In Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, many convicted of crimes against humanity are praised for their “defense of the national interests” of each people.
A group of hooded youth stand guard in Belgrade in front of a mural paying tribute to Ratko Mladic, a genocidal Bosnian Serb convicted of the murder of thousands of people during the Bosnian war (1992-1995), to avoid being erased.
This image exemplifies how the wounds of the conflicts in which Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s remain open, where nationalism has created parallel discourses between different countries and peoples, to the point that a criminal like Mladic is still for many a national hero.
“Thank you to the mother who gave birth to you”, is the message with which Mladic is honored in that mural, which both human rights activists and the Belgrade City Council have tried to eliminate.
The site has become a symbol of the conflict between those who extol criminalsBe they Serbs, Croats or Muslims, and those who hate such glorification.
In Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, many convicted of crimes are defended for their “defense of national interests” of each people who fought against another.
Reconciliation stalled
“The ethnocentric approach of the past is dominant in all the former Yugoslav republics, and both the victims and the criminals are always ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’, depending on the ethnic group to which they belong,” summarizes the situation to Efe Isidora Stakic, from the NGO Humanitarian Law Fund.
Stakic advocates “Deconstruct the dominant nationalism”, which imposes ethnic identity as crucial, to “be able to speak of all the victims as ‘ours’ and build solidarity”, a reconciling vision that does not have the support of the authorities.
The mural to Mladic in Belgrade was painted last July, shortly after the former head of the Serbian troops in Bosnia was definitively sentenced by international Justice to life imprisonment for the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica (Bosnia) and others crimes
According to Stakic, the fact that the graffiti is still there proves historical revisionism and the denial of the facts proven in the trials.
“Butcher of the Balkans” sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide in Bosnia
The Serbian government’s argument that erasing the mural is the responsibility of the City Council conceals its position of denying that there are criminals among its own ranks, which in Serbia is supported by almost all opposition parties.
The ban, under the guise of avoiding incidents, last November a rally to erase the mural sparked an unusual wave of protests under the slogan “The mural must fall.”
Images, which some erase and others protect, and inscriptions such as “Ratko Mladic: Serbian hero” are also found in other Serbian and Bosnian cities, and they are frequently painted, as a threat, on the doors of NGO headquarters demanding their elimination. .
These tributes to Mladic multiplied after the sentence, also in the form of T-shirts that are sold in street stalls and even in people who get his image tattooed.
Bosnia, three “truths”
In Bosnia, its three constituent towns -Muslims, Serbs and Croats- they live three opposing narratives and memories in which each one claims to be a victim and does not admit the other’s pain.
The situation has worsened after in July the then high international representative for Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, prohibit denial of genocide and war crimes, which the Bosnian Serb authorities interpret as aggression and before what they have threatened to separate from the rest of the country.
According to the Serbs, there will be no justice as long as the vast majority of those convicted are of their ethnic group and some Muslims and Croats remain at large those they accuse of crimes.
The Serbs, who dominated the Yugoslav Army, had more means at their disposal and led the way, as aggressors, during much of the war in Bosnia.
For their part, Muslims denounce that the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, which, together with the Croatian-Muslim Federation, makes up Bosnia-Herzegovina, was created on the genocide committed against them.
“When the mural appeared, we felt as if we were living the 1990s again. Then it was erased, but those who painted it were not prosecuted,” says Izet Spahic, a Muslim councilor for the city of Foca, in the Bosnian Serb entity, about the appearance of a tribute graffiti to Mladic.
Foca was one of the cities that suffered the crimes of Mladic’s troops. Muslims, more than half the population before the war, are now a minority there.
In areas with a Croatian majority, everywhere are photos of General Slobodan Praljak, who committed suicide at the international court in The Hague after hearing the 20-year sentence for crimes committed against Muslims.
With cyanide the Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak committed suicide
His name is chanted by the fans at Croatian team matches and on the anniversaries of his death, many Croatian politicians light candles and attend masses in his memory. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
