| Karadzikj=Oscar Wilde. | |
| AaaAa | Ne e za u politika, ne e za u literatura--pa aj ovde, sorry ppl ako zgresiv. Inace sakav da kazam-- quote: Jas stvarno zalam ako ovie knigi "kazuvaat" koi se Srbive ko gore citiranava tetka sto veruva.Procitajte za koi knigi stanuva zbor: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/international/europe/21serbia.html?oref=login Raves for Authors With a Solid Grasp of Serb Atrocities By NICHOLAS WOOD Published: January 21, 2005 BELGRADE, Serbia - Milorad Ulemek, a first-time novelist, has been quite a success. In just two weeks, his novel about the war in Bosnia, "Iron Trench," has sold close to 70,000 copies, a record in Serbia, according to the publisher, Mihailo Vojnovic. While pleased with sales, Mr. Vojnovic, the director of M Books, concedes that the novel's success may have less do with its content than with its author's notoriety. Milorad Ulemek is Serbia's most infamous paramilitary soldier, a man who rights groups say was responsible for some the worst atrocities in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990's. He is more commonly known by his nom de guerre, Legija - literally "of the legion," from his time in the French Foreign Legion. He also occasionally adopts the surname Lukovic, which he took from his former wife. As a nationalist writer, though, he faces some competition. Dr. Radovan Karadzic, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict and the man most wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal, has also written a novel. And just this week, another former president of the Bosnian Serb republic, Biljana Plavsic, who is in a Swedish prison serving a sentence for war crimes, released her book about the war. While Ms. Plavsic's book is the only one that sheds any light on the events of the war, it is the other two that have prompted the most acclaim here. Nationalist admirers of Mr. Ulemek and Dr. Karadzic have declared their works masterpieces of Serbian literature, comparable in style to the works of Albert Camus and James Joyce. Dr. Karadzic's "The Miraculous Chronicle of the Night," published in October, was short-listed for Serbia's top literary award, the Golden Sunflower. Such comparisons have provoked indignation among more liberal commentators. Dr. Karadzic, a psychiatrist by profession, is widely regarded by diplomats and historians as the chief architect of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, while Mr. Ulemek is seen as one of the policy's principal executioners. Most commentators are agreed on one thing: the rave reviews for both novels reflect the near mythic status still accorded here to the nationalist figures of the 1990's, men who helped tear Yugoslavia apart in wars that killed more than 250,000 people. Both authors managed to produce their books while on the run from various authorities. The war crimes tribunal in The Hague believes Dr. Karadzic has been on the move between Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro. It is not clear how the manuscript found its way to the publishers. Mr. Vojnovic says Mr. Ulemek's common law wife passed on the manuscript shortly after he surrendered to the Serbian police last year in Belgrade. A former commander of the Serbian secret police's military branch, the Red Berets, Mr. Ulemek is on trial not for war crimes but for the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was shot and killed outside his office in March 2003. Neither the accusations nor Mr. Ulemek's war record have deterred readers like Ljiljana Tanic. "It's a philosophical novel, quite similar to Camus's 'Plague,' that shows Ulemek's understanding of human suffering," said the bespectacled 67-year-old, who works in a Belgrade bookstore. The novel tells the story of a Serbian soldier lying critically wounded in a trench. While blatantly anti-Muslim in tone, it questions what was gained by the war in Bosnia. The dedication reads, "To all my compatriots, those who are gone and those who live questioning the meaning of their sacrifice." The book appears to reveal a previously unrecognized intellectual streak in Mr. Ulemek, although some critics have questioned whether the former paramilitary actually wrote it. "I think the last piece of writing Legija did was his school homework," said Zarko Trebjesanin, a psychology professor at Belgrade University. Dr. Karadzic's reputation as a writer is more firmly established. "The Miraculous Chronicle of the Night" is his fourth publication since he went into hiding in 1996. Other recent works include a children's book, a selection of his poetry and a play. This is his first novel, and is centered on Sarajevo in 1980-81. The hero is an engineer who, like Dr. Karadzic, is sent to prison at the time of Tito's death. "It's like Joyce's 'Dubliners,' " said Momo Kapor, an artist who illustrated Dr. Karadzic's children's book and a member of the Committee to Protect the Truth of Radovan Karadzic, a Karadzic support group. "It is equal to the best pages in Serbian literature." Mr. Kapor said he sees Dr. Karadzic as belonging to a long tradition of writers like Ezra Pound or Oscar Wilde, brilliant authors who were frequently condemned by their contemporaries. "We would have lost many precious pieces of literature if we ignored condemned authors," he added. Praise like this has angered rights activists, concerned that almost a decade after the end of the war in Bosnia accused war criminals are being treated like heroes. Natasha Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Center, a rights organization based in Belgrade, said foreign publishers should have boycotted the Belgrade book fair in October to protest the venue being used to launch Dr. Karadzic's novel. However, for readers like Ms. Tanic, the two novels provide a view that echoes their own, depicting Serbia as the victim of an international conspiracy. "People abroad don't know about us," she said. "They are representing us as wild people. They don't know who we really are. These books tell the truth." According to Ms. Kandic, that sense of victimization will linger as long as the government refuses to confront Serbia's role in the wars of the 1990's. "We don't have a strong enough public opinion that will offer an alternative story, or politicians who can offer an alternative view of Serbia," she said. As for Mr. Vojnovic, Mr. Ulemek's publisher, he believes sales of "Iron Trench" can only increase. "When he is sentenced there will be an even bigger demand," he said. Two more books by Mr. Ulemek are due to be published this spring. |
| RaGeAnGeL | koj te nak*rci ma olku jako[?][:D] |
| AaaAa | ? Shto tebe ti zalici na "nakurcuvanje" ovde? nije tako lako. I ne kvari tema. [:)] |