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Comment by nezirus | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, lets treat all "sides" equally, since they are all bad (sarcasm ends)

Go to https://www.icty.org/, read about cases, verdicts and pleas:

https://www.icty.org/en/cases/key-figures-cases care to search for the GENOCIDE word in there?

Serbia did bad the things in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and was going to do the same in Kosovo until NATO bombarded them. (Kosovo was already critical in 80ies)

That doesn't absolve any party of the commited (war) crimes, but it is perfectly clear who was/is the regional bully and who commited aggression against neighbours.

I also don't buy tipical lines "they all hate each other", or this is the revenge for what " they" did to "us" in WW2, WW1, during Ottoman times, during Roman times ... Historical crimes are not excuse for new ones, vicious circle must stop somewhere.

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Everything you wrote is correct, and I would just like to add that in all the wars during the 90s, all Serbia had to do in order to avoid war was to not attack other countries and support paramilitary groups inside other countries. They were not defending their territory, they were invading others. Same with this possible invasion that they might be preparing right now, all Serbia needs to do is not attack.

Trying to paint this as "all groups hate and massacre each other" is equating the motives of the attacker/invader/bully with the victim, and is just pure propaganda or invention of alternate reality in order to soothe one's guilty conscience. To draw a parallel with something more people might be able to more clearly visualise, Serbia is the armed robber that breaks into your house and starts stealing your stuff and beating you, your wife and your children. By the logic of the "all sides" propaganda here, you are engaging in "mutual hatred" if you try to defend yourself.

This reads like propaganda piece. Today we know it was not black and white like that. Balkans is relatively peaceful these days yet we see constant attacks on Serbs in Kosovo (primary school got demolished the other day which is pure fascism) and sometimes in eastern Croatia as well (not allowing the use of Serbian language/Cyrillic alphabet).

All in all when can we expect Serbs to have paid their 'debt' not to see attacks on Serbian children anymore for example?

You bring a lot of past into the debate and somehow try to portray that Serbs today are guilty and deserve it when they get oppressed, beaten or killed. Sounds like a witch hunt to me.

Just today three more Serbs were beaten by police in Kosovo.They accused them of illegally crossing the border, booked them and then let them leave. Those three people went home to their houses in, wait for it ... Kosovo. Fine, if they illegally crossed the border you book them. No need to beat them right. But unfortunately this is now standard procedure there.

If there are illegal attacks on Serbs (especially children, as you put it), then they should stop and no country should mistreat its citizens. Furthermore, it would be better for everyone to reduce tensions and promote unity and peace, obviously. So that covers that.

Now, Serbia needs to stop waging wars in other countries and stop promoting nationalism that has historically lead to constant violence. Serbia has its history and it earned its reputation by its own acts. It would be extremely foolish for Serbia's neighbouring countries to ignore that history.

Why do you keep saying Serbia should stop waging wars when Serbia actually didn't wage any wars in the last 24 years at least? If you don't count Kosovo war (considering it's Serbia's territory as per the UN) then it's more like 28 years.

It would also be extremely foolish for Serbia to ignore hostilities towards Serbs from others. How long into the past can we go? 24 years, 20, 50, 100, 200, 300? Violence in 2004 on Kosovo? I mean you seems to be perfectly fine excusing current terror against Serbs by something that happened 25 years ago. The whole issue in the Balkans is lack of trust due to experience with each other, which is not really good. You can't have favourites here.

What you're writing is pure nonsensical propaganda with throwing out 'promoting nationalism, constant violence'. Show me an example of Serbia promoting violence in the last 20 years? I think they are quite pacified. Kosovo is a complex issue and you can't just expect a sovereign country to give a part of their internationally recognized territory away. I guess you equate Serbia not recognising Kosovo as independent country as promoting nationalism and violence. It's like saying Ukraine is promoting violence when they fight in Donbas. Serbia and Kosovo were on their way to peace and some kind of normality when EU negotiated the treaty 10 years ago. Guess who it is that didn't implement what they signed. What is happening today is a direct consequence of that.

You are aware that Milošević and Tuđman both agreed to carve up Bosnia, right? And there was Varivode, "Operation Storm" where the Krajina Serbs who didn't flee quick enough were raped and pillaged, and a whole bunch of other cases. Milošević, the JNA, Srpska, or the Serb "volunteer guard" may have been the worst but there are plenty of contenders for second place. Not to mention the Bosnian mujahideen.

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