Journalists who covered the war in Bosnia are taking a stand against the Nobel Prize going to Peter Handke. Using the hashtag #BosniaWarJournalists, they're describing what they witnessed in the 1990s. Tomorrow, Sweden's king is scheduled to give the Nobel to Handke.
So far, there's Christiane Amanpour, Samantha Power, Roger Cohen, Sheri Fink, Jeremy Bowen, Gilles Peress, Janine di Giovanni, among others. Reporters who chronicled the Serb genocide of Muslims are saying the literature Nobel is going to a writer who denies what happened.
Some of the posts:
Christiane Amanpour is (rightfully) legendary for her coverage of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.
Samantha Power was a freelancer who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide, then became the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Obama era.
Roger Cohen covered the war for the New York Times and wrote a great book about it, "Hearts Grown Brutal."
Janine di Giovanni was fearless.
What happened in Bosnia was pretty much settled history until the Swedish Academy announced in October that Handke, whose books downplay/deny the genocide, would get a Nobel. This was shocking. I covered the war and have been writing about this controversy since the announcement.
A few days ago, photographer @ninaberman suggested that war photographers should post their pictures from the 1990s. It was a powerful idea that evolved into what's going on today and tomorrow. (I got involved and helped some.)
@ninaberman Context on the ideas and character of the 2019 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature: at a press conference on Friday, I asked Handke about the Srebrenica genocide and he compared my query to a "calligraphy of shit." theintercept.com/2019/12/06/pet…
@ninaberman Here's how Handke's genocide denial operates, and how the @NobelPrize organization has become part of it. theintercept.com/2019/10/26/nob…
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Back to the actions by #BosniaWarJournalists today (which will continue tomorrow) ... Sheri Fink, who wrote the definitive book on Srebenica's war hospital :
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Joel Brand:
@ninaberman @NobelPrize And here's Emma Daly:
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Despite all of this, the king of Sweden is scheduled to give the gold Nobel Prize medal to Peter Handke tomorrow afternoon in Stockholm. This will be the Swedish royal family's legacy: they authenticated a genocide denier. The king's sleep tonight should be restless.
@ninaberman @NobelPrize At a mass grave site he discovered outside Srebrenica, David Rohde saw "what appeared to be a decomposing human leg protruding from the freshly turned dirt." #BosniaWarJournalists
@ninaberman @NobelPrize "There is no doctor here. As soon as you get sick, you are shot." In August 1992, I was among a handful of #BosniaWarJournalists allowed to visit the death camp of Omarska and its slightly less lethal cousin, Trnopolye. #Handke #NobelPrize washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
@ninaberman @NobelPrize A note was slipped to a journalist. "About 500 people have been killed here with sticks, hammers and knives. We were sleeping on the concrete floor, we were beaten while we were eating. We have been here for 75 days. Please help us." #BosniaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize
@ninaberman @NobelPrize A visit to Visegrad in 1992 after it had been "cleansed" of its Muslims, killed tortured, thrown over the bridge and put into a rape camp at the Vilina Vlas hotel, which when the war was over #Handke stayed at, untroubled. #BosniaWarJounalists #NobelPrize washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
@ninaberman @NobelPrize "It was only a matter of time until the sniper got somebody. It was perfect shooting weather. The kind of weather that makes people want to stroll outside, but in Sarajevo it's best to resist that temptation." #BosniaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize
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@ninaberman @NobelPrize The Serb rape camps: "Mersiha was locked in one room and her younger sister was put in a room across the hall. A few hours later, Mersiha heard her sister moaning and sobbing. She never saw her again." #BosnaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Jeremy Bowen covered Bosnia for the BBC. One of the greats.
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Santiago Lyon, a photographer for the Associated Press. No words for this, just hashtags, #Handke #NobelPrize #BosniaWarJournalists
@ninaberman @NobelPrize A note on the #BosniaWarJournalists initiative to post our stories, photos, and memories of the war, on the day Peter Handke gets his Nobel Prize. This hashtag is open to all journalists from the war -- just plunge in. No invitation needed, if you were there please join, post.
@ninaberman @NobelPrize One of Handke's lies -- all sides had same camps. False. Serbs had network directed from top, intentionally murderous, thousands detained, many killed. #BosniaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize
@ninaberman @NobelPrize "Milan Kovacevic wanted to pray. It was Sunday, he shouted, a goddamn holy day, and he wanted to go to church." On my visit to Omarska, Trnopolje, Keraterm. Vanity Fair published this excerpt from my Bosnia book. #BosniaWarJournalists #Handke #NobelPrize petermaass.com/articles/bosni…
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Rape was another category of war crime that Serbs were convicted for at the Hague. #Handke #NobelPrize #BosniaWarJournalists
@ninaberman @NobelPrize The Swedish Academy's decision to award a Nobel to Peter Handke took me by surprise. Didn't they know what he wrote on Bosnia? After months of controversy, everyone knows, including the king of Sweden, who nonetheless is going ahead with giving Handke the award in a few hours.
@ninaberman @NobelPrize Elizabeth Rubin, Bosnia war correspondent:
@ninaberman @NobelPrize From Australia, Max Uechtritz:
Swedish journalist, the Drina and its dead:
Serif Turgut, from Turkey: "The longest siege of any capital city in the history of modern warfare."
Andree Kaiser, photographer:
Samantha Power, a freelancer during the Bosnia war, reprints a poem from Joseph Brodsky that has these lines: "In the towns with funny names,/hit by bullets, caught in flames,/
by and large not knowing why,/people die."
by and large not knowing why,/people die."
"Genocide happened" -- Stacy Sullivan.
Julian Borger: 20 years later, Srebrenica mothers were still searching for the bodies of their children.
Barbara Demick:
Ed Vulliamy, along with Penny Marshall the first journalist to visit the Omarska and Trnopolje prison camps, says to Handke: "Damn you, your Nobel Cttee, your Swedish King and your toxin in the well of history."
Laura Silber covered the breakup of the former Yugoslavia from Belgrade for the Financial Times.
Kit Roane:
"The tires spun when coming up this hill near Srebrenica. In the early morning fog you couldn't tell why there was no traction until you got out of the truck. There were too many bones." -- Kit Roane
Christian Palme: "For over 10 years I covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia, I faced victims and perpetrators, saw the mass graves and grieved with those who had lost family and friends."
Elizabeth Rubin recalls Gen. Ratko Maldic's orders to his soldiers bombing Sarajevo: "Shell them so they can't sleep. Don't stop until they're on the edge of madness."
