How to work through difficult memories of the past? Within my PhD project, I research the way veterans process their wartime memories by means of visits to places that are related to military missions, in this case in Bosnia. What role can visits to former war sites play when dealing with traumatic memories? Can return trips become part of the treatment of PTSD, moral injury or other mission-related problems?
For many people in Bosnia and the Netherlands, the 11th of July is a day that brings up shivers and sadness. This date marks the start of the genocide in the east Bosnian town of Srebrenica. The war and genocide have not only been highly traumatic for the Bosnian population but have also left their mark on the Dutch troops who were stationed in the area. For many veterans, feelings of powerlessness, anger, fear and guilt, as well as a very negative public reception, have impacted the way they have dealt with their wartime experiences.
Last week, I traveled to Srebrenica and other former war-affected areas in Bosnia. It was not my first visit to Bosnia – read here about my experiences during the annual Marš Mira [in Dutch] – but it was the first time I did so in the company of a group of Dutch veterans, veteran health care specialists and researchers. The purpose of our visit was to brainstorm and get a better understanding of the form veteran return trips could take up should they become professionally organized (which they currently aren’t).
The trip provided me with a perfect opportunity to observe the return trips that I have heard so much about in my interviews. I saw a veteran’s determination to stand on the exact same spot where he had been shot during the war and noticed his dedication in recounting his story about these events to us. We passed the village Gornji Vakuf, known for its shelling. The veterans told me that during the war they would pass through the town as quickly as possible, with the music turned up as loud as possible to drown out the gunfire. This time, one of the veterans did not want to exit the car when we stopped in the village, because it was the only place that scared him still. Yet, when another veteran responded that he also felt uneasy but had decided not to let his fears limit him, he did get out of the car and spent some time walking around the village.
All the while, I observed the ease with which the veterans approached local Bosnian people. Without much knowledge of the language, they managed to find ways to talk about their mutual experiences of the war. One of the veterans returned a photo and a letter to a Bosnian army commander whom he knew from his time in Srebrenica, resulting in a touching reunion. Another veteran donated a camera to a museum in Sarajevo. He used this camera to film life in Srebrenica when journalists could no longer enter the enclave. While garnering an unexpected amount of attention from the Bosnian press, he answered their many questions.
Undeniably, the story of the war in Bosnia and former-Yugoslavia is a harrowing one, that moves me every time I visit the area. Even today, ethnic tensions prevail, politics are divided, and life is pretty sober in general. Still, last week’s trip did give me a positive impression of the way individuals - both Bosnian and Dutch - are able to work through their past and look at the future with an open mind.
Author
Siri Driessen is a PhD candidate at the Department of Arts and Culture Studies. Her research is part of the REI-program ‘War! Popular Culture and European Heritage of Major Armed Conflicts’.