peacefare.net

I feel nothing

Balkan-watchers here in DC are getting inquiries about “the monument,” a substantial, seemingly stone object erected in November to honor fighters of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja (usually UCPMB, I think) in downtown Presevo, a majority-Albanian area in southern Serbia.  UCPMB was a guerrilla group that fought Serbian security forces, 1999-2001.  Belgrade regards it as a terrorist organization.  According to Balkan Insight:

It was disarmed in 2001 following an internationally brokered peace deal, after which the Yugoslav Army re-entered the demilitarized area near the border with Kosovo with the approval of NATO.

After the conflict ended in South Serbia, the authorities signed the Amnesty Law, which freed all armed men who had participated in the conflict from the threat of prosecution.

The law applies to all those accused of terrorism or joint criminal enterprises in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja in relation to acts carried out between January 1999 and May 2001.

So the monument is apparently to honor dead people whose living comrades in arms were amnestied years ago.

Along with complaints about the monument come complaints about Albanian flags flying in the Albanian-majority areas of southern Serbia.  Interior Minister Dacic has pledged to remove the monument by January 17.

What do I feel about all this?  Like Morales in Chorus Line, I feel nothing:.  I need more details.  Are the flags flying on private property or public buildings?  Are there laws in Serbia regulating what flags can be flown?  Is the monument on private or public property?  Who put it up?  To whom does it belong?  Is there also a monument to Serbs?

Dacic seems very sure the flags represent the Republic of Albania.  Perhaps they do, but the flag in question is also the flag of ethnic Albanians, wherever they live. In many democratic societies, the display of such symbols would be regarded as freedom of speech, though in some places (Nazi symbols in Germany, for example) specific items might be prohibited.  Certainly in the United States the flags of other countries are routinely displayed on private property, and quite often on public property as well, presumably based on a decision of a properly constituted authority.  The Ohrid framework agreement, which stopped a war not far from Presevo, allows explicitly for the flying of flags of the local majority community, along with the Macedonian flag, on local public buildings:

With respect to emblems, next to the emblem of the Republic of Macedonia, local authorities will be free to place on front of local public buildings emblems marking the identity of the community in the majority in the municipality, respecting international rules and usages [my bolding].

But Macedonia is not Serbia, and I don’t know the laws in Serbia.  Nor do I hear the Interior Minister citing laws, but maybe that reflects more on the journalism than on him.

As for the monument, the same questions arise.  Is it on private or public property?  Who put it up?  On what authority?  What laws exist against it?  What authority is there to destroy it?  What is likely to be the reaction if it is destroyed?

Some will answer:  UCPMB were terrorists who killed police and army officers.  How can they be commemorated this way?

I ask much the same question every time I travel past the Potomac river, which lies just a couple of miles to the west.  In Virginia and other states that joined the rebellion of 1861-65, they routinely fly the Confederate flag, which I regard as a symbol not only of traitorous behavior but also of slavery, segregation and brutal human rights violations.  I don’t like the Confederate flag, but there isn’t much I can do about.

One more thing:  when I passed through Strpce, a majority-Serb community in southern Kosovo, last summer not only was the state flag of Serbia flying but there was a big sign painted on a rock-face:  “Kosovo is Serbia,” it read, in English.

Would monuments and flags of this sort cause problems in the United States?  You bet they would.  Building an Islamic community center blocks from “ground zero” caused a big debate in this country, one that so far as I know is still unresolved.  But no one would appeal to Presevo for advice.

Sometimes, it is best to feel nothing.  It’s a trick Mr. Dacic might also want to learn.