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Nož, žica, Srebrenica

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Nož, žica, Srebrenica

Nož, žica, Srebrenica (Serbian: „Нож, жица, Сребреница“, lit. translation: The Knife, The Barbed Wire, Srebrenica) is a Serbian hate slogan which glorifies the Srebrenica massacre of Bosniaks during the Bosnian War. It rhymes in the Serbian language. It can be heard at football matches, by members of Serbian nationalist groups Obraz, the 1389 Movement and the Serbian Radical Party, and in papers in support of Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić.

Contents

Although the slogan Nož, žica, Srebrenica appears on huge banners at games, public meetings and events in the Republika Srpska and Serbia, Serb authorities do not react to it. Occasionally "Biće repriza!" (There Will Be a Repeat!) is added to the slogan, celebrating the killings and threatening a future massacre.

Incidents

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the massacre in 2005, 28 billboards were set up around Belgrade. Unknown perpetrators vandalized 24 of the billboards, with Nož, žica, Srebrenica being spray-painted in addition to other terms.

On 10 July 2005, members of the far-right 1389 Movement broke up a meeting of "Women in Black" (Žene u crnom) by shouting the slogan and throwing smoke bombs.

Use at sports games

The hate slogan is often used by Serb audiences at sports game, sometimes against Bosnian teams.

In 2002, at a soccer game in Sarajevo, fans of the Banja Luka-based team held up a sign with the slogan on it. In February 2012, a few fans of Maribor is chanted "Knife, Wire, Srebrenica" in a handball match between teams from Maribor, Slovenia and Gradačac, Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 11 March 2014, a friendly match between youth teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the stadium "Doktor Milan Jelić" in Modriča was terminated after 60 minutes due to improper chanting of Nož, žica, Srebrenica in the stands. The referee stopped the match for a few minutes within the first half of the game following hateful Anti-Bosniak chants from the audience. The audience was reacting to the exclusion of Milan Gajić, a player for the Serbian OFK Belgrade, who verbally assaulted Bosniak judge Elvis Mujović. The crowd shouted "Ubij Turčina" (Kill the Turk!), an ethnic slur used by Serbs in reference to Bosniaks.

Other related slogans, and including Nož, žica, Srebrenica, were used at an international match between Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification such as Ratko, hvala ti ("Ratko Mladić, Thank you"), Škorpioni (in reference to Serbian paramilitary unit Scorpions), an aforementioned Ubij Turčina ("Kill the Turk"), Biće Bosna srce Srbije ("Bosnia will be the heart of Serbia"), and Bijeljina Srbija, nikad BiH ("Bijeljina [is] Serbia, never Bosnia and Herzegovina"), where Serbs of Bijeljina (in Republika Srpska) apparently expressed their support for Serbia and not the country of which they are citizens.

References

Nož, žica, Srebrenica Wikipedia