29 May 2006 Rocking Srebrenica

"From far away, through the sights of a sniper, they would look like Muslims, Serbs or Croats to somebody, but I approached them face to face, I saw them clearly, and trust me… They were just people…" — ÄorÄ‘e BalaševiÄ‡

In 1995, Serbian forces massacred about 10,000 people in Srebrenica. Try to come up with 10,000 people around you. It probably includes all of your co-workers, classmates, friends, relatives and half the stadium of the last match you went to.

At the same time, Vojvodinian punk band Atheist Rap, was probably somewhere rehearsing their hit song which goes:

I don't wanna die,

die in Sarajevo fight,

die for the blood-red gang,

and listen to bang, bang, bang.

Eleven years later, on 3rd July, Atheist Rap will be the first Serbian band to play in Srebrenica after the massacre, along with Sarajevan band Zabranjeno Pušenje (my favorite growing up) and some other peace-loving bands. I wish them luck, and hope there are no incidents in Bosnia. So far, most cooperation between peoples of former Yugoslavia has been through art, and "Ateisti" are true ambassadors of peace.

If you think this is as cool, go to their website, click on "Guestbook", and tell them so.

Comments

varske: wrote on Jun 5, 07:32 PM:

Something wrong with the 2005 date at the beginning, surely should be 1995. A good point about imagining what such large numbers mean in terms of the people we actually know.

I'm glad to be able to find rational Serb comments in the blogosphere. There don't seem to be many of them