05/08/2023
The missing, those who are absent, those who are on the lists and not in the graves, those who keep the collective memory of a time that should never come again alive. For the 11th year in a row, the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund partnered with the Swiss Embassy and DokuFest to ogranize the corner of confronting the past, which includes a series of activities dedicated to this delicate theme.
"Dealing with the past" was the topic that opened the first DokuTalks discussion. Moderated by Dea Gjinovci, the panel was made up of Dr. Arsim Gerxhaliu, representative of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Jan Baumgartner, Director, and Lyuba Knorozak, Producer. They extensively discussed the topic of finding and shedding light on the fate of missing persons in three contexts, the war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Ukraine.
Although these are three different geographical and time contexts, the course and way of dealing with this wound are extremely similar.
Dr. Arsim Gerxhaliu gave a clear overview of what has happened and continues to happen in the context of Kosovo. According to him, documentation is the most important act for victims and their families, but the path to uncovering these fates is not often easy. According to him, one of the obstacles is that families do not want to believe the fate of their lost loved ones, as the transfer of the process over the years has often created confusion and made the process more complicated.
Filmmaker Jan Baumgartner said that making a film related to the theme of missing persons as obstacles from the start. According to him, mistrust and the lack of desire to share accurate information leads to deviation and hinders the documentation of what happened in the past.
This thesis was also reinforced by the producer Lyuba Knorozak who, referring to the war in Ukraine, emphasized the importance of cooperation for making the documentation possible.
"A nation that forgets its history is doomed to repeat it," said Dr. Gerxhaliu, emphasizing the importance of this type of documentation.
The first DokuTalk for this edition attracted a lot of attention and people and we expect all the following talks to do the same.
By: Ana Haxhimali
Photo: Elmedina Arapi
