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SARAJEVO, November 10 (FENA) - A mural celebrating convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić, genocide and fascism, should be unacceptable in any European capital, city or village, said a professor of philosophy and Holocaust and genocide studies at the University of Southern Connecticut David Pettigrew in an interview with FENA.
He comments that in Austria, any such mural for example honoring Heinrich Himmler would be immediately condemned, removed, and those responsible would be prosecuted because glorifying convicted war criminals is seen as a form of denial and hatred that can encourage recidivism.
"That is why there are laws against such symbols and murals in most European countries, including the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Pettigrew added.
The defense of the mural carried out by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, with heavily armed intervention police, is in fact the defense of his perverted and very dangerous fantasy about the "Serbian world", the eminent American professor repeated.
"By defending the mural, Vulin supports the crimes of Ratko Mladić committed with the intention of creating a 'Greater Serbia' with the inclusion of Republika Srpska. Back then, Mladić wrote to Milošević, thanking him for his 'immense help', stating that this would not have been possible without his support," Pettigrew recalls.
He also recalled the recent verdict of the Trial Chamber in the Stanišić and Simatović case, which established the existence of a joint criminal enterprise in which senior political, military and police leaders in Serbia had participated.
"The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is responsible for respecting the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It is clear that the responsible leadership in Serbia should ensure that this mural is removed without delay," he said.
At the same time, according to the professor, Ratko Mladić's mural at the entrance to Kalinovik, a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be removed because it violates the state's criminal code, which prohibits the glorification of convicted war criminals.
"A mural glorifying Mladić is also a form of inciting hatred and inciting the repetition of crimes, so it should be removed. I express my deep gratitude to the courage of activists in Belgrade to resist the glorification of genocide, to defend the truth and respect the memory of the victims," concluded Pettigrew.
(FENA) S. R.
