Austrian author Peter Handke, left, receives the Order of the Republika Srpska from President of Republika Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic during the ceremony in Banja Luka, Bosnia, Friday, May 7, 2021. The 2019 Nobel Literature Prize laureate Peter Handke was on Friday awarded top honors from Bosnian Serbs, building on the controversy stemming from his apologist views over Serb war crimes during the 1990s’ wars in the Balkans.
Austrian author Peter Handke listens to President of Republika Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic during the ceremony in Banja Luka, Bosnia, Friday, May 7, 2021. The 2019 Nobel Literature Prize laureate Peter Handke was on Friday awarded top honors from Bosnian Serbs, building on the controversy stemming from his apologist views over Serb war crimes during the 1990s’ wars in the Balkans.
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian Serbs on Friday honored the controversial 2019 Nobel Literature Prize winner Peter Handke, who is known for his apologist views over Serb war crimes during the 1990s’ wars in the Balkans.
The Austrian novelist and screenwriter was welcomed by Bosnian Serb officials as he arrived in the northern town of Banja Luka, the main city in the Serb-run part of Bosnia. From there, Handke headed to the eastern town of Visegrad where he was received the literary award.
While Handke is adored by Serbs for his support of their nationalist policies, he is considered persona non grata in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, which is dominated by mostly Muslim Bosniaks.
“I am happy to be here,” Handke said in Banja Luka, according to Bosnian Serb TV. “This is a big moment for me.”
Bosnian officials in 2019 boycotted the Nobel awards ceremony for Handke and Sarajevo’s regional parliament also denounced the Swedish Academy for giving the award to him.
Handke has been a staunch supporter of the Serbs and their late leader Slobodan Milosevic during his war campaigns in the Balkans and has disputed that the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica was genocide. That runs counter to several rulings by international courts, which have proclaimed the carnage in the eastern Bosnian enclave a genocide.
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