Journalists and academics from around the world demanded on Monday evening in Stockholm, Sweden, that the Austrian author Peter Handke be stripped of the Nobel Prize for Literature for denying the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, Anadolu Agency reported.
Among the guests who gathered at the ABF building in Stockholm were Alida Bremer, German writer with Croatian roots, German and French journalists Elke Schmitter and Florence Hartmann, American journalist Roy Gutman, Emir Suljagic, director of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, Swedish journalist Christina Doctare, member of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee Enver Djuliman, and Mirsad Duratovic the President of the Regional Association of Banjaluka Region Prisoners’ Association.
A Bosnian-born politician living in Sweden, Alen Musaefendic, spoke on behalf of the assembled group. He said those gathered demanded that Handke be stripped of his reward because of his support for Serb war crimes committed in Bosnia.
He said it was unacceptable that the Swedish Academy awarded a writer who was an apologist for the genocide in Bosnia, which the entire world recognised as such.
“Important international writers and academics have gathered here to respond to this situation. They are seeking the withdrawal of the award,” Musaefendic said.
This year's Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Austrian writer Peter Handke, is known for controversial views on the developments in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, denying the genocide and defending Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who was also the Hague Tribunal's indictee for war crimes.
The award of the Nobel Prize to Handke provoked many negative reactions in the region and the world, with a protest that was held in front of the Swedish Embassy in Sarajevo, Pristina…
Boycott of the Award Ceremony
Following the press conference where Handke refused to answer questions about Srebrenica and his support for Milosevic, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Turkey, and according to the Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli, Afghanistan and Northern Macedonia announced they would not attend the award ceremony for Literature in Stockholm.
#BosniaWarJournalists
Journalists, reporters from across the world who reported from Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war voiced their protest and condemnation of the Swedish Academy's decision to reward Handke. Some of the journalists were Christiane Amanpour, former Boston Globe reporter and former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, war reporter, conflict analyst and author Janine di Giovanni, and others.
I was there. We all know who's guilty. #handke #bosnia #BosniaWarJournalists pic.twitter.com/DL2nb8WAQY
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) December 9, 2019
On 7/14/95, I filed a @BostonGlobe story from Sarajevo containing initial reports of massacres in Srebrenica. The world would soon learn the extent of the genocide being committed by Bosnian Serb soldiers, who murdered 8,000 Muslim men & boys. Undeniable fact. #Handke #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/N91aLzFXwK
— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) December 9, 2019
I reported all the Yugo wars. Saw monstrous crimes. #BosniaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize Later testified at war crimes trials, inc those of Bosnian Serb leaders Karadzic & Mladic. The grim detail in court records https://t.co/nfiRcCPbMk
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) December 9, 2019
In protest of #Handke #NobelPrize tomorrow in Stockholm, I'm going through my archive posting my essays from the years witnessing atrocities in #Bosnia and the aftermath of tracking war criminals. #BosniaWarJournalistshttps://t.co/UmkMu1siu1
— Janine di Giovanni (@janinedigi) December 9, 2019
In April 1992, a handful of young doctors, not one of them a surgeon, was trapped along with 50,000 men, women and children in the embattled enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, a town whose tragedy still reverberates. #Handke #NobelPrize #BosniaWarJournalists pic.twitter.com/Yp32TUIAlg
— Sheri Fink (@sherifink) December 9, 2019
Giving the #Nobel to #Handke – a genocide denier – is beyond disrespectful to all those who suffered and died in the #Bosnia war. As a #BosniaWarReporters from those dark days, I am horrified the international community will stand by and let this happenhttps://t.co/KVjyT9j7Jy
— Janine di Giovanni (@janinedigi) December 9, 2019
I will never forget walking around the mass graves holding hundreds of men & boys who were blindfolded, shot & buried on farmland near Srebrenica. We know Milosevic was responsible.#Handke #NobelPrize #BosniaWarJournalists https://t.co/Im1TaC3nB4 pic.twitter.com/Az1OkjZ50d
— EmmaDaly (@EmmaDaly) December 9, 2019
As announced earlier, the Swedish capital will host a great protest against the decision to award Peret Handke with this prestigious award, where organizers (various associations of victims and survivors of the Srebrenica genocide) expect a great turnout.
