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!