This is Serbia

Well the party is over and Kosova is returning to work and normal life. Independence has gone well here but there have been serious demonstrations in Serbian areas and in Serbia, including the violent demolition of two Kosovo – Serbia border posts. For me these recent events have brought back to mind some of the themes of the war in 1998 which led to today’s independence.

In 1998 I worked with a colleague, Faton Mikullovc, whose brother, Jeton, is a famous cartoonist who provides a daily satirical cartoon in Kosova’s leading newspaper. Now, after one memorable day working in an area of destroyed villages and witnessing some Serbian police walking away from a burning village with a fuel canister in hand I suggested an idea for a cartoon for Faton to give to his brother. The idea was this; in those times in Kosova it was quiet common to see Serbian nationalist slogans and symbols daubed on the side of houses, especially after a village had been looted and burned, a common one being, in Cyrillic text, “This is Serbia”. My idea was to depict two slobbish Serbian police languishing against the side of a smouldering house, with “This is Serbia” graffiti on the wall behind. One officer turns to his colleague and asks “Branko, if this is Serbia why are we burning it?!”. During the course of the war few Albanian towns or villages escaped this kind of systematic destruction at the hands of the police or paramilitaries. The Serbian police committed a huge crime; in England if someone burned down your house you would immediately call the police, the irony is that in Kosova in 1998 the police would be already on the crime scene, petrol can and matches in hand!

For me it was the most striking of images, one which goes to the heart of the matter, and raises the most obvious question. Everywhere “This is Serbia”, everywhere the Serbian authorities destroying “Serbia”. If it was Serbia, why were they systematically burning it down? Now ten years later the Serbian anti-Kosova independence protestors are proclaiming a new but familiar slogan “Kosovo is Serbia”. Now why, for even one second, should the happily independent citizens of Kosova invite the same Serbian authorities back? Even the sight of Serbian police in Prishtina would be enough to bring back ripples of fear to most people living here that experienced the war. This is what international politicians mean when they say Serbia has lost the moral right to govern Kosova.

And the sad thing is that Serbia, on a collective level, does not appear to be changing. Unfortunately the Serbian state media has hidden, or does not want to tell, what the Serbian police did in Kosova (nor indeed in any other place in ex- Yugoslavia). The public have not been given the facts and not been allowed to deal with what the Serbian state did in their name. Thus there is no opportunity for collective reflection, remorse and, ultimately, reconciliation. It seems to me that Serbia is in the state of wounded pride and reactionary chauvinism that Germany was after World War One and we know from history where that led Europe in the 1930s. Serbia needs to go through the stage of collective remorse and awakening that Germany went through after 1945; only then will Serbia be mature enough to join the family of European nations. This is Serbia.