Protesters call for cancellation of ‘revisionist’ Serb film

Protesters are calling for screenings of a brand new documentary by a Serbian-Canadian filmmaker to be cancelled throughout Europe, saying the “revisionist” movie “whitewashes” battle crimes dedicated in the course of the Bosnian Warfare.

Movie director Boris Malagurski introduced final month on Twitter the schedule of screenings of his movie Republika Srpska: The Wrestle for Freedom. Malagurski has labored as a correspondent and host for Russian state media channels RT and Sputnik Serbia.

Republika Srpska turned a Serb-run entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the signing of the Dayton peace settlement in 1995, which ended the battle in Bosnia.

From 1992 to 1995, Serb forces led a marketing campaign of ethnic cleaning with a aim of making a Better Serbia.

Probably the most infamous case of their battle crimes was in Srebrenica, the place in 1995, Serb forces underneath the command of convicted battle legal Ratko Mladic, killed greater than 8,000 Bosniak males and boys over the course of some days. Worldwide courts dominated the bloodbath constituted genocide.

The Canada-based Institute for the Analysis of Genocide launched a web-based petition to cease the promotion of the movie, saying it “revises the painful historical past of Bosnia”. It has gathered practically 30,000 signatures.

“The movie promotes the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica,” the institute mentioned in a press release on Saturday. “… It promotes the concept of ​​Better Serbia, which is continually tearing Bosnia and Herzegovina aside.”

“And it tries, by all means, to point out that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a failed state, selling the independence of the Rebublika Srpska entity and its unification with Serbia,” it mentioned.

Marketing campaign chief Georgio Konstandi informed Al Jazeera that six days of screenings have up to now been cancelled in 19 cities in Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.

“[Malagurski’s] movie trailer clearly frames the founding of a genocidal regime as a ‘wrestle for freedom’ and a battle in opposition to ‘slavery’” Konstandi mentioned. “We’d not settle for such gross whitewashing of another genocidal regime.”

“Why ought to the Bosnian individuals, who have been tortured, massacred and raped by the Republika Srpska authorities, be anticipated to place up with it?” he requested.

Malagurski informed Al Jazeera that the documentary filmed scenes in Srebrenica and famous “the Worldwide Prison Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [ICTY] within the Hague concluded, in its verdict, that ‘what occurred in Srebrenica constituted genocide,’ by no means negating that reality”.

“It talks in regards to the Serbs’ turbulent historical past underneath varied empires of the previous, however by no means avoids speaking in regards to the crimes Serb forces dedicated in the course of the battle in Bosnia within the Nineties,” he mentioned.

“Nonetheless, not one of the talked about organisations requested to look at the movie earlier than participating in an aggressive marketing campaign to ban the movie, within the ‘cancel tradition’ method of the occasions we stay in,” Malagurski added.

Final week the Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic addressed the mayor of Salzburg, Austria, in a letter, alerting him of the movie serving as “propaganda”. The screening was later cancelled.

The marketing campaign has spurred lobbied individuals exterior the Western Balkans to additionally remark. On Saturday, Alaskan standup comic Chelsea Hart posted a TikTok video of the problem, writing “Fascism is making a comeback in Europe.”

Rulings by the ICTY, together with the conclusion that the bloodbath in Srebrenica constituted a genocide, are frequently denied by Serb politicians in each Bosnia’s Republika Srpska and Serbia, together with Banja Luka’s Mayor Drasko Stanivukovic, who welcomed the movie’s premiere in Republika Srpska this month.

The town of Banja Luka reportedly financed $15,000 for the manufacturing of the documentary.

Bosnian Serb chief Milorad Dodik has for the previous 15 years been main a marketing campaign for the Republika Srpska entity to secede and be part of Serbia.