March 15, 2006
Aleksandar Macasev, Belgrade
Milosevic is dead, long live Milosevic
spectre over Serbia (again)
The problem with Slobodan Milosevic's death is that he is still alive. Milosevic, like every other leader, does not appear on the scene by incidental strike of faith. Every leader is a sheer product of the people. A collective projection of desires into one man. Three months ago I participated in an exhibition with the work called Human after all*. At the beginning of the text for the work I said: "Sloba (Slobodan Milošević) didn't fall from Mars. He was created by the Serbian people". As well as American people deserves George W Bush.
Nothing actually changed, as we all witnessed, with Milosevic's fall, arrest or death. During the "revolution" of the 5th October 2000 the only person who could replace him should be neutral and blend enough not to irritate nationalists and to vaguely fit into sort of a democratic option. That choice was Vojislav Kostunica who was completely insignificant during the protests but fitted perfectly the image of compromise. An empty container that awaits to be filled with people's desires. And he was filled. So after 5 years we have almost the same situation: nationalist who is buying time and tries to make every good doer tired. The only figure who could have changed something was Zoran Djindjic, progressive prime minister who was killed three years ago. Not killed by some hired assassins, but killed by majority of the people. The strongest political option in Serbia right now is Serbian Radical Party, right winged nationalists whose sole purpose is to irritate. People still wants them. As my friend said recently: "Let them have radicals ruling the country. When people realize the true nature of Radicals maybe we will be able to move on". So, obviously nothing actually changed after 5th of October 2000. "Slobodan Milosevic" frame of mind remained.
During the trial in the International court in Hague, Milosevic was almost forgotten. Everybody was tired of the endless testimonials and his arguments. With his recent death he came back to haunt Serbia again. I've heard of his death at the opening of some exhibition on Saturday, 11th of March. "You gotta be kidding" was my reaction. No feelings of any kind. In the afternoon the media were overwhelmed with speculations, news and guessing. One voice was the loudest: "They have killed him". It remained the loudest after three days. Speculations about his health condition, poisoning, all kind of conspiracies... Older generation of sentimental citizens lighting candles in front of the building where his party is situated. Speculations about the place where he should be buried. Belgrade, Russia, his hometown... Some people crying. I don't know how many of them cried for the killed and crippled young men sent to wars by Milosevic. All that "forgive and forget" made me very angry. People have very very short memory. Certainly forget, but never forgive.
Bizarre coincidence is that former prime minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated on March the 12th three years ago. Even the memory to this progressive man was clouded with the spectre of Slobodan Milosevic. All the media is trying to pay some sort of respect to Djindjic, but Milosevic's death is actually the hottest media stuff. History's sarcastic sense of humor.
Milosevic was one of the last European dictators of the low intensity when compared to major historical ones. People in Serbia actually never touched the bottom because Milosevic was very good in retaining the social peace. People of Serbia was miserable, unhappy and poor, but never hungry. We have never crossed the final line when you literally have nothing to lose and than you can make a real change. Like in Romania.
The latest news is that Marko Milosevic (late Slobodan Milosevic's son) has taken the body from Hague and Milosevic will probably be buried in Belgrade. It is not known weather the widow, Mira Markovic, will attend the funeral because of the criminal charges against her. You can find the news on the issue on www.b92.net/english
Posted by Henry Shepherd at 09:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 14, 2006
"Seesaw," Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
["Seesaw" blogs at Balkan-Scissors]
As for the reactions in Bosnia, they are devided as you can guess (and read), most Serbs in Republic Srpska think Milosevic was a hero, and behave according to that, Bosniaks (Moslems) and Croats in Federation BiH think it is shame Milosevic died before the end of the trial.
Personally I can say I did not follow his trial - I was a living witness of his political career and saw enough with my own eyes. I did never think well of his ideas...
To me Milošević was nationalist and populist, and the politician who played the main role in dissolution of Yugoslavia.
I must add I spent the war in Sarajevo (1992-1995.) and saw so much suffering... I am not Moslem but visited Srebrenica and could not believe my eyes...
But I also saw many graves in Republic Srpska of Serb soldiers, and for a decade now I have been witnessing the poverty of people from former Yugoslavia - Serbia particularly - all that being - mostly - the result of ambitious, nationalist and populist policy of Slobodan Milosevic.
But as you could notice on my blog I am not willing "to join the company" so to say and prefer to keep my mind focused on other things. After all Milosevic does not deserve so much publicity, never did, and always had it.
Posted by Henry Shepherd at 06:34 PM | TrackBack
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 01:10 PM | TrackBack
Zeljka Grzinic; Rijeka, Croatia
[Zeljka blogs at green-mind.com.]
