The tactic of intimidating critics through constant and personal attacks is aimed at increasing the cost of public engagement of those who wish to criticize the government and thus discipline the public space.

The resolution on the Srebrenica genocide would have found its way onto the agenda no matter how Serbia behaved. It is also possible that some hypothetical Serbia with more dignity, one that has taken responsibility for victims, the past, and the future, would have agreed with the resolution.  

Ivan Čolović reflects on his contribution to Perspectives SEE from five years ago, with context on additional developments in two footnotes. The myth of the Battle of Kosovo Field on June 28th 1389, in which the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Murat I and Serbian Prince Lazar clashed, has, since the early 19th century to this day, served the purpose of legitimizing various political and military projects: From the breakup of communist Yugoslavia and the policies of Slobodan Milosevic, through the “Kosovo is Serbia” motto, as part of the Serbian “European agenda”, to the dialogue –both internal and with Brussels– led by Aleksandar Vučić. The “Kosovo Covenant” in modern Serbian history is used to accommodate various political ideas and actions.

  The prewar political history of the former Yugoslav autonomous province of Kosovo was shaped by its educational system. Both Albanians and Serbs have omitted the other community’s language and history from their curricula. Today, twenty years after the armed conflict, Albanian and Serbian students are using textbooks with different versions of history. Some of the controversial phrases from Kosovar textbooks describing activities by Serbs include: “violence and chauvinist terror”, “terror and genocide”, and “horrific barbaric scenes of bloody squadrons”. Serbian textbooks use phrases such as “attacks by Albanian gangs” and “Albanian terror over the Serbs”. Such language in school textbooks amplifies prejudice, inter-ethnic intolerance, and nationalist ideas.

Due to its imposing design, function, as well as central location directly across the street from the Government of Serbia, the General Staff building has become a symbol of the 1999 bombing, and everything consciously or subconsciously connected to that event - the undeniable trauma from those times, the self-righteous indignation at the “unprovoked” illegal NATO aggression and violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity, as well as the all-consuming stagnation and inability to recover from the defeat and create a functional society.