KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Saturday, Jun 03, 2023

Serbia still hasn't come to terms with the 1999 NATO bombing campaign

Serbia still hasn't come to terms with the 1999 NATO bombing campaign

No other event in modern Serbian history brings more Serbs together than the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.

The two-and-a-half-month operation involving major air strikes undoubtedly represents an experience of collective and personal trauma.

And every 24 March — the day the air raids to stop another war-crime-riddled campaign by strongman leader Slobodan Milošević began — Serbs relive their traumas of the last 20 and so years.

Yet, the majority of people in Serbia today see themselves as the only victims of what is referred to as NATO aggression, not intervention.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who were the sole target of Milošević's forces in Serbia's then-province, either do not exist in this narrative, or are perceived as murderous, subhuman puppets of the West.

As this narrative of self-victimisation grew over the years, the space for reflection completely shrank, and the NATO military intervention itself is now viewed as a goal in its own right — an isolated event whose only purpose was to target Serbia and its people.

"This is an integral part of the conspiracy theory that is at the root of the lasting legacy of Milošević’s regime: the West has been out to get Serbia and Serbs in general for centuries."

Yugoslav Army forces patrol the destroyed military headquarters in downtown Belgrade, May 1999


It wasn’t the result of the systematic policy of repression and disenfranchisement of Kosovar Albanians that had been going on since the end of the 1980s, started by Milošević, one-sidedly diminishing the political autonomy of the province under the control of Belgrade, that ended up in bloodshed.

Not at all. It’s as if the US and the collective West made a secret plan to intervene militarily against the rump Yugoslavia comprising Serbia and Montenegro at the time and invented a reason for it instead.

This is an integral part of the conspiracy theory that is at the root of the lasting legacy of Milošević’s regime: the West has been out to get Serbia and Serbs in general for centuries.

Serbia belongs in Europe, but first, it has to overcome the barriers it built itself


The truth is, however, that there is no concrete historical obstacle or divide that stands in the way of cooperation and even integration of Serbia with the rest of Europe, to which it clearly belongs.

Milošević’s lust for unlimited power, his support for the wars which raged across the former Yugoslav republics, and his rejection of democracy and an open market economy are what built the wall that still separates Serbia from Europe.

It is an artificial barrier constructed by Belgrade’s own erroneous and criminal policies.

"In the end, the type of black-and-white thinking typical of populists everywhere has denied Serbia a shot at a complete catharsis."


Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic gives a speech announcing the arrest of alleged anti-Serbian ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo, 28 February 1989


While these particular policies ended by 2000 and the removal of Milošević from power by massive protests that saw him end up in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, the narratives his regime hung on to survive to this day.

In fact, they were actively reconstructed and expanded when Serbia’s new undisputed populist leader, Aleksandar Vučić, came to power in 2012.

While Vučić was careful not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor and engage in direct conflict with the democratic world — he even facilitated cooperation with the EU and NATO alike — he intentionally made Milošević’s narrative of Serbs as the main victims of the Yugoslav wars official state propaganda once more.

In turn, this brought him votes and popular support.

What would ensue is more than a decade of an unrelenting campaign of disinformation in which Serbs have been shown — through newspapers and tabloids, TV channels, films and TV shows, public statements made by officials, faux independent experts and the Serb Orthodox Church clergy — as victims of Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks, and sometimes even Montenegrins.

This resulted in the whitewashing of Milošević’s policies for which he was tried at The Hague, while the chance for the nation’s self-reflection was eventually wasted.

And in the end, the type of black-and-white thinking typical of populists everywhere has denied Serbia a shot at a complete catharsis.


The opposition long embraced victimhood, too


A more nuanced view would show that it is indeed quite possible to mourn the deaths of innocent Serbian civilians during the bombing and to admit that Milošević and his allies were war criminals who brought destruction to their neighbours and, ultimately, their own country.

No sane Serbian would welcome the bombing of his own country, but any moral and decent citizen of Serbia would have stopped supporting Milošević as it became clear he was waging yet another conflict.

