Video arrested the war criminal (?)
(okay-just my poor parody on the "Video killed the radio star" song title. ;-) )
The eternal pessimist in me says that nothing will come out of this latest plan to arrest Mladic; but in case you are interested here is a news I read via "Google News."
BBC article: Plan to arrest Mladic
One of the more interesting aspects of this new campaign to arrest Mr. Mladic, is a media campaign "aimed at winning support for Mr Mladic's arrest." The article does not go into details about what this campaign would entail. I think the creation of an "anti Mladic" media campaign in certainly a positive one. And given the constant misuse of the media and propaganda by the leadership in Belgrade and Pale during the war, if this media campaign does lead to Mr. Mladic's arrest, I doubt the irony would be lost on anyone.
That being said, as a practical matter, I'm not sure how effective this media campaign is going to be. I doubt the people who are hiding Mladic are going to be moved by any ads on the TV. Therefore even if the media campaign makes an impact with the "average person" the people who diehard nationalist and those who are involved in hiding Mladic, are not going to be moved to do anything.
Of course, the TV ad are just a small part of the new plan to arrest Mladic, there is also the cordination of security forces and the creation of "new laws" (no specific examples are given). The fact that Mladic has a great deal of support within Serbia, and a lack of political will (but that seems to be changing to some extent) to capture Mladic, will make arresting Mladic very difficult.
I'm interested in what everyone's opinion is of the use of the media campaign to help encourage support for Mladic's arrest. Is it a small, but hopeful sign? Not relevant? Both? Neither?
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2 comments:
I think that the average Serbian people were pretty shocked by the execution film a while back, but it didn't change any hardcore nationalist opinions. So it's somewhere between. The Serbian Orthodox Church bears some responsibility, so do certain academics, and of course the psychologists, like Karadzic.
I agree. While, I think that the average person in Belgrade was shocked by the Srebrenica video-I doubt that it changed the opinion of the hardcore nationalists.
Like you noted, the Serbian Orthodox Church and certain academic circles bear some blame in not only cultivating the hardcore nationalist feelings over the years, but also aiding Mladic in his life in hiding.
Speaking of Kradzic-I wonder if he and Mladic are still in contact?
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