BiH Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandar Vranješ said that attempts by international actors to impose what he described as a single “absolute and dogmatic truth about the war that everyone should accept at any cost” have not brought reconciliation in BiH, but have instead deepened existing divisions.
Speaking to Tanjug about the funeral of General Ratko Mladić, Vranješ said that people’s emotions, memories, and attitudes toward individuals they regarded as their protectors cannot be changed through administrative measures or decisions by what he described as a “political court.”
“It was a misconception that someone could program human emotions, program human memory, or tell someone who lost their father that they could change their view of him from a hero to a war criminal. When a child loses a father and has only a photograph, a few memories and things through which they try to preserve his presence, someone believes that a court in The Hague will change that child’s opinion,” Vranješ said.
Everyone should be allowed to live with their own memories and their own truth
According to Vranješ, particularly strong efforts have been made to deny Serbs the right to honor those they regard as their heroes and victims.
He said that the Serb people view the 1990s war in BiH, known in Republika Srpska as the Defensive-Patriotic War, as a struggle for the survival and defense of the Serb people.
“Truth depends on what we believe, and the Serb people believe that the Defensive-Patriotic War that took place in BiH in the 1990s was a highly moral act of defending the Serb people – the same people who, statistically speaking, suffered more than any other people in this region during the 20th century – and that people sought to defend themselves so that such suffering would not happen again,” Vranješ said.
He added that the attitude toward the Army of Republika Srpska, its members, and its casualties forms part of the broader Serb understanding of the war.
Speaking about Ratko Mladić, Vranješ said that for part of the Serb population he is no longer merely a name or historical figure, but a symbol.
“Ratko Mladić is a symbol and, in that sense, carries a particular meaning for all those who found themselves in that situation, who have memories and painful experiences,” Vranješ said.
He argued that attitudes toward wartime events cannot be changed through pressure and sanctions and that, instead of imposing a single interpretation, it would be more productive to allow different peoples to live alongside one another with their own memories.
According to Vranješ, greater progress would have been achieved had international actors encouraged people to live together, side by side, while respecting one another’s different understandings of the past.
Commenting on his attendance at Mladić’s funeral, Vranješ said he went there to pay his respects in an Orthodox Christian setting and to pray for the forgiveness of sins.
He said attendance at the funeral was spontaneous and that no one had come because of any official instruction.
Asked about young people who openly identify with the name of Ratko Mladić, Vranješ said this could be explained by identity and a sense of belonging, as well as defiance arising from decades of attempts to tell people what they should believe.
“When someone spends 30 years imposing something on you that conflicts with your convictions and beliefs, it creates defiance,” he said.
Vranješ added that although he is formally the BiH ambassador, he comes from Republika Srpska and that his political and identity framework is connected to it. He said Republika Srpska carries strong symbolic significance for him, while he primarily views BiH as the constitutional and political framework accepted under the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Serbia has repeatedly extended a good-neighborly hand to the whole of BiH
Vranješ also said that Serbia had repeatedly demonstrated a good-neighborly approach toward the whole of BiH, citing assistance during the coronavirus pandemic, the distribution of vaccines, and the evacuation of BiH citizens on Air Serbia flights.
He argued, however, that Bosniak political representatives had not shown adequate gratitude for those actions.
“Serbia has done everything it could to try to normalize relations and provide assistance wherever possible,” Vranješ concluded.
Source: Glas Srpske
