They or We?
“Once upon a time, in a faraway part of Europe ,behind seven mountains and seven rivers, there was a beautiful country called Yugoslavia. Its people belonged to six different nations, and they were of three different religions and spoke thre different languages. They were Croats,Serbs,Slovens,Macedonians,Montenegrins and Muslims yet they all work together ,went to school together, married each other ,and lived in relative harmony for forty-five years.
But because it is not a fairy tale, the story of this beautiful country has no happy ending. Yugoslavia fell apart in a terrible and bloody war, a war that claimed some two hundred thousand lives – mostly in Bosnia – displaced two million people, and produced several new states : Slovania,Bosnia,Croatia,Serbia and Macedonia. Albanians and Montenegrins are still struggling for heir independence.”
The Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic in her book , They would never hurt a fly , gave a befitting caption to this introduction : Not a fairy tale. I only reproduced the initial paragraphs of the introduction.
I was looking for a book on war at the Auckland City Central Library and chanced upon this one. I never knew Drakulic or her writings .I just flipped through the pages and found that war at Yugoslavia is mentioned. Although a contemporary
happening I knew too little both about the country and their problems. So I issued it expecting a conventional war book. But I was proved wrong.
The book used the prolonged civil war which tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s as just the back drop. The content of the book took the readers much beyond the war and appeared unique to me. Drakulic neither described the war nor even the details of the war atrocities committed. She instead portrayed some
of the individuals accused of murder, rape, torture, ordering executions and more during and after the war. Notable among them were former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic,Radislav Krstic, the first to be sentenced for genocide; Biljana Plavsic, the only woman accused of war crimes; and Ratko Kladic, in hiding and being tried in absentia.. She also told the stories of Milan Levar, a war veteran and witness who was murdered when he tried to speak out, and of Mira Markovic, the influential wife of Milosevic.
To me it appears a little out of the way for some one to write a matter-of-fact book from the perspective of the perpetrators of the war. Why then did Drakulic write the book? While it was widely known that the criminals under discussion committed such indescribable acts fitted only monsters what prompted her to examine them? But Drakulic was reluctant to brand the lot as monsters and thus create as great a distance as possible so that they might be excluded from humanity altogether. She never wanted to conclude and escape rather preferred to ask herself , “ Who were they? Ordinary people like you or me – or monsters?”
Her findings frightened her .Yes they mostly were ordinary people not monsters. They mostly took these as sacred duties.Out of sheer passion they would never do harm to a fly.Their age old suppressed mutual hatred had been easily manipulated to antagonize each other.Thus Serbs became the enemies of Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Albanians and the Croats at one point were at war not only with the Serbs but with Muslims as well, while the Macedonians’ enemies were Albanians. Therefore, they did not need an outside enemy to start a war. The enemy was very much inside- just waiting for the time to strike.
This book forces me to retrospect and ponder. We live in a country which is immensely diverse. We take genuine pride in the prevailing unity of the country in diversity. But too often groups having vested interests manipulate the differences and conflicts start. We fall prey to this, tend to take sides and brand the opposition as “ Others”. Once we brand some people as “ Others” , we create a distance with them and do not feel responsible for their well being.We all are so well aware that I do not need to provide instances.
Drakulic also felt angry with herself . She asked “ Is it possible that the war crept into our lives slowly, stealthily like a thief ? “ Of course, no. “ Why didn’t we do something to prevent it? “
Shouldn’t we?
But because it is not a fairy tale, the story of this beautiful country has no happy ending. Yugoslavia fell apart in a terrible and bloody war, a war that claimed some two hundred thousand lives – mostly in Bosnia – displaced two million people, and produced several new states : Slovania,Bosnia,Croatia,Serbia and Macedonia. Albanians and Montenegrins are still struggling for heir independence.”
The Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic in her book , They would never hurt a fly , gave a befitting caption to this introduction : Not a fairy tale. I only reproduced the initial paragraphs of the introduction.
I was looking for a book on war at the Auckland City Central Library and chanced upon this one. I never knew Drakulic or her writings .I just flipped through the pages and found that war at Yugoslavia is mentioned. Although a contemporary
happening I knew too little both about the country and their problems. So I issued it expecting a conventional war book. But I was proved wrong.
The book used the prolonged civil war which tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s as just the back drop. The content of the book took the readers much beyond the war and appeared unique to me. Drakulic neither described the war nor even the details of the war atrocities committed. She instead portrayed some
of the individuals accused of murder, rape, torture, ordering executions and more during and after the war. Notable among them were former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic,Radislav Krstic, the first to be sentenced for genocide; Biljana Plavsic, the only woman accused of war crimes; and Ratko Kladic, in hiding and being tried in absentia.. She also told the stories of Milan Levar, a war veteran and witness who was murdered when he tried to speak out, and of Mira Markovic, the influential wife of Milosevic.
To me it appears a little out of the way for some one to write a matter-of-fact book from the perspective of the perpetrators of the war. Why then did Drakulic write the book? While it was widely known that the criminals under discussion committed such indescribable acts fitted only monsters what prompted her to examine them? But Drakulic was reluctant to brand the lot as monsters and thus create as great a distance as possible so that they might be excluded from humanity altogether. She never wanted to conclude and escape rather preferred to ask herself , “ Who were they? Ordinary people like you or me – or monsters?”
Her findings frightened her .Yes they mostly were ordinary people not monsters. They mostly took these as sacred duties.Out of sheer passion they would never do harm to a fly.Their age old suppressed mutual hatred had been easily manipulated to antagonize each other.Thus Serbs became the enemies of Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Albanians and the Croats at one point were at war not only with the Serbs but with Muslims as well, while the Macedonians’ enemies were Albanians. Therefore, they did not need an outside enemy to start a war. The enemy was very much inside- just waiting for the time to strike.
This book forces me to retrospect and ponder. We live in a country which is immensely diverse. We take genuine pride in the prevailing unity of the country in diversity. But too often groups having vested interests manipulate the differences and conflicts start. We fall prey to this, tend to take sides and brand the opposition as “ Others”. Once we brand some people as “ Others” , we create a distance with them and do not feel responsible for their well being.We all are so well aware that I do not need to provide instances.
Drakulic also felt angry with herself . She asked “ Is it possible that the war crept into our lives slowly, stealthily like a thief ? “ Of course, no. “ Why didn’t we do something to prevent it? “
Shouldn’t we?
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