Dino Djipa
Prism Research
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dean Ajdukovic, Dinka Corkalo
Society for Psychological Assistance
Croatia

Harvey Weinstein, Eric Stover
University of California Berkeley, Human Rights Center
USA

A survey of attitudes to social reconstruction in Vukovar and Mostar

Encuesta sobre actitudes respecto de la reconstrucción social en Vukovar y Mostar

Ethnic tensions as a consequence of the 1991-95 war in the former Yugoslavia are the greatest obstacle to reconciliation between national groups and to cooperation between the new states. The cities of Mostar and Vukovar illustrate these tensions. In Mostar, Croats and Bosniaks live separated by the Neretva River and in Vukovar, although not physically separated, Serbs and Croats live in two psychologically separated communities that rarely communicate. Given this unstable set of conditions, we wanted to examine the resistances to possible reconciliation and the factors that contribute to the distance between different national groups. Such data will enable us to create an action component to our research by informing local communities and assisting them to facilitate local strategies for social reconstruction.

Four hundred randomly selected citizens from Vukovar and 800 from Mostar, divided equally between national groups, were interviewed in a house-to-house survey using a standardized questionnaire. Questionnaire items included: the Authoritarian Scale, Ethnic Distance Scale, stereotypes and attitudes towards nationalism and other national groups, attitudes towards the Hague Tribunal, and demographic data.

In this paper, we report on preliminary results. All four groups of subjects are highly authoritarian. Croats in both cities and Bosniaks in Mostar score high in ethnic distance with strong national attitudes. The Vukovar Serbs are less nationalistic and score lower on items of ethnic distance. They also expressed a greater readiness for reconciliation and were more likely to acknowledge that their own national group committed war crimes. Bosniaks and Croats from Mostar score very high on ethnic distance and are the most resistant to reconciliation. Almost 50% believe that the only way to live together is either assimilation or disappearance of the other national group. Bosniaks are the most positive about the ICTY while Croats are the most negative and believe that the ICTY is biased towards the Croat people.

Attitudes toward the Tribunal are to a great extent determined by stable variables such as authoritarianism, ethnic distance, nationalism and level of wartime traumatic experience. Readiness for reconciliation is highly connected with such variables as nationalism and ethnic distance but also on a history of positive experiences and unspoiled relationships with other national groups, especially on positive wartime experiences with friends from the other national groups.