Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression - Helsinki ...

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
miscasting, that dramatization was reduced to a superficial interpretation of
the play proper. Aside from the official theatres program in 2006, a great
theatre hit on the fringe scene, was Ana Tomovic's dramatization of “Half Life”
written by Filip Vujošević. That play, the most impressive depiction of
devastation left in the wake of Milosevic regime downfall, was brought to life
by players from an off beat group, “Counter Strike” in a tube station, Vuk's
Monument. Highly acclaimed was also dramatization of Bernhard's “Hero’s
Square” (director was Dejan Mijach) in view of its focus on anti-Semitism,
which is also present in this milieu.
In view of the failure of playwrights, directors and other theatre
people to relieve the Serb society of a heavy burden it has been shouldering for
years, it was even less likely that such a feat would be accomplished by
popular culture, despite its continuing, subversive characteristics. However,
those recognized subversive features typical of some local pop groups, notably
“Beogradski sindikat,” were overshadowed by a song, “My best man, I want
us to slaughter,” by the Nis-based rep group, a song openly glorifying
genocide and crimes. We shall now quote verbatim the verses of that song in
order to illustrate the stand of some young people on war criminals:
“Srebrenica, my dear place
I have never been there
But I am attached to it
There we cut Muslim throats
For Serbia and with faith in God,
Srebrenica, the place of the Serb pride,
Thanks to the Serb hero,
There are no more Muslims there
With his knife he slaughtered them smoothly,
For there is only one General Mladić Ratko
That is why, brothers Serbs
We should glorify their names
They cut off heads of Turkish infidels,
Seven thousand or slightly more
Hodja's cry can no longer
be heard,
We destroyed their mosques and minarets
Turned their wives into widows
in black
Let Drina carry the Muslim bones
our ancestors from Gazimestan are
proud of us
When wolves from Trebevic
attack,
Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression
Turks shall remember who the Serbs are
when Serbs assault from
all sides
There will be no more Muslims
This is your punishment
For betraying your people,
You sold the Cross, God
punished you,
You converts, are worse than
Turks,
Slaughter Ratko, slaughter and
torch them,
Mundže, your country is not Bosnia but Turkey,
And Bosnia was and shall remain the Serb land
Finally Serbs shall see the sun,
for you will be judged by
Chetniks on both sides of Drina,
Useless are your Arabs and mujahideen,
They will end like you in
river Drina
Croats no longer help you
Hey, Rašo and Ratko join your folk
you handed Srebrenica to Serb people
Let Drina carry the Muslim bones
Let the bygones, be bygones, for God shall forgive.”
Despite the charges filed against unidentified authors of this song,
judicial bodies, alike in many other cases, engaged in so much feet-dragging,
that the shameful event sank into oblivion. However these verses have quite a
large following, judging by popularity of this song at the fora rallying around
the far-right militants.
Crown jewel of stands of some key protagonists of the Serb musical
scene on the current events was doubtless the New Year's Concert in front of
the National Parliament. It was conceived as a medley of musical genres and
joint performances by pop and folk singers, or as a symbol of accord and
harmony reigning among the Serb people and in Serbia at large. In that spirit
was the misuse of the widow of a war criminal, that is her performance in the
said concert. The same applies to performances of some rock singers, who,
according to the ahead-agreed scenario, threw insults at and demonized the
organizers' political opponents. That “event” best testified to the nature of the
persisting set of values in Serbia.
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