By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Oct 8 2002 (IPS)

Dozens of thousands of elementary and high school students started the new school year with the new history textbooks that are profoundly different from everything students learnt during the decade of rule of Slobodan Milosevic.

”Our basic aim was to avoid lying about any historical event, any historical process or person,” says historian Nebojsa Jovanovic, editor of history books at the central Textbooks Publishing House of Serbia.

”We also tried to dismantle the myths about Serbs as a nation, which were brutally abused by the people in power in the 90s,” Jovanovic added.

Former leader Slobodan Milosevic ruled Serbia, larger sister of tiny Montenegro in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), from 1989 until 1997. In 1997, he became the president of FRY, but was ousted from power two years ago. The new authorities want to distance themselves from many things of Milosevic’s era, including the abuse of history that was used to fan hatred against non-Serbs.

The decade of Milosevic’s rule was marked with wars against neighbouring Croats, Muslims and ethnic Albanians. Much of his political rhetoric was based on the abuse of historical facts and his government’s racist stand against all other people in the Balkans became the prevailing tone in the history textbooks. Serbs were glorified as the brave nation of freedom fighters.

The wars of the 90s, that caused the death of more than 200,000 people, most of them non-Serbs, were explained by Milosevic’s propaganda as a historic necessity aimed to rectify the injustice brought to Serbs by others.

”The propaganda was introduced into the history textbooks, with the aim of glorifying the Serbs and giving, at the same time, a false excuse for the wars of the 90s," historian Dubravka Stojanovic says.

Parents whose children went to school in the 90s were amazed with the way the national history was presented. In many ways it differed from what they learned as students.

”Our first task was to fight against stereotypes of the 90s,” Jovanovic says. "Simply, it is not true that Serbs were the noblest people of medieval Europe, who ate with golden forks while the rest of the continent were savages.”

”Those history textbooks said nothing about the Holy Roman Empire, England or France of those times and created the impression that only medieval Serbia existed as the lighthouse of culture,” he adds.

Some of the most popular myths introduced by Milosevic said that Croats, who started their independence drive from former Yugoslavia in 1991, ”never had the independent state of their own and do not deserve it now.”

Historical facts say that, in the past, Croats had their state a century before medieval Serbs. Later developments melted those states into Hungary and Turkey respectively.

Another popular myth was about neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina, centuries old mixture of people, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslims of Slav origin.

Milosevic’s propaganda described Bosnian Muslims as Serbs who converted to Islam 500 years ago. History textbooks said that Serbia had the right to regain Bosnia-Herzegovina, as most of its people were practically Serbs. Historically, Bosnia was never part of Serbia.

The new textbooks tell the story of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a multiethnic area throughout the centuries.

According to Nebojsa Jovanovic, the reforms in teaching history start with the introduction of parallel stories with the events in other parts of the world.

The new textbooks tell the story on how medieval Serbia, like the rest of Europe, did not know that potatoes, corn, turkey, coffee or tobacco even existed. Old photographs from 19th century that illustrate the textbooks speak about the way people lived, how they dressed and how their homes looked like.

Hatred, prejudice and racism have disappeared. The new authors have substantially changed chapters about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Milosevic’s era textbooks described him as "idiot, psychopath, ugly, dirty and evil".

They also erased the paragraph that Serbian freedom fighters in the World War II killed 400,000 occupying German soldiers. The archives in Germany say that the number stands at 11,000. (ENDS/IPS/EU/IP/VPZ/SM/02)

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Excerpt:

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Oct 8 2002 (IPS)

Dozens of thousands of elementary and high school students started the new school year with the new history textbooks that are profoundly different from everything students learnt during the decade of rule of Slobodan Milosevic.

“Our basic aim was to avoid lying about any historical event, any historical process or person,” says historian Nebojsa Jovanovic, editor of history books at the central Textbooks Publishing House of Serbia.

“We also tried to dismantle the myths about Serbs as a nation, which were brutally abused by the people in power in the 90s,” Jovanovic added.

Former leader Slobodan Milosevic ruled Serbia, larger sister of tiny Montenegro in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), from 1989 until 1997. In 1997, he became the president of FRY, but was ousted from power two years ago. The new authorities want to distance themselves from many things of Milosevic’s era, including the abuse of history that was used to fan hatred against non-Serbs.

The decade of Milosevic’s rule was marked with wars against neighbouring Croats, Muslims and ethnic Albanians. Much of his political rhetoric was based on the abuse of historical facts and his government’s racist stand against all other people in the Balkans became the prevailing tone in the history textbooks. Serbs were glorified as the brave nation of freedom fighters.

The wars of the 90s, that caused the death of more than 200,000 people, most of them non-Serbs, were explained by Milosevic’s propaganda as a historic necessity aimed to rectify the injustice brought to Serbs by others.

“The propaganda was introduced into the history textbooks, with the aim of glorifying the Serbs and giving, at the same time, a false excuse for the wars of the 90s,” historian Dubravka Stojanovic says.

Parents whose children went to school in the 90s were amazed with the way the national history was presented. In many ways it differed from what they learned as students.

“Our first task was to fight against stereotypes of the 90s,” Jovanovic says. “Simply, it is not true that Serbs were the noblest people of medieval Europe, who ate with golden forks while the rest of the continent were savages.”

“Those history textbooks said nothing about the Holy Roman Empire, England or France of those times and created the impression that only medieval Serbia existed as the lighthouse of culture,” he adds.

Some of the most popular myths introduced by Milosevic said that Croats, who started their independence drive from former Yugoslavia in 1991, “never had the independent state of their own and do not deserve it now.”

Historical facts say that, in the past, Croats had their state a century before medieval Serbs. Later developments melted those states into Hungary and Turkey respectively.

Another popular myth was about neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina, centuries old mixture of people, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslims of Slav origin.

Milosevic’s propaganda described Bosnian Muslims as Serbs who converted to Islam 500 years ago. History textbooks said that Serbia had the right to regain Bosnia-Herzegovina, as most of its people were practically Serbs. Historically, Bosnia was never part of Serbia.

The new textbooks tell the story of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a multiethnic area throughout the centuries.

According to Nebojsa Jovanovic, the reforms in teaching history start with the introduction of parallel stories with the events in other parts of the world.

The new textbooks tell the story on how medieval Serbia, like the rest of Europe, did not know that potatoes, corn, turkey, coffee or tobacco even existed. Old photographs from 19th century that illustrate the textbooks speak about the way people lived, how they dressed and how their homes looked like.

Hatred, prejudice and racism have disappeared. The new authors have substantially changed chapters about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Milosevic’s era textbooks described him as “idiot, psychopath, ugly, dirty and evil”.

They also erased the paragraph that Serbian freedom fighters in the World War II killed 400,000 occupying German soldiers. The archives in Germany say that the number stands at 11,000.

Excerpt: