Unless these retrograde trends are promptly ended
Serbia could be easily facing serious challenges once again. Though
you are not the only one responsible, you are most responsible of
all to counteract the country’s regression and make a clear break
with everything Serbs as nation can hardly be proud of. A noble
gesture by a number one of any state has always been a model of
excellence – a gesture symbolizing your breakup with the past would
only encourage others wishing to do the same but still dreading
public reaction. We believe anyway that you
yourself are not exactly proud of that period in your life. No
matter how people in Serbia treat the Tchetnik movement today that
would not make it less controversial and less questionable to say
the least. Our neighbors abhor it, especially the neo-Tchetnik
movement of 1990s. Many neo-Tchetniks have ended up in the dock,
accused of war crimes: as such they have smeared us all. Neither
Serbia nor you do need such a legacy. Nothing can free us from the
responsibility for the crimes our compatriots have committed. But
the least we can do for ourselves and for others is to call things
by their right names and break up forever with everything that
discredited us worldwide. This implies not a formal – and thus
shallow – apology but a clear-cut and publicized condemnation of
1990s, their protagonists and their warring ideologies.
Last but not least, Mr. President, you said on several occasions you
wished to be a president of all citizens of Serbia, as duty-bound by
the Constitution. But this you cannot be as long as you hold that
“Duke” title: not until tear up its “papers” in public. Numbers of
citizens of Serbia – and not only those standing behind this letter
– would never identify themselves with the Tchetnik movement and
wish not to be represented by its follower. The fact that they have
not given you their vote is not a problem because electorates are
divided in every parliamentary democracy. What is the problem is
that a head of state and a great part of the society disagree on
fundamental values. This is bad for Serbia, for you yourself and for
everyone thinking differently. It is your duty, Mr. President, to
make the first step towards lessening this gap. And you can do it by
renouncing the title that makes you the President of a part of
Serbia only.
Belgrade, February 2013
Alliance of Anti-fascists of Serbia Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Women in
Black Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Group “Monument” President of the Political
Council of the 4th Convention of Vojvodina Zivan Berisavljevic
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights Center for
Cultural Decontamination Fund „Biljana Kovacevic
Vuco“ Independent Journalists’ Association of
Vojvodina Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies |