*I wouldn't like to darkly suggest that "justice" never
arrives in the Balkans; I mean, look at this;
some World War II veterans have just received
their pensions! Oh wait – no, it was *voted*
that they ought to receive their pensions; I'd
be guessing that now they have to announce
themselves as former anticommunists if they
actually want to RECEIVE those pensions.
*Some of those guys are still ambulatory! It's
never too late! This is a formal act of Balkan healing
and reconciliation at the breakneck pace of a
mere 60 years!
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
SERBIAN WORLD WAR II CHETNIK VETERANS TO RECEIVE PENSIONS... The Serbian parliament voted overwhelmingly on 21 December to enable members of Draza Mihajlovic's World War II Ravnogora Chetnik movement to receive the same pensions as veterans of Josip Broz Tito's Partisan forces, international and regional media reported.
The bill was sponsored by the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) of Serbia and Montenegro's Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic and received broad support, except from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), which opposed the measure.
'
The bill noted that during World War II, "the greater part of Serbia was with Mihajlovic and supported him. A slur on the Serbia of 60 years ago is also a slur on the Serbia of today." Dpa reported that historians and war veterans attentively followed the debate on the bill, but most citizens "appeared uninterested, even exasperated." PM
...AS CONTROVERSIES CONTINUE. The decision by the Serbian parliament on 21 December to enable Chetniks to receive the same pensions as Partisans is likely to strain Serbia's relations with Bosnia and Croatia, where Mihajlovic and the Chetniks are widely regarded as aggressive pro-Axis nationalists, dpa reported.
In fact, society in most former Yugoslav republics is divided between families who supported the Partisans and those who backed their opponents. Under Communist rule, the Partisans were lionized and their opponents slammed in black-and-white terms, ignoring the many shades of gray on
both sides.
The Ravnogora movement consisted originally of veterans
of the defeated Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, who eventually turned to collaboration with the Axis due to the complex circumstances of war. There were parallel developments in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans. Moreover, collaboration between the Communists and the Axis was not unknown. After the war, Tito's Communists hounded and often killed Chetnik veterans and discriminated against their families in matters of education, employment, and social benefits.
here were parallel moves in
Croatia, Slovenia, and elsewhere not only against active
collaborators and their families but also against conscripts in
pro-Axis units. Probably no former Yugoslav successor state has succeeded in healing the often deep wounds left from World War II. PM
*Happy New Year, fellows!
