They Would Never Hurt a Fly

Slavenka Drakulić

Цитаты

nika_820 мая 2023 г.
This must be a hard, even humiliating, lesson for men to take from a woman in a society as patriarchal as our Balkan one. Men like Karadžić, Mladić, and Gotovina will not forgive her for having exposed them as even more miserable figures than they already were.
12
54
nika_86 июня 2023 г.
After the war, the veterans’ organizations had grown into a very powerful political instrument controlled by the right-wing Tudjman’s HDZ party. Just how powerful an instrument became clear only when they organized demonstrations in Split on March 11, 2001.
11
83
nika_86 июня 2023 г.
They also knew that there would no longer be a life for Levar in Gospić after he had been proclaimed a traitor. So they offered to make him a protected witness, to move him and his family abroad and give them new identities. But Levar turned down the offer, believing that going public would give him enough protection. He thought that if he stayed, his presence would motivate other people to be witnesses as well. He could not let them down by leaving Croatia. But he was naïve, as if he had forgotten that he was dealing with murderers.
Читать далее
11
95
nika_86 июня 2023 г.
Because people find it easier to live with lies than with the truth, attempts to administer justice through the tribunal or even through the local courts are experienced as an injustice. And as long as there is so little desire in these societies to uncover the truth, justice for war criminals will continue to be perceived as a threat to the entire community.
11
61
nika_86 июня 2023 г.
The reason is a simple one, one that goes beyond the Tudjman-Milošević ideology. Too many people were in some way involved in the war, and too many profited from it. It is easier, and much more comfortable, to live with lies than to confront the truth and with that truth the possibility of individual guilt—and collective responsibility.
11
54
nika_86 июня 2023 г.
Establishing the truth about the war is at the heart of the controversies surrounding The Hague tribunal. Until the truth about the war is established, trials of the war criminals, whether in the International Tribunal or in the local courts, will be experienced as an injustice to the “war heroes.” There is no justice without truth, and Croatia is still far from such truth.
11
1,4K
nika_81 июня 2023 г.
In light of the “evidence” of differences, often in the form of detailed descriptions of pressures and suffering in the mass media, either real or invented, in time those others are stripped of all their individual characteristics. They are no longer acquaintances or professionals with particular names, habits, appearances, and characters; instead they are members of the enemy group. When a person is reduced to an abstraction in such a way, one is free to hate him because the moral obstacle has already been abolished. If it has been “proved” that our enemies are no longer human beings, we are no longer obliged to treat them as such. It doesn’t count at all that by doing so we reduce ourselves to an abstract category as well, that we are no longer individuals because in the eyes of the enemy we are the others, too.
Читать далее
11
48
nika_81 июня 2023 г.
But if the brotherhood and unity among the sworn enemies of yesterday is indeed the epilogue of this war, one wonders what was it all for? Looking at the merry boys in the Scheveningen detention unit, the answer seems clear: for nothing.
11
57
nika_81 июня 2023 г.
The Yugoslavia of brotherhood and unity doesn’t exist any longer, except in this prison.
11
3,2K
nika_829 мая 2023 г.
She [Mira] wanted to participate in politics directly, not merely through her husband, no matter how great an influence that gave her. In 1994 she founded a left-wing party called the JUL (Yugoslav United Left). This enabled her to operate in the same political arena as her husband. Soon the JUL had considerable influence in Serbian politics. Membership in her party was known to be a shortcut to a good political position. Interestingly, Mira wanted to maintain a modest image, so she refused the position of president of the party, taking only the post of executive manager. But this did not fool anyone.
Читать далее
11
49