Krokodil Association: Who is next after Arsenijević, assault squads are an extended arm of political structures

The Board of Directors of the Krokodil Association requested that all relevant social and political actors unequivocally condemn the attack on its president, Vladimir Aresenijević, that the competent authorities find the perpetrators and conduct an investigation into the instigators and instigators, as well as that his physical safety be ensured.

This association demands "unambiguous recognition of the genocide in Srebrenica by the highest state officials and a final break with the practice of denial, relativization and glorification of war criminals, because attacks like this morning are their direct consequence."

As it described, the writer Arsenijević was beaten under Branko's Bridge in Belgrade: "He was met by a group of twenty to thirty young men who threatened him, beat him and desecrated the area where the commemoration of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide was to be held with graffiti glorifying the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić and the Army of Republika Srpska, who committed that genocide."

"This attack is neither the first nor isolated. It is the latest in a series of attacks on Krokodil and on all those who seek responsibility for the wars of the 1990s, for the victims and for the way we remember them, not only on other sides, but also in their own society and in the institutions of the state of Serbia. Attempts to discredit all those who fight for the truth about war crimes and the genocide in Srebrenica have been ongoing for years," the Krokodil Association stated.

It warned that "assault squads never choose their victims themselves and never react independently – they are an extended arm of the political structures at whose behest they act."

It also pointed out that Arsenijević "for decades, through the work of the Krokodil Association and through personal engagement, has represented a clear and strong voice against hatred, violence, nationalism and war, both in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and today, in Ukraine or Palestine."

"Attacking a man who builds a space for books, dialogue and facing facts means attacking all of us who care about these values. We rightly wonder who is next. Such organized groups have been attacking students, citizens and journalists on the streets and squares of Serbia for years," emphasized the Board of Directors of the Krokodil Association.

Writer Vladimir Arsenijević announced yesterday that he was beaten in Belgrade, on the eve of the announced commemoration for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.

He posted a video on Instagram recorded under Branko's Bridge, where a commemoration organized by Serbian civil society was supposed to be held yesterday.

Civil society organizations and individuals from the region strongly condemn the physical attack on Arsenijević, the Human Rights Action (HRA) announced yesterday.