“The thesis that Vukovar has been turned into a memorial ossuary and not a town for the living is clear from the very column when one goes further than the headline, and it seems that most of his loud critics haven’t gone further than the headline. It’s interesting that those whom he directly addresses in the column have rightly been the first to feel called out,” Glavašević said.
What the column is about is what I and many others have been saying for years, using a slightly different vocabulary than Dežulović. The space of a town which, both physically and symbolically, is sacralised and turned into a place of worship where the rules are stricter than in a cemetery, and disrespecting and deviating from them results in accusations of treason, is not a space for the living but for the dead, said Glavašević.
Regardless of how much money has been invested in Vukovar, and all governments have indeed invested a lot, it is not a community or a place appropriate for everyday life. That’s what this is about, he added.
“For decades there has been a group in politics parasitising on the symbolism of Vukovar in order to score political points. The headline of Dežulović’s column is addressed to them. They have been the first to respond to Dežulović, from the Homeland Movement to retired generals.”
Glavašević is from Vukovar and his father Siniša, a renowned radio editor and war reporter, was killed by the occupying forces after the fall of the town 30 years ago.
