BALKAN WITNESS
Articles on the
Kosovo Conflict:
Post-War
Serbia
For regular updates on
events and issues in the former Yugoslavia, see also
Balkan
Investigative Reporting Network's
Balkan Insight
See also:
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
in Serbia
Women in Black
International
Crisis Group
Note: Each article shown below
represents the opinion of the author, and not necessarily of anyone else.
NEW
Genocide's Epic Hero By Aleksandar Hemon, The New York
Times, July 27, 2008
Time For Serbs To Say 'We Knew What Happened' On Bosnian War Crimes
Interview with Janja Bec-Neumann, May 9, 2008
Serbian
Government Bans Peace March commemorating International Women's Day Amid
Kosovo Backlash The Advocacy
Project, March 10, 2008
Collapse of the Kosovo Myth
By Sonja Biserko,
Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights in Serbia,
March 5,
2008
Belgrade: an
old script, replayed
By Dragan Klaic, OpenDemocracy, February 27,
2008
Revival
of Hate Speech in Serbia Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, February 23, 2008
Serbia must not become a Balkan Belorussia By Latinka
Perovic, Globus (Zagreb), February 8, 2008
The Renegade
by
Charles Simic, New York Review of Books, December 20, 2007
To Belgrade with (tough) love By Richard Byrne, December
18, 2007
Open Letter to Serbia By Richard Byrne,
Evropa,
December 7, 2007
Advocates launch
campaign to protect women human rights defenders in Serbia
The Advocacy Project, June 21, 2007
Survey: Only half of Serbs believe
Srebrenica massacre happened
OSCE, March
2007
Serbian Press Seeks Jail for Women Peace Activists who Advocate Independence
for Kosovo The Advocacy Project, February 21, 2007
Women In Black Criticizes Serbian Politicians and Rejects a
Nationalist Solution To the Kosovo Crisis
February 7, 2007
Let Radicals Take the Rap for Loss of Kosovo
By Daniel Serwer, September 21, 2006
We’ll take vengeance on the Turks By Sonja Biserko, May 11,
2006
Some perspectives on the death of Slobodan
Milosevic, March 11, 2006
Serbia
Faces Trial for Bosnia Genocide
By Nidzara Ahmetasevic, BIRN, February 22, 2006
No Sign of Serbia’s Adenauer
By Marcus Tanner, IWPR, June 18, 2004
Backsliding in Serbia By Sonja Biserko, IWPR, April 8, 2004
Serbia in the vicious circle of nationalism
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, December 2003
EU
Urges Montenegro to Maintain Federation By Alexandra Poolos, RFE/RL, February 7, 2002
Tracking Yugoslavia's Dirty Money By Isabel Vincent, National Post (Canada), December
15, 2001
Serbian Government Promotes Rights
Abuser By Human Rights Watch,
February 2, 2001
Can Serbia's new
leaders overcome the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic? By Misha
Glenny, The New Yorker, October 30, 2000
Serbia's
Obligations By Natasha Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, October 27, 2000
What did your dad do for Milosevic? By Tim Luckhurst, The
New Statesman, October 16, 2000
Humanitarian
Law Center Publicly Accuses Former Yugoslav President, His Wife and Son
By
Natasha Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, October 7, 2000
Repression of
Political Opponents in Serbia Humanitarian Law Center, September 20, 2000
Serbia: Elections Unlikely to be
Free or Fair Human Rights Watch, September 15, 2000
Serbia's
pre-election atmosphere spills over onto the football terraces
By Istvan
Molnar, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, September 1, 2000
I Do Not Want to Remain Silent Over the Horrors
By Natasha
Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade), August 21, 2000
Prison Awaits "Real" Journalists By Petar
Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, August 1, 2000
Violence
Against Students Escalates By Human Rights Watch,
July 20, 2000
Montenegro On the Brink
By Milka Tadic-Mijovic, Institute for
War and Peace Reporting, July 14, 2000
So Milosevic Leaves Serbia -- and Goes
Where? By Misha Glenny, June 23, 2000
Escalating Repression in Serbia:
An Update on Harassment of the Otpor (Resistance) Movement
Human Rights Watch, June 1, 2000
Opposition Campaign Fizzles Out
By Laura Rozen, Institute for
War and Peace Reporting, May 31, 2000
Regime
Shuts Down Universities By Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and
Peace Reporting, May 26, 2000
Civil War Gets Off to a Flying Start By Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting,
May 19, 2000
Media Wars:
Serbian Clampdown on Independent Media By Dejan Sretenovic, May
18, 2000
Otpor's Challenge to Milosevic
By Gabriel Partos, BBC, May 15,
2000
Wars Start
in the Spring By Stasa Zajovic, Women in Black,
March 17, 2000
Serbs
Defy Draft
By Miroslav Filipovic, Institute
for War and Peace Reporting, March 14, 2000
The Belgrade Stranglehold By Sonja Biserko, Institute for War and Peace Reporting,
February 11, 2000
Serbian Human Rights Campaigner Faces Opposition Wrath By Vlado Mares, Institute for
War and Peace Reporting, February 11, 2000
Social situation in Serbia and its
influence on political situation in the country By
Jelena Santic, December 3, 1999
Interview with Latinka Perovic:
Part 1
Part 2 December, 1999
Belgrade's
Paramilitaries Set Up Base In Montenegro By Milka
Tadic, IWPR, November 26, 1999
Ignoring Scars, Milosevic Is
Stubbornly Pressing On By Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, October 30, 1999
The Next War By William
Finnegan, The New Yorker, September 20, 1999
The Milosevic Generation By Blaine Harden, The New York Times, August 29, 1999
Summaries of articles listed above
NEW
Genocide's Epic Hero
After the initial exhilaration, many Bosnians find Radovan Karadzic’s arrest less
satisfying than one would expect. Though he might spend the rest of his life
in the comfortable dungeons of the Western European prison system, he will
live eternally in the verses of decasyllabic meter written by those for whom
the demolition of Bosnia was but material for the grand epic poetry of Serbhood.
Bosnians know he should have been booed and run off the stage at the peak of
his performance. He should have been seen for what he really was: a thuggish
puppet whose head was bloated with delusions of grandeur. He should have let
us live outside his epic fantasies.
By Aleksandar Hemon, The New York Times, July 27, 2008
Time For Serbs To Say 'We Knew What Happened' On Bosnian War Crimes
There's still a very small hope that Serbia will pronounce the words, "We
knew what happened." The next step would be, "We are ashamed," and,
finally, "We are very sorry." I agree with Marlene Dietrich who, when
asked after World War II whether she was aware of what had happened in
Germany during the Holocaust, said that all those who wanted to know knew.
Interview with Janja Bec-Neumann, May 9, 2008
Serbian
Government Bans Peace March commemorating International Women's Day Amid
Kosovo Backlash
In a sign of the growing pressure on Serbian civil society in the wake of
Kosovo's declaration of independence, the Serbian government has cancelled
a peace march by Women in Black Network from Serbia.
The
Advocacy Project, March 10, 2008
Collapse
of the Kosovo Myth
The
loss of Kosovo serves for staging an "internal aggression" and showdown
with the liberal-minded camp in Serbia. In parallel Vojislav Koštunica
uses the Kosovo issue to ensure his own political future and to obstruct
the pro-European current in Serbia.
By Sonja Biserko, Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights in Serbia, March 5, 2008
Belgrade: an
old script, replayed
Serbia's official demonstration against Kosovo's
independence reveals a political class still trapped in a complex of
regressive, self-defeating nationalism. Belgrade was experiencing a rerun
of the same hate-inducing dramaturgy, the same performed defiance, the
same orchestration of nationalist fury, and the same outpouring of ranting
rhetoric from politicians, Orthodox bishops, academics, and artists,
as in the Milosevic years. By Dragan Klaic, Open Democracy, February 27,
2008
Revival
of Hate Speech in Serbia
Frustration due to proclamation of independence of
Kosovo engendered a strong revival of hate speech in public discourse,
notably in the print media.
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, February 23, 2008
Serbia must not become a Balkan Belorussia
One of Serbia's most eminent historians and bravest
critics of the existing political order discusses her country's past and future
in the light of the recent elections, especially the strong showing of the
Radicals. By Latinka Perovic, Globus (Zagreb), February 8, 2008
The Renegade Smug in their
ethnocentricity, certain of their own superiority, indifferent to the cultural,
religious, and political concerns of their neighbors, all the Serbs needed in
1990 was a leader to lead them into disaster. The most repellent crimes in the
former Yugoslavia had the enthusiastic support of people whose education and
past accomplishments would lead one to believe that they would know better. The
role of the patriotic intellectual in Serbia was to make excuses for the killers
of women and children. As for journalists and political commentators, their
function was to spread lies and then prove that these lies were true. I was
being asked by my own people to become an accomplice in a crime by pretending to
understand and forgive acts that I knew were unforgivable.
