War Criminal or Hero?
Above is the photo published yesterday by Serbian daily “Glas Javnosti” (Voice of the Public), that has caused the uproar both among the “reformers” in Serbia and abroad. I first learned about it from the BBC World, which called it “tasteless” and “insulting.” They didn’t explain why exactly would this particular photo coming from Serbia be more offensive then the similar and worse sort of things coming from the other parts of former Yugoslavia regarding men wanted by the Hague for war crimes.
In its Tuesday edition, Glas Javnosti is reminding its foaming criticizers demanding that the daily be punished for publishing the “offensive” photo that Ivo Sanader, Croatian Prime Minister, for example, defended Ante Gotovina wanted by the Hague Tribunal before the crowd of 150,000 people in 2001. Sanader spoke of the man accused of most grievous war crimes as of Croatian Hero, Croatian Knight and Braveheart.
Neither BBC, nor the “international community” protested the fact that Agim Ceku, who conducted ethnic cleansing of Serbs in both Croatia and Kosovo, and is accused of committing genocide, was handed the position of Kosovo “Prime Minister.” On the contrary, Ceku is welcomed and greeted by the world’s most prominent figures and politicians, including Condoleezza Rice.
The Srebrenica Butcher of Serbs, Bosnian Muslim warlord Naser Oric was euphorically greeted by other Bosnian Muslim butchers, “his fighters,” on his return from the Hague, where he was charged for failing to prevent men under his command to commit gruesome crimes over Serbian civilians (that included roasting-on-spit, impaling and similar).
Another Kosovo Albanian “politician,” accused of ethnic cleansing of Serbs, murder, rape, cruel treatment, destruction of property, etc. during Kosovo war in 1998-1999, Ramush Haradinaj has been allowed to waltz out of Hague Tribunal to prepare his defense in freedom and to engage in Kosovo politics while waiting for the start of his trial. UN Mission in Kosovo thought this decision by the Kangaroo Court is “beneficial for Kosovo stability.”
Can you imagine Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić being elected Prime Minister, received by the State Department and allowed to take part in the political life of Republika Srpska, backed by the UN officials claiming this will help stabilize Bosnia? Why not? If we are all equal in the eyes of law and presumed innocent until proven guilty, then General Mladić should be treated with the same respect afforded to Croatian, Bosnian and Albanian Muslim “heroes.”
However, some are obviously more equal then others. Therefore, the 24 year old Serbian officer Žarko Stojanović shown saluting General Mladić on the photo has been suspended and removed from his unit and Glas Javnosti is facing the lawsuit for publishing the photo.
So much for “freedom and democracy” Serbs enjoy now that a “dictator” Slobodan Milošević is out of the way.