And yet, while more than two decades later, some 80% of the voters in the 2022 election opted for populist or outright nationalistic parties, parts of Serbia’s more liberal and progressive opposition (as they claim to be) paradoxically also promote Milošević’s narratives.

For instance, Vuk Jeremić, the former foreign minister of Serbia and the leader of the centre-right Narodna stranka or "People’s Party," openly wrote on Twitter on 24 March that the NATO campaign was aimed against the Serbian nation and not against Milošević’s regime.

"If those are the liberal talking points, one can then easily imagine what the nationalist and far-right parties are saying."


Intentionally or not, he illustrated this statement with a photograph of Baghdad in flames.

Even Dobrica Veselinović, the leader of the green-liberal Ne da(vi)mo Beograd or "Do Not Let Belgrade D(r)own" political movement, started his tweet on the same day with a condemnation of the “NATO aggression”.

If those are the liberal talking points, one can then easily imagine what the nationalist and far-right parties are saying.


Ethnonationalism feeds on self-righteousness


Beyond the collective trauma that the bombing campaign brought to the nation’s psyche lies the foundation of ethnonationalism — the dominant ideology in Serbia, but also the rest of the region, since the 1990s.

The nature of ethnonationalism is that it disregards the interests or suffering of neighbouring nations and focuses solely on a singular, own “righteous” nation.

"This hypothesis ... gave the people what they wanted: a sense of superiority over their neighbours while retaining the angelic aura of innocence that comes with victimhood."


Belgraders and Yugoslav army soldiers, hold a Serbian flag as they pose for photographers, showing the Serbian salute while celebrating the Kosovo peace deal, 9 June 1999


Through the lenses of Serbian ethnonationalists, ethnic Serbs have the right to secede from any other neighbouring country and form Greater Serbia.

Yet Albanians, Bosniaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Vlachs and Bulgarians, who all populate distinct regions of Serbia, have no such right, even if they are repressed at some point.

This hypothesis explains why Milošević’s narratives about Serbs as the only victims enjoyed and continue to enjoy such popularity.

After all, it gave the people what they wanted: a sense of superiority over their neighbours while retaining the angelic aura of innocence that comes with victimhood.

As a narrative, it's astonishingly myopic yet incredibly empowering: it simultaneously wholeheartedly supports aggression against the perpetual “other” and the feeling of being under constant existential threat by the same “other”.


The change has to come from within


The narrative in question is particularly resilient to outside change, and no amount of pressure from foreign democratic forces or factors can weaken it.

If anything, it cannot simply be displaced through foreign "carrot and stick" methods — as seen in the way Brussels has attempted to use the country's EU integration, for instance — because defeats, even when barely on the horizon, only further strengthen the feeling of victimhood.

"Forward-thinking, progressive Serbs must work together to find a way to bring their own society out of the depths of self-deluded ethnonationalism."

A Serb youth throws a wastebasket through the windows of a McDonald's restaurant in Belgrade, 30 March 1999


The only way out can be found from within. Forward-thinking, progressive Serbs must work together to find a way to bring their own society out of the depths of self-deluded ethnonationalism.

In this, they need and will need the support of the democratic world.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
Close
0:00
0:00
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
Elon Musk Meets Chinese Finance Minister in Beijing
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira has been arrested for leaking classified Pentagon Documents
The Supreme Court will allow a 12-year-old transgender West Virginia girl to compete on her middle school’s girls' sports teams amid a lawsuit over a ban
Bank of America cuts short conference after outrage at Ukraine comments
Mitt Romney calls Trump indictment 'overreach,' says charges were 'stretched' to suit a 'political agenda'
The G-7 aims to make global crypto regulations tougher
Russia arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges
Don’t Dismiss China’s Peacemaking Bid
China and Brazil have signed a new deal that will allow them to trade in their own currencies, bypassing the US dollar as an intermediary
Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’
“We've had evidence prior to the pandemic that masks were largely ineffective at preventing community transmission of influenza “
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz:
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz rejects being labeled a "billionaire"
Jamie Dimon is being deposed over JPMorgan Chase role in Epstein lawsuits
Brand new security footage has just been released to the public showing the Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building
×