Skulic: I hope Germany will understand that Serbia has the right and duty to do everything to preserve its territorial integrity

Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of Serbia, Milan Skulic, stated in an interview with Politika that he hoped the official relationship between Germany and Serbia would change over time, to mutual benefit. Above all, he hopes that Germany, which has persistently fought for its reunification for decades, will realize that Serbia not only has the right but also the duty to do everything, in accordance with the Constitution, to preserve its territorial integrity.

"This also means that Serbia should never recognize some quasi-state on Serbian national territory, which would be based not only on the violation of international law but also on aggression and ethnic cleansing, i.e., serious crimes," Skulic said, noting that German policy was not always unanimous in its position toward Serbia.

He mentions that some parties are quite objective, and it seems that the "greens" were generally the most negative towards the former Yugoslavia and Serbia.

When asked if Germany, by participating in the bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999, violated the law, Skulic responded that Germany had violated its own constitution at that time by participating in the aggression against FR Yugoslavia, even though participation in a war that was not strictly defensive was strictly prohibited by German constitutional law.

He recalls that at the time, "green" Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer received a "strong slap" when German pacifists hit him in the head with a bag of red paint, which was a "clear symbolic message."

Skulic points out that the "constitutional problem" and the criminal liability of aggression or aggressive war in Germany in 1999 were very simply resolved by applying the concept of humanitarian intervention as a convenient "flexible norm." This meant that it formally was not considered a war at all, nor an aggressive war, despite the fact that Yugoslavia was then subjected to massive and systematic bombing, including ground attacks, and despite the thousands of casualties in such an "intervention." For the then-German authorities, it was not considered a war.

"This cynical 'legal gymnastics' is just another example of why it is crucial to be extremely cautious when dealing with the highly flexible concept of humanitarian intervention. Contrary to the German government's claim that the 1999 bombing was not a war but 'only' a so-called humanitarian intervention, the majority of German law professors unambiguously treat the 'NATO engagement' as a war," Skulic notes.

Commenting on how successful Germany has been in "washing off" the stamp of collective responsibility, he notes that it seems that the Hague Tribunal has somewhat served to heal Germany's trauma from its historical guilt.

"The trial for international crimes (including genocide), as the first one after Nuremberg and Tokyo, probably came to Germany as a 'balm on the wound' because after the 'bad Germans,' one can now talk about the 'evil Serbs.' However, the Nazi 'mega-crimes,' and especially their practically industrialized genocide, are of such magnitude and so extremely evil that these crimes cannot be compared with anything in previous history," Skulic adds.

When asked if the Germans have forgotten the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Serbs when they took part in the bombing of Serbia and Montenegro, he responded that in Germany, unfortunately, it had been somewhat forgotten what kind and how many crimes members of the German army had committed against Serbs during an incredibly harsh occupation in World War II, characterized, among other things, by the terrible proportion of blind and bloody retribution—100 Serbs would be shot for every German soldier killed, while 50 Serbs would pay with their lives for wounding one German.

"Such a proportion of evil and retribution directed exclusively toward civilian members of a martyred people did not exist anywhere except in Serbia during the Nazi occupation. Germany and the Germans need to be reminded of this from time to time," Skulic says.

Germany devastated the world in the First and Second World Wars, and Germany's participation in the bombing of FR Yugoslavia and in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict was what Olaf Scholz called a "turning point" for Germany, while Berlin supported Israel, too. When asked whether Germany would again be the initiator of a world war, Skulic expressed the belief that we were not on the verge of a world war but that it was quite certain that we were already living in a very turbulent and dangerous time, which, unfortunately, was a time of brutal wars.

"I do not think that Germany will be the initiator of a new world war because I am convinced that Germans have more than enough experience with starting world wars. I hope that Germany, as the de facto leader of the EU, aware of its enormous historical responsibility, will be more realistic and fairer toward Serbia," Skulic concluded.