This report on the denial of war crimes in Serbia during 2023 is the second annual thematic report by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. It examines the statements and actions of Serbian political leaders, official statements, events, and decisions by institutions that deny or downplay the responsibility of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for mass human rights violations during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. This publication follows the thread of institutional denial of war crimes from the 1990s through several key areas. The report looks at the actions of judicial bodies that support the principles of denial and impunity. It also reviews the statements and actions of the executive branch concerning commemorative practices, media and political abuses involving war criminals, activities by certain ministries, the involvement of individuals convicted of war crimes in the 2023 elections, and their visibility in public spaces through murals and graffiti.
In light of the growing denial practices, as well as cases where the glorification of war criminals has been either rewarded or tolerated, the mechanism of denial created by Serbian state institutions appears to celebrate the crime. The most common themes of relativizing and denying responsibility by Serbian officials, particularly when discussing individual crimes, remain—just as in the 2022 report—the war crime in Račak and the genocide in Srebrenica. In both cases, the number and status of victims are minimized, and they are dehumanized. The suffering of victims’ families is thus dismissed, while those accused, charged, and convicted for these severe human rights violations continue to appear in the public space, analyzing societal and political developments.
Particularly alarming is the frequent presence of war criminals in educational and other public institutions throughout 2023, where they “taught lessons on patriotism” to children and young people. This is why this edition of the report on the State of Denial in Serbia for 2023 is titled Lessons on Patriotism from War Criminals.
You can read the report in English here.
