Svetlana Broz -- a physician and the grand-daughter of former Yugoslav dictator Marshal Tito -- stressed yesterday the importance of remembering the heroes of "evil times" and insisted that the mass media scrambled to report atrocities and suffering to the exclusion of tales of survival, forgiveness and recovery.
Broz delivered yesterday's lecture, entitled "Truth , Courage, and Reconciliation," in an effort to spread awareness about the persistence of altruism and understanding in the face of hatred and conflict. Broz worked with Bosnians, Croats and Serbs during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.
Broz told an audience of about 50 students and professors that by relating her experiences and those of her fellow Yugoslavians she seeks to promote reconciliation among her countrymen and belligerents worldwide.
According to Broz, the result of a media focus on the atrocities of war is a widespread loss of faith in humanity and an increasing reluctance to forgive the offenders. But Broz sought to praise those who strove to overcome the tide of despair.
Through her lectures and her book, "Good People in Evil Times," Broz said she seeks to accomplish "an imperative of the first order ... to let everybody know of extraordinary moral people."
By relating the experiences of individuals who risked their lives to aid members of rival ethnic groups, Broz hoped to illustrate the human capacity for kindness and forgiveness.
In the former Yugoslavia, Broz said ethnic nationalism combined with the fall of Marshal Tito's centralized government to promote mass slaughter and rampant inter-ethnic strife.
But in light of the media's portrayal of popular ethnic nationalism, Broz was surprised that many war refugees harbored no hatred toward other groups, but despised the nationalist leaders who mastermind the wars.
Broz said she found the nationalist factions -- which she identified as the greatest single cause of instability and conflict in her region -- to be of greater interest to the media than they were to the general populace.
Broz related several tales of reconciliation brought to her by survivors of the carnage, including that of one victim of a Croatian prison camp who befriended the commander of the camp after his release.
Broz feels that such tales are the key to rebuilding her region. "I believe that everyone [who committed war crimes] will be held accountable for his crimes," she said, but insisted that "the next generation must hear that [peacemakers] lived."
Although pervasive fear initially hindered Broz's attempts to collect accounts of courageous acts -- few real names were printed in the first edition of "Good People" -- the book's recently-issued third edition includes the real names of witnesses and heroes who have overcome their fear.
In 2001, Dr. Broz took another step toward honoring the "good people" when she founded the "Garden of Righteousness" in Sarejavo, Bosnia. The Garden, which is inspired by the Israeli Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem, will feature one tree in memory of each individual who committed a righteous act during the Balkan wars.
