Authorities crack down on culture sector in run-up to anti-government protests planned for this weekend
Artists in Serbia have criticised the appointment of a nationalist ex-paramilitary chief as the head of the national theatre board, as authorities crack down on the culture sector days before an expected new wave of anti-government protests.
Dragoslav Bokan, who was announced as president of the national theatre’s board of directors last Thursday, was one of the founding commanders of the White Eagles, one of the most feared militia units during the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s.
Members of the White Eagles have been accused of carrying out massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina, though Bokan has said he never “commanded any action” and that his role in the paramilitary organisation was more secretarial.
Though he worked as a TV director and scriptwriter in the 1980s and 90s, Bokan has no previous association with the national theatre in Belgrade, a major cultural institution that was famous for continuing to put on productions during the Nato bombing raid in 1999.
