According to Serbian human rights activist, Sonja Biserko, it is not surprising that authorities in Serbia are protecting a mural dedicated to convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic as the regime is only protecting its long-standing positions.
Biserko, who is the founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, was referring to incidents that took place in Belgrade in the past several days over a mural dedicated to Mladic, who was sentenced to life in prison for numerous war crimes, including the 1995 genocide in Bosnia.
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Police briefly detained two peace activists who threw eggs at the mural, which prompted demonstrations by both anti-fascists and right-wingers in Serbia’s capital.
Biserko said that the regime in Serbia is “defending its starting positions which have been present for a long time,” and noted that there are many more murals like it in Belgrade.
“The regime is defending something that goes back to the 90s,” she said, arguing that those in power in Serbia never abandoned those ideas.
“Only now it is obvious in a new international context when Belgrade estimates that the time has come to realize its goals and is doing it very successfully for now,” she said, noting that the western international community has not been present in the region for a long time.
Biserko argued that this incident, as well as the actions of BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik in recent months which she said are pushing BiH towards disintegration, are part of a “big diplomatic offensive.”
Bosnia is currently in a majort political crisis over an initiative by Dodik, who is also the leader of the ruling party in BiH's Republika Srpska (RS) entity, to roll back reforms which led to the post-war establishment of numerous state institutions, including the army, indirect taxation authority and judicial institutions.
“Milorad Dodik is not alone and I think it is wrong to focus only on him because this is a strategy designed in Belgrade, now strongly supported and aided by Moscow, which is trying to test the West to what extent they will defend the Western Balkans which they see as their sphere of interest,” Biserko said.
According to her, Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, is using the incident regarding the mural to gain support for the election next year.
“And the second goal is to realize the plan regarding BiH, Montenegro and Kosovo, which has been in place for several years. Therefore, the European Union is right to react and criticize Vucic, but unfortunately, they do not react adequately to similar situations that constantly happen,” she said.
Biserko argued that the incident of the mural, as well as the rampant Srebrenica Genocide denial are consequences of Belgrade “never accepting the reality in the region.”
“Belgrade never accepted it, we had a short period of democracy where certain changes took place, but unfortunately all this we have witnessed in the last 10 years and returning to the aspirations of the 90s means rounding off the territory they call the ‘Serb world’ today,” she said, referring to a concept that Serbian Interior Minister, Aleksandar Vulin, has been promoting since recently.
“And this is not only a project of Aleksandar Vucic, but of all political, social and religious elites of Serbia, it is promoted daily through various magazines and publications. We are waiting for the moment for BiH to fall and for Republika Srpska to be annexed. Russia is an important factor in that. They are using Serbia and the RS for their interests in confronting the Western community,” Biserko said.
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