Slavenka Drakulić on the Serbs' role in Mladić's crimes

The former general of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mladić, was handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Tuesday where he faces trial on charges of genocide. But the question of to what extent the population shares the blame for the crime should not be forgotten, writes Croat author Slavenka Drakulić in the liberal-conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "The question that all parties are trying to suppress regarding the war is: is there such a thing as collective political responsibility for what happened? ... There is no collective guilt, either among the Serbs or any other people. But the citizens of Serbia - like those of Bosnia and Croatia - who always voted for their nationalist leaders who led them into self-destructive wars - should not believe that they are innocent of turning Mladić into a war criminal. No court can judge their behaviour, only their bad consciences and the judgement of history. This is the paradox, that Ratko Mladić reminds them all of their own role in the butchery, which they believe they can forget once he is behind bars."

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