Spaces of Identity 5.1 Special Issue

[Wladimir Fischer]

A special issue of spacesofidentity
(<http://www.spacesofidentity.net>http://www.spacesofidentity.net) on
War Criminality is now online. This issue takes us on a journey from
WWII Ukraine across the bloodied landscapes of the former Yugoslavia
and of Chechnya. It is also a journey through time: from the camps in
which victims' last breaths slipped away at the point of a soldier's
bayonet to the eerie silence of a hi-tech war-room in a desert.

We are enormously pleased to have John-Paul Himka's article appear in
this issue. Doubly so because of the topic he chose to address: the
unwillingness of the Ukrainian diaspora to acknowledge crimes
committed during WWII.

James Sadkovich's contribution also tackles a sensitive theme: the
politically motivated misrepresentation of the past in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Sadkovich successfully and forcefully dismantles the
myth of Bosnia always being a multicultural paradise, thus countering
the claims of modern-day transitilogists and 'grantoid' organizations
in the region. His article also sheds new light on the manner in
which the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia can be analyzed.

Srdja Pavlovic's contribution also addresses the dissolution of the
former Yugoslavia. More specifically, it analyzes the 1991 siege of
the Croatian city of Dubrovnik and raises the question of
personalization of responsibility for crimes committed as the
necessary point of departure in the process of reconciliation in the
former Yugoslavia.

W. Andy Knight & Tanya Narozhna present a powerful account and
analysis of war-torn Chechnya and the ruthless way this war has been
waged by the Russian government. By highlighting issues of
extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances, murder, rape and
torture, their article emphasizes grave breaches of the Geneva
Conventions and other horrendous violations of international
humanitarian law.

Finally, Lise Hogan and William Anselmi reflect more philosophically
on war. Their series of interventions address war as part of our
common imaginary and the way language and image help dehumanize and
sanitize it for the general public.

As always we welcome readers' reactions.


--
Dr. Wladimir Fischer

Spengergasse 52/12
A-1050 Wien

wladimir.fischer at univie.ac.at

http://www.personal.balkanissimo.net

++43-1-5968567 (fon/fax)
++43-699-11332058 (mob)
++1-309-218-3800 (e-fax)

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