Interview with the
former President of the Serbia Republic Radovan Karadzic.
The whole world knows you as a politician, the former President of
the Serbian Republic and a doctor of Psychiatry, but it is only here in Russia that You
have been awarded the much-touted Mikhail Sholokhov literary prize, even though Your
writings have on many occasions been published in the former Yugoslavia and in modern-day
Serbia alike. A perfect case of a "prophet not recognized in his own land?"
I would like to think that my involvement in politics did not influence
the jury to award the Mikhail Sholokhov prize. In any event, I am extremely grateful to
have received this award. Very few poets are understood by the broad public. People don't
have time and incentive to read subtle things because everyday life is very difficult. I
don't think that I am more prophetic than any other human being but I may be listening
more often to my soul. This is available to everyone. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that
those who had eyes and ears would see and hear. Mohammed has determined that prayers are
obligatory five times per day. I would advocate every human being to afford themselves as
many "Saint Moments" as they need. Everyone would then be able to connect one's
own depths with heavenly heights. And then everyone can see.
There is in the "Vseosen" book of verses, published in
Russian in 2004, a poem called "Sarajevo". We believe that just about any
Sarajevo resident - whether Serb, Croat or Muslim - can be easily identified with the
poem's main character. In the "Situation" play You also describe Bosnia as
"Serbian, Croatian and Muslim." Right now You are being accused of genocide. How
would Your famous colleague, Sigmund Freud, have characterized a situation like this?
This poem was written 30 years ago. It didn't envisage the war, but
rather general determination of our existence. We suffered not only earthquakes and
industrial fog and smoke, but in the more profound sense the deterioration of human
existence. The great Serbian writer Petar Kocic's character, David Strbac, said that
Bosnia is neither David's, nor the Emperor's, nor Spahija's. The Communists used to say
Bosnia is all Serbian, Croatian and Muslim. It seems to me that David Strbac was more
correct. Then, and now, it is much easier to say what Bosnia is not, than to say what
Bosnia is. As for the accusations against me, I suspect Sigmund Freud would respond to
those who are accusing me to "take your projections back to you."
Your comic play "Situation" recently came out in Russian.
One of its characters admits he feels no love for "humanists". Who do You mean
by "humanists"?
By humanists I mean those who profess to act in the best interests of
all of us. A great Russian poet said to the effect that, "we are in talons of the
humanists". The easiest way to deceive the world is to do terrible things in the name
of humanity. Remember how NATO labeled their bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 as
Operation Merciful Angel. Nowadays, there are dangerous humanists all over the world
making new nations, dictating cultures and creating political correctness. But the
humanist phenomenon merits a new Sigmund Freud to analyze it, because it is completely
false. The character in "Situation" implied humanists do to human beings what
vegetarians do to vegetables.
Has Your perception of European values changed ever since, especially
in the wake of the recent acknowledgement by Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Nicholas
Sarkozy of the failure of the so-called "multiculturalism" concept"?
My perception of European values have not changed, because I think basic
European values are eternal. As are all authentic values. But there is always the other
side of the coin. I am not talking of the great villains from the past that used to burn
Europe down. I am talking about a prevalence of those who are engineering nations and
cultures. The great former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur has written a book
reaffirming that nation is a necessary framework for freedom, democracy, and above all for
specific culture, as would do Mallraux. Those who would like us to be de-culturated - to
destroy the richness and diversity of cultures - and be a mass of individuals-spenders
instead of nations, would be destroying valuable resources in the same way that those who
oppose biodiversity can destroy spices. If our creator wanted us to be homogeneous he
would have easily made us that way. Europe's multiculturalism is threatened only by those
who came to Europe to change it, rather than to benefit from it. But the main concern of
mine is that the Serbian people may join the European Union at the moment it starts to
lose its basic values and end in a sort of irreversible decadence, since it has already
lost a lot of its spirituality, the European wealth party originates from the colonial
times that are gone forever, and the Christian spirituality is the greatest opportunity.
Without the supra-natural bread we will all suffer an endless hunger. |
