MuseumDESCRIPTION:
Dragan Popović, program coordinator with the Serbian non-governmental organization, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, discusses youth involvement in human rights issues and the impending final status decision for Kosovo.
TRANSCRIPT:
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Welcome to Voices On Genocide Prevention. This is Bridget Conley-Zilkic, guest host for this week. With me today is Dragan Popović, who is a program coordinator with the Serbia non-governmental organization Youth Initiative for Human Rights. Welcome to the show.
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Thank you.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: I wanted to start off by asking you about the role of youth or student movement have played in the pro-democracy efforts in Serbia?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Well, in this movement, unfortunately, young people in Serbia are not very active. We are trying to change that fact, actually. We have a movement. It’s an initiative, movement. And for now, we have about three or four hundred activists all over Serbia, in small cities and bigger cities. Actually, in all parts, all regions of Serbia. And actually, we’re trying to raise the awareness of that young people and to involve them in the social life and in political life. We had a big pre-election campaign, and we also had a big anti-constitutional campaign, because of the human rights problems in the Serbian constitution. So that is our way to help our country and also to help these young people to become more active, to become more interesting for the social life or the political life in their local communities, and also on the national level. And there are several other NGO’s, but unfortunately, political parties and media in Serbia are, I would say, obstacles for the goal for involving young people in the political life. Because of the big political corruption among the political parties and on the other side, because of the media, because of the topics in the media in the Serbia media with national coverage.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Particularly after the war in Kosovo, students played a really critical role in the overthrow of Milosevic. Can you talk a little bit about that time period and what students were doing?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Yeah, there was a big student movement. OTPOR was the name of that movement during the 1999 and 2000. And that movement had big role in the fight against Milosevic regime. But that movement had just one goal. That was the one goal movement. Actually, I was, personally, a member of that movement. That goal was overturning Milosevic. So because of that one goal, it could be very, very strong and very massive movement in Serbia. After October the 5th and after the Milosevic regime, naturally, that movement stopped to exist. And it’s something expected, actually, from all facets, from all the cities in Serbia.
Now, in this moment, it’s very hard for us to get all the young people like in that time. You know, all the young people from all the social groups from all the nations, from all the political parties, et cetera, et cetera. Because the goals are not the same. Now, our goals for us, for so-called post-war generations are, you know, dealing with the past; European values; promote these values, promote the rights of victims of human rights abuses or the rights of victims of war crimes in the past. That is not the same. And because of that it is much harder now than it was during the Milosevic time.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: If we just stay in that time period for one more question. I also wanted to ask you, though, how was it possible to get that kind of momentum on the goal of overthrowing Milosevic? Were people concerned about the economic sanctions against Serbia? Were they rejecting the history of war and of nationalism? Or were they concerned about corruption within Serbia? What were some of the reasons that people could come together around that one goal?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: I’m afraid that there is no one goal, now. And it will not be the one goal in the future.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: But in the past, then, at that moment, when it was possible to have it, what were some of the motivations that brought people together?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: There are a lot of reasons, you know. There were a lot of reasons, especially, because of the International sanction, because of the poverty in the country, because of unemployment, a lot of refugees. You know, the people, when they fight against the Milosevic, they are not fighting against nationalism. That is the most important point of the Serbian movement against the Milosevic. It was not anti-nationalist movement. It was one part of that, yes. But one bigger part of that moment was actually nationalistic movement, but against Slobodan Milosevic like a person. And that part was led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, prime minister of Serbian government now. So because of that it is a little hard to explain to people, you know, especially people abroad that after the massive demonstration, pro-democratic demonstration in 2000, that we now hear some kind of veil of nationalism again.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: And you said there is a swell of nationalism in today and that it’s hard to get students to engage. What do students know about what happened during the Milosevic era?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: You mean, about what has been going on about the past?
