For regular updates on events and
issues in the former Yugoslavia, see also
Balkan Insight
by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)
See also:
Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights in Serbia
Women in Black
International Crisis Group
On Serbian Nationalism
The Death of Slobodan Milosevic
See
below for summaries of the following articles
NEW
Jared Kushner received a massive real estate deal in Serbia -- with some
interesting fine print
The New Republic,
June 5, 2024
NEW
Serbian Officials Threaten Violence If UN Adopts Srebrenica Resolution
By Hikmet Karčić,
The National Interest,
April 13, 2024
The West's ‘see no evil' approach to Serbia's Vučić risks destabilizing the
Balkans
By Christian Edwards, CNN,
August 14, 2023
In Serbia, a Strongman
Under Fire Hails Himself as Defender of the Nation
By Andrew Higgins, The New York Times, June 9, 2023
Tens of Thousands
Rally against Serbia's Populist Leader, Warn of Protest "Radicalization"
By Dusan Stojanovich,
Associated Press, June 9, 2023
Serbia
Can No Longer Whitewash Its Role in the Bosnian Genocide By
Hamza Karcic, Haaretz,
June 7, 2023
The President, the Soccer Hooligans and an Underworld "House of Horrors"
By
Robert F. Worth, The New York Times Magazine, May
3, 2023
What’s wrong with US
policy in the Balkans? By Daniel Serwer,
Peacefare, November 17, 2022
In the Balkans, gangs
at the heart of state system
By Rémy Ourdan, Le Monde, August 3, 2021
Dodging Prosecution, Ratko Mladic’s Wartime Associates Live Freely in Serbia By
Milica Stojanovic, Balkan Transitional Justice, June 4, 2021
Manhunt: Tracking the Fugitive Killers of Serbian
PM Zoran Djindjic
By Milica Stojanovic, BIRN, March 12, 2021
How the Virus of Criminal Authoritarianism Killed Zoran Djindjic
By Srdjan Cvijic, BIRN, March 11, 2021
Serbian Foreign Minister threatens Serbs who disclose locations of mass
graves of Albanians and Croats, claims Kosovo Speaker of Parliament
exit news, October 2, 2020
Bosnia, Serbia Unlikely to Copy Belgium's Genocide Denial Law
Balkan Insight, April 17, 2019
Why protests are roiling Serbia anew, 20 years after Milošević
Christian Science Monitor, March 1, 2019
How Serbia's Health Minister Helped a Criminal Avoid Trial
By Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, June 18,
2018
Serbia: Skeletons in the Closet - How Did the Health Minister Get an
Apartment? By Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project, February 22, 2016
Serbia, the ICTY and reconciliation: The terrifying new era of "quiet pride"
By Refik Hodžić, November 28, 2017
Vucic's second inauguration shows off the new face of power in the region
By Eric Gordy, June 28, 2017
Demystifying "NATO Aggression and the Fight against Shiptar Terrorists"
Humanitarian Law Center, March 25, 2015
Youth Initiative for Human Rights January 17, 2015
The minister, his mentor, and the fight against a suspect system in Serbia
Reuters, June 23, 2014
Interview with Sonja Biserko Vreme, November 21,
2013
War crimes apologies could help reconciliation
Southeast European Times,
February 26, 2013
Memories of a better future in the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide
By Hariz Halilovich, openDemocracy,
June 13, 2011
How Ratko Mladic’s Evil Dream Lives On
By Aleksandar Hemon, May
29, 2011
Serb Fugitive Slowly Starved of Friends and Cash
By Doreen
Carvajal and Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, May 29, 2011
Ratko Mladic's arrest is a hollow victory in a country that refuses to
apologise By Ed Vulliamy, May 28, 2011
The long-delayed arrest of accused war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic
By Peter Lippman,
May 28, 2011
Mladic Arrest: The Silence of the Ghosts
By Jasmina Tesanovic, May 26, 2011
Serbia and Kosovo: war of nerves By
Milan Marinkovic, OpenDemocracy, April 22, 2011
Europe Tested as War Crimes Suspect Remains Free New
York Times, October 22, 2010
Nationalism in Serbia - Dangerous dream of a great
empire By Christian Schwarz-Schilling,
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich), August 15, 2010
Early warnings
to Serbia about Kosovo may come true
By Zeljko Pantelic, August 17, 2010
Private security firms in the Balkans harbor corruption, observers say
Deutsche Welle, June 20, 2010
The Pink Panthers By David
Samuels,
The New Yorker,
April 12, 2010
Serbia pursues Ejup Ganic for war crimes. Or is it a vendetta?
