Serbian Police Officer and Smiling Syrian Boy Show Europe How Welcoming Refugees Is Done

The image was accompanied by a tweet quoting a Syrian refugee in Belgrade: "#Syrians are full of praise for #Serbian police. 'They're fair. They're the first who didn't treat us like animals'." Photo by Manveen Rana, used with permission.

The image was accompanied by a tweet quoting a Syrian refugee in Belgrade: “#Syrians are full of praise for #Serbian police. ‘They're fair. They're the first who didn't treat us like animals.'” Photo by Manveen Rana. Used with permission.

The photograph above first appeared online on the morning of September 9, and since then it has become a viral sensation on Twitter and Facebook. Two Serbian police officers stand at their posts somewhere in downtown Belgrade, one of them holding a Syrian toddler currently staying at the improvised refugee camp near the city's main train station.

The image was posted to Twitter by BBC Radio 4 senior broadcast journalist Manveen Rana, who seems to have traveled to Serbia with a group of refugees from Greece. Rana's Twitter feed is filled with tales of the journey, from claims of refugees having been beaten by police in Greece to all-night bus rides and images of the makeshift camp in downtown Belgrade.

While Syrian refugees passing through Serbia en route to Hungary and other EU countries seem to be experiencing generally better treatment than in other countries along the way, Rana reports that these people are still vulnerable to groups trying to take advantage of their desperation. Some Belgrade residents have reported and complained about street venders selling blankets and old clothes to refugees near the downtown train station—at prices three-to-four times higher than you find in retail stores, no less. Rana herself was charged some 70 euro by a man who was probably an unlicensed taxi driver (known colloquially as “wild taxis” in Belgrade) for a ride that would have run him about 10 euro in a licensed Belgrade taxi.

Rana noted on Twitter that cab drivers seem to target refugees with these high rates, when driving them to their accommodations in the city.

After so many recent reports of police brutality and unfair treatment of refugees in some European countries, Internet users in Serbia and elsewhere have celebrated the image of the police officer holding a smiling Syrian boy. Within a few hours, the tweet attracted more than 800 retweets and almost 1,000 favorites, and it soon spilled over to Facebook and other social networks, as it continues to be retweeted some 50 times per hour.

Although its unemployment rate is approaching 28 percent and there are murmurs expressing fear of what might happen to the economy if many refugees decide to remain, Serbia and its people have been generally accepting and often helpful. Both the public and state officials and police seem to have embraced an open-arms policy in this unfolding refugee crisis. Serbian social media users have been praising the police officer, and many people say such compassion is what they hope to see from law enforcement throughout the country and in other nations.

Read more of our special coverage: Streams of Refugees Seek Sanctuary in Europe

93 comments

  • pedja

    These police officers are the same one that western media wrote that are killers and genocidal during wars in balkans in 1990’s… serbians are for western media “genocidal” but in reality most tolerant by other ethnicity and knows best what is refugee as most refugees in balkan war was serbian people…

    • 123_45

      No, they are not the same. The police officer pictured here is of Albanian ethnicity, he lives in south Serbia and serves Serbian police. This means he is of same group of nation whose members were deported, killed and murdered by Serbian police during 1990-ties. Stop lying – refugees of Balkans were Bosnians and Albanians. Serbs got what they asked for.

      • aussielad

        lol righteo buddy

      • Alex

        I am a Serb and I was a refugee from Bosnia. Around 800 000 Serbs were refugees in the 90’s. A fact that an ethnic Albanian is in Serbian “genocidal” police, that in the 90’s ethnic Albanians were in Serbian police and army, that all official documents issued in Kosovo in the 90’s and before were first in Albanian, then in Serbian, that Albanian was an official language parallel with Serbian in Kosovo schools, media and public institutions and that in Kosovo today Serbs are in local police only in parts with Serbian majority, there is not a single thing even written in Serbian unless pressed on Albanians by the international community and there are ethnic Albanians living freely in central Serbia while Serbs in Kosovo fear for their safety tells a whole story. Stop spreading BS propaganda.