By Charles Simic,
New York Review of Books, December 20, 2007
To Belgrade with (tough) love I wrote
an open letter to Serbia. Now Serbia's writing back, and the responses prove
how difficult integrating the country into Europe will be. By Richard Byrne, December
18, 2007
Open Letter to Serbia
When Kosovo leaves, you will be alone at last. Is
this really what you wanted? And, if not, how did it happen? Why do all your
neighbors look the other way now? (Some perceptive advice to Serbia from an
American friend, though he could have explained in slightly more detail why
any advice from an American might seem presumptuous.) By Richard Byrne,
Evropa,
December 7, 2007
Advocates launch
campaign to protect women human rights defenders in Serbia
Advocates in Serbia have launched a major campaign to pressure the Serbian
government and international community to better protect Serbian women who
defend human rights. The Advocacy Project, June
21, 2007
Survey: Only half of Serbs believe
Srebrenica massacre happened
A large number of Serbian citizens still lack information on
war crimes and negate them, with 71% of Serbians having heard about the
Srebrenica massacre, and only half of them believing that a large number of
Bosnian Muslims were killed there, according to a survey conducted by a
Belgrade-based agency. OSCE, March
2007
Serbian Press Seeks Jail for Women Peace Activists who Advocate Independence
for Kosovo In an attempt to intimidate advocates of a
peaceful solution to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict, a leading Serbian nationalist
newspaper has called for the prosecution of the Women’s Peace Coalition, a
joint initiative of women activists, for advocating for the independence of
Kosovo.
The Advocacy Project,
February 21, 2007
Women In Black Criticizes Serbian Politicians and Rejects a
Nationalist Solution To the Kosovo Crisis
The Serbian women’s group has accused Serbian politicians of condemning Serbia
to further international isolation and perpetuating the policies of the late
Slobodan Milošević by rejecting a UN plan for the independence of Kosovo.
February 7, 2007
More than ten years after the Bosnia war, and with
the approach of a resolution of the status of Kosovo, each of the parties is
looking forward to integration with the European Union. But much of Serbian
government and society remains gripped by denial of Serbian crimes in the wars
of the 1990s. Several articles examine this problem from varying perspectives:
Let Radicals Take the Rap for Loss of Kosovo
The West must not delay independence in order to
prop up the government in Belgrade. By Daniel Serwer, September 21, 2006
We’ll take vengeance on the Turks
Reflection upon the anti-Muslim campaign that, over thirty years, bombarded
Serbs with propaganda designed to prepare them psychologically to wage a
genocidal war. The demonisation of innocent Muslims, and the use of brutal
methods ranging from persecution to genocide, have left a deep imprint upon
relations in a region in which Serbs and Muslims continue to live next to one
another. A revival of mutual trust is impossible without the acceptance of this
truth.
--
Sonja Biserko, May 11, 2006
Some perspectives on the death of Slobodan
Milosevic, March 11, 2006
Serbia
Faces Trial for Bosnia Genocide After
years of delays, an international court will finally decide whether the Serbian
state is guilty of this grave crime.
-- Nidzara Ahmetasevic, BIRN,
February 22, 2006
No Sign of Serbia’s Adenauer
What Serbia needs is a break from the past, as happened in post-1945 Germany.
But right now it looks more like the chaos of the Weimar Republic. One sign of
the poor health of Serbia’s new democracy is that when discussing their
preference for the moderate candidate Boris Tadic, many people told me that
“at least he is not a criminal”. In other words, the mere fact of not having
been convicted of theft, fraud, or bribery has in Serbia become a
qualification for holding the highest office in the land. -- Marcus Tanner, IWPR, June 18, 2004
Backsliding in Serbia
Serbia's new government has begun
restoring many facets of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. Parliament has
pushed through a law providing assistance to war crime indictees in The Hague.
-- Sonja Biserko, IWPR, April 8, 2004
Serbia in the vicious circle of nationalism This study is
an effort to bring to light new forms of nationalism in post-Milosevic
Serbia and show that Serbia has not yet found an alternative to nationalism
.
-- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, December 2003
EU
Urges Montenegro to Maintain Federation
Montenegrin
leaders are reiterating their plans to leave the Yugoslav federation just one day
after the European Union warned against trying to turn the small republic into an
independent state. --
Alexandra Poolos, RFE/RL, February 7, 2002
Tracking Yugoslavia's Dirty Money Yugoslav authorities indicted a Milosevic-era tycoon for
siphoning large sums of money out of the former Yugoslavia and hiding it abroad.
Yugoslavia was well on the way to economic self-destruction long before the spring of
1999. So far, the investigation's main revelations have focused on Mr. Milosevic, himself
a former banker, who came to power in 1989 and presided over a government whose main
purpose, investigators say, was to acquire wealth and spirit it out of the country. A
three-part series about the biggest corruption scandal in Yugoslav history. -- Isabel
Vincent, National Post (Canada), December 15, 2001
Serbian Government Promotes Rights
Abuser Recent changes in the
Serbian Ministry of Interior raise serious concerns about the new government's commitment
to human rights and accountability. Two
high-ranking police officials from the Milosevic era have been removed from office, but
another official with a terrible record of human rights abuse has been promoted to an
important position within the Ministry of Interior. -- Human Rights Watch, February 2, 2001
Can Serbia's new
leaders overcome the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic? An eyewitness
report on the overthrow of Milosevic. A key organizer of the protests said, "We're
going to storm the parliament. It is all planned. We will demand the government's
resignation and insist on the recognition of Kostunica." I was taking notes and
realized that I had actually forgotten the date, so I asked one of the many young
receptionists who are a hallmark of opposition activity to remind me. "Sudnji dan,"
she replied. Judgment Day.
Serbs would not have voted for Kostunica if he were not a nationalist. He attacked
Milosevic relentlessly for what he calls the regime's "betrayal" of Serbs in
Croatia and Kosovo, and he made it clear that he considered the United States complicit in
that betrayal for supporting "Albanian terrorism" as a means to America's
imperialist ends. -- Misha Glenny, The New Yorker, October 30, 2000
Serbia's
Obligations The entire world is now looking to us, coddling us, taking care not
to irritate us, cunningly holding us back from considering difficult issues such as the
extradition of war crimes suspects. Our president Vojislav Kostunica says, "I won't
hand over Milosevic - our priority is democracy," and the world replies, "Never
mind, there's no hurry." By Natasha Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, October 27, 2000
What did your dad do for Milosevic? The author finds collective
amnesia in Serbia, as people assure him that, all along, they hated the dictator and
supported the resistance. -- Tim Luckhurst, The New Statesman, October 16, 2000
Humanitarian Law Center Publicly
Accuses Former Yugoslav President, His Wife and Son Is there anyone who does not know
that Slobodan Milosevic, together with his wife and closest associates, did everything in
his power to steal votes and pervert the will of the people? Is there any doubt about the
culpability for the death and destruction in the series of wars waged by Milosevic? Where
did the money kept in foreign bank accounts come from? Who dealt in contraband cigarettes,
gasoline and our food? Who stole our money through inflation and bank manipulations? Will
there be an official investigation? Will the guilty parties be taken into custody to
prevent them from continuing their criminal activities or escaping? Unless the new
government immediately apprehends the suspects and opens an investigation, it will not be
up to the task set to it by the people who rebelled with just cause against such conduct. --Natasha
Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, October 7, 2000
Repression of
Political Opponents in Serbia The
stepped-up violence by the Serbian and FR Yugoslavia authorities against political
opponents following the calling of the presidential and federal elections threatened
fundamental human rights and liberties. The election campaign in Serbia is marked by daily
arrests of activists of the Otpor (Resistance) movement, non-governmental organizations,
and members of opposition political parties. -- Humanitarian Law Center,
September 20, 2000
Serbia: Elections Unlikely to be
Free or Fair The elections are not taking place in an atmosphere
supportive of free choice: the government has carried out a pre-election campaign of
intimidation and violence against the opposition, and through a brutal abuse of state
media it seeks to prevent the electorate from making an informed judgment about the
contestants. There are also numerous indications that the elections will not be fair,
since the electoral laws allow for gross and unchecked fraud during voting and
vote-counting. -- Human Rights Watch, September 15, 2000
Serbia's
pre-election atmosphere spills over onto the football terraces Traditional
terrace chants at Belgrade's premier football club Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) have given way
to blatantly anti-government songs. The chants, including a smash hit
dedicated to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic - "Slobodan, Save Serbia! Kill
Yourself" - have proved too much for the government to bear, prompting heavy-handed
police intervention. The regime is so unnerved by the fans that Serbian
State TV has switched off the sound during football coverage when anti-Milosevic chants
start up. At the recent Red Star-Torpedo Kutisi game, the commentator managed to ignore
the entire battle unfolding in the stands, remarking instead upon the "wonderful
ambience on this magical night of football." -- Istvan Molnar,
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, September 1, 2000
I Do Not Want to
Remain Silent Over the Horrors Natasha Kandic, director of the
Belgrade/Prishtina-based Humanitarian Law Center, is one of very few Serb civilians who
went into Kosovo during the NATO intervention to see what the Serb forces were doing
there. Now she's being threatened with prosecution by the Serbian courts for talking about
it, and this is her response.
