Self-hating Serbs

It required no special powers of adivination to predict that there would be a quick follow up to the European parliament’s January 15th stealth resolution declaring July 11 genocide remembrance day. Indeed, so there was, in the form of a lightning reaction. Serbian “NGOs” in Belgrade, led by Natasa Kandic, Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, and Sonja Biserko, as if acting on cue, already on the following day urged that the parliament of Serbia follow suit by humbly passing the same resolution. The illustration above is not, of course, an allusion to anybody in particular.           It is clear that most “NGO’s” in Serbia [we may recall Vladimir Putin’s cogent observation that there are no non-government organizations but that the only question is: what government are they working for?], as well as public personalities of the same stripe thought to be capable of influencing attitudes, have jumped on the bandwagon. An example is the “Pescanik” broadcast,[1] run by Svetlana Lukic and Svetlana Vukovic, which is associated with the B-92 media organization. In the broadcast, they strongly criticized Serbian President Boris Tadic for “doing nothing” to support the European parliament resolution. This position was supported by notorious Belgrade lawyer Srdja Popovic on his web site Radna soba, thus adding impetus to the push for Serbian political institutions to quickly submit to the version of the Srebrenica narrative that was recently made somewhat [2] official by their EU counterparts.
      This is obviously the momentum building phase. The lack of any coherent response from the other side is a sad commentary on the disarray in which the Serbian “silent majority” finds itself and the complete lack of focused and articulate leadership which makes it politically invisible while others are deciding its fate and recklessly playing with its honor.
As they say in America, it “does not take a rocket scientist” to discern the objectives of this concerted and multifaceted campaign.
      Its first objective is to use one additional device to cement the “Srebrenica genocide” narrative. ICTY “judgments,” civil suits in western European countries, and now resolutions in respectable sounding “international community” bodies, these are the individual components of a larger strategy to make “Srebrenica genocide” an incontrovertible reality not by factual demonstration or by persuasive argument but by persistent repetition. The parliament of Serbia is being invited to commit moral suicide by succumbing to the pressure to associate itself with the groundless charge of genocide that is being leveled against its nation. A resolution precisely to that effect was tabled by the Cedo Jovanovic—Nenad Canak parliamentary group on January 30, 2009. It should come as no surprise to anyone if the same invitation is soon also extended to their colleagues in the Republic of Srpska.
      The second objective, once the right political climate is created, is to—again, as they say in America—“kick it up a notch”. The EU parliament resolution. and similar measures that EU member-state parliaments will soon be pressured to pass, is but a dress rehearsal. The next step will be an EU-wide measure to legally restrict public discussion of the phony Srebrenica narrative and to make those who question it criminally liable. Actually, Nenad Canak, leader of a microscopic separatist outfit in Vojvodina who enjoys disproportionate media exposure, let the cat out of the bag quite some time ago, in May of 2007. He urged a change in Serbia’s criminal code to make “genocide denial” a criminal offense. [3] He reminded the Serbs that “developed countries which in the past had same experiences as Serbia have already passed legislation to punish denial,” citing pointedly that “Austria recently punished a man who had denied the holocaust,” thus putting his own country on the same level with the willing ex-Nazi satellite, Austria.
      It is, of course, elementary that the truth needs no laws to support it. Only purveyors of falsehood need laws to prevent critical scrutiny of their deceptions. The truth always stands up to examination and study. Those who deny the right to ask questions, have something to hide.
Correct as all that may be, if the deceivers have enough power and the sufficient amount of coercive force—they can get away with it. That is the lesson that the Serbian public and their political leaders must urgently learn.
     What plan do they have to counteract these nefarious initiatives?

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The Pescanik website, www.pescanik.net was taken down by hackers and their radio broadcast on B-92 was disrupted in January, presumably by overzealous opponents. Such tactics, contrary to the values of free speech and unfettered competition of ideas, are to be condemned.

[2] “Somewhat” is the appropriate qualifier at this point, of course, because the EU parliament resolution is a recommendation and has no binding force—yet.

[3] Blic, 28 May, 2007.