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March 14, 2006
Ed Alexander; Zagreb, Croatia
[Note: Ed Alexander made this post to his blog, Balkan Baby.]
With regards to Milosevic, the scene has been very reserved. No street celebrations, but a quiet pleasure that he has finally died. Here in zagreb, not as many people were personally affected by the man compared to those in Bosnia, Eastern Croatia, or Kosova. In general people in Zagreb would have liked to see him suffer the indignity of being convicted of war crimes, but its not the big issue that it is in Kosova for example, because the mentality is diferent. Croats themselves don't trust the Hague (Gotovina is there now), so they don't care about the judgements given their, they dont respect it as an institution. So long as they themselves know that he is guilty that is all that matters, who cares what a dutch courtroom says or Carla Del Ponte, she doesn't understand, she's from switzerland, she's an outsider, we know what crimes he commited against us.......... that's the view here.
Here in Zagreb, the word Milosevic is a dirty word, you just try to avoid mentioning it. Opinion hasn't changed, people weren't really following his trial too closely, afterall, the most important thing in their eyes was just that he is out of power so that the croatian people have the security that he can't launch another war against them. Now that he's dead it's even greater confirmation, so I guess you could even call it relief as much as anything.
The longterm effect of the Milosevic death is hard to predict, nobody can tell for sure, after all, the Balkans is the most unpredictable region in the world. Either, this will be like closure on the Milosevic chapter and Serbia will be able to move closer the the EU, seeing his socialist party fade away into nothing... Or, there will be a nationalist sympathy towards a man who many Serbs saw as their protector, a man who said he would never let Serbs be abused as they were in Kosova. He will become the martyr he always wanted to portray himself as and hence his power which had gradually diminished while he was incarcerated will now grow. Personally, both in the sense of likliehood and what i desire, I predict the first scenario.
Milosevic was a terrible man, now we must pray that serbia, a country with its destiny in its own hands has the sense to follow the correct path. Firstly and most importantly, allow Kosova the freedom which it deserves, then in the same breath hand over Mladic and karadzic, we all know that elements very high up in the Serbian government are protecting them because these politicians have secrets to hide also, and finally understand that Serbia is not the regional powerhouse it used to be. Whilst life was good under Tito in yugoslavia and countries prospered, Serbia is not the successor to Yugoslavia, hence montenegro for example understands that it will gain more as an independent nation compared to funding the belgrade government with its tourist revenue. Serbia can craft its own place in europe, with its distinct culture, a beautiful culture too, but the recent past is not part of this beauty.
Posted by Henry Shepherd at March 14, 2006 01:10 PM
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