Serbian paper condemns "hysterical" Srebrenica blame campaign
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political - July 1, 2005, Friday

Excerpt from commentary by Miodrag Zarkovic: "Srebrenica and reaction", published by Serbian newspaper Glas javnosti on 29 June

An action provokes a reaction. There is no simpler or truer principle. If you are a wife beater, your daughter is certain to fall in love with a local thug.

This law of nature operates on us Serbs as well. If every night, before going to bed, we are told the story of Srebrenica, we will wish never to hear it again in our lives. If every sitting of the parliament turns into a quarrel about Srebrenica, next time we will elect a parliament that will quarrel about something else. If you continue to invite Natasa Kandic [chairperson of the Humanitarian Law Centre NGO] as a guest on your show, we will change channels....

Ever since the footage about the Scorpions' crime was screened, we have been watching a veritable Olympic Games of NGO profiteers. Natasa Kandic and Co. have barely been able to rush from the B92 television studio to an exhibition about Srebrenica, then on to their seats at a roundtable on Srebrenica, rushing off again to a conference on Srebrenica, then a mad dash to a debate on Srebrenica, from which they would move on to a forum on Srebrenica, in order to end up by attending a rally on Srebrenica. And all the while making regular statements to foreign media, which project them as local pillars of democracy and freedom of opinion, about their "martyrdom" in exposing the "truth" about Srebrenica....

At the same time, Bojan Pajtic, acting on behalf of the Vojvodina Executive Council, proposes that Serbia should observe a day of mourning for Srebrenica, while the organizers of the Egzit [music festival] have decided that the entire festival should fall silent for a few minutes in the night of 10-11 July in memory of Srebrenica....

The hysterical "all Serbs are to blame for Srebrenica" campaign will finally make us think: "We have had enough of the 'truth' about Srebrenica." An action triggers a reaction.

You know, the Americans will never pass a resolution on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention Iraq, Milica Rakic [Belgrade toddler killed in NATO air strikes in 1999], Red Indians [ellipsis as published] The English will never declare a day of mourning for the Falkland Islands. The Croats have no intention of silencing the Split music festival over Jasenovac [World War II death camp] or the strafing of refugee columns in Operations Flash and Storm. I will bet you that the Bosniaks will not apologize, not in 100 years, for the killing of Serbs in Sarajevo or the Srebrenica area.

Serbs, however, instead of learning from the Americans, the English, the Croats and the Bosniaks, keep clamouring about crimes "committed in our name". It is no wonder, then, that the US Senate has adopted a special resolution branding us as the sole culprits for a crime that happened 10 years earlier.

It is quite possible that this is all connected: if you clamour about crimes "committed in your name", the Senate slams you down. The law of action and reaction in operation.


SOURCE: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 29 Jun 05 p 3
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