...In Serbia today, everyone,
including children, are under suspicion by the authorities of being terrorists. When
anyone dares to raise the question of the responsibility of the Yugoslav Army, you respond
with secret trials. I am one of those people who refuse to remain silent, even at the cost
of being brought to trial by you. I will not remain silent about the horrors your generals
sent young recruits to witness in Kosovo. The road from Kosovoska Mitrovica to Pec and
Djakovica is engraved on my memory: a column of Albanian civilians, young soldiers going
up to them with tears in their eyes, pleading with them to accept their food, to
forgive them, saying it was not their fault, that their officers ordered them to Kosovo,
that they did not know where they were being taken. I will not be silent about the
suffering of civilians I saw in Kosovo. ... -- Natasha Kandic, letter to the Belgrade
daily Danas, August 21, 2000
Prison Awaits "Real" Journalists For the first time
in Serbia, a journalist has received a ferocious sentence for merely doing his job:
gathering information, writing articles, and publishing them in foreign newspapers and on
the Internet. But his imprisonment has a logic. It continues state repression against the
media begun a decade ago. Thus begins the story of Miroslav Filipovic, who dared to do
what the Serbian media could not do all these years: raise the question of war crimes.
Filipovic's interviews with witnesses, the testimony and the data, demolish the cheap
propaganda image of the Yugoslav Army as a respecter of the Geneva Convention. His pieces
are about evil, about a pre-arranged plan to clean territory of the enemy population. They
illustrate people's terrible dilemmas, the horror, the completion of the national project.
This is why Filipovic was dangerous: because he showed - proved - that Kosovo was just a
sequel to the anti-Croatian, anti-Bosnian, anti-civilisational politics of Belgrade. --
Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, August 1, 2000
Violence Against Students Escalates
In the past six weeks, police have beaten
opposition activists and members of Otpor (Resistance), an anti-government group mostly
comprised of university students. Police have also refused to investigate attacks on
opposition activists by plainclothes thugs believed to be working for the Serbian
government. Previously, police harassment of students and opposition activists was limited
mostly to detention and interrogation. -- Human Rights Watch, July 20, 2000
Montenegro On the Brink Outraged by changes to the Yugoslav
constitution, the Montenegrin government has started preparing the ground for a referendum
on independence. -- Milka Tadic-Mijovic, Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, July 14, 2000
So Milosevic Leaves Serbia -- and
Goes Where? The United States and some of its
allies have put out feelers to Slobodan Milosevic offering a so-called exit strategy -- a
deal whereby the Yugoslav president would be excused an appearance at the international
war crimes tribunal in The Hague in exchange for his getting out of the Balkans. Despite
the furious denials from Washington and elsewhere this week, this is a serious policy. Or
rather, this is what masquerades as a serious policy.-- Misha Glenny, June 23, 2000
Escalating Repression in Serbia:
An Update on Harassment of the Otpor (Resistance) Movement
During May 2000, the Serbian government intensified its
efforts to silence opposition to the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
-- Human Rights Watch, June 1, 2000
Opposition Campaign Fizzles Out The Serbian opposition's
failure to offer the population any constructive response to the government's closure of
key independent media, universities and beatings and arrests of pro-democracy activists
underlines the utter bankruptcy of political life in the country. -- Laura
Rozen, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, May 31, 2000
Regime
Shuts Down Universities Students are first in the firing line as repression in
Serbia reaches a new level of brutality. -- Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, May 26, 2000
Civil War Gets Off to a Flying Start With the closure of its independent media, Serbia has moved a step closer to
what even the most optimistic now see as unavoidable - civil war. -- Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, May 19, 2000
Media
Wars: Serbian Clampdown on Independent Media T
he regime's war against independent and opposition media
accelerates, but to understand the proper context of the event one needs more information
on the specific Serbian political and media context at this very moment. -- Dejan Sretenovic, May 18, 2000
Otpor's Challenge to Milosevic Otpor
now claims to have over 20,000 activists - most of them young people, especially students.
