22 Oct 2010 / 09:26
The ultranationalist organisation cherishes a vision of a Great Serbia populated only by Orthodox Christians - and does not shrink from advocating physical force to achieve its goals.
By Bojana Barlovac
In 1994, a theologian, Nebojsa Krstic, launched a publishing house named Obraz, which engaged in Church and patriotic publications.
Four years later, as the situation in the then southern province of Kosovo began to hot up, Krstic quit the publishing business and turned Obraz into an ultranationalist movement.
The ultranationalist organisation cherishes a vision of a Great Serbia populated only by Orthodox Christians - and does not shrink from advocating physical force to achieve its goals.
By Bojana Barlovac
In 1994, a theologian, Nebojsa Krstic, launched a publishing house named Obraz, which engaged in Church and patriotic publications.
Four years later, as the situation in the then southern province of Kosovo began to hot up, Krstic quit the publishing business and turned Obraz into an ultranationalist movement.
Obraz, a symbol of honour and honesty in Serbian, says it strives for the spiritual renewal of Serbdom through a combination of “Serbian patriotism and Orthodox love for God”. According to Obraz, “There is no healthy Serbian society without a healthy Christian spirituality.”
For all its self-proclaimed spiritual values, in many people’s eyes the movement is more obviously dedicated to stirring up religious, ethnic and racial hatred than love of God. They accuse it of trying to lynch political opponents and persecute ethnic minorities.
Although the founder, Krstic, died in a car accident in 2001, Obraz has remained true to the course of his line under Mladen Obradovic, a 30-year-old student now taking degrees in history and theology.
One of the main causes that Obraz has adopted over the years is the defence of Radovan Karadzic. The former Bosnian Serb leader, now war-crimes indictee, is currently on trial in The Hague before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY. “Every Serb is a Radovan” was the slogan that they popularized through posters put up in every town.
Among the many minorities whose presence in Serbia Obraz resents, meanwhile, are gays and lesbians.
Obraz is proud that its street actions halted Serbia’s first Gay Pride march in June 2001. The second such attempt, eight years later, was cancelled after Obraz and other rightwing organisations threatened violence to disrupt it.
According to Obraz, the true Serbian patriot hates sin, not the sinner. “This is why we are not breaking people’s heads… We are breaking the sin,” an Obraz statement reads, referring to its campaign against lesbian and gay marches.
Under the slogan “We Are Waiting for You,” Obraz tried to break up the recent Belgrade Pride march as well.
In the end, the march went ahead under heavy police guard. But widespread street clashes between police and anti-gay protesters, including Obraz members, did more than cause a good deal of damage.
They served as another reminder of the continuing ability of rightwing groups to bring the Serbian capital to a virtual standstill.
The violence in Belgrade ended with police arresting Obradovic and other members of Obraz. Prosecutors have now opened a criminal investigation against them under suspicion that they engaged in “violent conduct”. If found guilty, Obradovic and his Obraz colleagues could face up to 12 years in prison.
What happens to them now, however, remains an open question. Many suspect that Obraz has friends in high places. It is believed to have close links to elements within the Serbian military; some local media reported that Obraz had offices in the army’s headquarters in Belgrade. “Serbia will only be strong if it has an invincible and fearless army and a highly developed military industry,” Obraz writes on its website, referring to its basic principles.
Obradovic’s ideal scenario, he said on a TV show in February 2o08, would be to become prime minister and then appoint the ICTY’s number one war-crimes fugitive, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander, as head of the military.
The Serbian army would then reconquer Kosovo.Kosovo would then become “the heart of Serbia again”, he continued. Serbia would drop all contact with countries that had recognised Kosovo’s 2008 independence declaration and the country would turn toward Russia as “Serbia’s Orthodox brother”.
Obraz shares its vaunted “Love for Serbia” with other right-wing organisations. These include Nacionalni Stroj, 1389 [named after the historic Battle of Kosovo of that year] and the hooligan element among the fans of the football teams Red Star, Partizan and Rad.
The organisation claims to be self-financing but many believe that their activities are at least partly funded by nationalist political parties.
The exact number of Obraz members and supporters also remains a mystery. Meanwhile, their fan page on the social network Facebook lists 18,083 fans.
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