Reconciliation and implacability : Narratives of survivors from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article analyzes retold experiences of 27 survivors from the 90’s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One aim of the article is analyzing markers for reconciliation and implacability, the second is describing conditions for reconciliation which are actualized in those stories. Interactive dynamics which prevailed during the war associate post-war reconciliation with the war time. These stories of reconciliation, implacability and conditions for reconciliation, are not created in relation to the war as a whole only but also in relation to one’s own and other’s personal actions during the war. These stories on reconciliation become a forum for confrontation between us and them – not least through dissociation from others war actions. In the interviewees stories implacability is predominant however reconciliation is said to be possible if certain conditions are met. These conditions are, among others, justice for war victims, that the perpetrators’ recognize their crimes and display strong emotions (for example remorse and shame).Keynote Speaker