It is not a traditional political party but a movement that often engages in
unconventional activities. Street theatre is an important part of these protests.
Activities have included displaying an effigy of Mr. Milosevic which passers-by could
punch after paying one dinar; or painting red footsteps on the pavement - what they
claimed to be Mr. Milosevic's bloodied steps - leaving office for the final time. -- Gabriel Partos, BBC, May 15,
2000
Wars Start in the Spring
Women are calling us more than they usually
do, repeating over and over again "We can not go on… I will not allow them to
take my son, my husband away…" Yesterday an activist from Leskovac (southern
Serbia) told me, "I tore up the draft call that the postman brought for my
husband…" and another women from another city in Serbia said, "I did not
want to accept the draft call, let my son go to jail, let him go to ten years of jail, I
will not allow him to go to the front…" -- Stasa Zajovic, Women in Black, March 17, 2000
Serbs
Defy Draft Government
officials sent to round-up army reservists in the Kraljevo area of central Serbia got more
than they bargained for when they arrived in the village of Stubal. About 200 protestors,
upset by the death of three local men in the recent Kosovo conflict, met the officials
with a barrage of insults and invective. "Red Gang! Go and Get Marko!" they
shouted, referring to the son of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "Fuck You
Milosevic!" they chanted before driving the officials from the village with wooden
staves. -- Miroslav Filipovic, Institute for
War and Peace Reporting, March 14, 2000
The Belgrade Stranglehold The
establishment in Serbia retains an iron grip on public debate, stamping out any attempts
to consider real responsibility for the country's enormous defeat. -- Sonja Biserko,
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, February 11, 2000
Serbian Human Rights Campaigner Faces Opposition Wrath A Serbian human rights activist
is condemned by the opposition after accusing it of having close links to the Serbian
leadership. -- Vlado Mares, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, February 11, 2000
Social situation in Serbia and its
influence on political situation in the country In
July 1991, the author was one of the founders of the Centre for Antiwar Action in
Belgrade. She has been active in antiwar demonstrations and protests there ever since. --
Jelena Santic, December 3, 1999
Interview with Latinka Perovic:
Part 1
Part 2 Purged by the Communist Party leadership in 1972, Perovic became
known as one of the best experts on Serbian 19th century history. She discusses the
present Serbian situation in a historical context. December, 1999
Belgrade's
Paramilitaries Set Up Base In Montenegro Former
Yugoslav Army chief Momcilo Perisic says squads of well-paid, battle-hardened troops are
setting up base in Montenegro - loyal only to Belgrade and promising only trouble for the
tiny republic. -- Milka Tadic, IWPR, November 26, 1999
Ignoring Scars, Milosevic Is
Stubbornly Pressing On Slobodan Milosevic -- gray
and remote, internationally isolated and politically unpopular, charged with war crimes,
his army restive and its reservists outraged, his economy ruined and his factories bombed,
his refineries and electricity system smashed and his sources of fuel unclear, his roads
and railways holed and his bridges collapsed -- has not only survived the loss of Kosovo,
but gained a second wind. --
Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, October
30, 1999
The Next War Look closely at the photographs of Serbian political opposition
rallies and you may note, waving above the angry crowds, a disturbing number of
three-fingered Serbian Orthodox salutes - the gang sign of militant Serb nationalism.