        • Ilir Jusufi

          Buddy, the right to become a cop if one is ethnic Albanian in our municipality (where this cop is from) was won with a conflict between local Albanians and Serbian state known as Presevo Valley war. We wanted to be integrated in the state and have our own Albanian cops in our streets and not Serbians who in general abused us. Get your facts straight! Serbia never wanted Albanians to become cops, as they never wanted to integrate us. As with all things with Serbian state (not people), an armed conflict needed to happen so that we can have our basic rights (still not all the rights are granted, like the right to have books from Albania/Kosova to learn our language in school). And with this image we prove that we wanted all the best for us Albanians and Serbian state.

          • jj

            There were Albanians in the Serbian police in Kosovo, but they were targeted by the KLA.
            In fact most Albanians who had a state job, including forestry rangers, were kidnapped and tortured and/or killed by the KLA.

            The KLA was radicalizing even the moderate Albanians.

            Further, Albanians don’t even pay their taxes, yet get free electricity and other utilities paid by Serbia.

            You had many extra rights and were getting funds from the Serbian government, which Albanians manipulated for years to buy of Serbs’ properties in Kosovo.

             
          • Ilir Jusufi

            Delusional! This is like a white american telling native americans we gave you (chickenpox) blankets, so we were good to you.

             
          • jj

            Baloney! The Native Americans SHRANK in population when the whites came. The Albanian population has GROWN under Serbian rule. The census showed they INCREASED.
            They were getting free utilities, and government services yet never paid their taxes.
            Kosovo was like a reverse colony, as it pulled money from the other Yugoslav republics, especially Serbia which is actually still financing the debt of Kosovo from the years before the war.

             
          • Alex Stranatic

            You had you intergration, your albanian universities in Kosovo. You had everyright under the sun. Not to mention extra salaries for being “siptars” for over 50 years. In which time you multiplied like rats and begain the forceful takeover of Serbian land. Together with your druglselling buddies from CIA and NATO. Albanians were intergrated in evrery and all spheres in Serbia. However be “integration” you ment sucession from Serbia well… no right minded people would ever accept that.

             
          • eelir

            You calling us “siptars” and rats makes my point about people like you. You are a disgrace to your country, and Serbian people who are openminded and understand the faults of your previous government.
            I salute Serbian police to the way they handle today’s refugees, but I also remember the past. And you sir are part of those from the past that somehow keeps surviving even in these modern ages. Calling us “siptars” is the same as calling afro-americans the n-word. The rights you speak about -some are not true- were revoked by Milosevic, and that was the time the shit hit the fan!

             
          • Alex Stranatic

            You Albanians in Kosovo wanted your own police, your own universities, your own president, your own flag, your own govenrment, your everything… and much of what i have written here you were granted by the Republic of Serbia. But that was not enough, you wanted to suceed from Serbia. That would not have been a problem if you were on your own land… Serbia would have no problem with that. The same way they let Montenegro choose its direction, same as they let Macedonia wanted intependance Serbia did not object. Kosovo is holy Serbian land. It has been part of Serbia and is more Serbian then Belgrade is. You Albanians were allowed to settle there during that criminal Tito’s rule who let hundreds of thousands of Albanians settle Kosovo and south Serbia as they were fleeing from Albania. Tito wanted to be seen as a holy figure by doing this. Plus he wanted to subdue Serbia’s influence in Yugoslavia. There is no significant relics in Kosovo of any Albanian settlement there before 18th century. Some Albanians did live there but in no majority of any kind. Their presence there was less then 15%. However today you are faslifying the history and trying to present holy Serbian churches and Monasteries as your own… you are trying to present Serbian historical figures as your own, yet you have destoryed over 250 Serbian churches during that subhuman frenzy you displayedi n 07′ with full backing of US and EU. Now you are saying those churches belong to you… you have no shame. Thats why i compare your criminal drug dealing “government” and people to rats. Yes its a disguisting word, but it describes what you are doing there very well.

             
          • Pentraksil

            What nonsense are you spreading here, you had your own school and you spoke your own language, Albanians had their own city officials where they had majority….You lived much much better than in your own country Albania. You didn’t even pay taxes, you refused to pay electricity. Ye, you proved that you want the best for both Serbs and Albanians, by killing Albanians who did not support you (like this guy in the picture) and burning Orthodox monasteries that are over 10 centuries old and killing civilians…Serbs did terrible things during the war too, but so did you and please stop acting like an innocent flower.

