Volume 3, Number 4 + 23 August 1997

The B&H Media Fortnight in Review:

SPECIAL ISSUE; THE SRT PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST PLAVSIC

On August 20 SFOR troops, with the consent of RS president Biljana Plavsic, imposed a protectorate on the Banja Luka police, taking control of the Centre of Public Security, the Police Academy, and the main Banja Luka police station.

Srpska Radio-Television responded with an overflow of hate-propaganda. SFOR and IPTF were cast in the roles of an army of occupation, compared - with the help of archive footage - to the occupying Nazi forces of World War Two.

Still more sinister was the treatment of Biljana Plavsic - a demonstration of this media's skill in diminishing and blackening a target figure. Plavsic has sunk, in the past couple of months, from 'President Plavsic' through to 'Professor' and 'Mrs'. She is now 'the woman' (although all the other titles are still in use). She has been compared with a laboratory professor, treating her subjects like worms. She has been compared with Mussolini. Perhaps most offensively, her childless state and broken marriage have been used to belittle her - she is a barren woman, incapable of running her own personal life, much less a country.

Bizarre reference to her advisers and supporters as 'hairdressers' dyeing her hair (i.e., by way of a local-language pun, making a fool of her) aim both to emasculate them and to mock her. Karadzic, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly iconised, a christ-like figure, seen only in portraits. His loss to the Serb people is a 'agonising wound' which the international community, (said the RS Minister of Information) are 'digging and scraping'. He represents the integrity of the Serb nation - in contrast to Plavsic, who has betrayed her people.

Monitoring Report has tried to assemble below enough excerpts from the texts of SRT's August 20 and 21 newscasts, to give an adequate picture of how this station is conducting its hate campaign. We have tried to show how the quotes of politicians, quotes from the press, quotes from (presumably) ordinary citizens, as well as the footage and commentary of the station itself, are used by presenters. They create an unequivocal image of a betrayed state, addressing its enemies in sadness, perplexity, and anger. (It should be noted that the photomontage mentioned above, which turned SFOR into Nazis did not feature in the actual newscasts of Srpska Television, but in a music video shown immediately afterwards. However, the text of the newscasts is relevant, and is cited below).

On August 20, Srpska Televsion presenter Dusko Oljaca described how SFOR: "violently burst into these buildings, and all legally appointed employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were thrown out on the street, with threats. Then they enabled para-police forces (Plavsic's police) to enter the buildings. All of this was observed by a group of citizens who protested sharply." Camera shots showed policemen leaving the Centre for Public Security, and a crowd of people protesting. The camera did not make it clear how large this group of protesters actually was. Prominent in the foreground was an elderly man who shouted, "Shame on you! We'll throw a hundred thousand eggs at the Banski Dvor (Plavsic's current residence) tonight, you whore! Three months from today Tudjman's flag (i.e. the flag of Croatia) will hang here!" (It is interesting to note that the last time eggs were seriously thrown in the RS, they were aimed at the SRT building in Bijelina, by allies of Plavsic - see Monitoring Report 'Dogs of War', this series, no 2.)

An SRT reporter then interviewed Stojan Davidovic, head of police headquarters in Banja Luka: "My father fought a four-year war against the Schwabe (derogatory term for Germans). This morning a deputy Commissioner of IPTF - a German - came here with his men. They forced me into my office, brought huge hammers and axes, burst into all offices, forced all my men out." Next a statement by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) was read out in full. Police officials appointed by Plavsic are referred to as "alleged". They are, according to the MUP, "individuals whose biographies show a lot of dark spots…Alleged head of state security of Banja Luka. Nenad Ceranic, is… a child from a mixed marriage, whose mother is a Croat… Alleged head of Banja Luka police Milan Sutilovic is a former police chief, known as a protector of Muslims and Croats in Banja Luka, which won him the trust of the President."

Then the camera returned to presenter Oljaca: "History reminds us that Benito Mussolini used to address the people from Roman balconies just like Biljana Plavsic today." Plavsic was quoted saying: "There is no chance for this nation." Oljaca went on: "Events that brought a part of the RS and the Serbian nation to the edge of the abyss did not start last night from the balcony of Banski Dvori, but with violations of the Constitution, demagogy, manipulation and usurpation. Let us just remind ourselves of the words Plavsic used to describe SRT… a woman who failed in her personal life to manage something very much smaller (i.e. a family) than a Serb state, which is being created in this region for the first time. And this woman sends other people's children against Serbian children."

The next item was a meeting of the Main Committee of the SDS in Banja Luka attended by President of the BiH presidency Momcilo Krajisnik, RS premier Gojko Klickovic, and other top-ranking hard-line SDS members). Above their heads, a huge photo-portrait of Karadzic was displayed on the wall. The chief item on the agenda was further attacks on Plavsic, " a woman who was never proportionate in anything."

The international community and SFOR were also accused. Presenter Oljaca backed this up with commentary: "…Pale is under complete siege by SFOR and IPTF. Control of movement and inspection of everything that moves - from those who lecture us daily on democracy!" An SFOR vehicle on its way to the entrance of Pale, followed by a car, came on screen. Through the windscreen of the car - the pictures were being taken by SRT's camera.

