Croatian Youth Perspectives on the Dark Side of the 1990s: Between Official Narrative and Ignorance

• In Event: Youth Perceptions of the 1990s Wars: Violence and Their Aftermath in Post-War Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper explores the perspective of youth in Croatia on the 1990s wars, their information sources, level of knowledge, and views on war crimes committed by Croatian army forces. Also, it examines the role of the official narrative on youth's war perspective as well as in building their social values, specifically regarding minority rights. The findings show that a significant part of youth tend to relativize war crimes and minority civil rights and that their perspective is largely shaped by the official narrative and family war experiences.

Author

• Anja Gvozdanovic, Inst for Social Research (Croatia)