             
      • Miloš Milosavljević

        Stop trolling.

      • mira

        Lying as you are. This guy is Serbian and that’s it. You must be never saw Albanian in your life if you have this claim. Albanian had chance to show their heart in Macedonia where is more then half Albanian inhabitants. This is the Serbian heart

      • Serbian

        My family were refugees from Croatia, I have many friend who were refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo and they are Serbs. They all were prosecuted by Croatia, Muslim, Albanian police, military or paramilitary forces (confirmed by UN, Serbia was country with biggest number of refugees in 90’s, are you trying to say that Muslims and Albanians runaway from Serbian police to Serbia!?!?).

        You are hater, and you speak danger language of hate. There was too many victims in Balkan region on every side, and you my friend, with your hate, shouldn’t talk about it. People like will not bring anything good.

        I wish you more love in your hart and wisdom in your head.

      • Boyana Gabriela Grubeshich

        Refugees of the Balakn first and formal were Serbians, who flee from Slavonia and other Ex Yugo regions. This evoked happenings which later on got media attention!!! He might be minority but he choose to wear Serbian Police Uniform. And in the refugee post it says clearly ‘THEY’ which means plural aka Serbian aka whoever concisely choose to be part of the country!!!

      • Marko

        Hey, you are so wrong. We where banished from our lands.

        For that kinda of language I should wish the same for you, but i don’t. Because you are ignorant. You should keep your thoughts for your own little brain since there are people here rushed in to lines and forced to back from their homes from Croatia’s municipalities of Slavonija and Serbia’s Kosovo. Here live the people without Homes, Chilrden or Houses. They have so manny losses that your Wester brain could not understand even the smile on their faces.

      • Mihailo

        And he is so stupid to be a member of police forces witch kills other people of his nationality… I think that the only stupid here is you.

      • Marko

        Yeah, Jesus Christ himself was Albanian, that’s right…

        Are you crazy, or are you a troll?

      • jj

        No they were not deported by Serbs. They only started leaving when NATO bombed and a German journalist embedded with the KLA (ethnic Albanian militants) says the KLA was ordering them out in coordination with NATO.

        He says he had seen, months before the bombing, that the KLA had drawn up a list of priority town/cities, which they controlled, to be evacuated when NATO bombed. And he says, these very towns were the first for people to leave.

        It was a created and wanted refugee crisis by NATO and the KLA to serve their propaganda and justify the bombing and continued bombing.

      • Alex Stranatic

        you sick fuck… i thought you monkies didn’t have electricity yet. You must be one from EU to type this garbage. By the way how much is heroin these days?

      • Jollius

        I suppose the field makeshift hospital in Belgrade is also run by wonderful Albanians! Must be the same doctors who ‘cared’ for Serbian civilians at the “yellow house”! No, it’s not that we got what we ask for;you didn’t get what you deserve. But it’s not over yet…

    • Benet

      There is a reason why nobody loves Serbs: neighbors, Europe and USA…you can’t be loved if your murdered innocent civilians.
      If one doesn’t like you that’s maybe bad luck, but not the whole Europe family you get it now.

      • Boyana Gabriela Grubeshich

        Its called History Benet,
        Serbs fought occupation of Islam and protected Hungarian empire. Then they fought for people against this empire to establish independence for Serbs, Croats, and all the Slavs.

        In WW2 it was Yugoslavs (mainly Serbs) who established first Anti Fascist resistance agains NAZIs and Ustas’s.
        During the Yugoslavia Serbs blindly served Titos idylls, rewriting the inner boarders of republics and opening boarder of Kosovo to any Albanian who wishes to escape the cruel regime of Enver Xoha.
        And then 92′ Tudjman and Izedbegovic betrayal, and Germany and USA backing up those leaders for their own foreign policy benefits. This I agree with you was worst point of Serbian History.
        No one likes nations who fight for justice and freedom and who challenge opportunist nations.

        But then again Benet you are too blinded with hatred to be able to process any of written above.

