War Memorials and their Impact on Reconciliation: The Case of Vukovar

Abstract

War memorialization initiatives recognize and preserve the occurrences of past suffering in societies emerging from violent conflict. Furthermore, an intrinsic association also exists between memorialization and the reconciliation. However, determining the contribution memorialization provides to the reconciliation process of the former parties in the conflict is debatable. This paper addresses memorialization initiatives as an important instrument for the reconciliation process. Specifically, it looks into the role of war memorialization in the town of Vukovar in Croatia with regard to the reconciliation process between Croats and Serbs there. Vukovar has a dense concentration of Croatian War of Independence (Homeland War) memorial centers and commemorative events. Vukovar’s war memorialization alternatives exclude the remembrance of ethnic-Serb victims*, thereby hampering the reconciliation of the former adversarial parties in the town. More efforts must be invested in to ensure the memorialization of what the Serbians suffered.