Facts speak for themselves

I sincerely hope that there are flaws in this poll's methodology. If not, then they say much for the political forms of deliberate self-harm that appear to have become more endemic in Serbia, particularly where the recent past is concerned. "Two-thirds of Serbs would not turn in fugitive genocide suspect Ratko Mladic, whose arrest is necessary for Serbia's further progress towards the European Union, according to a poll released on Friday [23 January]..."

"Belgrade-based Strategic Marketing said only 14 percent of people answered 'yes' when asked whether they would provide information leading to the capture of the wartime Bosnian Serb commander, whose arrest comes with a multi-million reward. Sixty-five percent responded 'no.'"

The report later quotes an official working for this particular marketing company, who explains that, "In a choice between a hero and a villain, it is hard to expect from people a straight 'yes' when asked whether they would turn him in...The authorities still have not managed to explain to the people the gravity of the crimes he was charged with."

Contrast that to this recent development in my current home country of Montenegro: in May-June 1992, Montenegrin police arrested and deported a large number of Bosniaks living in the country, and had them deported back to Bosnia-Herzegovina. These deportees disappeared shortly thereafter, and only a small number of bodies have been found since then. Others, apparently, were killed on Montenegrin soil: an ignoble legacy that parallels the role of Montenegrin auxiliaries in the shelling of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, also in 1992.

But now, contra Serbia above, the Montenegrin authorities have admitted and confronted this dark legacy, at least partly. "Following a government session on December 25, 2008, Miras Radovic, [Montenegrin] Minister of Justice, announced that court settlements had been agreed for 42 cases concerning people deported in May 1992 worth 4.13 million euros."

The aforementioned compensation agreements should rightly serve as a role model for Montenegro's neighbours, which have yet to even begin confronting the recent past, and the dark id of shared responsibility for heinous crimes that they all hold. But, it appears, some are more interested in myths and legend rather than in solid realities that tell a very different story.