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The “Mirdita, good day” festival closed tonight with the award ceremony to director Ognjen Glavonić because, as announced by the festival organizers, with his films “Depth 2” and “Cargo” he broke the “shameful vote of silence” on the mass grave in Batajnica and thus took a great step towards bringing Serbian and Kosovar societies closer together.
The representative of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Fiona Jelići, said at the award ceremony at the Cultural Decontamination Center that there was no talk about the grave in Batajnica and that nothing was known about the victims, that the grave in Batajnica it was not in our public space. not even in memory, and that Glavonić is one of those who strongly and articulate opposed, is stated in the organizers’ announcement.
Award winner Ognjen Glavonić added that he appreciated the award and added that “people who are exposed as youth in the Initiative are expecting spitting, violence and aggression,” so he proudly accepted this award to support them.
The festival award “Mirdita, good morning” is awarded for the third year in a row to individuals and institutions that build special relationships between Serbian and Kosovar society.
In addition to the award ceremony, attendees were able to follow and participate in the debate “Transitional Justice in Kosovo Today” on the last day of the festival, which examined the memory of the Kosovo war victims, individual responsibility and war crimes prosecutions and the search for missing persons.
Besart Lumi, political analyst and author of “Democratization of Transitional Justice: Towards a Reflective Infrastructure to Address the Past in Kosovo,” said Kosovo still faces difficulties in dealing with the past and that there are still problems with a lack of information on what it happened during the war and with missing people.
“It is necessary to involve all ethnic groups and obtain all the information. It is very important that there is an initiative to talk about the past and then see what the transitional justice strategy should look like,” Lumi said.
Jovana Radosavljevic of the New Kosovska Mitrovica Social Initiative said that Serbs in Kosovo have never been part of the negotiations, nor have they been at the negotiating table, and that they do not feel included in Kosovo’s institutions, although they are partially integrated.
“The reason the Serbian community does not trust the Kosovo institutions is because the Kosovo institutions themselves do not respect the laws of Kosovo,” Radosavljevic said.
He added that attempts to deny the heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church and declare it from Kosovo are highly problematic.
Nora Ahmetaj, an activist from Pristina, said that Kosovo citizens must move forward and seek the truth for the victims, regardless of their ethnic origin.
“The majority of the Albanian population thinks that an apology from Serbia would soften relations. On the other hand, young people in the Serbian community say that crimes are individual and that those responsible for crimes must be held accountable,” Ahmetaj said, adding that it is necessary to create a database from which young people learn what happened in the past. the same situations would never happen again.
The festival was closed by actor Tristan Halilaj reading excerpts from his book “Richard Gere Was Here”, a collection of stories that was originally published in Serbian.
Inspiration for the festival “Mirdita, good morning!” is Bekim Fehmiju, a famous Albanian, Kosovar, Belgrade, Yugoslav and world actor who represents a symbol of unity and schism, but also the possibility of connecting two cultural spaces in one whole.
The unique festival “Mirdita, good morning!”, Which has been held in Belgrade since 2014, is organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the Civic Initiative of Belgrade and Integra of Pristina.
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