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“First of all, we need to discuss one of the most important questions. So, was there a genocide in Srebrenica? Happy TV this week.
As has been the case before, the stance on the Srebrenica genocide is one of the tools the government uses to try to discredit the opposition, both pro-European and right-wing.
Recently, a video was posted on a anonymous YouTube channel compiling all statements by politicians from “Serbia against violence” related to the Srebrenica genocide, going back several years. While only the leaders of the Green Left Front in the video presented called the Srebrenica crime a genocide, the author of the video asks the following question: “Is there anyone on the list “Serbia against violence” who does not believe that the Serbs are genocidal? people?”.
Coincidence or not, almost all pro-government media outlets asked the same question the day they published articles based on an unknown author’s YouTube video. “All of Đilas’ opposition stigmatizes the Serbs” is one of the titles of the articles published on this subject. It also gives the impression that the entire pro-EU opposition is controlled by former Belgrade mayor Dragan Đilas, leader of the Freedom and Justice Party.
“The opposition’s program is that the Serbs are a genocidal people. If this program was implemented and powerful Western countries accepted it, our three generations would not be able to pay war damages,” said Dragan Marković Palma, president of United Serbia, one of the members of the ruling coalition. Daily politics.
In addition to attacks on the pro-European opposition, pro-government tabloids have used the subject of the Srebrenica genocide to discredit the right-wing opposition, which otherwise shares the same position on this issue as the ruling parties.
“The fake right-wing parties nominated a man who supported those for whom Srebrenica is a genocide and for whom Kosovo is independent,” reported a daily, Informantciting “Detektor laži” (Lie Detector), an anonymous account of the social network X, which has for years discredited the opposition and criticism of the ruling majority.
It indicates that the far-right candidate for mayor of Belgrade “National Rally Coalition” Ratko Ristić is “a man who publicly supported the Moramo coalition” last year, which, Informant wrote, included people who consider Srebrenica a genocide and advocate for the abolition of Republika Srpska’s jurisdiction.
“This is one more proof in a series of proofs that the so-called left and the right are the same, that they have no political agenda and that it does not matter to them, but that they are solely motivated by the desire to overthrow President Vučić and seize power. power”, writes Informant.
Marko Milosavljevićthe program coordinator of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), says that on the one hand, the topic of Serbia’s approach to the Srebrenica genocide has been avoided for years, while that on the other hand, this question is brutally addressed. exploited, particularly during the electoral campaign.
“This is a convenient tool, primarily for the ruling coalition in Serbia, to defame and vilify political opponents, placing responsibility and blame on them for collectively blaming the Serbian people for what happened in Srebrenica. On the other hand, the same ruling coalition systematically denies the legal qualification and, in some cases, even the consequences of this genocide,” Milosavljević emphasizes.
Speaking about the experience of previous parliamentary and presidential elections, Milosavljević points out that, according to the results of research conducted by YIHR, 80% of electoral lists and presidential candidates denied and indirectly denied the Srebrenica genocide.
“This trend continues today. The government already has a strategy of gaining power by denying the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes, glorifying war criminals and distorting the narrative on the approach to war crimes. There is no better proof of this than the coalition at the Belgrade level with Vojislav Šešelj and his Serbian Radical Party,” says Milosavljević.
He adds that there should instead be debates and proposals on how to prosecute war criminals and inclusively address the culture of remembrance.
“Surveys on young people’s attitudes towards the wars of the 1990s clearly show how the culture of remembrance is anchored in Serbia. The notable events of this period for young people were the crimes against the Serbs. So there is an ethnocentric culture of remembrance, while the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes committed against the non-Serb population are completely in the background,” explains Milosavljević.
In addition to denying the genocide, over the years the accounts of the President of Serbia and the ruling parties, as well as some right-wing opposition parties, claim that Russia saved the Serbs from the non-existent accusation of to be a “genocidal people”. “.
Furthermore, looking at the official document sponsored by the United Kingdom, Jordan, Lithuania, New Zealand and the United States, it is evident that neither the State of Serbia nor the Serbian people are mentioned by name and directly. In the very premise of the resolution, it is acknowledged that there were innocent victims on all sides during the Bosnian war.
The pro-European opposition, when forced to address this issue, generally relies on the judgments of the International Tribunal in The Hague which Serbia recognizes, as well as the 2010 Declaration of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia condemning the crimes of Srebrenica. as qualified by the International Court of Justice. The Declaration was adopted before the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) came to power.
The only opposition party that has explicitly declared in recent years that a genocide took place in Srebrenica is the Green Left Front. One of their leaders, Dobrica Veselinović, paid tribute to the victims of the Potočari genocide on July 11 this year. After the visit, he said: “There is no debate now whether this happened or not. It happened. Everything in there happened and it can never be hidden or questioned,” Veselinović noted.
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