Dejan Ilic

In March 2001, a Yugoslav truth and reconciliation commission was formed. In 2003 after much internal wrangling and little achieved, it faded away into insignificance. How could such a commission which has proved such an influential and important tool in countries like South Africa fail so spectacularly? Dejan Ilic investigates what went wrong and analyses why the country still seems unable to confront its war crimes.

Dejan Ilic traces the long tradition of misinterpreting and misrepresenting Serbia in Western media as well as Serbia’s notion of a “global conspiracy” that is being waged against Serbia – a concept that has been misused by the Serbian government especially in the wake of the Nato bombings. Why were these interests covered so successfully by such false images? And why did they prove so effective?