Serbia Towards Genocide and Europe: Women in Black Gather a Few Dozen, Pride Parade 3,000 Participants

In the Serbian capital today, the Pride Parade is being held – a march of LGBT population individuals, and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, who has publicly admitted to being a member of that population, will also march with the participants, reports the Patria agency.

Around 3,000 participants will be secured by 2,000 police officers. Participants are coming from 20 countries around the world, and according to Serbian media, all countries in the region will have their representatives.

- It is important that we send the image that this is all Serbia. People have the right to march, and I am very happy that Belgrade and Serbia have shown that they can - said Brnabić.

And while Serbia is parading and proving its European affiliation, on the other hand, it still carries the burden of its darkest past, marked by the genocide in Srebrenica. The political leadership of Serbia remains silent about genocide, admission of guilt, apologies, shame, and responsibility. The majority of media loyal to the political regimes whose founders led Serbia to shame and marked it forever are also silent. Their successors are not ready for recognition or sincere repentance.

The only bright spot in Serbia when we talk about genocide are the tireless Women in Black and a few individuals. Every year in Belgrade, they organize a performance demanding that Serbia acknowledge its responsibility for the genocide and begin commemorating July 11th. However, unlike the pride parade, only a few dozen people attend their gatherings, and they have faced countless attacks and insults so far. Just two years ago, all events announced for July 11th in Belgrade were canceled due to security reasons.

For Serbia to be different, it must first free itself from the ghosts of the past. The recognition of the genocide in Srebrenica is the first step, and only by doing so would President Aleksandar Vučić show that Serbia is a "sincere and true friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina." Talking about trust, friendship, and a common future at a time when Serbia does not recognize the aggression, let alone the genocide in Srebrenica, is a waste of time for both sides.

As the Women in Black say, a paranoid fear reigns in Serbia, which manifests in frenzied reactions to even the mention of the word genocide. Aleksandar Vučić's rhetoric also contributes to this. It perpetuates the ideology that enabled genocides, celebrates crime and criminals. Few people in Serbia publicly acknowledge the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica. Nenad Čanak, Čedomir Jovanović, Women in Black, and a few free-thinking intellectuals and journalists.

And while Serbia, on this side, is sinking deeper into moral decline by denying the crime and genocide in Srebrenica, on the other hand, it presents itself as the bearer of the European path for the countries of the region.

As Prime Minister Brnabić states, today's parade is Serbia. But it would be honest if they strived with such fervor to acknowledge the past so that we could have a more realistic future. As long as Serbia and its leaders deny what the whole world has called the greatest crime in Europe since World War II, true friendship will not and cannot exist.