By Roy Gutman, The Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 2010
Patching things up - Serbia tries to repair its local relationships
The Economist,
March 31, 2010
What lies behind the arrest of Ejup Ganic
By Branka Magas, Bosnian Institute, March 4, 2010
Biserko: Serbia Still ‘At War’, Using
Other Means
Interview by
Dragana Erjavec,
BIRN, November 4, 2009
Radovan Karadzic's New-Age Adventure By Jack Hitt,
New York Times Magazine,
July 26, 2009
Dealing with impunity in
Serbia: options and obstacles (Executive summary)
By
Impunity Watch, July 2009
Action to Combat Impunity in Serbia: Options and Obstacles
By
Impunity Watch, December 2008 (PDF)
Serbia after Karadzic - the Serbian Predicament By Jeremy
Harding, London Review of Books, August 14, 2008
Genocide's Epic Hero
By Aleksandar Hemon, The New York Times, July 27, 2008
First justice. Next, truth. Only then is reconciliation possible
By Slavenka Drakulic, The Guardian (UK), July 23, 2008
Women in Bosnia and Serbia Hail the Arrest of Radovan Karadzic
The Advocacy Project, July 22, 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, Balkan Insight, 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 (IWPR),
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 (IWPR), 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
(IWPR), 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 (IWPR),
May 31, 2000
Regime Shuts Down Universities
By Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR),
May 26, 2000
Civil War Gets Off to a Flying Start
By Petar Lukovic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), March 14, 2000
The Belgrade Stranglehold By Sonja Biserko, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
(IWPR), February 11, 2000
Serbian Human Rights Campaigner Faces Opposition Wrath By Vlado Mares,
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), 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
Jared Kushner received a massive real estate deal in Serbia -- with some
interesting fine print
His recent contract with
the Serbian government to bulldoze the bombed-out ruins of the Yugoslav
Ministry of Defense complex and convert it into a luxury hotel carries with
it a fine print commitment to build a “memorial dedicated to all the victims
of NATO aggression” -- a direct condemnation of the U.S. that whitewashes
the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, according to intelligence blog
SpyTalk. The New Republic, June 5, 2024
NEW
Serbian Officials Threaten Violence If UN Adopts Srebrenica Resolution
Serbian opposition to the resolution is part of a larger strategy of turning
public attention away from its numerous domestic problems. by Hikmet Karčić,
The National Interest,
April 13, 2024
The West's ‘see no evil' approach to Serbia's Vučić risks destabilizing the
Balkans When Russia
invaded Ukraine, the United States and European Union accelerated their
pivot towards Serbia. Their policies had two aims. First, to bring Serbia
into the Western fold, away from Russia. Second, to allow their respective
administrations to focus more fully on supporting Ukraine. Rather
than juggling the contradictory demands of pluralistic and fractious Balkan
states, Western capitals focused the bulk of their efforts on a singular
target. But, 18 months on, some
observers say the current approach has been all carrot and no stick, and as
a result is failing to achieve both of its aims. Serbia
has refused to participate in all rounds of EU sanctions against Putin. And
Serbia has continued to pursue its own interests in the region with
diminishing accountability, stirring conflicts abroad to distract from
discontent at home, safe in the knowledge they will not be rebuked in the
West. By
Christian Edwards, CNN, August 14, 2023
In Serbia, a Strongman
Under Fire Hails Himself as Defender of the Nation
President Aleksandar
Vucic, who has been the target of protests in Belgrade, has been playing up
his role defending Serbs in Kosovo, where tensions have recently flared. By
Andrew Higgins, The New York Times, June 9, 2023
Tens of Thousands
Rally against Serbia's Populist Leader, Warn of Protest "Radicalization"
Protesters formed a
ring around Serbia’s government headquarters in downtown Belgrade on Friday,
demanding the resignation of the country’s populist president, top security
officials and the “liberation” of pro-state TV stations that they say
promote violence, all in the wake of two mass shootings that stunned the
nation. By
Dusan Stojanovich, Associated Press, June 9, 2023
Serbia
Can No Longer Whitewash Its Role in the Bosnian Genocide Three
decades of slow, painful but vital work bringing Bosnian genocide
perpetrators to justice have now ended, with the convictions of Serbia's
wartime spy chief and a notorious military commander. How should we assess
The Hague Tribunal’s legacy, its shortcomings, and its message for war
crimes deniers today? By
Hamza Karcic, Haaretz,
June 7, 2023
The President, the Soccer Hooligans and an Underworld "House of Horrors"
A grisly trial in Serbia has raised questions about connections between the
country’s top leadership and its violent drug gangs. By
Robert F. Worth, The New York Times Magazine, May
3, 2023
What’s wrong with US
policy in the Balkans?
Washington is sending
strange signals in the Balkans. It has supported a decision by the
international community High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
instituting a post-election change in the way votes determine outcomes. This
favors ethno-nationalist political parties aligned with Moscow. The Americans
are canceling Kosovo ministerial visits with US officials. All
this seems disconnected, maybe even random and unimportant. It is neither. It’s
all about Belgrade. By Daniel Serwer, Peacefare, November 17, 2022
In the Balkans, gangs at the heart of
state system
Today, under Serbian President Aleksandar
Vucic, the state and the mafia are cooperating again to such an extent that
there is no longer a clear difference between the two.
