ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how debating the end of Yugoslavia became caught up in the efforts to introduce transitional justice mechanisms in Serbia after 2000. Using the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a case, it examines the manner in which debates about the end of Yugoslavia have become politicized and ultimately why it became a non-topic for most researchers, as well as a sensitive topic for those forces who have generally advocated dealing with the past. The Western Balkans, including Serbia, largely became a test case for international justice and the emerging field of transitional justice. International transitional justice efforts in Serbia have been closely linked with post-Milosevic institution-building, developing a stable state with stable democratic institutions, establishing rule of law as well as providing space for a civil society. Public trust in the civil-society sector in general, and in human rights groups in particular, has remained low in Serbia.
