[ALBSA-Info] Reactions in Serbia on Milosevic's trial

[Agron Alibali]

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL Balkan Report
Vol. 6, No. 10, 22 February 2002

SERBIAN ANALYSTS: SERBS A LONG WAY FROM RECONCILIATION WITH THEIR
PAST. Television stations across Serbia have been broadcasting former
Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's trial at the
UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic says the indictments
against him for genocide and crimes against humanity are built on
Western propaganda directed against the Serbian nation.
Milosevic's successor as Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica,
has also denounced the trial as hypocrisy (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12,
13, 14, 15, and 19 February 2002).
>From government buildings to coffeehouses, Serbs from every
walk of life have been watching live broadcasts of the trial. Indeed,
Milosevic's opening statements -- in which he attacked the
legitimacy of the war crimes tribunal, NATO, and the policies of
Western countries -- often seemed to be directed more at his
supporters back home, as Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic noted.
As Milosevic put it: "There are some people who still haven't
realized the truth today, that the war on the territory of the former
Yugoslavia is the result of the will and the interest of others --
the great Western powers."
Many analysts says Milosevic's defense strategy -- to
deny responsibility for any war crimes and to shift the blame for
Yugoslavia's bloody breakup onto the West -- resonates with many
Serbs.
Natasa Novakovic is a legal expert at the Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights for Serbia in Belgrade. Novakovic has been promoting
a re-examination of the recent past among Serbs. She says many still
believe that Serbs had nothing to do with the war crimes committed in
Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosova. "[Reconciliation with the past] is one
of the biggest challenges. And unfortunately, the situation is not
that good. This trial has shown that very explicitly. There are a lot
of negative reactions to this trial in Serbia. Milosevic used a lot
of popular tactics. He tried to attack The Hague tribunal, or NATO
forces, or Western countries, which is a tactic that [resonates] with
the domestic public in Serbia."
Novakovic says Milosevic, at the trial, is using similar
rhetoric to that which he used during his 13 years in power. She says
many Serbs still do not realize they are being manipulated.
According to a recent poll, less than half the population of
Serbia believes the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia, even took
place. The charge of genocide against Milosevic is based in part on
those murders, in which Bosnian Serb troops reportedly slaughtered
some 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Last year, angry Serbs protested at a
local television station when it aired an acclaimed foreign
documentary on the topic.
The same poll found that half of all Serbs could not name a
single war crime allegedly committed by Serbian forces in Croatia,
Bosnia, or Kosova, but that they could name at least three crimes
allegedly committed against Serb civilians by other forces.
The poll also found that many Serbs still consider former
Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic --
the two wartime leaders now most wanted by the tribunal -- as the two
"greatest defenders of the Serb nation."
Novakovic says domestic outrage over the charges against
Milosevic shows that Serbs are still seeking refuge in blame and
denial: "Even now, they don't want to see what happened. In a
way, this is [yet] another crime. Not to say that the crime [has
been] committed by [the] Serbian people [as a whole]. But it is crime
to close their eyes again in [the face] of all of this [tragedy] that
happened on this territory -- and not only the territory of Serbia,
but especially in Bosnia and Croatia. This is something we have to
deal with if we want to [have a] clear or positive future. That's
for sure."
Yet Serbian citizens have few to lead them in an active
examination of the past. For now, the Serbian media, although
broadcasting the trial, remain hesitant to analyze the veracity of
Milosevic's arguments.
On the political front, Serbs see the man who ousted
Milosevic -- President Kostunica -- openly denouncing the trial as a
"hypocrisy" based on "strange nonsense." Serbian Prime Minister
Djindjic, who sent Milosevic to The Hague last year, has said little
on the trial so far.
In part, Novakovic says, this reluctance stems from the
simple fear of losing power in Serbia. "It is political suicide for
political parties at this moment to speak openly of war crimes and
things that happened in the past. Especially because Milosevic is on
television every day. He is [still] part of the story."
Many analysts say one of the best examples of the
government's unwillingness to lead a proper examination of the
past is its failure to properly investigate the discovery of Albanian
bodies in mass graves near Belgrade. The find last year rocked
Serbian public opinion. For the first time, the evidence of war
crimes was literally in Serbia's backyard. But since the
discovery, almost no progress has been made in the investigation,
which is still being classified as a criminal case, as opposed to a
war-related one.
Vladimir Goati, a political scientist at the University of
Belgrade, says the lack of progress made in the investigation only
highlights why Milosevic must be tried at The Hague and not in a
Yugoslav court, as many Serbs have demanded.
Goati says the Yugoslav judiciary is neither able nor ready
to try war crimes cases, and he believes there is no political
support for this type of examination. "People do not like to be
informed of unpleasant information.... In Serbia, for more than a
decade, the official media under Mr. Milosevic tried to avoid these
issues. And after that, after the change and fall of
[Milosevic's] regime more than a year and a half ago, the media
have tried to inform much more than in the previous days, but [still]
not so much. Many people still don't know. Many people are [only]
aware that something bad has happened."
Goati nonetheless remains hopeful the Milosevic trial will
prompt Serbs to think about their past. He says the duration of the
trial -- which is expected to last at least two years -- will provide
ample opportunity for Serbs to look at the evidence and testimony in
a new way. "The dynamic of these [proceedings] will attract public
opinion. There will be different, new information, new data
[presented to the public]. Until now, Serbian citizens [have learned]
very little about the recent history of Serbia and Yugoslavia. When I
speak about recent history, I mean the 1990s."
Although the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del
Ponte, has said repeatedly that Milosevic alone is on trial, and not
the Serbian people, analysts like Novakovic say that Serbs must
acknowledge that they, too, share the blame. "We have to meet the
past and to face it. Milosevic and his companions will be responsible
for the individual crimes they committed. But then again, the Serbian
people voted for him [repeatedly during] the past 10 years. So we
have to ask [ourselves] for the first time: Was this is our choice --
to support all this that happened in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosova? This
[question] is just the first step. But I think we have a long way to
go to before we can ask even that." (Alexandra Poolos)


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