Just as Novak Djokovic showed off the best of Serbia with his Wimbledon win yesterday, so today the world saw the worst - war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic at The Hague.
Just as soon as Novak Djokovic showed the world the best Serbia has to offer, the engraving barely cold on his Wimbledon trophy, so the world witnessed the very worst: Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic back at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, defiant, unrepentant, disruptive, unapologetic.
Today Mladic was removed from his hearing after quarrelling with the judge, the court entering a plea of not guilty on his behalf. He faces a total of 11 counts of genocide of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Srebrenica; persecutions; extermination and murder; deportation and inhumane acts; terror and unlawful attacks; and the taking of UN hostages.
He is charged in connection with the Srebrenica massacre – Europe’s single worst atrocity since World War Two – in which 7,500 Muslims were massacred, and is also charged over the 44-month siege of Sarajevo from May 1992 – in which 10,000 people died.
So, how easy will it be for new Serbia to consign Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic to the past? And what does the future hold for the Serbia of Djokovic and president Boris Tadic?
The arrest and prosecution of Mladic, and the determination of Tadic to face down the ultra-nationalists who protested his capture, will do much to accelerate Serbia’s rehabilitaion, removing one of the key barriers to accession to the European Union; Djokovic’s advance to the summit of the tennis world rankings, and his imperious dethroning of Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon the icing on the cake.
Certainly, the unreconstructed elements are still there, from the pro-Milosevic graffiti scrawled on walls in central Belgrade and the selling of Mladic t-shirts at Belgrade’s main train station, to the subtle distrust of foreigners – or at least those who obviously look like foreigners.
Yet in Tadic and Djokovic – the man every Serbian boy wants to be, and every Serbian girl wants to be with, whose visage adorns billboard after advert after magazine cover – the future is brighter for Serbia than perhaps it’s ever been, even more than after the fall of Milosevic a decade ago.
As Misha Glenny wrote in The Guardian recently:
“It was fitting that Serbia’s president, Boris Tadić, himself announced the arrest of Ratko Mladić in Belgrade. Nobody has put in a greater effort to run down the indicted war crimes suspect than Tadić… What Boris Tadić has done with Mladić is to take a huge step towards the moral rehabilitation of Serbs and Serbia whose reputation was so catastrophically compromised by the wars of the 1990s.
“He deserves our support and respect.”
Though one can never forget the horrors of Milosevic, Mladic and Karadzic, nor should, Serbia now is a much changed place, its leaders looking outwards, to the future, to Europe, to the world, where its favoured son now sits atop.
60 Responses to “Two faces of Republika Srbija: the hopeful future, the shameful past”
Shamik Das
Dear Darko,
This is not vilification, nor does it play down Novak’s achievements – and why have you referred to Mladic’s appearance as just “some incident at the Hague”. You know how serious the tribunal is.
Yes, Serbia will continue to reform with Tadic at the helm – and you know the capture of Mladic and the confronting of the past is key to this.
Dear Noleisthebest,
You’re coming dangerously close to justifying Srebrenica and excusing Mladic – and you accuse me of propaganda.
Dear Simon, Manchester,
Your attempt to equate genocide with the unintended, unordered civilian deaths from allied campaigns to prevent the mass murder of innocent civilians – from Kosovo to Benghazi – is ridiculous. Your insane Roddick/Murray comparisons will only hold water if either of those won Wimlbedon while a US or UK general (who had been sheltered by the US or UK population) was being tried at the Hague for war crimes and genocide.
Dear Beebo,
Again, this attack on America is, well, of no relevance. And then, you, like one of the commenters above, appear to excuse Srebrenica. Open your eyes to the past.
Dear Tina,
He, like Karadzic before him, was sheltered, shamefully, in Serbia.
Dear Nick,
Mladic is a Serb – and, as I’ve said repeatedly, like Karadzic, was sheltered by Serbians in Serbia. And your point about Iraq and Afghanistan – 1. your death toll is way out; and 2. civilians were not targeted, coalition forces did not deliberately kill civilians, they did not set out to, nor did they, commit genocide – unlike Mladic. There is no comparison.
