Alma Cekovic
23 October 2019•Update: 24 October 2019
BELGRADE, Serbia
Relatives of Bosnian War victims on Wednesday condemned the Swedish Academy for its decision to give the Nobel Prize in Literature to Peter Handke.
The Austrian playwright, novelist and poet Handke was awarded the 2019 prize in early October, "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience," according to the statement by the Swedish Royal Academy of Science.
Associations of war victims and relatives operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday jointly stood up against Handke’s prize.
The associations' representatives in the capital Sarajevo sent a letter of condemnation to the Swedish Academy which oversees the prestigious award.
The academy's statement on Handke is "a poor explanation," Kata Hotic from Mothers of Srebrenica Association said at a joint press conference.
The Swedish Royal Academy of Science said that the author's literary life was separated from his political views.
The academy lost its credibility, Fikret Grabovic, president of the Association of Families of Children Murdered in the War, said.
"Such decisions deeply hurt relatives of victims," Grabovic added.
The main reason for sending condemnation letters is to prevent such decisions from being made again in the future, Jasmin Meskovic, president of the Association of Victims of the concentration camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina said.
Earlier, Sefik Dzaferovic, a member of Bosnian Presidency, said that the prize was "scandalous and shameful".
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Twitter said that "Never thought [I] would feel to vomit because of a Nobel Prize".
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci tweeted: "The decision of Nobel Prize brought immense pain to countless victims".
Between April 1992 and December 1995, an estimated 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million displaced in Bosnia. Up to 50,000 women, mostly Bosniak, were raped.
The Bosnian War was sparked by the break-up of Yugoslavia, which led Bosnia to declare its independence in February 1992.
Its capital Sarajevo came under attack from Bosnian Serb militias, backed by the Yugoslav army, in what became the longest siege in modern history.
Handke is known as a great admirer of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died at the international tribunal in The Hague on trial for war crimes and genocide.
"Stand up if you support the Serbs," Handke said in an article he published during the war in Kosovo.
He claimed that the Muslim Bosniaks in Sarajevo killed themselves and put the blame on the Serbs, and added that he never believed the Serbs committed genocide in Srebrenica.
Also, he visited former Serbian leader Milosevic in prison and made attempts to testify in his favor.
"I am here for Yugoslavia, for Serbia, for Slobodan Milosevic," Handke said, attending Milosevic's funeral in 2006.
Handke will also receive 9 million Swedish kronor ($952,000), as well as a medal and a diploma.
* Talha Ozturk from Belgrade contributed to this report
