The Swedish Academy can give the Nobel for literature to whomever it wishes but its biography of the 2019 winner, Peter Handke, should at least be honest about his history of minimizing the Serb genocide in Bosnia. Instead, a whitewash from the Academy. nobelprize.org/prizes/literat…
In the Academy's 1,200-word biography, there's just one indirect and nonsensical reference to Handke's pro-Milosevic stance: "Although he has, at times, caused controversy he cannot be considered an engaged writer in the sense of Sartre, and he gives us no political programs." 
What does this even mean?
Handke wrote an entire book that was a denial and obfuscation of what the Serbs did in Bosnia; it was called "A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia," and it was widely derided. Here's David Rieff's dissection of it. latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
In its 1,200 word official biography of Peter Handke, the Swedish Academy does not mention this. Nor does it mention or engage with Handke visiting Milosevic while he was on trial for war crimes, and attending his 2006 funeral, at which he delivered a eulogy.
Nor does the Academy mention the article Handke wrote for the French newspaper Liberation, in which he stated it was wrong to use the phrase "concentration camps" for the places where Serbs tortured and murdered thousands of prisoners (mostly Muslims). liberation.fr/tribune/2006/0…
Handke tries, falsely, to deflect and spread the blame by saying all sides were doing the same thing. This is the "all sides do it" argument that is a core platitude of genocide denialism.
The Swedish Academy can choose who it wants but it cannot pretend there is no political content to Handke's work and life that is worth mentioning in its lengthy biography of him. What the Academy has written about Handke is itself a form of denialism -- of Handke's history.
Lastly, here's the story I wrote for @theintercept yesterday about the Swedish Academy's selection of Peter Handke as the winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature. theintercept.com/2019/10/10/con…
