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INFO   :::  Press Release - PAGE 2 > A Brutal Campaign Against the Play “Srebrenica. When We, the Killed, Rise Up”

 

A Brutal Campaign Against the Play “Srebrenica. When We, the Killed, Rise Up”

Belgrade, 6 October 2020

 

 

The actors in the play “Srebrenica. When We, the Killed, Rise Up” and its author Zlatko Paković have been exposed to brutal threats for days, after its premiere at the Centre for Cultural Decontamination on 24 September 2020. As the producer of this play, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia urges the relevant authorities to react and calls on the critically-minded public, theatres and other cultural institutions to denounce such reactions to the attempts to speak about crime.

The aim of these cruel and vulgar threats is to prevent the further performance of this play in Serbia. It is attempted to silence the critically-minded part of the society that speaks about the most traumatic processes and events in the recent history of this region, especially the historical and political responsibility of Serb intellectual elites for the war and crimes against the Bosniak population, including the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This play with which the Helsinki Committee marked 25 years since the Srebrenica genocide is not ceremonial in nature; instead, it speaks about the essence of crime. Through his artistic intervention, author Zlatko Paković reveals ideological, psychological and lucrative mechanisms that enabled the crime of genocide and now deny it. It is the first theatre play in Serbia that puts one of the most important moral issues for the society in Serbia at the epicentre – the recognition of the Srebrenica genocide.

On 11 July 2019, the Helsinki Committee produced and facilitated the performance “An Introduction to the Play: Srebrenica. When We, the Killed, Rise Up”. The right-wing organizations and activists broke into the hall of the Kolarac Endowment, which was the only one to receive us under commercial terms, and tried to prevent this performance. Therefore, this year we contacted the police before the performance of the play in order to warn them of possible incidents and ensure uninterrupted performance. The fact that, due to our experience and the experience of other organizations staging similar events, we were forced to contact the police shows that in this country the freedom of artistic expression does not apply to authors dealing with the most important social issues.

The play was created and performed in the atmosphere marked by Serbia’s conspicuous disregard for its obligation to take a stand on the genocide in Srebrenica in accordance with the moral and ethical principles and judgments of international courts. Serbian courts refuse to punish the perpetrators of the crime of genocide and ensure the lasting social memory of those killed and missing. The authorities and, in particular, intellectual elites prevent the attempts to expose all stages and all participants in inciting, instigating, preparing, encouraging, facfilitating and committing genocide.The political protection of those responsible for the war and crimes is becoming increasingly stronger.

During 2019, the Helsinki Committee tried to establish cooperation with all Belgrade’s theatres, so that the play could performed in one of the theatres financed from the public budget. This would provide an incentive for the process of relieving future generations from the burden of political and historical responsibility. However, we received negative responses from all theatres, which contained various banal excuses such as the renovation of the hall and lack of air conditioning.

Despite the obvious obstructions, the Helsinki Committee will do its best to provide conditions for the performance of this play and will call again on theatres in Serbian cities to enable it. We expect the relevant authorities, police, prosecutor’s offices and courts to prevent any threat to the safety of the author of this play and its performers.

The play will be streamed online on Thursday, 8 October 2020 on the YouTube Channel of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmFDdoNBegs

 

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