People to be thankful for
My friends get in trouble a lot. At the moment, I’m concerned in particular about Ahmed Maher, an Egyptian activist in the April 6 Movement for whom an arrest warrant has been issued because he defied the government’s latest law on demonstrations, which went into effect this week. He already faces other charges related to previous demonstrations. And I’m concerned about Sonja Biserko, who is being criticized for agreeing to testify on behalf of Croatia to support its charge of genocide against Serbia at the International Court of Justice. In Belgrade, where Sonja has lived most of her life, she is accused of being a traitor.
Ahmed was in DC just two weeks ago, when he spoke at the Middle East Institute conference and chatted with some of us privately. He is determined to create space in Egypt for a “third force,” which would occupy the political space between the current military-backed government and the Muslim Brotherhood, now the object of repression but itself intolerant and anti-democratic when it held power for a year, ending last summer. Ahmed’s third force would be committed to human rights, a civil state based on citizenship, and democratic ideals. It has been precisely the lack of support for these ideals that has made the Egyptian revolution such a roller coaster ride.
Ahmed doesn’t expect real success for another ten years or so, which makes his willingness to keep democratic hopes alive now particularly striking. He is trying to maintain a space for political dissent in Egypt, despite the restoration of military authority. This will not be easy. Egypt’s army quickly accuses dissenters of being terrorists, or supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, against which Ahmed also took to the streets. Now he defends their political rights. Egypt’s restored military regime does not take that kindly.
Sonja is in a different, but no less problematic, situation. Serbia today is a democracy, more or less. So far as I can tell, its government is refusing to comment on her willingness to testify against it at The Hague, but Serbia’s press is condemning her (this is from Novosti last Saturday):
This is one of rare, if not the unique, examples in modern history of a person taking the stand against his or her own state by proclaiming it genocidal. Should the trial take place – meaning should the two sides refuse to withdraw charges – Sonja Biserko would be responsible for war damages citizens of Serbia would have to compensate Croatia that had expelled and plundered 450,000 Serbs in 1990s. What’s even worse, the title of the genocidal state would be forced on Serbs who had sided with the Allies in WWI and WWII. And all that in favor of the country that allied itself with fascists and left a legacy of Jasenovac and other concentration camps in which Serbs in the first place have been systematically eradicated; Serbs against whom a proved genocide was committed, the genocide that for the sake of brotherhood, unity and peace has always been swept under the carpet in SFR of Yugoslavia.
Serbia’s own homicidal record in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s of course goes unmentioned. That too is one of Sonja’s sins: she mentions it all the time.
Sonja too was in Washington recently, as a member of a UN-commissioned group looking into human rights violations in North Korea. The long-time chair of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, like Ahmed she is a well-known figure abroad. Both of them will enjoy some measure of international attention, as well as whatever limited protection that may bring. And if they decide to flee, even temporarily, they will find haven in any number of Western countries where they are known.
People committed to nonviolence like Ahmed and Sonja are trying to assert their rights, not incite violence. Many can’t flee, and most don’t want to. What they want is to be able to speak their minds freely, no matter how unpopular–or distasteful to those in power–their views may be. I am grateful for all of them this Thanksgiving, including those with whom I don’t agree. May you be safe, and may those of us who enjoy freedom be prepared to protect your rights as best we can!
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2 thoughts on “People to be thankful for”
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It is paradoxical that true patriots like Sonja are being labeled “traitors” by self-proclaimed “patriots”, who are in fact the worst enemies of their own country.
The Serbs attribute their survival as a nation under the Ottoman Empire in large part to their epic myths, perhaps accounting for their unswerving belief to this day in the superior power of the word to reality. What occurred – in this case, in Croatia – is insignificant compared to what people say about it.
After WWII, the new Yugoslav government captured, tried, and executed (in some case) commanders and guards from the unspeakable Jasenovac, but did not allow the Croats to be held collectively responsible as a genocidal nation, a fact that still infuriates Serbian public opinion. Croatia’s attempt to use the ICJ process to force Serbia to charge war criminals from the more recent war, to return looted artworks, pay reparations and the like is experienced as a potentially lethal blow against Serbian national prestige.
Even in comparatively minor matters – such as the European Parliament ranking of national healthcare systems in Europe reported today in the papers – Serbia’s low position is treated as a matter of bad, perhaps maliciously concocted statistics rather than a reflection of the effects of a rapidly aging population and the highest smoking rate in Europe on the state of the country’s health. The findings demand strong refutation, not changes to the situation.
And then there’s the move to prevent a re-examination of the origins of WWI (along with a ongoing attempt to blacken the reputation of Franz Ferdinand, who had grown into one of the Empire’s most sensible and humane leaders by the time of his assassination). Preventing “revisionism” has become a goal of the country’s top politicians and some of their “historians.” (The quotes are because one of them claimed Princip was only 17 years old at the time of the murder, when he escaped a death sentence because he was in fact still a couple of weeks younger than the 20-year-old limit for hanging when he murdered the royal couple.) The historians value their carefully selected collection of statements made by Western politicians at the time that some seem to think should have made the country invulnerable to criticism for all time.
If Sonja Biserko has any advantages in the present case, it is that she will not be surprised by the public response to her appearing if called by the court, since she has not experienced anything different for years now. And with the government’s current emphasis on meeting EU requirements, she may be somewhat safer against implementation of the published insinuations of the fate she deserves. Safer than certain journalists, and a prime minister, were.