Activist Aida Corovic, who was briefly detained after she threw eggs at a mural in downtown Belgrade depicting war criminal Ratko Mladic, told N1 on Wednesday that the Serbian government is still supporting the nationalist politics of the 1990s, but that the country also has its anti-fascists who will prevail in the end.
Corovic was detained alongside another activist, Jelena Jacimovic, on Tuesday. The two peace activists threw the eggs as a protest against the glorification of Ratko Mladic, who was convicted of numerous war crimes, including the 1995 genocide in Bosnia.
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Corovic explained that the controversial mural has been there for the past five or six months.
“First the residents of the building complained, so the young people intervened and painted red drops of blood on Mladic's hands,” she said.
But days later, the red drops disappeared and “it became obvious that police are guarding,” the wall painting she said, stressing that “the tenants have nothing to do with that mural.”
When asked whether the police “picked a side” in the matter, Corovic said that “this regime picked a side a long time ago, it has always been on that side, but last night it did so symbolically.”
She said she heard that Serbia’s Interior Minister, Aleksandar Vulin, laid flowers in front of the mural, and that even if this was not the case, “he showed up there.”
“The regime said: If we were behind the crime, we are proud of the genocide, we would kill again if given the chance,” Corovic said.
However, she noted that, at the same time, “another Belgrade sent a different message: We are not all fascists, we are not admirers of Ratko Mladic, different people with different worldviews live here, we are anti-fascists and we do not give up.”
“That message is crucial to me,” the activist said, adding that she was moved when she saw the crowd that had gathered to support her.
“Those songs sung by young anti-fascist people, I haven’t felt so calm in a long time. That is my Belgrade and my Serbia, which I am proud of. I am sure that there are people like this and we will not give up. We may be a little tired, but I think that the energy awoke yesterday and that we regained our faith that we can win,” she said.
The activist told N1 that the people in power now in Serbia are part of the same system that was in power in the 1990s.
“Of course they will not arrest those who cleaned (the mural), they are their partners,” she said.
“The two of us were so brutally detained, they could have approached us and asked us to move away and we would have done so,” she added.
“They cannot hold it back, they have shown that this is the system that broke up Yugoslavia, which killed in BiH, Croatia, they have not moved a single millimetre away from it,” Corovic said, describing Vucic as a “staunch radical.”
“Of course we will continue with the protests, that was my spontaneous gesture yesterday. We are preparing something for Saturday,” she announced.
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