1998

Peace through education

Two ]elenas-one Serbian, one Croatian - share their takes on the Balkans in classes

by Melanie Supersano

A Young woman flips the switch on an air-raid siren. Its piercing wail fills the classroom. The students sit in complete silence, the chilly scream of war heard by many for the first time. The bombing of Belgrade has just begun.

"I once had a father and a mother;" intones another young woman as the two begin their presentation in professor Viktoria Hertling's spring 1999 introductory class in Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies.

TWO JELENAS: Todic, left, and Postic shared personal
perspectives on the age-old strife in the Balkans with
their fellow Nevada students.

"My father was called Josip Broz Tito and my mother the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia;" the woman continues. "I loved my parents. In 1991, my parents died, and died, and the circus in which they worked left. The masks of all clowns fell off. My mask fell off as well. And we all became new clowns. All those that used to work in the same circus, eat with the same spoons, forks and knives, those clowns killed each other...with the same spoons, forks and knives."

This poetic description of the breakup of the six republics of the former Yugoslav federation and the wars that followed, leaving more than 200,000 dead, conveys the sadness and love the two young women students in Hertling's class, Jelena Postic and Jelena Todic, feel toward their homeland.

On March 23,1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched a 78-day air attack against Serbia, one of the two remaining republics in the rump Yugoslavia.

Postic and Todic felt each bomb rip through their hearts in a way their classmates, none of whom were from the former Yugoslavia, did not: Todic is from Topola, a town about 70 miles southeast of Belgrade. Her family and friends were in harm's way.

Postic, who hails from Croatia's capital, Zagreb, and her mother had been persecuted for years by the Croatian government because they were of Serbian origin, even though Serbian origin, even though their" ancestors had lived in Croatia for centuries.

"We were extremely disturbed by the situation," says Postic, now a senior majoring in psychology and women's studies, and minoring in Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies

Hertling, who also is the director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Peace Studies, had scheduled a presentation about the conflict in the former Yugoslavia for late spring. But with the onset of the airstrikes, Postic and Todic prepared a presentation about the history of the region and the issues that led to the crisis in Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia in which NATO, including U.S. troops, continue on a peace mission.

"The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia," Todic says, "was a rape of a country. The rape of a woman is an issue of power exercised over her. The bombing of Yugoslavia is an example of rape on a global level. It was a violation of multiple international laws."

Todic, who graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in psychology, is a master's candidate in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, St. Louis. Her sentiments echo those of many in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Russia, China, Peru and other countries. Proponents saw the air strikes as a decisive bid to end the decade-long ethnic cleansing and brutality of ultra-nationalist Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Todic is quick to say she does not deny that human rights violations occurred in the Balkans. "But the idea of promoting democracy by force does not make sense," she says, adding, "It was difficult to stand up and say, 'Yes, Serbs were responsible for most of the war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina,' or, 'Yes, Serbs did violate the human rights of Albanians in Kosovo, but…'"

Postic explains the long history of the region, which dates to the Roman Empire in the first century A,D., and how the southern Slavs ("Yugoslavs") moved back and forth under changing rule and with the division of the Roman Empire into east and west - ultimately became divided largely along religious lines: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and - following later invasions by Turks-Muslim.

"You can't tell the difference between them by looking," Postic says of southern Slavs. "It's last name, heritage and religion." But, despite many mixed marriages, much ill will remained among ethnic groups.

"There were a lot of reasons why the former Yugoslavia came into conflict, including economic imbalances between the republics," Postic says. "Everyone was at war with each other."

"People really enjoyed our presentation, "Todic says. "We received many thank yous. Many told us that they finally understood the situation. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. Educating people on the issue is the best way to raise consciousness and influence change."