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Commentary

A Land Where War Criminals Are Heroes

Biljana Plavsic arrives in Belgrade

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By Nenad Pejic

October 31, 2009

A government plane was waiting to carry the released convict from prison to a hero’s welcome in Belgrade. Journalists clustered around her, eager for any statement. Not bad for a convicted war criminal returning home.

But that’s exactly what happened when the former president of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, Biljana Plavsic, was released after serving seven years in a Swedish prison.

At a session of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in October 2002, Plavsic became the highest-ranking official of the former Yugoslavia to admit responsibility for atrocities committed during the 1990s wars, and she accepted her 11-year sentence as just.

So one might be surprised to see the 79-year-old now hailed as a hero by fellow Serbs as she returns to the region. But it isn’t surprising to people who live in the Balkans.

In 2007, officials and media in Serbia and Republika Srpska celebrated when the International Court of Justice ruled that Serbia was “not guilty” of genocide in Srebrenica, but was “responsible” for failing to stop it. Predictably, Serbs emphasized the “not guilty” part and conveniently forgot about the “responsible” bit.

Plavsic was not officially welcomed home by the Serbian government not because of what she had done, but because doing so would have harmed Serbia’s international reputation

Serbian leaders still treat the Balkans wars as a series of civil wars and ignore the role played by Belgrade in fomenting them. The few court cases concerning war crimes that do come up focus only on those who carried out the crimes and leave aside questions about who ordered them and what policies undergirded them.

People generally know what soldiers in Serbian uniforms did at Srebrenica and that Belgrade armed, fed, and paid them, but they do not know the whole truth of why Belgrade did these things.

Serbian officials speak politely about respecting the territorial integrity of neighboring Bosnia, but they pursue policies -- including staunch support for Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik -- that can only lead to Bosnia’s dissolution.

The Serbian secret services provided a false identity to former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that allowed him to hide from justice for years. In March, deputies in the Serbian parliament stood and applauded when the speaker wished former Bosnian Serb military commander and indicted war criminal (and fugitive) Ratko Mladic a happy birthday.

'State Of Denial'

Serbia has been -- and continues to be -- in a state of denial about the 1990s wars for more than a decade. When Plavsic returned home this week, the media generally downplayed the story in order not to damage Serbia’s political interests.

But they did more than that -- they failed to remind audiences that Plavsic was convicted of crimes against humanity and that she had just completed serving a prison sentence for that conviction. They did not report that she pleaded guilty to the charge against her and that she admitted responsibility for war crimes. And, of course, there were no reports about the crimes she confessed guilt about.

Serbian Labor and Social Affairs Minister Rasim Ljajic explained to journalists that Plavsic was not officially welcomed home by the Serbian government not because of what she had done, but because doing so would have harmed Serbia’s international reputation. After all, the head of the ICTY is due in Belgrade soon.

But Dodik has no need to hide his feelings or worry about what the international community thinks. He has made scores of inflammatory, aggressive statements in the recent past and the international community has ignored them all.

So he welcomed Plavsic home as hero, an interpretation duly followed by all the media in Banja Luka. One local summed up the general attitude, saying, “She sacrificed herself for the Serbs.”

Plavsic is not only a hero in Republika Srpska, she is a victim as well. Again, there were no reports about the crimes she committed or the sufferings her decisions caused or her ICTY testimony that helped the court convict other war criminals. By welcoming Plavsic, Dodik has intensified the ethnic divisions in Bosnia and moved closer to securing victory for himself in the next elections.

And he did not embrace Plavsic because he has, as he said, "a moral obligation" to do so. He welcomed her because he supports the policies that she helped formulate before and during the war. The aggressive rhetoric of the prewar period is heard again today. Ethnicity and obedience were the main criteria for political success in Plavsic’s day, and that remains true of Republika Srpska today.

Plavsic pursued policies intended to break up Bosnia, and that is Dodik’s policy today. Ethnic hatred was the main political tool then and it is now. The two politicians share goals and they share methods. It would make more sense to speak of Dodik’s "immoral obligation" to Plavsic.

