Peter Handke's visit to Radovan Karadzic
The poems of Dr. K.
Peter Handke Serbian War criminal Radovan Karadzic in 1996 visited the Bosnian Pale. The poet wanted information on the fate of Bosnians from Srebrenica. What he got was a signed book of poetry. An exclusive excerpt from the book by Malte Herwig .
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poet in combat gear: Radovan Karadzic (right foreground) and the now fugitive general Mladic (left) on 15th visit to Front April 1995 Peter Handke traveled to Pale. The small town near Sarajevo is used during the presidency of Radovan Karadzic as the capital of Republika Srpska within Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In the summer of 1996, the Tribunal in The Hague an international arrest warrant issued against Bosnian Serb leader, are genocide, crimes against humanity and violations alleged against the laws of war. Together with the Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, he should be the primary responsibility for the bombing of Sarajevo in April 1995 and the massacre of up to eight thousand Bosnians in Srebrenica in July 1995. The images of dead children in the morgues of Sarajevo also have Handke shocked. Yes, they have made him mad, and his first reaction is the consideration, "Why do not last one of us here, or, better still, one from there, one person from the Serbian people, for the something responsible, that the Bosnian Serb chief Radovan Karadzic, before the war, said the author of nursery rhymes!, return from life to death, another Stauffenberg and Georg Elser? "
Where is the inspection?
The will to direct sensory evidence Peter Handke leads to his visit to the Serbian war criminals same time come Handke doubt. If his Murderous feelings not the "powerless power ion pulse of a distant Sehbeteiligten?" Would he really kill Karadžić, if he had the chance? The suffering of the victims is for him no question but that he can "carefully kadrierten, sophisticated and even made recordings as" dare to be printed in the newspapers? Handke's desire to make a personal impression, is the focus of the "wintry journey" and all subsequent expeditions to Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and in Kosovo.
The same is true of the imagery, in which the newspaper is happening penetrate the Balkans. Karadzic, the psychiatrist trained not only a suspected war criminal, but actually by the twisted Dr. Strangelove than it draw the media? An amateur poet who brought forth in mediocre poems before the war Sarajevo in flames and his lyrical destruction fantasies like Nero then put it into practice?
the subject
And what about other politicians such as Ibrahim Rugova, which will be played as a sealing statesmen against the non-poet, wonders Handke 2002 Milošević in his report on the trial of Slobodan. The French newspapers call the President of the Kosovo Albanians a "Gandhi of the Balkans", a student of Roland Barthes, the immaculate French speaking. "But until today I can not read poetry Rugova. Where is the inspection. And who or what takes me therefore my prejudice? Without any exemption from the inspection. "Where is the inspection? "I wanted to read a poem by Karadzic," Handke writes in early 1996 in the "wintry journey." When he on 20 December 1996 arriving in Pale, Karadzic has already resigned from office and lives with his bodyguard in a ramshackle, drafty barracks. Handke also comes with an entourage. His friend Zlatko Bokocić, translator and a Žarko Radaković Suhrkamp employee to accompany him as he enters Karadzic office. The Montenegrins with the square of the skull and massive quiff sitting behind a huge desk, on which stands between the mountains of paper a fruit bowl.
Also included is the professor of philosophy and Hegel expert Aleksa Buha, foreign minister at that time has brought the Republika Srpska, Karadzic Handke the invitation to the meeting. "For me it was quite natural that I go," Handke said today. "They want to understand the story so, so go get there. I would always do it again. "Karadzic rises from his chair, welcomed his guests and pour can plum brandy. "Probably were there on day three or four other delegations, which he received in his pre-exilic "says Handke," I'm not sure if he ever mitgekriegt who I was. "
Handke Order
But Karadzic, already prepared for his flight, knows exactly who he has before him. Back in the eighties, he had read plays by Shakespeare. Also from the "wintry journey" he has heard. "He knew that I am one of the Serbs not see how see the moon, the conqueror."
The present two each other books: Shakespeare has a translation of the "wintry journey" in the luggage, Karadzic signed him with a selection of his poems. Handke can not decipher the inscription: ". The really writes as a physician" But he did not follow Karadzic invitation to exchange books. He has a job. Two Bosnian Muslims, who he knows from Salzburg, have told him about her family relatives who went missing in Srebrenica. Handke has come up with the names and birth dates of the missing write down on a piece of paper, he takes to Pale. "Then I have to Radovan Karadzic, the list of people who give, and I remember exactly. he said - but in all seriousness - he will take care of drum "
is the Bosnian Serb leader amazed at how persistent Handke it swings back. "He seemed to be closely followed events in the Balkans and have asked myself hard and probing questions," recalls Karadžić 2009 in prison by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. "He asked me about the war, the events of last year in Srebrenica, the background to the conflict and the suffering of the Bosnian population."
appeared a few weeks after the meeting Karadzic and haunts under twelve years without being recognized as a miracle healer Dragan Dabic with bushy beard and long pigtail of the Balkans. Only in the summer of 2008, flying on his cover, Karadzic is arrested in Belgrade and handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
What happened to the missing relatives of his Salzburg friends has Handke never know. "That was really the main thing, but I've got there never got a reply." Court must be good, "Handke writes 2006, ten years after his visit to Karadzic," in case of Milosevic, as well as non-urgent and there also either way, finite intelligence promising!, in the cases of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, and, on the other side, about the Muslim Mujahideen. "
The FAZ is running a 15 year old story based on Malte Herwig's MASTERS OF THE TWILIGHT biography Handke of Handke's about to visit Karadic in 1996. I have no problem with that except that this is a 15 year old story and it launches this book, like another poison mushroom, like the story about his being Guenter Grass drafted as a 17 year old people by the SS in Berlin knew that already in the 60s. I have no problem with Handke's visit to ascertain whether K. was the kind of monster as portrayed by the media. As far as I am concerned the entire region is very good at vengeance, and with economic destabilization ordered by Ronald Reagan and the hollowing out of the socialist idea and the reversion to ethnic and religious identities it is no surprise that in some cases some very ancients ghosts came back out of the closet. Karadics is supposed to have been so gratified by the visit of the "courageous" Handke who however lacked the courage to be a witness for Milosevic at his trial but appear to play mourner at the funeral.
Malte unwittingly does real damage to his friend Handke by allowing this part to be pre-printed, it ties Handke once again to Srebrenice, that is the FAZ's purpose in running this excerpt. We shall see about the rest of the book once it reaches me.
http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
Malte unwittingly does real damage to his friend Handke by allowing this part to be pre-printed, it ties Handke once again to Srebrenice, that is the FAZ's purpose in running this excerpt. We shall see about the rest of the book once it reaches me.
http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