      • Straka

        Yet if you travel to Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, and a myriad of other countries, the Albanian is considered…..well anyone who has travelled these countries would get the drift. That is based on reality, unlike the drivel in your post.

        • jj

          Albanians are known for their mafia.

          Even Canadians are bringing up how the Kosovo Albanians they allowed into their country have established powerful crime gangs.

      • jj

        Albanians are known for their criminal activity in whatever country they land in.

        The British media is full of Albanian drug gangs, Albanian thieves and Albanian murderers.

      • Daniela

        Benet, I can bet on my life you have never been to Serbia! It happens so I know a lot of people from all over Europe and the rest of the world (through my interests and work) and every single one of them loves it here! Stop being a dick and come visit, we’ll talk then! You don’t know us and yet you’re full of shit. I don’t know you, and now I thing you’re ignorant, and stupid, and a prick! How does that feel?!
        Also, I can’t believe in this day and age, there are people who consider a whole nation evil!? Do you think our children are evil too?! Do you think the same of Germans, f.ex, because of the WWII?!

        • Tjah

          Daniela, no offence, but if you ask people from your circle, if they like Serbia, most of them, if not all, will say yes… Simply because they would not want to offend your feelings. I have been to Serbia for a visit in 2009, – I went there to visit my friend, I went there without having any prejudices about the people nor the country. And to be very honest, – I have never seen and heard so much hatred towards other religions/nationalities in my entire life as have heard in these 10 days. Thus, when I have left, I have said to myself: “Here I found one country where I would not like to come back to at least for the next 15 years.” By the way, I have also been to Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, – and any of these countries felt hostile at all.

    • Trimi

      This police officer is Albanian nationality.
      Regjep Arifi!!, He is not a Serbian nationality.
      Yes! Serbs have committed genocide in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Its a fact.

      • Boyana Gabriela Grubeshich

        What has happened with Armenians in Turky Genocide. What happened in 92 was war and all of the above nationalities had loses. But then media portrayed only one side of the story.

      • jj

        No, the census results do not show any genocide.

        There were mostly military and militants killed – the west was supporting the non-Serbian separatists during the whole breakup of Yugoslavia.

        There was a huge amount of weapons smuggling financed by western countries, and even smuggling by NATO countries themselves, in spite of the UN arms embargo.

    • abdoulayebah

      I love Serbia, because I studied in this country and had the chance of living in a family in which the husband was from Slovenia and the wife from Skopje. They loved me as if I was their own son. Still I speak your language. I am writing this introductory comment only in order to avoid to be labelled anti-Serb.

      This love for Serbia cannot cancel from my mind that after the government of the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia in April 1992, a fratricidal war started and Bosnian Serb forces, with the backing of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, killed 80 percent of Bosniaks.

      • jj

        That is not true.
        Most of the Bosniaks killed were their military.
        They had the largest army within BiH: 200,000 strong.

        The Bosnian Serb forces were only 40,000 so 5 times smaller than the Bosniak forces.

        Additionally you had 40,000 troops from Croatia in BiH throughout the whole war.
        Croats were establishing torture camps for the Serbs with their Muslim allies or independently from the start.

        The Bosniaks were known to stage crimes and were witnessed by UN personnel sniping civilians in Sarajevo and they had their forces using several buildings in the infamous Sniper’s Alley.

        UN French soldiers caught Bosniak soldiers filming as they were sniping at Sarajevo civilians in which a teen-aged boy was injured.

        They created atrocities expressly for the cameras.

        The media would even show dead Serbian children and claim they were Bosniaks.
        CNN did this when there was a funeral for 2 Serbian children killed on a bus early in the war.
        The French TV station showed the funeral, which was actually interrupted by a bomb, but people noticed Christian symbols, and a Greek American, Stella Jatras, noticed it was a Serbian Orthodox Priest officiating at the funeral.

        She then saw CNN broadcast the same funeral, but with the Serbian priest carefully cropped out, and CNN claimed they were Bosniak children.

        Bosniaks were decapitating Serbs and playing football with their heads.

        They also warred against the Croats in central and southern Bosnia.
        Croats had 150,000 Croats cleansed from central Bosnia in the summer of 1993 by the Bosniak army.

