Natasa Kadic becomes third sixth person from these areas to hit the cover of Time magazine, together with 60 other people, all given the flattery title “Hero”. And while i couldn’t agree that all of them deserve the title (yes, Christian Amanpour, i’m talking about you), I think that Kandic is definately one of those that does.
For more info on her work see Humanitarian Law Center website.
Great honour for Serbia to have Natasa Kandic as representative, and good choice by Time magazine – this woman truly did more for Serbia than many people falsely representing themselves as patriots.
Time’s covers they are-a-changing
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I never liked her nor did I ever slightly agree with any thing that she said, however I’m always glad when anyone from Serbia represents us in a positive light. However, when Ahtisari stated that Serbs are collectivelly guilty, ms. Kandic was the first to support these claims, which for me sounds more like Nazism than anything else. Thus, sorry, I doubt the sanity of NYT.
For me she’s more the opposite of a hero, but this is just my opinion.
I somehow doubt that she could support that statement, because Ahtisaari never said such thing about “collective guilt”.
Well he didn’t exactly say it like that, but he said that “Serbs are guilty as a nation”, which has the same meaning as the collective guilt. Couple days later I read in the news a statement from ms. Kandic that Ahtisari said what was obvious all the time.
I cannot find anywhere on the web that he said “Serbs are guilty as a nation” either. What i found was that he said “every nation has its own burden to bear” which is not nearly the same as ‘collective guilt’ and far from being ‘fascistic’ or ‘nazi’ as Kostunica said.
Ahtisaari isn’t the issue here. I’d be glad, but if she really were presenting Serbia well, or at all neutrally, she wouldn’t hype up Serbian crimes while shoving crimes against Serbs under the carpet. She seems hysterical in her public nastupi and motivated more by hatred and self-interest than by love of justice.
I really can’t believe that any Serb would hail Natasa Kandic as a hero or heroine – at least not a hero of Serbs; perhaps a hero of NATO, of Croatia, of all Serbia’s enemies maybe. I’m not surprised at all that Time magazine might put her on the cover; that’s completely in accord with their attitude to Serbs. She condemns her people and so do they. I’m sorry, but I think your admiration of this woman who is no doubt paid off by NGO’s working against Serbian interests is highly misplaced and misguided. I hope you will look at her actions again and review your opinion. With Serbs like Natasa Kandic, Serbia needs no more enemies.
http://antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=6492
Serbia does not have an enemy in NATO or Croatia anymore. Serbia’s enemies are those working against its benefit, namely Ratko Mladic and other traitors and war criminals who managed to put a put a bad image over Serbia which is still seen today and which carries along a whole set of negative things happening to Serbia, political and indirectly economical things.
Other type of traitors are those not working hard enough to clear that image, to lead Serbia towards reconciliation with its neighbours faster – our current goverment.
Natasa Kandic is a real patriot and she loves her country – why would you think she is doing all this and risk her wellbeing if not for the benefit of the country?
Estavisti, i can understand what you’re saying about her nastupi, but it’s just a surface. Her point gets through nevertheless, for those that want to listen and those looking beyond mere image and public relations.
The point about not showing the crimes against the Serbs is interesting and this is why she gets criticized the most. If you look at the website of the HLC you can see many crimes against Serbs documented there, but people want to see what they want to see. One more thing: if you ask me, it’s logical that you have a better moral ground to speak about the crimes against your own people only if you speak about the crimes commited by your own people. That’s why in my book she is on a higher moral position than those denying or not talking about the crimes commited by their own forces and does more for the country than the whole current govemant. And that’s why she’s the bigger patriot than them.
The same goes for people everywhere prepared to investigate and talk about the war crimes done by their army or paramilitary – Ivan Zvonimir Cicak in Croatia and Neva Miklavcic Predan in Slovenija are good examples.
Viktor,
B92 report on Ahtisaari statement
What I want to say is, ok, long time ago I looked at her website and I find it admirable that she and her organization are helping the refugees in Serbia by fighting for their legal status as well as organizing their returns as well as legal assistance in reclaiming their property. I also find it positive that most documents that went to the ICTY about crimes on Serbs went from her, however, few people in Serbia know about it and this is not because of ignorance but because of ms. Kandic appearances were she talks only about the one side of the story not mentioning about the other side and it is no wonder that she is hated. She should change her nastup. You know I’m not a selective listener, but I don’t really see anything patriotic in her nastupi.
I think that Kandic provides further evidence of the richness of Serbian society generally. No, some of the time at least I dont agree with her opinions but I do respect her and many of those women vilified by the media or those who can only see this in terms of us / them.
I recently saw her representing the families of the Scorpians. Its the same story there – some of the time she goes too far (and the judge slaps her down) but the larger point is that she truly believes in defending the rights of those who have experienced great tragedy.
Perhaps it isnt something that one should be proud of but I do take pride in the fact that Bosniak, Kosovo Albanian, families are free to nornally go about their business in Belgrade – and that those that are in the court process are represented by Serbian lawyers. The ethnic element is secondary – this is the way it should be in a normally functioning society.
People talk about self loathing and similar with regard to Kandic and company – perhaps there is something in that. But lets simplify, some of these people believe in collective responsibility. They feel responsible for the crimes they tried to prevent, that they knew about, comitted by their own forces. This sickened them to the core and they may spend the rest of their lives trying to rid themselves of this sickness. It can become an obsession and push a person to have extreme opinions.
Although I dont believe in collective responsibility that doesnt mean I dont understand why people may have certain ghosts to exorcise.
And I do wish there were more of them – in Croatia for example.
I like Cicak although he is a Croatian nationalist of what I consider the healthy variety!
Serbia does not have an enemy in NATO or Croatia anymore.
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? AT THIS RATE, IN 20 YEARS YOU WON’T EVEN HAVE A COUNTRY ANYMORE.
Serbia’s enemies are those working against its benefit, namely Ratko Mladic and other traitors and war criminals who managed to put a put a bad image over Serbia which is still seen today and which carries along a whole set of negative things happening to Serbia, political and indirectly economical things.
YOU SOUND LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY INDOCTRINATED BY KANDIC. EVER READ ANYTHING ELSE BUT HER SITE?
Other type of traitors are those not working hard enough to clear that image, to lead Serbia towards reconciliation with its neighbours faster – our current goverment.
THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT IS A BUNCH OF QUISLINGS. THEY SHOULD BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS SINCE ALL THEY DO IS GROVEL TO THE WEST.
Natasa Kandic is a real patriot and she loves her country – why would you think she is doing all this and risk her wellbeing if not for the benefit of the country?
FOLLOW THE MONEY AND YOU’LL FIND OUT.
Sorry Blackbird this is too much ‘us and them’ for me.
The current Serbia government was elected by its people whether we like it or not.
‘Traitors and quislings’ is just so 1900’s. In this century ts about money and conglomerates – not high treason, or cutting peoples heads off!
Who is talking about cutting people’s heads off? Are you confusing my comments with some kind of news stories out of Bosnia or Kosovo, perhaps?
I can only go by the current Serbian government’s track record. So far it doesn’t look very good, although it appears that they are now searching desperately to find a little bit of backbone— but only to avoid losing the coming elections. I’d like to see ONE, just ONE, current leader in Serbia with some cohones — show me that person — but there are even fewer with real integrity. They are NOT acting in the interests of the Serbian people, they are just watching their own backs and their own pockets. I despair for Serbia’s future. I doubt it has much of one, and once you hand over all YOUR “war criminals” (while other new countries’ war criminals like Agim Ceku and Naser Oric not only get let off easy but get rewarded) just so Serbia can join the EU, then, I predict, Serbia will become overrun and finished. Serbia’s newfound “friends” like NATO, etc. will have Serbia just where they want it. They will no longer need to destroy it from outside because it will be broken down from within.
How was the 6th person? So far I’ve counted only 5 of them: Draza, King Alexander, Simovich, Tito and Sloba – the last 2 were twice on the TIME cover, right?
Majo, i believe that Natasa Kandic is nr 6, but as Dirty Harry would say: “to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself.”
Right, I forgot to count her obviosly cause she’s not really my favorite person ….