Corovic: Throwing eggs at Mladic mural was an expression of anti-fascism

N1

A day after she was detained in Belgrade for throwing eggs at the mural of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, Serbian human rights activist Aida Corovic, told N1 on Wednesday that it was a symbolic act and the least she could do, noting that her position on Ratko Mladic and the mural has lasted ever since the Srebrenica genocide took place.

“On the one hand, it was an image of the authorities in Belgrade, and the two of us (her and a young artist Jelena Acimovic) symbolically wanted to send a message that we’re not ok with that. Yesterday, our Hajra Catic (Srebrenica genocide survivor) passed away, who didn’t get to see her son laid to rest, and simply because of my friends and my 30-year peace engagement, throwing eggs was the least I could do,” she Corovic told N1.

She pointed out that it was a spontaneous reaction and expression of her anti-fascist attitude.

“What followed was, to say the least, a violent, rapacious behaviour. I know how professionals behave, and those young men who jumped me looked at me with hatred. For them, this man [Ratko Mladic], this mural, is a symbol of their life, their intelligence, and if they could have, they would have killed me. I asked them to identify themselves, and they just put hats on their heads and dragged me so brutally that today I see that I have bruises. I’m seeing a doctor today. Jelena also received threats from some young men,” said Corovic, stating that she knew who was behind the incident.

She said she was convinced that the Serbian Minister of the Interior, Aleksandar Vulin, had allegedly “brought the biggest scum, children raised by the streets and football fans. Later, when I was giving a statement at the police station, there was a young man in plain clothing, he was an official in the police, who shouted Ratko Mladic, a Serbian hero, “she said.

She said that there was no need for such behaviour of the police who dragged them and that they could have approached them and told them to move aside.

“I realized they were more afraid of me than I was of them. They are either relatives of the people who killed [during the war in Bosnia], they know that everything will be paid for and that I was symbolically someone who is chasing them and they felt threatened, and that [reaction] was their fear. That mural is an image of the government in Belgrade, but we sent another image to the world,” Corovic noted.

She also pointed out that she would continue to pressure international organizations, but that she had only one message for them: “Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you.”

The plain-clothed police apprehended the human rights activist Aida Corovic after she threw a few eggs at the mural of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic on the corner of Njegosevo and Aleksa Nenadovica street in Belgrade, Serbia.