        The Croats and Bosniaks would put each other in the concentration camps that they had earlier used for Serbs.

        Serb refugees are the ones which show actual signs of torture and need surgeries for all the abuse the Bosniaks and Croats did to them – including a lot of sodomy on the Serbian POWs.

        There are also photos of identified Serbs who were ROASTED ALIVE by the Bosniaks.

        Further ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC wanted a Muslim-dominated state and had done jail time for seeking help from radical Muslim groups for this in the early 1980s.

        The west falsely portrayed him as a moderate. He was praising Bosniak warlords who tortured Serbs in 1992, such as Jusuf Prazina, on TV.
        He invited foreign Mujahideen at the very beginning of the war.
        They were already there in June 1992.

        • abdoulayebah

          I see that this is a subject too sensitive for many of my friends from the former Yugoslavia. He still wakes up too much passion. In time, history will give a less passionate anlyse.

          • jj

            Actually western interference and meddling has kept the hate high. After WWII, which caused a much greater number of deaths than the more recent round of wars, people were nonetheless able to come together and work as the country of Yugoslavia.
            Now, with western meddling and occupation, the people are all ethnically divided and the younger generations are encouraged to hate – even those who were not born during the wars, or too young to remember are committing hate acts.
            Recently Serbs travelling through Croatia to Slovenia were attacked by Croat youths who boarded their bus and beat them so severely they needed hospital treatment.
            You also have radicalism among the Muslims – with many fighting in ISIS or other terrorist groups in Syria.

             
    • ShqiptarEpirot

      You fucking assholee police officer in the picture is Albanian his name is Rexhep Arifi he is albanian from presevo….you assholeees would never kiss a muslim kid beacuse you are racists and religious fanatics….ooooo and dont talk about the war The whole world knows the truth.

  • Vorkapic

    Just to add, for racist EU organization Serbia doesn’t belong to Europe, for decades they refuse to accept Serbia. However, on the other side Hungary is member of EU, check what are they doing to refugees there, and how intolerable, arrogant and unfriendly real Europe is.
    Serbian suffering for decades is caused by EU hateful politics, this is why this man and rest of Serbian nation understand suffering of these poor people, Europe showed us how hurtful and painful disrespect can be.

    • benet

      The police officer in the photo is Albanian residing in Presevo and work in Multi ethnic police force 100% Albanian. He will never be Serbian whatever they claimed.
      Serbians are well known for their salvage and the wars in Balkan just look at it the history.

      • Straka

        It might be an Albanian name, but it is a Serbian heart. Many Albanians like him were targeted in Kosovo by the extremist and mafia aligned Albanians. That’s the bitter truth!!! FYI he was not the only officer or official or citizen to embrace these refugees.

        Serbia has a big heart, just not to lying, twisted, murderous wolves in sheep’s clothing.

        • Trimi

          Serbian heart is full of hate.
          In october 14, 2014, 40 000 serbs have cheard “KILL AND SLAUGHTER ALBANIANS” inside the stadium during a football match.
          Thats the true face of serbs.

          • Straka

            Wolves in sheep’s clothing… It was supposed to be a peaceful game of football but instead the Albanian supporters needed to change that into a proclamation to kill and take more land. Extremism even by their own players defending irredentism, the Albanian wolf was unmasked that night for the world to see. Be it olive branch or arrow with you and your like, it is still remains a great photo of that police officer representing the Serb tri-colour. Sooner or later good always triumph.

             
          • jj

            The Albanian drone stunt was planned well in advance and that drone was smuggled in.
            The drone had a political banner and it was made to incite the Serbian football fans and stop the game.
            Serbian football fans are known for getting over-excited, and their banner had Albanian figures who promoted had and murders of Serbs. The one was a pre-WWI dude who talked about wanting to manure Kosovo with the bones of slaughtered Serbs.

            I only wonder why Serbs don’t boycott/forfeit the game in Albania.
            They should say that the ruling motivates Albanians to be politically-provocative.
            Serbs should point out that the banner was of Albanians who called for the slaughter of Serbs.

             
          • [HERSHEY'S]

            Just be happy with your given 3 points and lose in FIFA 2018.

