Many things are simply not done, and anyone who takes up even the smallest portion of the public space has a duty to point this out, whether they are motivated by their expertise, profession, or pure accident. The attention of the general public is captured not only to criticise, but also to form a critically minded public, who asks questions more frequently and tries to provide answers, often a grey-area ones, balanced and not black and white. But, not to theorize too much, allow me to get to the point, which will in this case nonetheless be black and white nearly to the end of the text.
White – Recently, Albin Kurti expressed his regret over the great loss for Europe – the murder of the young and up-and-coming Swedish politician Anna Lindh, who was murdered in Stockholm in that fatal 2003. This is something everyone should welcome.
Black – It would not be a problem at all (on the contrary!) had Kurti not placed this murder in his statement and writing only in the context of the killer, who, as facts demonstrate, is originally from these parts of the world, and in his alleged view of the 1999 bombing. However, Kurti intentionally overlooks the fact that the killer in question has quite a long list of violent behaviour, and evidently some major mental issues – all of which was confirmed in the course of an efficient trial that only Sweden can have, and that the connection to the dark year of 1999 was not established anywhere.
White – It was a Swedish court case without a single ice bullet, echo, response, suspicious theories, or complications by people whose last name sounds like the word ‘complication’, but also without lawyers to muddy the waters, contrary to the code that obliges them to do so. There were no parts of an organized criminal group in Sweden either, who would provide justifications for themselves in tabloids, if they have them there in the first place. There were no officials of the then Ministry of Human and Minority Rights in Sweden who keep a photograph of some Swedish Legija on their desktop.
But I digress, as lawyers are wont to do and indeed do, since you are not reminding me, as readers should.
Black and forever black – The murder of Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of the Government of Serbia, in that very 2003, changed the course of Serbia’s history, i.e. slowed down the history to an extent that we still wonder whether we will ever be members of the great family of countries and nations of the European Union. While we wait for the masterminds of this shot at Serbia, i.e. for the court trial that will open the Pandora’s box and provide us with answers to the questions of who we are, where we are going, and whether we are ready for this journey, what we have is a well-grounded conviction of Zoran Đinđić’s murderers, containing the details indicating that was just the final act of over two decades of political murders and affairs that the state – no matter how shallow or deep it may be – should not get involved in.
White – After the response to this piece of writing by Albin Kurti, I found a long since written and published article titled “Palme, Anna Lindh, and Zoran Đinđić,” in which the murders of people who left a mark on an era are brought together – Olof Palme, Anna Lindh, and Zoran Đinđić – forever linking Sweden and Serbia. Also described therein is a small glass plaque on the Citizen Square in Stockholm, in memory of Anna Lindh and the place where she gave her final speech. Belgrade and Serbia deserve writing for all time that Anna Lindh was in Belgrade on that 12 March 2003, waiting for Zoran Đinđić at the then Anti-Corruption Agency, and was informed there about his murder. We need such a memorial today, in 2023, as an indicator of the energy which was there back in the day – the energy to completely change Serbia – as well as a reminder that it was precisely the fight against corruption that captured the attention of both Zoran Đinđić and our European friends.
As I have not written for you about the article that has inspired me and which I am describing, here is my answer.
White and forever white - Borka Pavićević, a role model for how to fight for what one believes in, for how to build integrity. It is also a lesson in how to keep the integrity in everything you write and do, as well as a lesson to all on how to fight against constant judgements and denigration. I would like to insert here a quotation from her article which can serve as a guideline for us – the death of the builder is not the death of the building, especially if we have in mind democracy and the values that belong to us as citizens.
Lastly allow me to finish by sending a message to the incumbent Kosovo leader – history should be interpreted fairly, not everything is black and white, which is being proven these days in the investigation of the crimes committed by the KLA, formally conducted under the auspices of the Kosovo judiciary, but in actuality far away from us – in the Hague.
That is a grey area, and the young people both in Kosovo and Serbia must know that in order to learn to live together, without hate or conflicts. I wish for them to learn to live together in these parts, in these beautiful Western Balkans, although many of them learn to live together and respect each other only in Europe, in the West, where they go to “have decent lives”.