When the war started, I was 12. From the very beginning I was very aware of the things that were happening - but after some years you get numb - the pictures of rotting children corpses on the TV becomes something you get used to - unfortunately! I was lucky no-one in my family died in the war, so maybe I'm just a little more forgiving than the people who watched their houses burn and their family butchered. I can't speak for them. I can only say that as far as I'm concerned - I'm glad Milosevic is dead because there's an evil less in this world, I'm sorry he's dead because he won't be rotting in a jail the next 20, and (again) I'm glad he's dead because, if he had lived, he would have spent those years in a luxury cell, having more comforts than most of the people who he wronged. I hope he's buried in Belgrade, and I hope his wife will be too worried for her freedom to be present. Everything he touched turned to blood - and I hope karmic retribution is a true concept - if it is, he'll be back as the most downtrodden and wronged person on the planet. And this is me being forgiving! I think people here are mostly relieved that he's dead - with his sugary lies and false indignation he could still sway the naive ones.
After his arrest, and even before - when the war finished, we tried to rebuild our lives not thinking about him - not giving him the satisfaction to hurt us some more from his jail cell by poisoning our thoughts. What happens next? I don't know - but I hope we'll have collective amnesia and forget he even existed. He is a person who deserves to be forgot (because, obviously, the human race doesn't learn from past mistakes).
Posted by Henry Shepherd at 01:00 PM | TrackBack
Sasa Nikolovski, Bečej, Serbia
[Sasa Nikolovski blogs at Bečej - Óbecse: My town, my river, my people.]
I was on job today (I'm working at a school) and nobody was talking about him. Only comment was about his funeral (where he will be buried). I belive that some pensioners, or old partisans will care about him, but other people have other problems (money...). Of course, some political factions will utilize his death but... What we can do? We live in democracy now!
I live in north of Serbia, and in the south the situation is different, but not drastic. Milosevic is just an old story...
[Note: this letter was lightly edited for clarity]
Posted by Henry Shepherd at 12:43 PM | TrackBack
Rachel Long, Belgrade
[Rachel Long blogs at Pustolovina: adventure in Serbian.]
I heard about the death when someone rushed into a seminar on the future of Kosovo to proclaim "Milosevic died in The Hague." My first thought (and the first though of everyone else) was, "is it true?" The group spent the next half hour trying to make the broken TV in the corner of the room work, find a radio station that wasn't playing music, or call friends to confirm the news. [Some recent big news - like the reported extradiction of Mladic, has been retracted later. No one wanted to react until we knew the truth.]
The response in Belgrade has been underwhelming. Later in the day, I went out on the street to see if there was any sort of reaction, public mourning, anything. There wasn't. People seemed more concerned with the honey festival going on in a main square and the newly opened Nike stores on the main shopping street. I think the 'general public' (if there can be such a thing) is tired of politics. Carla del Ponte and EU officials are on the TV news ever day demanding the extradiction of Mladic and Karadic. Montenegro will be voting on its independence from Serbia in a few months. Peace talks on the final status of Kosovo are beginning. Serbia and Montenegro could be a much smaller country by this time next year. It's all a lot for someone to pay attention to, especially someone who struggles to eat and to stay warm, as many Serbians do.
I work for Women in Black, a feminist anti-militarist organization, unfortunately very much on the fringes of Serbian society. Around the office and in the activist community as a whole, there has been a greater response. People are frustrated that his trial is over, that all of the truth of what he has done will not come out, that he will never be officially branded a war criminal. My boss is thinking of putting together an unofficial 'women's tribunal' in which the rest of the trial could happen. Others are worried that he will be deified, that his death will be tied into the many conspiracy theories of some sort of USA-EU-UN conspiracy against the Serb people. People are worried about where he will be buried, if his wife will be allowed back into Belgrade without facing criminal charges. [She is currently living in Moscow to escape the charges against her.] They don't want him to recieve a full state funeral or be buried in a place that could turn into a site for pilgrimmage.
Additionally, the day after Milosevic's death was the third anniversary of the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, a much more democratic, reform-minded, and western-oriented leader. Will the future commemorations of Djindjic's death be overshadowed by the anniversary of Milosevic's? Time will tell. . .
Posted by Henry Shepherd at 12:40 PM | TrackBack
Milosevic story for Open Source
I'm working on a story about Milosevic's death for Radio Open Source. If you have any comments, please make them on this post.
If you are in South/Eastern Europe or have a connection to the region: what did you and the people around you think of Milosevic, his trial, and the resolution of the conflicts over the past decades? what does his death mean for the region? what happens next? what is justice in this case, and who should get to decide it? and what about the autopsy and funeral? is this just conspiracy theory stuff, or will it shape how the majority of Serbs or Croats or Muslims (or any other group) deal with the episode?
Comments from any reader are most welcome. You may want to read Kosova Report or A Petty Hitler, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark's stunning indictment in today's Wall Street Journal. That post may not adhere to copyright rules; suffice it to say that you should find some way to read the article.
The people at Open Source want me to take more iniative and come up with my own feature ideas. As I was combing the blogosphere for posts on the death of Milosevic, I realized that this space could be used as a clearinghouse for comments that could end up on the Open Source site. Hopefully, it will give prospective contributors a place to share ideas and stories. It might be a great way to liven up Thayer and Charlesfield with visitors from around the world as I address various topics.
