Serbia, the ICTY and reconciliation: The terrifying new era of "quiet pride" More than two decades after the war there is be no political will in Serbia to fully break with the ideology that employed genocide as a strategic tool. The government's political commitment has not been to reconciliation, but to the narrative personified in the very perpetrators indicted by the ICTY. A case in point: General Vladimir Lazarević, convicted of crimes against humanity for atrocities his forces committed against Kosovo Albanians, was subsequently appointed to teach at Serbia's top military academy. By Refik Hodžić, November 28, 2017

The crimes of ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ against humanity reverberate still General Ratko Mladic’s responsibility during the Bosnian war is now enshrined in case history; reconciliation remains the work of ordinary people in Bosnia-Herzegovina. By Peter Lippman, November 28, 2017

Memories of a better future in the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide The 8,372 victims at Srebrenica, 10,000 in Sarajevo, and tens of thousands across Bosnia did not die in a natural disaster. They were all victims of politics still very much alive in Serbia and even more so in Republika Srpska. By Hariz Halilovich, openDemocracy, June 13, 2011

A severe pronouncement of Serbian victimhood I have been looking exactly at how Serbian youth deals psychologically with their heritage of burden their former leaders have left, and how do they deal with their group responsibility for atrocities, such as the Srebrenica massacre, committed by their group members. The results consistently show what we are seeing now: youth are very protective of their group, and that includes their former leaders. This is not fake, this is not something done for show. They sincerely believe he is their hero, someone who fought to restore injustices their group experienced in the past. Interview with Sarajevo-based social psychologist Sabina Cehajic-Clancy, France 24, May 30, 2011

How Ratko Mladic’s Evil Dream Lives On General Mladic precisely formulated the racist pathology of Serbian nationalism. By Aleksandar Hemon, May 29, 2011

Ratko Mladic's arrest is a hollow victory in a country that refuses to apologise The Serbian state was ostensibly hunting this man while he enjoyed a military salary and pension. I spent a drunken night in Belgrade not long ago with Mladic's lunatic entourage – men who had been arrested for sheltering him and who made it very clear they were in communication with their mentor. There has been no real reckoning among the Bosnian Serbs – and very little in Serbia proper – of the kind the Germans underwent. The EU may deem that sufficient movement towards amends has been made to warrant negotiations for Serbian entry into its family of nations, but on the ground nothing has actually occurred. The north-west of Bosnia and the Drina Valley in which the worst atrocities occurred remain cesspools of the hatred that led to the slaughter; a crazed, nonsensical mixture of justification and denial which suggests that, given a fair wind, the communities for whom Mladic is a hero would do it all again. "Reckoning" is one of the harshest words in the English language. It means coming to terms with what was done in the wake of calamity, staring at oneself in the mirror, and making amends, historical, political and material. The delivery of Mladic for trial is an important moment, but for justice rather than reckoning. The substance of reckoning is on the ground and among the people who gladly carried out Mladic's heinous orders. There, it is not happening. And without reckoning, there can be no reconciliation, and thereby no real peace. By Ed Vulliamy, May 28, 2011

Mladic Arrest: The Silence of the Ghosts Recent polls say that, despite the suffering and ignominy Ratko Mladic brought them, 51 percent of Serbian citizens would not have given him up to the international war tribunal in the Hague. No, not for any money. We citizens of Serbia all knew that Mladic was hiding among us; don’t ask me why, but we never believed the many tales spread about his death or his exile. Given his modest rural circumstances, he was concealed more discreetly than the Pakistanis hid Osama bin Laden — but the parallels there are obvious. Mladic had his protectors in the covert wing of the government, and the Serbian government is traditionally an enterprise in which everything is covert, and yet everybody knows. Ask them not why they turned him in, but why they delayed until today. By Jasmina Tesanovic, May 26, 2011