BELGRADE. Vračar is a residential neighborhood in the center of Belgrade, an area famous for its cultural climate, rich in history and traditions. The neighborhood has always attracted the Belgrade elite, who have chosen it as a place to live and to live. Writers, artists, professors have lived there and still today you can meet many public figures on the street. Vračar is also famous for hosting the Orthodox Sveti Sava temple – with its height of over 70 meters it is the largest in the world – then the foundation of the writer Desanka Maksimović and the museum of Nikola Tesla, the greatest Serbian scientist, who passed to history for having developed the first induction motor of alternating energy.
“We are grateful to your mother”
For a few months, a mural in honor of former Serbian general Ratko Mladić has appeared on the side of a residential building located in one of the most beautiful streets of Vračar, Njegoševa Street. Yes, he himself, the war criminal who last June was sentenced to life in prison by the International Tribunal in The Hague for the Srebrenica genocide and for his role in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. The mural depicts Mladić in a Republika Srpska army cap while saluting. The image is accompanied by the phrase: “General, we are grateful to your mother”. On the image there is also the emblem of Partizan, the Serbian football team, and before the former Yugoslavia, which among its founders also counted the first president of independent Croatia, Franjo Tuđman. Partizan’s coat of arms can also be seen on other graffiti around it, flanked by nationalist writings, which suggests that the general’s mural was also designed by ultra-right groups, that is, by fans of the Serbian team.
“Everyone is afraid”
For the far-right groups, Mladić remains a hero who opposed the pressure of the Muslim populations in the Balkans. For all the others, however, the former general is a war criminal who should not be remembered in the center of Belgrade nor be depicted or celebrated on the walls of the city. Among the activists who want to remove the mural and the right-wing exponents who defend and clean it, there are also the tenants of the building on Njegoševa Street, who have filed a complaint asking for it to be removed. Bizarrely, they were instead delivered an order from the municipal police to remove the mural. “We tried in every possible way to hire a company to take care of the work, but no one wanted to take care of it, they are all scared for the safety of their workers,” explains Aleksandra Blagojević, the building manager. Stefan, one of the tenants of the building at 38 Njegoseva Street, says he saw five boys drawing Mladić’s mural on the facade. But he too got scared: he didn’t have time to get close to the mural that some guys joined him saying never to go near it again.
The gesture of Aida and Jelena
On November 9, during the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism, the tension between supporters and opponents of the mural reached its peak. The non-governmental organization “Youth Initiative for Human Rights” had in fact announced that it would permanently cover the mural, but the garrison at the last was officially banned by the Interior Ministry Aleksandar Vulin, for security reasons. Despite the bans, two activists, Aida Ćorović and Jelena Jaćimović, showed up anyway, and in protest, unable to remove the mural, threw eggs at it. The two women were threatened by some young people who were there, and soon after they were stopped and arrested. Also witnessing the scene was the Serbian writer and intellectual Vladimir Arsenijević, who tried to defend the activists, but failed to prevent their arrest. “It is unacceptable that in the capital of a formally democratic state, a man is celebrated who is directly responsible for the deaths of 8,500 innocent civilians. Mladić’s mural is no longer a matter of opinion, but it is something that exists, ”Arsenijević said. “Unfortunately, the police were very ready when it came to arresting two activists and neutralizing their symbolic protest action, but not so much interventionist in blocking those who protect that mural,” she added.
“The younger ones don’t know”
On the same day, the mural was cleaned up. Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin confirmed that the police were there to prevent the clashes and described the event as a demonstration “animated by bad intentions”, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić declared that the “performance” activists have damaged Serbia’s image by throwing eggs. Since that day, the young people who protect the mural are always there, to guard the image of their hero and to insult anyone who tries to approach. Milan Antonijević, director of the Open Society Foundation Serbia, explains that the question, unfortunately, goes beyond the dispute over the mural, and shows the existence, in contemporary Serbia, of an entire generation born after the war that is unaware of the facts about the Srebrenica genocide and the Bosnian war. “It is necessary to come to terms with our past and explain the facts and the truth to young people – said Antonijević – Also for this reason I hope that the mural will be removed as soon as possible”.
The international reaction
In recent weeks, those responsible for monitoring Serbia for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Piero Fassino and Ian Liddell-Grainger, have sent an appeal asking the Serbian authorities to remove the mural of Ratko Mladic in Belgrade and take a firm position against the celebration of war criminals. “A democratic society cannot live in denial of war crimes and with a culture of hatred and impunity,” said the two parliamentarians. Meanwhile, not far from the Mladić mural, on the other side of the building, another one dedicated to Draža Mihailović, leader of the Chetnik movement during the Second World War and another hero for the nationalist Serbs, has appeared. As the mural has now become a symbol, in recent weeks, more murals and graffiti for Mladić have appeared around the city, to which some activists have responded by painting the “flower of Srebrenica” on various buildings in the city to commemorate the date. of 11 July 1995, internationally recognized as Memorial Day for the Srebrenica genocide. A week ago, the municipality of Vračar issued a decree ordering the removal of the mural. They painted it white, but the paint didn’t last long. On the same day, the mural was restored to its original state for the umpteenth time.
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