The Kosovo Necrologue
Dragoljub Todorovic
A few days ago, the Humanitarian Law Center published a remarkable book. It can be said to represent a milestone in relations between the peoples of former Yugoslavia over the past 20 years of the post-war period.
The book in question is the first volume of The Kosovo Memory Book: 1998-2000. The book lists chronologically, by municipalities, all the Serbs and Albanians killed in the clashes in Kosovo in 1998. In the remaining volumes, which are scheduled to appear soon, the victims of 1999 and 2000 will be presented in the same way. The book has been published in Serbian, Albanian and English. With every tragic event, and in addition to the name, the father’s name and the last name of each person killed, the list provides the date and place and a brief description of the event. The methodology, consistently and professionally carried out throughout the book, makes this publication a lexicographical work par excellence.
The book is a kind of Kosovo necrologue, the numerous features and unique characteristics of which make it quite extraordinary. Nothing like this has been attempted in Serbian science, literature or journalism in the past 20 years, since the beginning of the wars in this region and the break-up of Yugoslavia.
1. First of all, the victims have been given back their names, and the date, place and circumstances of their deaths. They are no longer anonymous or reduced to a number. This is very rarely the case anywhere in the world, even for much wider and more serious armed conflicts and sufferings.
2. For the first time in Serbia’s oral and written discourse since 1990, Albanians, without exception, are treated as equal to Serbs. There is no evidence of one single negative, degrading or discriminatory attitude towards any Albanian in the entire book.
3. The content and approach to the subject of this book is the first step towards dealing with the past and arriving ata reconciliation of Serbs and Albanians.
4. The book’s great value and quality are the short records that accompany every case of murder, describing the circumstances under which the killing occurred. These are concise, objective and above all absolutely impartial texts, which give an account of an event with no adjectives of either positive or negative connotation, and without any evocations of pathos or emotion, or any sort of mystification. This kind of approach evokes the pure truth of every event in which Albanian and Serb men, women and children were killed, thus contributing to a comprehensive understanding of these tragic and terrible killings. To demonstrate the importance and excellence of these short essays, we will make a comparison. The most important lexicographical work in the former Yugoslavia was The Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia, popularly known as the Yugoslavica, and in eight volumes, published by the Lexicographic Bureau in Zagreb, at that time under the direction of Miroslav Krleza. In 2007, the Zagreb journal “Kolo” (1:2007) published the entries from an article, “The Marginalia of the Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia” from the Krleza legacy; the entries were arranged in alphabetical order. Significant differences and even diametrically opposed views are evident between hitherto unpublished entries in Krleza’s text and those finally published in the Yugoslavica. Hence, even the influential and powerful Krleza had to make compromises, apply self-censorship and publish what he disagreed with. But that is certainly not the case with The Kosovo Memory Book. It provides only facts and nothing but the truth, as the highest criterion of the mind and spirit.
5. The book is compiled very professionally, and accompanied by a number of appendixes: an index of persons who were killed or forcibly disappeared; an index of sites where killings took place or where a person was last seen; an index of places of residence of killed or forcibly disappeared persons; and, finally, a registry of sources, with shortened and full titles. The book contains 10 tables with statistical data.
Finally, I would like to express how glad I am that two of my young colleagues, Sandra Orlovic and Mira Lazic, played such a significant part and made such a great contribution to this crucially important work. I have had the pleasure to recognize their human, intellectual and professional qualities from the beginning of their careers, and I have been promoting them in my own way.
The author is a legal advisor to the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies.