Dear Robert,
The sooner Mladic is sentenced, and made to answer for his crimes, the better.
Dear Vrabac,
This is not done in bad taste nor is it spiteful. Read it again. It is pro-Tadic, pro-modern Serbia, and pro-Novak. There is no confusion for the unignorant, nor is there any intent to confuse.
And, once again, let me repeat that he was sheltered, like fellow war criminal and mass murderer Karadzic, in Serbia.
Dear Scott,
See the points already made above. There is no confusion nor attempt to confuse. I don’t see what you describe as a “conflation” as offensive. All the war criminals from the mid-90s Balkan wars should be prosecuted.
Dear Mitar,
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, consider them replied in kind to your remarks.
Regards,
Shamik
slobodan
Dear Shamik,
first of all, Serbia’s past is not “shameful” in any way, and for you to call it that way is extremely offensive.
This is a trial to a Yugoslavian general, not Yugoslavia itself, Serbia or even more remotely its people.
I myself, as a Serbian living in Bosnia, feel no personal “shame”, because I know I have no doings in the Civil War.
If you think I should be ashamed of my past, then honestly you are a bitter uninformed idiot.
And also, your attempt to provoke Serbians with this page is “shameful” because, like in Mladic case, it is your own doing.
Good luck in getting more informed in the future, I honestly wish you this,
regards,
Slobodan,
Banja Luka.
Popusismikurac
Another Indian sucking up to his British colonial slave masters. He is quick and witted to point out the standard British Mi6 propaganda but forgets how his own country of origin was raped and tortured for more than two centuries by the British colonial powers. He is right about one thing I was disgusted how the BBC chooses to post 20 articles and follow ups on Mladic but one measly article about Novak in the sports section. Keep on trucking Shamik one day very soon India will be powerful and your British propaganda will seem like a faint fart in the wind that will sweep of the map your colonial lords. India supports Serbia and is against Kosovo independence since they also have their own Kosovo, Kashmir. Jai Hind! Long live Serbia.
“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Luke
Well, you got it wrong. Karadzic, Mladic aren’t from Serbia. They are Serbs but from Bosnia. Besides, what does Djokovic’ win has to do with wars in Bosnia. Jesus Christ you guys are crazy. Djokovic is from Serbia, not Bosnia. BTW Serbia was not, i repeat, not involved in Bosnian war. Paramilitaries and volunteers from Serbia were involved, but not Serbian military. I think you know that.
beebo
“Dear Beebo,
Again, this attack on America is, well, of no relevance. And then, you, like one of the commenters above, appear to excuse Srebrenica. Open your eyes to the past.”
what? excuse me? so let me get this straight, using the same set of standards don’t apply to all nations right? are you saying then that the US is allowed to kill and destroy its way into any nation? You are the one that needs to open his eyes to the past as you are blind to your own backyard. Who is finding an “excuse” for Srebrenica? who? the truth is an excuse? all those that committed any crimes there and in all of Bosnia (like Naser Oric who killed hundreds and hundreds of Serbs around Srebrenica) need to be in jail. you also say that Karadzic was “sheltered” is Serbia, show one shred of evidence? you said that the US did not “target civilians” in Iraq, really? why did millions of iraqis flee Iraq then? the US killed over a million people there with no sign of remorse at all;
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.
–60 Minutes (5/12/96)
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084
you are demented to think that you can even compare the crimes the USA/England have committed compared to the Serbs. Bosnia was a civil war in which 100k people and one third of those victims were Serbs who died on THIER OWN LAND!;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1291965/posts
here is a partial list of places the US has invaded, bombed and killed millions and millions of innocent civilians in over the past 100 or so years;
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html
you should be ashamed of yourself for event attempting to whitewash this history by pointing to someone else’s civil war….