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The actors in the play “Srebrenica. When We, the
Killed, Rise Up” and its author Zlatko Paković have been exposed to
brutal threats for days, after its premiere at the Centre for
Cultural Decontamination on 24 September 2020. As the producer of
this play, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia urges
the relevant authorities to react and calls on the critically-minded
public, theatres and other cultural institutions to denounce such
reactions to the attempts to speak about crime.
The aim of these cruel and vulgar threats is to
prevent the further performance of this play in Serbia. It is
attempted to silence the critically-minded part of the society that
speaks about the most traumatic processes and events in the recent
history of this region, especially the historical and political
responsibility of Serb intellectual elites for the war and crimes
against the Bosniak population, including the genocide in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
This play with which the Helsinki Committee marked
25 years since the Srebrenica genocide is not ceremonial in nature;
instead, it speaks about the essence of crime. Through his artistic
intervention, author Zlatko Paković reveals ideological,
psychological and lucrative mechanisms that enabled the crime of
genocide and now deny it. It is the first theatre play in Serbia
that puts one of the most important moral issues for the society in
Serbia at the epicentre – the recognition of the Srebrenica
genocide.
On 11 July 2019, the Helsinki Committee produced
and facilitated the performance “An Introduction to the Play:
Srebrenica. When We, the Killed, Rise Up”. The right-wing
organizations and activists broke into the hall of the Kolarac
Endowment, which was the only one to receive us under commercial
terms, and tried to prevent this performance. Therefore, this year
we contacted the police before the performance of the play in order
to warn them of possible incidents and ensure uninterrupted
performance. The fact that, due to our experience and the experience
of other organizations staging similar events, we were forced to
contact the police shows that in this country the freedom of
artistic expression does not apply to authors dealing with the most
important social issues.
The play was created and performed in the
atmosphere marked by Serbia’s conspicuous disregard for its
obligation to take a stand on the genocide in Srebrenica in
accordance with the moral and ethical principles and judgments of
international courts. Serbian courts refuse to punish the
perpetrators of the crime of genocide and ensure the lasting social
memory of those killed and missing. The authorities and, in
particular, intellectual elites prevent the attempts to expose all
stages and all participants in inciting, instigating, preparing,
encouraging, facfilitating and committing genocide.The political
protection of those responsible for the war and crimes is becoming
increasingly stronger.
During 2019, the Helsinki Committee tried to
establish cooperation with all Belgrade’s theatres, so that the play
could performed in one of the theatres financed from the public
budget. This would provide an incentive for the process of relieving
future generations from the burden of political and historical
responsibility. However, we received negative responses from all
theatres, which contained various banal excuses such as the
renovation of the hall and lack of air conditioning.
Despite the obvious obstructions, the Helsinki
Committee will do its best to provide conditions for the performance
of this play and will call again on theatres in Serbian cities to
enable it. We expect the relevant authorities, police, prosecutor’s
offices and courts to prevent any threat to the safety of the author
of this play and its performers.
The play will be streamed online on Thursday, 8
October 2020 on the YouTube Channel of the Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights in Serbia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmFDdoNBegs
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