Nenad Pejic is associate director of broadcasting for RFE/RL. The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

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Comment Sorting

Comments page of 3

by: Serbo-Canadian from Macau

October 31, 2009 14:43

What exactly "hero’s welcome in Belgrade" is this pamphlet referring to? How many people participated in this "hero's welcome"? A single man Dodik and a few paid bodyguards? Hardly befitting a "hero".

And who exactly are those Plavsic's "fellow Serbs" in "So one might be surprised to see the 79-year-old now hailed as a hero by fellow Serbs as she returns to the region. But it isn’t surprising to people who live in the Balkans"?

Can the pamphletist Pejic quote some of those phantom "fellow Serbs" and give us their names? -- No, because there aren't any. -- Ach, so!

Now it is understandable that individuals known for their vitriolic Serbophobia over the course of the last 2 decades put this hate mongering nonsense.

But I cannot but wonder why a radio that at least in the past used to purport to be an objective source stoop so law as to carrying this kind of pathetic lying bull. Must be some reason. Is it the global econ crisis that makes people sell out their ideals?

by: oupos from: Vienna

October 31, 2009 14:50

One should see also the other side, which the author does not tell us: when convicted Muslim war criminal Naser Oric came back to Bosnia after 2 years imprisonment in The Hague, Sarajevo granted him a hero's welcome. How shall reconciliation take place, if each side only has their "official" truth, if each side only wants to find fault with the other while eculping its own criminals?

by: trollbuster from: chicago

October 31, 2009 16:44

more anti-Serb garbage from a likely source.

he's comparatively mute about the non-serb goons in places like bosnia and Kosovo.

rfe/rl continues to flunk in providing balanced commentary.

by: Pau from: Barcelona

October 31, 2009 19:35

I think that this headline is biased: most of the war criminals are usually considered heroes for some of their countrymen. It is the same in every war and in every country. I could tell you hundreds of examples. Read more history, please.

by: no slave to West from: Beograd

October 31, 2009 20:08

Nenad Pejic continues to fuel the hatred towards Serbs and Serbia. This is nothing new from RFE (where "free" becomes a real question). One good thing these articles do is to show to us Serbs that we have to continue path towards freedom from USA propaganda with more aggressiveness and determination then ever before. For that I thank Mr. Pejic and hope that his continued anti Serbian hysteria will help unify Serbs everywhere. Republic of Srpska and their upcoming independence will be the best answer to what Mr. Pejic and likes are trying to impose on Serbs in the Balkans.

by: Fil from: London

October 31, 2009 20:10

Nobody cares about Biljka. She is an old woman who did a stretch in a swedish prison for whatever reason. Reading Mr Pejics pamphlet one could get the impression that she was given a honorary guard and 100,000 people were waiting for her at the airport. As if Serbia won the Worldcup and the serbian team landed at BG Airport. Furthermore, the hardcore serbian nationalists consider her a traitor and Minister Rasim Ljajic, who according to Pejic, elaborates the state's doctrine, is a muslim himself. Ljajic for one cannot be suspected of harbouring feelings of affection for Biljka. I cannot but get the impression that Mr Pejic is running out of issues to write about, hence he has to blow things out of proportion. After all, the wars of the 1990's fed him and still feed him - just. Time to find a new subject, Neso. Perhaps alternative medicine? (Sun Tzu: "Learn from your enemy"?)

by: Mile from: USA

October 31, 2009 20:38

Who is this Nenad Pejic? Cheep reporting, cheep article, cheep journalism. Same old anti-serbian propaganda, same old second class writing ... shame on Radio Free Europe to publish this garbage.

by: Johnny Boy from: Canada

November 01, 2009 10:03

I agree with one of the comments here when i say that not a single article was constructed like this to describe the acquittal of Naser Oric the muslim butcher of Serbian villages in Srebrenica. Also, not a single mention of Agim Cheku and Hashim Tachi, two hardcore criminals and war-criminals being Prime Ministers of Kosovo...

This is a transparent and classic example of Serb bashing, I ask Mr. Pejic, judging by his last name, if he would be so critical of Croatians glorifying that butcher Ante Gotovina... any child can find internet pictures of people kissing his pictures on various rallies.

