Radicals threaten to ban Exit festival

[Vojvoda]

Radicals threaten to ban Exit festival | 23:06 July 06 | B92


BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic has threatened to kill Serbia’s biggest international music festival if organisers go ahead with plans for commemorating the Srebrenica massacre with a message of peace during this year’s festival.

“If this event, which serves for young people to pass the time, dance and socialise, which has become a tradition and which the Radicals have not stopped, turns into any kind of political provocation, then there will be no Exit next year,” said Nikolic.

The Radical Party of Serbia won local government power in Novi Sad, the Vojvodina capital which has hosted the Exit festival for the past five years, at the last local government elections.

Festival organisers say they will not back down on plans to mark the tenth anniversary of Srebrenica at midnight between July 10 and 11, with a peace song on the two main stages of the festival.

They had earlier announced that a special segment of the five-day festival would be devoted to marking the anniversary, with a minute of silence on all stages but have since modified the plan. However a book on Srebrenica published by the Helsinki Committee will be launched during the festival.

“Changing Serbia’s image”
Exit general manager Bojan Boskovic confirmed that plans to point out war crimes of the last decade would not be changed.

“This isn’t just about commemorating Srebrenica only, but about remembering Srebrenica among a heap of war crimes which were committed against Serbs and Croatians and Bosnians and Albanians and everyone else. It’s about this being one minute for peace and I don’t want what we are doing to be now politicised,” he said.

Boskovic added that the festival is more than entertainment and noted that each year it has paid great attention to presenting a topical social theme.

In addition, he said, the festival has the power to change Serbia because of tens and thousands of visitors, a fifth of them from outside the country, and the 1,800 journalists accredited to cover the event. These include crews from MTV and the BBC. This, said Boskovic, indicates that the festival is not just entertainment.