Press Releases

11/27/2019

Nobel Prize for Peter Handke

Suhrkamp is acting as an accomplice (Press Release)

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had found seven Serbian defendants guilty of organizing the genocide of Srebrenica – including members of the Serbian leadership. In 1995, immediately after the genocide crimes, Handke had traveled to Serbia and written a book about his impressions. Picture: Photo RNW.org via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is calling on the publishing house Suhrkamp to appeal to the conscience of its author Peter Handke. Thus, the publisher should try to persuade Handke to apologize to the victims of the genocide of Srebrenica. So far, Suhrkamp had tried to protect Handke, ignoring the deeply hurt feelings of the victims. In doing so, it will be seen as guilty of unnecessarily mocking the victims," stated Jasna Causevic, expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, on behalf of the STP. The publisher should appeal to Handke to take moral responsibility for his words.

It is understandable that a private-sector publishing house would like to decorate itself with a Nobel Prize winner. "If Mr. Handke is not willing to apologize to the survivors and the relatives of the victims, this award will lose its glamour," Causevic emphasized. "The Suhrkamp publishing house would do itself and the world of literature a favor if it could persuade Handke to meet up with representatives of the victims in order to apologize."

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had found seven Serbian defendants guilty of organizing the genocide of Srebrenica – including members of the Serbian leadership. In 1995, immediately after the genocide crimes, Handke had traveled to Serbia and written a book about his impressions. "Apparently, Handke fell for the Potemkin villages that were presented to him in the course of his 'winter journey'," Causevic added. At the same time, he apparently considered eyewitness reports and all the evidence of the genocide in eastern Bosnia to be worthless, although verified by an international court. "The award ceremony in Stockholm should also serve to commemorate the victims and the survivors of the crimes in Bosnia," Causevic emphasized.

Header image: Photo RNW.org via Flickr