Large parts of those crowds, in other words, are not unhappy with Milosevic for starting
four wars in the last eight years. They are unhappy with him for losing those wars - for
failing to secure a Greater Serbia. Montenegrins have special reason to be afraid, because
the wars of the Yugoslav Succession are most likely not yet over, and little Montenegro -
the only other republic left inside the rump Yugoslavia with big, incorrigibly aggressive
Serbia - is now the prime candidate for Belgrade's next attempt to conquer and brutally
absorb a neighbor. -- William Finnegan, The
New Yorker, September 20, 1999
The Milosevic Generation The young Serbs of Belgrade watched their leader lose in Croatia,
in Bosnia, and then in Kosovo. Now they're the ones who are lost. -- Blaine Harden, The
New York Times, August 29, 1999
|
Some perspectives on
the death of Slobodan Milosevic, March 11, 2006
NEW
"Patient: S. Milosevic." Reporter, a Dutch
television-program, has published the entire medical file of Slobodan
Milosevic on its website. The site contains internal memos from the
ICTY, correspondence between his attending physicians, brain scans,
hearing tests, lab results, medicine charts, and the medical examiners'
report. Milosevic and his son wanted his medical file to be made public.
June 2006
The Dark Side of Serbia
Milosevic was not solely responsible for the malign energy in Serbia
that caused so much death and destruction in the region.
By Gordana Igric, BIRN, March 15,
2006
Slobodan Milosevic - Obituary A comprehensive
history of Milosevic and his legacy. By Ian Traynor, The Guardian
(UK), March 13, 2006
Milosevic's last victory
Slobodan Milosevic's death robs his
victims of justice and casts a shadow over
Serbia's future. By
Misha Glenny, March
13, 2006
Milosevic Cheats Victims of Justice
Death of former Serbian strongman highlights flaws in the Hague
tribunal prosecution strategy. By Emir Suljagic, March 13, 2006
Milosevic and I
"Slobodan Milosevic is
dead. But what about me? Did he take ten years of my life just like
that?" By Dusan Velickovic, March 14, 2006
The Hague tribunal after Milosevic
The death in
custody of the first head of state on trial for war crimes does not
diminish the importance of institutions of global justice. By Anthony
Dworkin, March 14, 2006
Slobodan Milosevic: the spirit of the age
The Serbian dictator's
trajectory, as a communist who exploited nationalist and
anti-imperialist sentiment to become the hard-left's hero, puts him at
the centre of the new millennium's political choices. By Marko Attila
Hoare, March 15, 2006
Slobodan Milosevic: myth and responsibility
The career of the
Serbian leader who achieved power by exploiting the potency of the
"Kosovo myth" carries a warning for Serbia’s and Kosovo’s future. By
Julie A Mertus, March 16, 2006
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Cases and warrants
pending for Slobodan Milosevic's family members
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From the Associated Press,
March 13, 2006
MIRJANA MARKOVIC,
Milosevic's wife
Charges filed in December 2002 of inciting abuse of office in a real
estate scandal involving her grandson's nanny and others during her
husband's rule.
At a November 2002 court appearance in Belgrade during a preliminary
investigation, Markovic denied the accusations. The hearings began in
March 2003, with Markovic as co-defendant along with several alleged
associates.
Markovic left Serbia in February 2003 to join her son, Marko, in Russia,
and an Interpol arrest warrant was issued against her the same month. It
was briefly revoked and later reinstated after Markovic failed to appear
in court in September 2005. The trial was last postponed in January
2006.
MARIJA MILOSEVIC, daughter
Charged with unlicensed possession of firearms and endangering public
safety by shooting at police taking her father into custody on April 1,
2001, after a stand-off with police. The charges against her were filed
Aug. 10, 2001.
Her trial began in Belgrade in December 2001, and she received a
two-year suspended sentence in September 2002. But a higher court
overturned the verdict and ordered a retrial, which began in November
2004 and is still ongoing. Marija Milosevic, who lives in Montenegro,
failed to appear in court in February 2006; her lawyer said she had
bronchitis.
There is no international arrest warrant for Marija Milosevic.
MARKO MILOSEVIC, son
Fled to Russia in October 2000 after his father lost power.
A court in the Serbian town of Pozarevac charged him in November 2001
with threatening to kill a prominent opposition activist with a chain
saw during a scuffle at a disco. Seven other men were charged in the
same incident.
Milosevic failed to appear at any of the scheduled court hearings,
leading to an arrest warrant for him, followed by an Interpol warrant.
His trial began in absentia in March 2003
in Pozarevac. In July 2004, he was sentenced to six months in jail. But
on an appeal, the Pozarevac court suspended the verdict in December
2004, returning the case for retrial.
In August 2005, a key witness revoked his
testimony incriminating Marko Milosevic, claiming he no longer
remembered what happened.
Both the Serbian and the Interpol arrest
warrants were revoked in August 2005, and all charges against Marko
Milosevic were dropped. |