Stefan Lyrmark

Former UN military interpreter and liaision officer in Bosnia 1995.
Formerly lived and worked in Russia
Have closely followed the Eastern Europe for 30 years.

[Emir Suljagić @suljagicemir1]

"Survival, in the end, is not simply continuing to breathe. It is refusing to let the people who tried to destroy you define the terms of your life. That is why I have little interest in the mythology surrounding Mladić's death."
Ratko Mladić Is Dead. I Am Still Here. Clash Report https://t.co/54pGMNNa9C

[Jasmin Mujanović @JasminMuj]

I appreciate the sentiments of many European officials today who say, in response to the glorification of the genocidaire Mladic, “this is why [this] Serbia does not belong in the EU.” I agree.

But this is not sufficient.

Meaningful EU and European support for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its people, i.e. the actual victims of Mladic’s aggression and genocide, requires:

1. EU-level sanctions against Mladic’s ideological progeny, in particular those like Milorad Dodik and other members of the SNSD regime undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement.

2. Credible EU engagement in Bosnia to unravel the political consequences of Mladic’s crimes; that is, support for political and constitutional reform in line with the rulings of the the @ECHR_CEDH, the opinions of the Venice Commission, and the EU acquis itself.

It is not fashionable to say but Europe shamed itself with its passivity and incompetence (and worse) during the 1990s. The EU owes Bosnians a great moral debt. Paying it requires more than another round of rhetorical handwringing.

[Matyas Zrno @MatyasZrno]

Když je teď všude Ratka Mladiće, podívejme se na jiného srbského generála. V uniformě bosenské armády...

Jovan Divjak. Srb, rozený Bělehraďan. důstojník jugoslávské lidové armády a nakonec generál bosenské armády, který Sarajevo bránil od "svých".

Ratko Mladić s ním jako se "zrádcem" odmítal jednat a od nacionalistických Bosňáků si taky užil ústrky.

Pamatuju ho jako šarmantního, vzdělaného, kulturního člověka, tolik odlišného od drtivé většiny místních válečníků - většinou křupanů a násilníků (existuje pro ně krásný turcismus "kabadahija").

Jovan miloval kulturu, za války pomáhal divadlům a filmovému festivalu, mluvil perfektně francouzsky (a motal hlavy francouzským novinářkám) a po válce založil nadaci, která pomáhá nadaným dětem se vzděláváním.

Druhého května 1992 to ale byl tenhle jemný a kulturní člověk, kdo velel narychlo sebraným skupinám dobrovolníků, které překazily první vážný srbský pokus o dobytí města.

Zemřel v dubnu 2021.

[Ondřej Kolář @OndrejKolar6]

Ne, Srbsko nemá být urychleně vpuštěno do Schengenu, jak blouzní velkouzenář Babiš. Srbsku má být za velebení balkánského řezníka Mladiće pozastaven přístupový proces do EU. Jako parlamentní zpravodaj pro Bosnu a Hercegovinu to budu navrhovat. https://t.co/c2UHOXSgmc

[Policie ČR @PolicieCZ]

👇Příspěvek jsme zaregistrovali a zabýváme se jím. Budeme vyhodnocovat především to, jestli autor zlehčováním genocidy nenaplnil skutkovou podstatu nějakého z trestných činů. Jakmile budeme mít bližší informace, tak je poskytneme. #policiepp

[Jasmin Mujanović @JasminMuj]

As the genocidaire Mladic's name quietly slips from the global front pages, we must recall that his most steadfast supporter was, and remains, the sitting President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

On July 20, 1995, as Mladic's forces were still hunting and killing survivors of the Srebrenica Genocide across northeastern Bosnia, Vucic, then an MP in the ultranationalist Radical Party, stood at the podium of the Serbian National Assembly. Incensed, he declared that if the international community dared respond to the bloodbath in Srebrenica, if they struck "Serb positions" in Bosnia, and if even "one Serb is killed" then "we will kill a hundred Muslims!"

And for years after the fact, throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s, he was the chief advocate for Mladic in Serbia. Not because he denied the genocide in Srebrenica, or the broader genocide in Bosnia, but precisely because he glorified it, and because Vucic considered Mladic a Serbian national hero for having conducted the same.

This is not ancient history. These are very recent events. And Aleksandar Vucic remains the dominant figure in Serbian politics today. Mladic is dead but the politics of Serbian ultranationalism remain decidedly, and unfortunately, alive. So, I remind you again of Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It’s not even past."

