[ad_1]
One photo shows the Serbian tennis star sitting next to the former commander of a military unit that participated in the Srebrenica genocide.
Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has been criticized for a photo showing him alongside a former commander of the infamous paramilitary unit Drina Wolves, who participated in the genocide against the Bosnians in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Images posted on Twitter on Sunday showed Djokovic seated at a table next to Milan Jolovic, the former commander who goes by the nickname “Legend”.
Many Serbs are celebrating Jolovic for saving the life of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s.
The images of Djokovic were then published by local media.
In 2017, a UN tribunal found Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general, guilty of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Drina Wolves were a military unit of the Army of Republika Srpska, which participated in the massacre of Bosnians in Srebrenica, later considered genocide by international courts.
During a recent visit to Bosnia, Djokovic was seen singing during a wedding to the Serbian member of the Bosnian Presidency, Milorad Dodik, a well-known genocide denier who regularly advocates for the secession of the Bosnian Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, from the country.
Al Jazeera has contacted representatives for Djokovic for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
the drug of nationalism has killed many heroes. https://t.co/UiMMKdPR2v
-Zoya Rasul (@zoyarasul) September 20, 2021
Political scientist Jasmin Mujanovic wrote on Twitter that Djokovic is unlikely to lose sponsorship deals due to his association with controversial figures.
“Denial of the Bosnian genocide and / or association with those involved in so many (including the actual killings) earns you Nobel Prizes and lectures, not social ostracism,” Mujanovic wrote.
“For those who matter, 0 is also the number of sponsors he lost for posing with a brand of alcohol named after WWII Nazi collaborator Draza Mihailovic. Or when he received an award from government of the entity of Republika Srpska, whose past luminaries include the genocidaires Milosevic, Mladic, Karadzic, etc.
Djokovic had already sparked controversy in 2020 when he accepted the Order of Republika Srpska, presented by Dodik.
The prize was reportedly awarded to Djokovic’s work for the promotion of tennis in the Republika Srpska.
However, critics noted that previous winners of the order included convicted Serbian war criminals such as Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik, Biljana Plavsic and former nationalist president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic.
“Djokovic could have been the greatest of all time, he could have represented the entire sporting planet and helped in a billion ways,” columnist Dragan Bursac wrote in a recent column for the Radio Sarajevo news site.
“Instead, he shares a decoration with war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, he sings in village weddings with the Dodiks and picnics with those responsible for organizing [military] operations that led to the genocide.
“So we can say that the best tennis player in the world, apart from the tennis courts, is like Vulin Aleksandar,” added Bursac, referring to the warmongering Serbian interior minister.
[ad_2]
Source link