeležja žrtvama rata i braniocima otadžbine od 1990 do 1999. godine u Beogradu i likovno, arhitektonsko urbanističko rešenje Savskog trga. Skupština grada Beograda - Sekretarijat za kulturu, Društvo arhitkata Beograda i Društvo urbanista Beograda, Akademija, October.Google Scholar
BCAD (Belgrade City Administration). 2004a. Predmet: Predlog za uspešnu realizaciju konkursa za spomen-obeležje žrtvama ratova 1990–1999 na području bivše Jugoslavije. April 19.Google Scholar
BCAD (Belgrade City Administration). 2004b. Secretariat of Culture. No. 6-11/04 January 15; January 21; January 24.Google Scholar
“Belgrade Honors Victims of the 1990s Conflict.” 2012. Belgrade Insight, February 13. Accessed May 1, 2013. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/belgrade-honours-victims-of-1990s-conflicts Google Scholar
Bourke, Joanna. 2004. “Remembering War.” Journal of Contemporary History 39 (4): 437–485.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, and Cooper, Frederick. 2000. “Beyond Identity.” Theory and Society 29 (1): 1–47.Google Scholar
Byford, Jovan. 2007. “When I Say “the Holocaust” I Mean “Jasenovac” - Remembrance of the Holocaust in Contemporary Serbia.” East European Jewish Affairs 37 (1): 51–74.Google Scholar
Connerton, Paul. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
David, Lea. Forthcoming. “Impression Management of a Contested Past: Serbia's Newly Designed National Calendar.” Memory Studies 7 (4).Google Scholar
“Đilas sprečen da položi venac na spomenik žrtvama ratova 1990–1999.” 2012. Blic, March 24. Accessed April 20. http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Beograd/313699/Djilas-sprecen-da-polozi-venac-na-spomenik-zrtvama-ratova-od-1990-do-1999-godine Google Scholar
Dzenovska, Dace. 2005. “Remaking the Nation of Latvia: Anthropological Perspectives on Nation Branding.” Place Branding 1: 173–186.Google Scholar
Feldman, Jackie. 2007. “Between Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl: Changing Inscriptions of Sacrifice on Jerusalem's Mountain Memory.” Anthropological Quarterly 80 (4): 1147–1174.Google Scholar
Franović, Ivana. 2008. “Dealing with the Past in the Context of ethnonationalism - The case of Bosnia Herzagovina, Croatia and Serbia.” Bergof Occasional Paper 29: 3–57.Google Scholar
Giesen, Bernhard. 2004. “The Trauma of Perpetrators.” In Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity, edited by Jeffrey, Alexander, Ron, Eyerman, Bernhard, Giesen, Neil, Smelser and Piotr, Sztompka, 1–29. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gordy, Eric. 2013. Guilt, Responsibility and Denial: The Past at Stake in Post-Milosevic Serbia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Grinberg Luis, Lev. 2010. Politics and Violence in Israel/Palestine, Democracy vs. Military Rule. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Spomenik, Grupa. 2003. Predlog za obustavu Konkursa za skulptorsko rešenje spomen-obeležja palim borcima i žrtvama ratova 1990–1999 na prostorima bivše Jugoslavije i pokretanje javne rasprave o ovoj temi. January 6.Google Scholar
Spomenik, Grupa. 2005. http://grupaspomenik.wordpress.com/timeline/ Google Scholar
Spomenik, Grupa. 2006. Hronologija projekta Razgovor o umetničkom delu - Odgovori na pitanja učesnika. February 12.Google Scholar
Spomenik, Grupa. 2007. Politike sećanja. Beograd.Google Scholar
“Krivci i žtve u betonu sramote.” 2012. E-novine, March 24. Accessed April 20, 2013 http://www.e-novine.com/mobile/srbija/vesti/61444-Krvnici-rtve-betonu-sramote.html Google Scholar
Levy, Daniel, and Sznaider, Natan. 2002. “Memory Unbound: The Holocaust and the Formation of Cosmopolitan Memory.” European Journal of Social Theory 5 (1): 87–106.Google Scholar
Levy, Daniel, and Sznaider, Natan. 2010. Human Rights and Memory. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania University Press.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey. 2007. The Politics of Regret. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey, and Robbins, Joyce. 1998. “Social Memory Studies: From ‘Collective Memory’ to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices.” Annual Sociological Review 24: 105–140.Google Scholar
Osborne, Brian. 1998. “Figuring Space, Making Time: Contested Identities in Canada.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 2 (1-2): 23–40.Google Scholar
“Podsećanje na žrtve devedesetih.” 2012. B92, January 30. Accessed May 15, 2013. http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2012&mm=01&dd=30&nav_id=578214 Google Scholar
Rivera, Lauren. 2008. “Managing ‘Spoiled’ National Identity: War, Tourism, and Memory in Croatia.” American Sociological Review 73 (4): 613–634.Google Scholar
Roberman, Sveta. 2007. “Commemorative Activities of the Great War and the Empowerment of Elderly Immigrant Soviet Veterans in Israel.” Anthropological Quarterly 80 (4): 1035–1064.Google Scholar
“Spomenik Miloševićevom nasleđu.” 2012. E-novine, March 23. Accessed May 10, 2013. http://www.e-novine.com/drustvo/61404-Spomenik-Miloevievom-nasleu.html Google Scholar
“Spomenik pomirenja - temeljac spoticanja.” 2012. Politika-online, March 27. Accessed May 10, 2013. http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Beograd/Spomenik-pomirenja-temeljac-sporenja.lt.html Google Scholar
Tunbridge, J. E., and Ashworth, G. J. 1996. Dissonant Heritage. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
“U slavu sramne prošlosti.” 2012. E-novine, March 1. Accessed May 1, 2013. http://www.e-novine.com/srbija/srbija-tema/60116-slavu-sramne-prolosti.html Google Scholar
“Uz proteste otkriven Spomenik žrtvama rata.” 2012. Mondo, March 24. Accessed April 27, 2013. http://mondo.rs/a239423/Info/Srbija/Uz-proteste-otkriven-Spomenik-zrtvama-rata.html Google Scholar
Verdery, Katherine. 1991. National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausescu's Romania. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Vinitzki Seroussi, Vered. 2002. “Commemorating a Difficult Past: Yitzhak Rabin's Memorials.” American Sociological Review 67 (1): 30–51.Google Scholar
Wagner-Pacifici, Robin, and Schwartz, Barry. 1991. “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Commemorating a Difficult Past.” The American Journal of Sociology 97 (2): 376–420.Google Scholar
Young, James. 1993. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memory and Meaning. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
“Žene u crnom povodom podizanja spomenika svim žrtvama i braniocima - Trajni beleg zloćina.” 2012. E-novine, September 23. Accessed May 5, 2013. http://www.e-novine.com/drustvo/60520-Trajni-beleg-zloina.html Google Scholar