Right-Wing Serbians Protested Convicted Genocidist Radovan Karadžić's Prison Sentence

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Travel

Right-Wing Serbians Protested Convicted Genocidist Radovan Karadžić's Prison Sentence

A far-right group used the happy coincidence of the former Bosnian Serb leader's war crime sentencing and an anniversary of NATO's bombing of Serbia to push an anti-EU agenda.

This gallery originally appeared on VICE Serbia

It was as if everything suddenly happened in a day. In Serbia, Thursday, March 24 couldn't have been more packed with news events: former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was sentenced to 40 years in prison for war crimes, it was the anniversary of the start of NATO's 1999 bombing campaign on Serbia—launched against Belgrade's repression of Kosovo, anti-NATO rally,—and a group of left-wingers faced off a bigger group of far-right protesters rallying against NATO and the EU.

Advertisement

Karadžić is the highest-ranking official to be sentenced for genocide committed during the Bosnian war, in which 100,000 people were killed and more than 2.2 million fled their homes. It was and still is the bloodiest conflict Europe has seen after World War II.

In central Belgrade, the verdict against Karadžić inspired street vendors to put up makeshift stands selling badges and Serbian flags for a rally called by another war crimes suspect, Serbian hardline politician Vojislav Seselj.

Seselj, whose sentencing is expected on March 31, said his rally was a protest "against the verdict on Radovan Karadžić," which came, as coincidence would have it, on the same day NATO began its air war against Serbia 17 years ago."

Several thousand people cheered Seselj's anti-EU vows and chanted "Serbia, Russia, we do not need the [European] Union" and "Fuck you, Clinton," reminding us all that the US' current future presidential candidate's husband was seen here as a key architect behind NATO's air war on Serbia.

Then it was time for a brief stand-off between left-wingers and right-wingers, who barked at each other until anti-riot police units lost their patience and separated the two groups.

Prayers, candles, flags, and firecrackers: this long March 24 was finally over. Here's what our photographer saw.