BELGRADE, May 29 (Hina) - The Serbian intellectual elite is trying to forget that together with Serbian authorities it sent out armed people who committed crimes in Vukovar, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Srebrenica, and elsewhere, the
coordinator of the Yugoslav Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, Aleksandar Lojpur, said on Wednesday.
BELGRADE, May 29 (Hina) - The Serbian intellectual elite is trying
to forget that together with Serbian authorities it sent out armed
people who committed crimes in Vukovar, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik,
Srebrenica, and elsewhere, the coordinator of the Yugoslav
Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, Aleksandar Lojpur, said
on Wednesday. #L#
"Serbian intellectual elites and the political authorities sent
armed people from here, commanded and supported them through the
media which they controlled, and those people committed crimes like
the destruction of Vukovar, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, the non-selective
killings of civilians and prisoners-of-war like in Srebrenica, the
torture of prisoners in detention camps, forced evictions," Lojpur
said at a round table on the Commission's plans in Belgrade.
Politicians, the intellectual elite and citizens today reluctantly
remember those events "as though they wished to forget that our
citizens did those things," said Lojpur. There are even committees
for the protection of Hague tribunal war crimes indictees, which
creates "an unhealthy public atmosphere in which support is given
to the most despicable criminals," he added.
"I think the collective disinterest in the long-standing suffering
of Sarajevo is the darkest smudge on our conscience," said Lojpur.
He evaluated that the worst crime in Europe after the Warsaw ghetto
was committed in Sarajevo.
Lojpur said the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities were willing to
assume collective liability after Oct. 5, 2000. This, however, was
postponed for some time in the future due to the "unwillingness of
the public" and the possible political damage such an admission
might cause, he explained.
Lojpur said the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation was not
authorised to judge and say if the Serbs were guilty or not "but has
to incite scientific research and dialogue on the conflicts in the
former Yugoslavia." The saying that "everybody has to put one's own
house in order first" should be applied at regional meetings with
colleagues from Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, which would present an
opportunity for everyone to speak about "their" crimes, he said.
"The truth is the only foundation for lasting confidence,
reconciliation with the fact that 'we' were both killers and
victims, as well as reconciliation with neighbouring ethnic-
religious groups whose members 'we' killed, i.e. by whose hand 'we'
suffered," said Lojpur. He noted that the West often viewed the
Serbs as only culprits and not also the victims of recent wars.
Commission member Radmila Nakarada said a delegation of the Dutch
Institute for War Documentation would present its report on
Srebrenica in Belgrade on June 10. The first public testimonies
about Srebrenica should be given in the autumn, she announced,
adding that the one-time president of a similar South African
commission for truth and reconciliation, Alex Borain, would
attend.
(hina) ha sb