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The Nobel Prize Committee of the Swedish Academy
should insist that 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature
laureate-designate Peter Handke make a public apology to the victims
of genocide at Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia for the offence,
distress and injustice he has caused them. Today, Friday [16
November 2019], Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) / Society
for Threatened Peoples (STP) has written to the Committee's
President, Professor Anders Olsson, calling for the Austrian writer
to express remorse for his denial of the crime perpetrated against
them and his support for the perpetrator, Slobodan Milosevic. The
Mothers of Srebrenica, the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Center
(Potocari), Jews against Genocide (New York), the Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights in Serbia (Belgrade), the PEN Center (Sarajevo),
the Association of Bosnian Academics and Intellectuals (Sarajevo),
the Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina Camp Detainees (Sarajevo), the
Hagada Jewish Association (Sarajevo) and the Croat People's Council
(Sarajevo) are co-signatories of the letter.
"The award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to
Handke in a solemn ceremony taking place before the eyes of the
whole world will honour a genocide denier and an apologist for war
crimes. Relatives of the victims of the terrible crimes committed at
Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia should not be forced to relive
his mockery of their suffering", Jasna Causevic, GfbV/STP desk
officer for genocide prevention and the responsibility to protect,
observes. "If Handke is not prepared to apologise publicly, the
Committee should insist that he renounce the award." Attempts by
Handke's publisher Suhrkamp Verlag to gloss over his abuse of the
victims as misunderstandings or misinterpretations have simply
served to mislead the author's readership.
The letter addressed to the Swedish Academy (in
German, English and Bosnian) is attached to this Press Release.
Jasna Causevic can be contacted at
j.causevic@gfbv.de or on 0551 49906-16.
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker / Society for
Threatened Peoples
Postfach 2024
D-37010 Göttingen
Tel.: +49 551 499 06-21
Fax: +49 551 580 28
e-mail:
info@gfbv.de
www.gfbv.de
Huma rights organisation with consultative status
with the United Nations and
participatory status with the Council of
Europe
Protest Note (2.00mb) >>>
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