[LINK] We never learn

[rfmcdonald]

An excerpt from a translated article in the Serbian press by human-rights activist Sonia Biserko.

The commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre provided an occasion for the world to reaffirm its position in regard to this horrible crime, as well as to the genocidal Serb policy in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a whole. Belgrade has sought to ‘redefine’ the crime by denial, or by attempts to ‘balance’ it with Serb casualties. This involved falsifying the date of the 1993 massacre of Serbs at Bratunac, which came in response to an earlier crime committed by Serbs against Muslims. Accordingly on 12 July this year the Serb nationalists commemorated 3,000 Serbs killed or missing during the whole war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in an obvious desire to come close to the figure for Srebrenica. This manipulation and moral crassness served only to confirm the cold-heartedness of the Serbian elite.

Numerous incidents occurring in Belgrade - such as the meeting at the Belgrade University law faculty on ‘The liberation of Srebrenica’; the video tape of the murder of six young men from Srebrenica (shown at The Hague Tribunal and later on Serbian TV); and numerous demonstrations organised by eight NGOs with a whole number of other bodies - have stirred up the political scene in Serbia. For it had not been expected that the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre would provoke quite such worldwide attention, focussed on the crime’s moral aspects. Serb nationalists had overlooked the fact that Europe is defending its own values in Srebrenica, and that time has obliged it to admit its errors and passivity with respect to Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is because Srebrenica brought into question its own ethical, political and military credibility. This has never been understood in Serbia, where anger at the unveiling of Serbian unwillingness to confront Srebrenica came to be directed at the eight NGOs, or more precisely at the women who head them.

This is sad. This is also why Chomsky's abetting of Diana Johnstone's willful misreading of the situation is so dangerous. More on both later.