             
          • jj

            Serbs should boycott the return game. Those points awarded the Albanians for provoking and that drone stunt.
            That banner was political and one of the figures was of an Albanian who called for slaughtering Serbs in Kosovo even before WWI.

             
          • jj

            Well you Albanians were flying a banner with political figures who voiced genocidal intentions towards the Serbs before WWI.
            The one pictured talked about “manuring” Kosovo with the bones of slaughtered Serbs.

             
      • Mihailo

        So that means that black people in US police are not Americans! They are Africans???? You are moron! He is SERBIAN POLICEMAN. He wears SERBIAN UNIFORM and he is PROUD of it. It doesnt matter what is his name and what is his nationality. HE IS SERBIAN POLICEMAN!

      • Trimi

        True, he is Albanian.

      • Boyana Gabriela Grubeshich

        Serbs fought occupation of Islam and protected Hungarian empire. Then they fought for people against this empire to establish independence for Serbs, Croats, and all the Slavs.

        In WW2 it was Yugoslavs (mainly Serbs) who established first Anti Fascist resistance agains NAZIs and Ustas’s.
        During the Yugoslavia Serbs blindly served Titos idylls, rewriting the inner boarders of republics and opening boarder of Kosovo to any Albanian who wishes to escape the cruel regime of Enver Xoha.
        And then 92′ Tudjman and Izedbegovic betrayal, and Germany and USA backing up those leaders for their own foreign policy benefits. This I agree with you was worst point of Serbian History.
        No one likes nations who fight for justice and freedom and who challenge opportunist nations.

        But then again Benet you are too blinded with hatred to be able to process any of written above.

      • jj

        Well the Syrian migrants are saying that, in GENERAL, Serbian police are treating them well.
        So, besides this ethnic Albanian officer, the Serbian police at other places, Belgrade, Subotica, etc. are treating them better than the other countries did.

    • Benet

      REALITY WOULD NEVER BE HATE VORKAPIC

  • Benet

    Save one and kill thousands thats what you call it Genocide????

  • Benet

    The name of the police officer in the photo is REXHEP ARIFI an orphan himself ok all of you serbian liars…..STOP CLAIMING SOMETHING YOU WOULD NEVER DO!!!!!

  • Benet

    Please don’t deny this:

    The events in Srebrenica in 1995 included the killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak
    (“Bosnian Muslim”) men and boys, as well as the mass expulsion of
    another 25,000–30,000 Bosniak civilians, in and around the town of
    Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, committed by units of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić.

    The ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serbs (majority Orthodox) through the VRS targeted Bosniaks (majority Muslim) and Bosnian Croats (majority Catholic). The ethnic cleansing campaign included unlawful confinement, murder, rape,
    sexual assault, torture, beating, robbery and inhumane treatment of
    civilians; the targeting of political leaders, intellectuals and
    professionals; the unlawful deportation and transfer of civilians; the
    unlawful shelling of civilians; the unlawful appropriation and plunder
    of real and personal property; the destruction of homes and businesses;
    and the destruction of places of worship.

    • jj

      Srebrenica is an exaggerated media hoax.

      It is known they list the names of Bosnian soldiers who died THROUGHOUT the ENTIRE war, and they list the names of those who weren’t even in Srebrenica.

      The dead are most all soldiers.

      Meanwhile, the Muslim army in Srebrenica had carried out a scorched-earth campaign upon the Serbian villages all around Srebrenica and they even killed their livestock/animals.

      There are photos of Serbs killed by the Srebrenica Muslims and you can see there are WOMEN among the dead and that they were severely mutilated.

      The Srebrenican Muslim men were NOT innocent and had the blood of Serbian women on their hands.

  • Benet

    Facts most of the time are hard to beat, or even unbeatable this is the key one:
    United States House and Senate resolutions

    The month before the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre, both houses of the United States Congress passed similarly worded resolutions asserting that the policies of
    aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia
    and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, including the Srebrenica Massacre,
    constituted genocide.