Oljaca compared the situation with the time when "German occupation forces in enslaved cities of Europe distributed leaflets that said one thing, while their actions spoke of something completely different.. a leaflet produced by SFOR and IPTF appeared in Banja Luka today. In this leaflet the occupying forces of SFOR offer their vision of democracy. Such a democracy should be returned with a democracy that only ruffians can understand… it would be logical that… this nation should cancel its hospitality to these rowdies and usurpers."

Next was heard a statement by the RS government on events in Banja Luka: qualifying these as a "coup d'etat"; "obviously what we have here is an attempt at foreign occupation, carried out with support of domestic collaborators." Plavsic was a "renegade president" who "surpassed all Serbian quislings up till now." "A war has been declared on the Serb people west of the Drina, and the method of its conduct is classical: stirring up divisions within the nation itself." For further illustration, the presenter used the local press. An article by the RS Oslobodjenje was read out in full: "world peacemakers who ostensibly support her (Plavsic) besiege Banski Dvori. There is no doubt that their visits are of an instructive character…(teaching her) the creation of her own government garnished with leaders of the opposition and former SDS members, whose joint goal is the destruction of state unity and autonomy under the protection of… suspicious dollars.' The article described 'A policy of blind execution of orders, issued by those who instigated the flames of war by bribery, leading to.. a unitary BiH. What kind of rights would the Serb nation have in such a quasi-state?.. The prospect of a unitary BiH is paving the way for a new exodus by Serb people."

The article ended on a bizarre note: "Advisors (of Plavsic) are hairdressers temporarily employed in the RS. They dye the President and comb the state like a parting."

Then it was the turn of another presenter, Svetlana Pezer-Sukalo. She told viewers that the RS Minister of Information Svetlana Siljegovic had sent a letter to heads of international organizations, warning them their authority was being exceeded in "ever greater and greater" measure, at the press conferences organized on Wednesdays in Pale. (The letter was also sent to state news agency SRNA). The letter stated "SRT was accused of lying, (which was) backed by a pile of lies and fabrications. This was not only a diplomatic incident, but also a proof that the international community takes the role of a judge in matters they are one-sidedly and superficially informed about."

Siljegovic also accused the international community of "striving for censorship and their own version of the truth." She labelled as "monstrous" the "constant satanization of Doctor Karadzic, a man whose life was destroyed by unprincipled and destructive policy of the international community, whose spokespersons still dig and scratch the most painful wound inflicted on the Serbs by international politics."

The Minister felt that her task was "to protect the journalists whom these spokespersons lecture and on whom they bear down, thinking themselves to be superior". She issued what sounded like a veiled warning to independent journalists: "It is more important to be a journalist in a national medium, than to be paid to carry other people's beliefs."

The press conference which the international organisations held in Pale was carried - but the reporter put the word "alleged" in front of practically everything the "monstrous" spokespersons were talking about.

Srpska Radio, meanwhile, joined in with a will. Here are some excerpts from the newscast 'Dnevnik' at 4 pm, August 20, edited by Suzana Radjen-Todoric. The broadcast started with the following mixture of commentary and news: "Under the excuse that terrorists are being searched for, pupils of the secondary school of the MUP were thrown out in the street…. They don't have a place to either eat or sleep… this school is a boarding school where children from all over the RS are being educated."

Reporter Velimir Bozic came on air: "Some 1.500 pupils… who were supposed to start the new school year this Monday… will have to wait in garages and kindergartens, where they sleep on floors, on the blankets provided by the RS army." "Boys aged 15 to 18 were on guard in the school.. and had gun barrels thrust into their stomachs. Instead of food in the restaurant, they now receive sandwiches in the street and sleep on blankets on the floors of kindergartens, garages, at friends'." Some pupils were interviewed, one of them saying that he was held at gunpoint by SFOR members. Then the Director of the institution, Mladen Mandic, was interviewed: "Their sleeping quarters were taken over by some 120 SFOR soldiers who brought equipment in three trucks with them, which is a clear sign that they will stay here for a long time… Refugees from Drvar and Petrovac are especially upset, for they cannot either eat or sleep, even though they are good students." Next the editor spoke of the "occupying forces of SFOR", with a special emphasis on the low-level flights of helicopters over Pale "only 50 to 100 metres above the settlement, upsetting the residents".

On August 21 Srpska TV's Dusko Oljaca was back, with further news. First Momcilo Krajsnik was quoted inviting 'all workers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs which Biljana Plavsic tried in a lawless and inconstitutional fashion to set up ..in the Centre for Public Security in Banja Luka.. to immediately pull out and hand over to the legal officers, whom according to our law only the Minister of Internal Affairs can appoint'. Krajsnik warned them that, "This work, carried out by force, in an unconstitutional way..classifies you among those who are destroying the constitutional order. Nobody involved in ruining the RS will ever be amnestied.'

'We fought the war', he continued, 'in order that not one drop of Serb blood should ever be shed by Serbs, and now you ..are putting us in a situation to shoot one another.' He described Plavsic's supporters as 'Enemies of our existence'.

