white little lamb

Photo: Predrag Trokicic

What was that old saying? God, protect me from my friends, and I’ll protect myself from my enemies? Or something like that, anyway. Whatever it was, this is exactly what happened to Serbia and Serbs on March 15th, 2019 in New Zealand.

We’ve been resisting our enemies for over 30 years now. Since the end of the 80s, we’ve been fighting off every attack! From the first bastards who said that the SANU Memorandum was actually a war program meant to destroy Yugoslavia, to those unfaithful who claimed that the war was carefully prepared and financed, because the JNA tanks stood on the borders of the imaginary new Serbia, all the way to those cities like Karlobag, Karlovac, etc. Not to mention those who defamed the forces of Radovan Karadzic, saying that they were holding Sarajevo under siege for almost four years, that there was no electricity, water, heating, windows, food in that city. That about 1,500 children were killed in that city alone. I do not even want to think about all of those, including domestic traitors, who see 8,373 graves in Srebrenica. And how about those who continue to wear white armbands in Prijedor in order to remember the order from 1992, according to which the non-Serbs in that city were forced to wear a white ribbon and put a white flag on their homes as a sign of loyalty to the Serbian authorities. Camps, strategic rape, mass graves, secondary graves, tertiary graves, Batajnica, Perucac, etc. We fight the hardest against those who even mention that the army committed violence in Kosovo which led to the creation of the UCK, then to open war, to the rejection of the offer from Rambouillet , then to Racak, the NATO bombing, the persecution of 800,000 Albanians, etc.

As the proverb says, we have defended ourselves from all the enemies who demanded that violence be stopped, who imposed sanctions, isolated us and expelled us from the community of civilized nations. From all those things the UN observers and international forces manufactured to draw a stigma on us and blame us so blatantly. We also defended ourselves against all of those who wanted to bomb us after Markale, who wanted to attack our positions in B&H after Srebrenica. We slapped in the face all those who claimed that we were responsible for that, laughed in the face of The Hague Tribunal and its comical war crimes judgments. And how about the International Court of Justice?! And their ridiculous verdict that genocide was committed in Srebrenica! We resolved it completely (and silently) not only with the enemy, but also with ourselves. All of those things we rejected, ignored, denied, and remained firm in our conviction that none of them happened.

And then a friend showed up! In distant New Zealand! On the pathological FB recording of the slaughter, the song “Karadzic, lead your Serbs” blasts from the car speakers. His weapon is clearly engraved in Cyrillic: Milos Obilic, Prince Lazar, Bajo Pivljanin, Marko Miljanov. An unusual choice of historical figures that may at first seem messy and confused, but he actually hit the mark dead on. He keeps those names written there, close to the heart, as inspiration. To remind him how to fight against Muslims, how to be a good racist, how to successfully kill, how to go to the very end.

That’s the story of how a friend gave away the game, and revealed everything we so resolutely threw away and hid even from ourselves. Even God himself can’t help us there.

Translated by Marijana Simic

Peščanik.net, 25.03.2019.


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Dubravka Stojanović, istoričarka, magistrirala 1992 („Srpska socijaldemokratska partija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918“), doktorirala 2001 („Evropski demokratski uzori kod srpske političke i intelektualne elite 1903-1914“) na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Od 1988. do 1996. radi u Institutu za noviju istoriju Srbije, pa prelazi na Odeljenje za istoriju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, gde 2008. postaje vanredna, a 2016. redovna profesorka na katedri za Opštu savremenu istoriju. U saradnji sa Centrom za antiratne akcije 1993. radi na projektu analize udžbenika. Sa Milanom Ristovićem piše i uređuje školske dodatne nastavne materijale „Detinjstvo u prošlosti“, nastale u saradnji istoričara svih zemalja Balkana, koji su objavljeni na 11 jezika regiona. Kao potpredsednica Komiteta za edukaciju Centra za demokratiju i pomirenje u Jugoistočnoj Evropi iz Soluna, urednica je srpskog izdanja 6 istorijskih čitanki za srednje škole. Dobitnica je odlikovanja Nacionalnog reda za zasluge u rangu viteza Republike Francuske. Knjige: Iskušavanje načela. Srpska socijaldemokratija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918 (1994), Srbija i demokratija 1903-1914. Istorijska studija o “zlatnom dobu srpske demokratije” (2003, 2019) – Nagrada grada Beograda za društvene i humanističke nauke za 2003; Srbija 1804-2004 (sa M. Jovanovićem i Lj. Dimićem, 2005), Kaldrma i asfalt. Urbanizacija i evropeizacija Beograda 1890-1914 (2008), Ulje na vodi. Ogledi iz istorije sadašnjosti Srbije (2010), Noga u vratima. Prilozi za političku biografiju Biblioteke XX vek (2011), Iza zavese. Ogledi iz društvene istorije Srbije 1890-1914 (2013), Rađanje globalnog sveta 1880-2015. Vanevropski svet u savremenom dobu (2015), Populism the Serbian Way (2017), Pola veka XX veka. Zbornik radova povodom 50 godina Biblioteke XX vek (ur, 2021), Prošlost dolazi. Promene u tumačenju prošlosti u srpskim udžbenicima istorije 1913-2021 (2023).

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