Also, let me remind you that Croatia and Bosnia belong to the "Balkans" as well, and that unlike Croatia and Bosnia, Serbia was the first to give boot to their wartime presidents and governments. As far as i know, Stipe Mesic and Haris Silajdzic are still alive, kicking and more powerful than ever.

So before 1990's style Serb bashing starts... lets grow up and consider some facts...

by: Abdul Majid

November 01, 2009 16:49

All these hateful messages from serbofascists the world all over make me wish these people were for ONLY ONE DAY exposed to what the inhabiontanst of Sarajevo and Srebrenica were, and if they ever feel they must raise a hand against the Bosniaks that they, and that horrible woman who is their national heroine, fall into the Bosniaks' hands, and are swiftly and radically dealt with. Like Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were. So you have something against Rasim Ljajic? and what do you propose for him? Shooting him? Drawing and quartering him? Forcing him to be baptized?
I consider myself a veray moderate Muslim. I have condemned the attempts of Sept. 11th and I refuse amnd reject the stone-age Islamism of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, or the clerical-fascist Ahmadinejad regime. But to the Islamophobes I am just dangerous evil vermin that has no right to live and must be rooted out, or chased away! With all their anti-Muslim and anti-Bosniak rant they spit on the graves of the Bosniaks who were murdered in the name of Serbdom, and spit into the faces of the survivors. Until now, I have refused to subscribe to the viewpoint "SRBE NA VRBE!", but the more of those people show themselves as declared and avowed enemies of Muslims I will have to reconsider on that! In any case, if that is what Serbs think, I don't want ANYTHING to have to do with them, and the civilized world, and certainly ALL Muslim countries should no longer let themselves be bamboozled by them, and cut off all diplomatic and commercial relationships with them. Leave them alone with their Russian friends who will too forsake them if they feel that's advantageous.

by: Antifascist

November 02, 2009 00:32

Well, probably there are no more sadist, sociopath and evil people among the Serbs than among any other nation or people on Earth. After all, they are only human beings too. But judging from the comments by Serbs, or by supporters of Greater Serbia I read on this and other web pages concerning themselves with the theme, or whenever the man on the street in Banja Luka, Zvornik or Belgrade is asked about Bonsia and Bosniaks by a TV team, their statements are often flabbergasting. One guy had the nerve to reply to a Bosniak who wrote how he had survived a Serb concentration camp but lost most of his family and relatives, that it was all lies and that he made it all up, and that the the Serbs were justified to fight and exterminate the Bosniaks. To me, that is spitting in the face of that man, and spitting on the graves of his murdered relatives. It is unacceptable behavior. Now since it is not possible that the Serbs have an innate, inherited tendency towards sociopathy (buit I find their death-worship a bit, er, disturbing); for then I would think exactly as Biljana Plavsic does (or Trofim Lysenko), adn I don't want to do that. No, it is just that in serbia, xenophobic, bigot, racist, anti-Muslim (I will not say Islamophobic, teh correct term is anti-Muslim, or here anti-Bosniaks) behavior and violence is perfectly noermal and accepted because it has suited all the Serb governments from the Karadjordjevic house to Boris Tadic (withthe possible exception of Zoran Djindjic, but he was murdered shortly before he intended to hand over Mladic) to do so. No matter what the Turks may have done to Serbs 500 to 122 years ago, this is no justification for the genocidal crusade they unleashed against the Bosniaks. It is also unjustt o say "All Bosniaks and all Croats were Ustase and Serb-murderers" because it is simply not true and to hold one sole people for collectively guilty is morally rotten. Yet, if I say "the Serbs are declared enemies of the Bosniaks and dream only of wiping them out or subduing them" this is justified. Because it reflects only the government policies and the ingrained tradition and opinion of a majority of the Serb people, and of the diaspora Serbs, especially those living in Australia, Canada , USA. There are decent Serbs who are not like that. Aleksa Santic was one, Cedomir Jovanovic is one; General Jovan Divjak is one; even though today, he would object at being called Serb and refers to himself as Bosnian. All those who distance themselves from the anti-Bosniak genocidal crusade are such. Too bad these are so few and far in between.