In April 1995, a few months before the Dayton peace accords brought a cease-fire to the fighting, a large memorial was dedicated on the Sava River bank to those massacred in nearby concentration camps during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia 50 years ago. Change the names of the victims on the inscription and the crimes sound hauntingly familiar. It says genocide was committed by the Nazis against 100,000 Serbs, Jews, and gypsies at four nearby camps and by the Croats, who were allied with the Germans, and Hungarian occupying forces. But to everyone but themselves, it is a role they can no longer play with any degree of believability. Victims do not ethnically cleanse or use violence to end peaceful demonstrations.
Victims are never so well-armed.
Staff writer Jacqueline Marino visited Belgrade for a story which will appear in the June issue of Memphis magazine. Memphis Flyer . Info Booth .