[Carl Bildt @carlbildt]

Highly disturbing scenes from Zvornik in 🇧🇦. This was the scene of extremely brutal ethnic cleaning by Serb forces very early in the Bosnian war. Now extremists are saluting the war criminal Mladic. https://t.co/3jWaAtpUfM

[Ivana Stradner @ivanastradner]

The real face of Vučić’s regime: “joining the West” with one hand, honoring a convicted war criminal with the other. What a commitment to European values…

[Jasmin Mujanović @JasminMuj]

I was asked by @newlinesmag to write about on the death of Bosnian Serb genocidaire Ratko Mladić. He was a war criminal but above all he was a coward. And it is on his cowardice, and the courage of those he sought to exterminate, that we should reflect. https://t.co/EDKGwIoJvA

[Emir Suljagić @suljagicemir1]

I received dozens of phone calls yesterday. Friends called. Fellow survivors called. Journalists called. And the simple fact is: I don’t know what to say about, or care to comment on, the abomination that died yesterday in the UN detention unit in Scheveningen.

Instead, I helped my daughters make “jewellery” out of little bits and bobs. We did some bedtime reading. I put them both to sleep. My life has moved on. My children will not grow up in the same shadows I did.

And the next time someone like Ratko Mladić appears on the horizon - and he will without a doubt - we will wait for no one’s permission to confront him. We will know what we are looking at. We will know what is at stake. And we will deal with it ourselves.

[Emir Suljagić @suljagicemir1]

I would have usually let this pass as part of local folklore. But not this time.

What you hear in this video is a death chant: literally calling for “500 Muslims in the Sana River” and another 100 in the Drina. This happened last night in the town of Bratunac, eastern Bosnia, just a few kilometers from the Srebrenica Memorial Center and roughly 500 meters from the local police station.

It comes on the heels of the Bosnian Serb police summoning 26 Bosniaks from Srebrenica, all of them employees of the Memorial Center, for questioning on completely fabricated charges.

Make no mistake: this is the real face of the Bosnian Serb government, which has lately been lavishing money on lobbyists in Western capitals while misrepresenting itself. About how they pitch themselves to some extreme-right corners, perhaps later.

But if you are a US senator or congressman/woman, an MEP, or an MP in a European country, keep this in mind the next time they ask for a meeting. Ask yourself: do you really want to be associated with this? With them?

Because I assure you: they will be gone. Sooner or later, they will be relegated to history. But we will still be here. And we will remember. Because it is history you are tampering with. Our history.

[Andreas von der Heide @AvdelningH]

Den 24 januari 2022 skrev jag på Twitter "Vi står på randen till ett krig i Europa. Ett Krig som riskerar att eskalera och få konsekvenser för generationer".

Nu idag, den 27 augusti 2026, säger jag till er alla: "Kriget i Europa, som startade i februari 2022, är på väg att eskalera på ett sätt som, om vi inte hindrar det, kommer att få konsekvenser för generationer".

Nu är inte tid att tveka. Nu är tid att agera.

Hjälp mig att sprida det budskapet.

den 24 januari 2022 lyssnade få. Med din hjälp hoppas jag få fler att lyssna nu...

[Stefan Lyrmark @StefanLyrmark]

@OAJonsson Hur hinner du skriva så många bra böcker? Jag ser fram emot att läsa den om någon månad eller så.

[Srebrenica Memorial Center @SrebrenicaMC]

Bosnia remembers. Srebrenica stands. We will never forget.

[Stefan Lyrmark @StefanLyrmark]

@Camil_Durakovic Your text is strong and powerful as you are. Don't forget Srebrenica. Stay stong from a former Bosnian-interpreter in the Swedish UN-battalion based in Tuzla July 1995.

[Carl Bildt @carlbildt]

It’s high time to start technical talks on this, as FM’s of 🇸🇪🇪🇸 🇵🇱 and 🇳🇱 are now suggesting. And a decision should be possible early next year - needed before the uncertainty of the presidential election in 🇫🇷. https://t.co/85E065sE88

[Gordan Grlić Radman @grlicradman]

Ratko Mladić died as a convicted war criminal. The military forces under his command, pursuing the goal of achieving Greater Serbia, left a bloody trail across Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — from Kijevo, Škabrnja, Drniš and Šibenik to eastern Bosnia and the genocide in Srebrenica.

Justice was slow and did not encompass all the war crimes committed by units under his command.

[Stefan Lyrmark @StefanLyrmark]

The full video on the museums Facebook page: https://t.co/o0t7CXm52n

The war criminal Ratko Mladic died today in prison. Putin: you are next!

[Stefan Lyrmark @StefanLyrmark]

In his account he described the reception of those who survived the genocide in Srebrenica and the difficult moments when he heard questions he could not answer: "Where is my father? Where is my husband? Where are my sons?" 3)

[Stefan Lyrmark @StefanLyrmark]

"Stefan Lyrmark served as a Swedish soldier with UNPROFOR. He worked as an interpreter for Swedish, Bosnian and English and as a liaison officer, stationed in Gračanica, in the Tuzla region, in 1995. 2)