PEN vs. Karadzic

A Slovakian literary magazine has been denounced by writers' organisation PEN for publishing poems by Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Karadzic was captured by Serbian intelligence last July after 12 years in hiding. The Slovakian PEN Centre, part of PEN International, criticised Slovakian magazine Dotyky "from an ethical and moral point of view" for publishing Karadzic's poetry earlier this month without any editorial commentary about his background while he is "indicted for war crimes in connection with the 1990s Bosnian conflict, including crimes against humanity".

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Comments

[Jill Starr]

Not wanting to merely reiterate duplicate freedom of speech arguments; this is all I seem to read. I have other ideas on why Karadzic’s poetry should be published.

It is supposed to be a matter of legal fact in democratic countries no one ought have their speech and/or writings curtailed, especially if that speech manifests itself in poetry which I will discuss shortly.

However, it is true, in the United States, any speech used to incite violence and danger is considered to be unconstitutional and illegal.

For example if I were inside a movie theater and knowing there was no fire I began yelling ’Fire, Fire,” inciting people in the theater to run and trample each other causing alarm and harm to the movie goers, this type of speech is illegal in the United States of America under law.

In the case of Karadzic’s poetry however, first of all as said previously, he is yet to be found guilty, so, to say his poetry is publishing a ’war criminal’ which is objectively inciting violence is a weak legal argument if any at all.

Particularly, in the case of poetry, those who write poetry are well aware of the ”poetic license.”

To make a long legal article short, we can ”surmise” what Dr. Karadzic meant when he wrote ”A Morning Bomb,” but, words have many meanings in poetry as poetic license dictates. And by such, any sound lawyer runs into the legal poetic impasse and technicality if you will, of claiming to be able to read Dr. Karadzic’s mind if they say they can legally claim he meant to incite violent acts by the writing of his poems.

Also, from a scholarly standpoint we read many writings written by lots of people whom are controversial in studies of social sciences i.e., Hitler, the KKK in America, Russian Royalty, Ivan the Terrible, Kissinger, Ceasar, etc...)

Any one of these people can be said to offend certain sectors of society but in college sociologists and psychologists consider these scholarly writings educational in which they can learn.

I hope this sheds light on this legal topic,

Jill Starr (NJ USA)

[Jill Starr]

I don't think that Radovan Karadzic is a war criminal at all. I invite everyone to view some of the evidence in my possession about it at my blog site. I think it is easily proven that the CIA and Richard Holbrook are the Balkan War culprits,

Respectfully Yours,

Jill Starr

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#What It’s Like to Chill with the Most Ruthless Men in the World
Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic:
Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator

Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came about.