Two days ago, a trial judgment in the Ratko Mladić case was issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Ratko Mladić, the former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The promotion of the new book written by the Hague convict and former Yugoslav People’s Army officer, Veselin Sljivancanin, which supposed to be held tonight at the Cultural Center of the municipality of Cukarica, was canceled, it was confirmed to us in the Center.
Youth Initiative for Human Rights most urgently demands from the President of the city municipality of Cukarica, Srdjan Kolaric, as well as from the councilors in the Assembly of this Belgrade municipality, to urge the cancellation of promotion of the book "For Service to the Homeland" by Veselin Sljivancanin at the Cultural Center "Cukarica", scheduled for Friday, October 13th. We appeal to the entire democratic public in Serbia to speak up and proactively act in order to stop all glorification of war criminals.
Regarding the scandalous announcement made by the Minister Aleksandar Vulin, that the convicted war criminal Vladimir Lazarevic will be a lecturer at the Military Academy, Youth Initiative for Human Rights (the Initiative) requests the urgent dismissal of the Minister of Defense.
Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Initiative) strongly condemns the statements by the Minister of Defense, Aleksandar Vulin, and the Secretary General of the President of Serbia, Nikola Selaković, made during yesterday’s gathering of the former officers of the Third Army of the Army of Yugoslavia (VJ) entitled “Do not Forget” in the Army Center in Niš. The main guests of the gathering included two convicted war criminals, Nikola Šainović and Vladimir Lazarević, who addressed the participants as the last commander of the VJ Third Army.