    On 27 June 2005, during the 109th Congress, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution (H. Res. 199 sponsored by Congressman Christopher Smith with 39 cosponsors) commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.[40] The resolution, as amended, was passed with an overwhelming majority of 370 – YES votes, 1 – NO vote, and 62 – ABSENT.[41] The resolution is a bipartisan measure commemorating 11 July 1995 – 2005, the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.[42] The Senate version, S.Res.134, was sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith with 8 cosponsors and was agreed to in the Senate on 22 June 2005 without amendment and with unanimous consent.[17][43]
    The summaries of the resolutions are identical, with the exception of
    the name of the house passing the resolution, and the substitution of
    the word executed for murdered by the House in the first clause:

    Expresses the sense of the [House of Representatives]/[Senate] that:

    (1) the thousands of innocent people executed at Srebrenica in
    Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995, along with all individuals who were
    victimized during the conflict and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
    from 1992 to 1995, should be remembered and honored;(2) the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide;(3) foreign nationals, including U.S. citizens, who have risked, and
    in some cases lost, their lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be
    remembered and honored;(4) the United Nations (U.N.) and its member states should accept
    their share of responsibility for allowing the Srebrenica massacre and
    genocide to occur, and seek to ensure that this does not happen in
    future crises;(5) it is in the U.S. national interest that the responsible individuals should be held accountable for their actions;(6) persons indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the
    former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should be apprehended and transferred to The
    Hague without further delay, and countries should meet their obligations
    to cooperate with the ICTY; and(7) the United States should support the independence and
    territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and peace and stability
    in southeastern Europe.

    • Andjelko Pavlovic

      in old Yugoslavia nobady talk about this shit…
      problem is in people generaly
      I am Serbian but i have friends from albania croatia bosnia …….
      It is not where you from it is how are you like person ! and that is the biggest problem today
      people are general evil and just care about money and power.

    • jj

      This is self-serving for the U.S. agenda.

      The ICTY is a kangaroo court which relies on PERJURY and HEARSAY.

      Srebrenica propaganda is used in their anti-Serb policies and also used to bomb other countries.

      They even used the claim of Srebrenica to bomb LIBYA.

      And now LIBYA is in total chaos with Islamic gangs running around and Libya can’t even control its borders.

      Hundreds of refugees have drowned off the Libya coast and the U.S. bombing is responsible.

      Srebrenica was also used to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq.

      It is just a tool for U.S. to murder people around the world.

  • Dani

    These police officers for staters are not even Serbian, they are from Presevo, a village predominately at large by Albanians. The male holding the child goes by the name of Rexhep Arifi. He is of Albanian ethnicity and lives in south Serbia and serves Serbian police.

    • Benet

      read above dani I said already

    • Михаило

      So that means that black people in US police are not Americans! They are Africans????

    • Ino Topalović

      If he lives and works in Serbia that does not make him Serbian? Refugees are commenting that they have best treatment in Serbia compared to other countries. By your statement all those people that help refugees are not “Orthodox” if that is what you meant by “not Serbian”. I will just say that in Serbia and other ex-Yugoslavian countries people help people no matter which ethnicity they are. I still did not meet person from ex-Yugoslavia that don’t have (Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Atheist,…) friends. So what you are saying is reflection of politics, not people of those countries.

    • jj

      True, but the Serbian police in other areas and in general are said to be nicer.

      The Albanian is working as part of the Serbian police and is following their policy.

      Meanwhile, Albanian gangs in Macedonia have preyed on the refugees/migrants and held them prisoners in houses until they pay ransoms.

  • Ino Topalović

    I will just say that it is sad to see people arguing on the post about one act of humanity from human to human. It does not matter who and where and why. This guy showed his good heart to a kid. Kids should not see so much evil from this world. No wonder that all these things are happening to the world.

  • Ino Topalović

    Experience of African-American who met people from ex-Yugoslavia. Here you can hear what he think about Serbian people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHBf9fQacr8

  • Mina

    Really??The story is not about Albanians and Serbs. It’s about kindness and compassion. Those refugees need your help. Don’t ruin everything with your comments. Whoever that guy is, he brought back some light in peoples hearts and showed that there is still hope. I thank him for that

Cancel this reply

Join the conversation -> Danica Radisic

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.