Kruševac, 30 September 2014
A group of over thirty students and human rights activists from non-governmental organisations ‘Women in Black’ and ‘Peščanik’ gathered today in Kruševac, Serbia for a screening of the latest documentary produced by the Outreach programme Through Their Eyes – Witnesses to Justice. The documentary portrays the role that witnesses play in the work of the ICTY through five parallel stories of victim-witnesses who share their personal experience of testifying before the Tribunal. The audience was visibly moved by the film and shared their observations after the screening. Their overall impression was that the attitudes of the victim-witnesses expressed in the film represent a cause for hope for the future.
One of the participants said that she admired the victims because after everything they had been through, they maintained their dignity and were not consumed by hatred. "An important message that we need to take on from these victims is that justice is not retribution. Those responsible for crimes have to be named and punished in order to protect future generations from going through the same horrors".
Outreach representative in Serbia, Morgiana Brading, attended the screening and talked in detail about the ICTY legacy and achievements. She also explained what the Outreach Programme is doing in order to preserve and make available that legacy to a wider audience.
A lot of interest was expressed in the ICTY's archives and access to the information contained in it. According to many participants, the Tribunal's archives are the key to reconciliation in the region; they are important not just for people who lived through the war, but also for the generations to come, which gives particular significance to making that information easily available in the region.