Genocide and Statehood Day in Serbia

Since 2016, when February 15 was legislated to mark a significant holiday in Serbia, there is something amiss in how it is portrayed. This homage to nationalism celebrates the “greatness” of the country and its history, to include honoring its war heroes both past and modern day. The day marks two pivotal events in restoring the nation’s statehood: its revolution to free itself from Ottoman Turk rule in 1804, and the creation of its constitution in 1835.

There is no, nor has there ever been acknowledgement of the genocide it perpetrated against Muslims in Bosnia. No openness or nod toward reconciliation for the role it played in destroying the lives and property of so many who it targeted for eradication from existence. There is only pride for how it has always defended itself and always would, from those who it perceives as obstructing its greatness.

I recently gave a presentation to members of the Islamic Community Center of San Jose in California about my writing and research into the horrible events between 1992 and 1995. The Imam wanted me, as a non-Bosnian Muslim, to share my thoughts about what I had learned through interviewing a family for a new book that I am writing who experienced first-hand, the trauma that befell them in the form of concentration camps, and other means of torment, and torture. After my talk, there were several people who came up to me with tears in their eyes, thanking me for the work I am doing to shed light on the truth; a truth that many of them had lived through, as well.

The Mufti of the Islamic Community of North American Bosniaks (ICNAB) was in attendance, and after my presentation he spoke to the audience. He profoundly stated that “though we will never forget, we are a forgiving people, but we have not yet been asked for forgiveness.” That resonated with me. If Serbia does not acknowledge the genocide against the plethora of evidence and convictions of war criminals with more prosecutions continuing even today, then how can their institutional denial of these crimes shape a path toward forgiveness and reconciliation?

I have read that there are many memorials for fallen military “heroes” in Serbia, but virtually none for victims. In Germany, there are over 2,000 memorials to Jewish victims of the holocaust. Though Germany is now wrestling with how to ensure that its citizens, and newer diverse communities, continue to understand the significance of what its leaders did during the most horrific genocide in human history, it at least is cognizant of the need for conversation that government officials, scholars, journalists, and its people must have.

The denial by Serbia continues to gain momentum worldwide among ultra-nationalists who believe that they are in a struggle to root out invading Muslims whose goal it is to take over the world. This battle, it is said, has been fought since the crusades, on through the Ottoman Empire, and it continues today. Serbia is a model for them in the forms of Milosevic and Karadzic whose plan of genocide was done in the name of preservation of the white Christians of Serbia.

The murderers in the massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand and in Norway over recent years were discovered to have manifestos not only praising Serbia of the 1990s, but claiming to be an extension of that same movement. In an article in BalkanInsight.com on 3/22/19 titled, “Why Serb Nationalism Still Inspires Europe’s Far Right,” Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 50 people in attendance at two mosques in Christchurch subscribed to what is called the “Great Replacement Theory.”

This conspiracy theory posits that Muslim immigration to Western countries is a secret plot to “outbreed” white Christians of European ancestry and thus take over their “homelands.” A peculiar brand of Islamophobia, the article goes on to say, it is rooted in anti-Ottoman sentiment.

Given that this is viewed as justification for the horrific violence it perpetrated on Muslims during the genocide in Bosnia, can one ever expect a request for forgiveness as posed by the Mufti? It will only come when the more moderate voices in the Balkans, other countries in Europe, and the world dispel the conspiracies, and bring Serbian citizenry the truth.

As I write my book, it is my hope that the small role I play in helping others understand that crimes against humanity as woven in paranoid conspiracy theories and manifestos, can only serve to put all of us at risk unless the voices of reason and compassion are allowed to rise above the perverted din. And, I daresay, as numerous governments now edging toward authoritarianism write their own narratives about who the perceived “enemy of the people” is, the world moves closer to buying into those who see Serbian doctrine as righteous.

Jordan Sher, author of Our Neighbors, Their Voices: True Stories of Immigrant Exodus and is currently working on a book chronicling the lives of one surviving family from the Bosnian Genocide. His work can also be found at jordanstevensher.com