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Yes, exactly. What are they learning and what kind of knowledge do they get and where do they get it from?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Fortunately, they have some knowledge. Some of them, they have some knowledge, but only knowledge from the alternative educational institutions or from the NGO. So from, you know, some private universities. But you cannot lean on state universities on state schools, high schools, et cetera. Because they don’t want actually to talk about that, you know. Officials in Serbia, especially, officials in the schools and the universities. It’s so-called intellectual elite in Serbia, university professors. They don’t want to talk about the Serbian dark side of all the past, you know, dark side during the ‘90s about the war crimes, genocide, Srebrenica, massive ethnic cleansing, massive violations of human rights in Kosovo in southern Serbia, et cetera, et cetera. So that part of the Serbian history, you know, are secret in some way. Of course, on the other side, we have in some parts of educational system, instead of history, we have mythology. That is also very popular, so we have instead of genocide in Srebrenica we have some mythology about some legitimate military operations in Srebrenica in 1995.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Can you tell us a little bit about specific projects that the youth initiative for human rights has undertaken?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: We have a lot of projects now in this moment. But what is really important is that we are trying to build some new communication bridges between the different societies in Serbia, especially, between the young people. And in this moment, the most important thing for us is to build some kind of connections or some kind of communications channel between Serbia and Kosovo. We have that project that we-- young people from Serbia and young people from Kosovo, they’re coming in Belgrade and Pristina -- these are capitals of these two countries. So we are trying to introduce them to their peers to get them to the museums, to some exhibitions, to the cinemas, also, to the government officials, et cetera, et cetera. And on that way, we are trying to, actually, break that giant wall between the two societies. Because Serbian and Albanian society are totally apart one from other. You cannot find the single way of cooperation. You cannot find some people who are willing to trade, to cooperate, to talking. You know, anything between these two societies are finished in 1999. Actually, are finished a lot before, but 1999 it was the last contact. So now, we are trying to prevent some future conflict on this way. Of course, we are small and young NGO, we are not a state. We do not have a lot of resources and monies and I don’t know what. But we are trying to do our best to prevent some conflicts in that way. To learn from young people that there’s some other culture 2 or 300 kilometers from them.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: And as, of course, you well know, when the war ended in 1999, the final status of Kosovo was, the decision was put off that it would be resolved later. And that final decision could, actually, be decided somewhat soon. What is the popular opinion, you know, the best that you can judge it, in Serbia about what will happen with this final status decision?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Well, I think that people are aware that Kosovo will be independent. Independent with some conditions or independent totally, it’s not really big difference from the Serbian perspective. But the people, of course, in Serbia, there a lot of people that are not satisfied with that solution that is almost natural. So I think people are aware, and because of that I am a little, you know, I am not so concerned because of eventually [there would be] some war in the future, some massive violence. I think that it will be with some political obstacle. It will be with some political problems, with some harsh talking, but without any violence, without any future wars. That is the most important, for this moment, I think.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Well, I certainly hope that you are correct. And also, then, in just your work with human rights and democratization in Serbia, where do you see Serbian politics going, say, five years from now or ten years from now? What kind of future do you imagine for your country?
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Well, the most, probably, the future will be a European Union, not because we are ready for European Union. But because European Union, it’s the best way to control us. So if European Union wants peace and stability in the Balkans, they have to take all of us into the European Union. And that will be the future. Most probably, what will be in the country for that time, I’m not sure. I hope that some of the so-called European values, promoting the democracy, peace, promoting the human rights, higher standard of legal state, et cetera, et cetera. I hope that that will be the agenda of the next generation of the politicians. For now, it’s not the case. You know, now, in Serbia, you have on agenda of the politicians Kosovo and Kosovo and Kosovo. That is not good for the country. That is not good for our development. And of course, that is not good for all the region.
BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Dragan, thank you very much for joining me today.
DRAGAN POPOVIĆ: Thank you.
NARRATOR: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To learn more about preventing genocide, join us online at www.ushmm.org/conscience. There you’ll also find the Voices on Genocide Prevention weblog.