(Another SRT presenter,Tamara Curuvija, significantly bestowed his full title of 'Minister of Internal Affairs' on Dragan Kijac, removed from this position by Plavsic several weeks ago). Next to be quoted was Mladen Mandic, Director of the police academy in Banja Luka, who spoke the previous day on Srpska radio - 'This is now the second day when the forces of SFOR and IPTF have occupied the Centre for Training Personnel in Banja Luka. They threw out everybody employed here, together with the pupils, so that there is absolutely no way to continue with the academic year.' A unidentified reporter commented: "They (the pupils) did not know what war is, and it hit them the hardest.. although they are learning well".

The high point was when the editor-in-chief of Srpska Televsion, Miroslav Toholj, came on to give his comment. He remarked: "It is not surprising, this kind of behaviour by a woman who obviously regards the state as a laboratory and wants to treat people like worms." He blamed SFOR for "tolerating the terrorist attack of the para-police, and then enthroning the formerly suspended" (meaning Plavsic's police, whom Krajsnik had suspended).

He finished with some magnificent rhetoric: "Who will answer to the dead and to those who stayed alive, if the state disappears? And it will disappear, if it is divided and inserted into a community in which it knows that it almost certainly cannot function…The responsibility of one person.. may be interesting for history, but it will not be a consolation to future generations." He concluded by calling the RS, "the first Serb state to exist in this area."

Then a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs was read out. It referred to the entrance by Plavsic's police into the station where tapes and materials which were compiled for her eventual prosecution were being stored, and which Plavsic's police removed. The statement spoke of "abuses conducted within sight of the eavesdroppers… which provided further excuse for the attack of SFOR and IPTF" (who had entered the station when they saw what was happening).

The MUP statement insisted that the materials be handed over for public prosecution, saying that otherwise the way would be left open for manipulation of the public by Plavsic and her supporters. Next Oljaca presented another item on the behaviour of the occupying forces: 'The helicopters of NATO, today also, at just fifty to a hundred metres above the roofs of houses, cruised over Pale. Two helicopters.. flew low over the capital of the RS, lighting up the area they flew over." Shots of a flying helicopter were shown repeatedly. (These pictures are now shown before every newscast while the initial summary is being read out, as if they represent a symbol of the NATO 'occupation'.)

SRT conducted a vox pop called 'Pale Today' to find out what the residents thought of the helicopters. These were the results:

"This is occupation, guys. We must resort to taking up arms again."

"This disturbs the peace, and disturbs sleep."

"This is provocation. They want to destroy everything that was built up by blood. The Plavsic woman, as a president, has gone far too far. How come she is not ashamed?"

"We should take up our guns again" (a man whose two sons were upset by the flights) Picking up on the Plavsic theme, foreign press articles were read out in translation. All reminded readers (and listeners) that Plavsic is a nationalist, with whom the representatives of the international community have only just started to cooperate. Further articles raised the idea that the RS was due to be robbed of Banja Luka. (That this is a recurring theme is shown by the SDS response to a statement of Jadranko Prlic, foreign minister of the Federation, that Banja Luka is of strategic importance for Croats - see the current issue of Monitoring Report).

"Deputy for the High Representative, Jacques Klein, received orders from the American government to divide Banja Luka from the RS, and make it into a separate Canton, with special and direct links to Zagreb and the Federation, states the Zagreb paper 'Globus'" said the presenter (adding that this information was from the state news agency SRNA).

The main abuse, however, was reserved for Nenad Ceranic, Plavsic's new head of state security. He had given an interview to independent Banja Luka daily Dnevne Nezavisne Novine. In the interview he accused the SDS-loyalist police in Banja Luka of contributing to the troubles. Oljaca reacted viciously:

"It was only left for young Ceranic to put a noose round the necks of those who guarded the Krajina, and with it the RS, while baby Ceranic hung on to two grabbed flats, diving under the table whenever he heard an enemy shell."

Oljaca's final conclusion, on reading that Ceranic believed that Plavsic was in the right, was "What would his Croat Mama say?"

MONITORING REPORT

Published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting and Media Plan

Project Director: Zlatko Dizdarevic Editorial Team: Zlatko Dizdarevic, Aleksandra Scepanovic & Marina Bowder Monitoring Team: MEDIA PLAN

IWPR is an independent conflict-monitoring and media-support charity working to inform the international debate on conflict and provide a platform and other support for voices of moderation caught in conflict.

Media Plan is an independent organisation monitoring, training and developing the Bosnian media.

Monitoring Report is free of charge, and reprinting with credit is encouraged. IWPR and Media Plan gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for support for this project. Other media training, development and research projects carried out by Media Plan and IWPR in Bosnia are supported by the European Union, US Information Agency, National Endowment for Democracy and Winston Foundation for World Peace.

For back issues and other information, visit our Web site: http:/www.demon.co.uk/iwpr/

Back to the Media Monitoring Page .
(c) Copyright: The Institute for War and Peace Reporting 1997

go to top

P.O. Box, CH-8031 Zürich, Switzerland
Phone +41-1-272 46 37,  Fax +41-1-272 46 82, email: info@MEDIENHILFE.ch