By Rémy Ourdan, Le Monde, August 3, 2021
Dodging Prosecution, Ratko Mladic’s Wartime Associates Live Freely in Serbia The
UN court will deliver Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic’s final
verdict next week, but dozens of his associates who have been accused or
convicted of Bosnian war crimes now live in Serbia with little fear of
prosecution. By Milica Stojanovic, Balkan Transitional Justice, June
4, 2021
Manhunt: Tracking the Fugitive Killers of Serbian
PM Zoran Djindjic
As Serbia marks the 18th anniversary of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic’s
assassination by an organised crime gang and state security officers, BIRN
looks back on how the last of the killers were arrested, shot by police or
murdered by their associates while on the run. By Milica Stojanovic, BIRN,
March 12, 2021
How the Virus of Criminal Authoritarianism Killed Zoran Djindjic
The intimate relationship between organised crime and authoritarian politics
that developed over decades in the former Yugoslavia was the key factor that
led to the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March
2003.
By Srdjan Cvijic, BIRN, March 11, 2021
Serbian Foreign Minister threatens Serbs who disclose locations of mass
graves of Albanians and Croats
The speaker of Kosovo's Parliament
commented that the leadership of Serbia hasn’t
changed since the times of Milošević, and said that “Serbia is still led by
these deplorable genocidal minds.” exit
news, October 2, 2020
Bosnia, Serbia Unlikely to Copy Belgium's Genocide Denial Law
The Belgian government has announced plans to criminalize denial of the
Srebrenica genocide or other crimes recognized as such by an international
tribunal. By Admir Muslimovic and Filip Rudic, Balkan Insight, April
17, 2019
Why protests are roiling Serbia anew, 20 years after Milošević
Over the last several months, antigovernment
protests have jolted the Balkan nation. Demonstrations in support of an
opposition politician who was badly beaten have grown into nationwide
marches against the policies of the Serbian government. Today's
demonstrators are hoping to push the current president along the same path
as Milošević: out of power.
Christian Science Monitor, March 1, 2019
How Serbia's Health Minister Helped a Criminal Avoid Trial
Peter Panic, a one-eyed Serbian mobster with a rich criminal
history and a former bodyguard for Vojislav Seselj, also has ties to
Serbia's Minister of Health, along with the Serbian mafia group Zemun Clan.
By Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, June 18, 2018
Serbia: Skeletons in the Closet - How Did the Health Minister Get an
Apartment? A Serbian-mafia-connected doctor finished off
a wounded member of another gang by injecting him with a poisonous
substance. By Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, February 22,
2016
Serbia, the ICTY and reconciliation: The terrifying new era of "quiet pride"
More than two decades after the war there is be
no political will in Serbia to fully break with the ideology that employed
genocide as a strategic tool. The government's political commitment has not
been to reconciliation, but to the narrative personified in the very
perpetrators indicted by the ICTY. A case in point: General Vladimir
Lazarević, convicted of crimes against humanity for atrocities his forces
committed against Kosovo Albanians, was subsequently appointed to teach at
Serbia's top military academy.
By Refik
Hodžić, November 28, 2017
Vucic's second inauguration shows off the new face of power in the region
We have been witnessing the generation of a state type in the semi-periphery
that revolves around its own image of stability while engaging with
frighteningly little of the concrete stuff that makes states and societies
stable. By Eric Gordy, June 28,
2017
Demystifying "NATO Aggression and the Fight against Shiptar Terrorists"
The war-time authorities of Serbia, some of whose generals
still hold office in the institutions of the army and police, must not be
absolved of responsibility for the death of the 758 people who were killed
in the NATO attacks. The politics advocated at the time by Slobodan
Milosevic, the highest representatives of state institutions, and of the
army and police generals, was the very cause of the NATO bombing. It was
this kind of politics that turned the army into marauding hordes, while the
generals were sending young soldiers to war, who were never to return to
their families. After 16 years it is time to address the responsibility for
the bombing of the country and the deaths of 758 people in the context of
these facts. Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade), March 25, 2015
Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) delivered a copy
of the OSCE reports "Kosovo: As Seen, As Told" (volumes
one and
two) to
Serbian government ministers, along with a request that the ministers read,
acknowledge, and publicly refer to these reports. January 16, 2015
The minister, his mentor, and the fight against a suspect system in Serbia
When a group of British-based Serbian academics dared to question the
doctoral thesis of Serbia's interior minister this month, his PhD mentor was
quick to defend him. Reuters, June 23, 2014
Interview with Sonja Biserko
A wide-ranging interview with the president of the Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights in Serbia, occasioned by the media witch-hunt being conducted
against her, accompanied by death-threats, following the leaking of
information that she had agreed to appear as a witness in Croatia's case
against Serbia for genocide.
Vreme (Belgrade), November 21, 2013
War crimes apologies could help reconciliation
The unexpected apology of a former Yugoslav Army general for war crimes may
help the Kosovo-Serbia reconciliation process.
Southeast European Times, February 26, 2013
Memories of a better future in the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide
Nothing in Serbian President Tadić’s
statement acknowledged that Mladić
was Serbia’s general – and not some foreign infiltrator unexpectedly
discovered in the country which had nothing to do with his crimes. As much
as this saga is about the alleged war criminal General Ratko Mladić,
no less is it about Serbia’s role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
By Hariz Halilovich,
openDemocracy, June 13, 2011
How Ratko Mladic’s Evil Dream Lives On General Mladic
precisely formulated the racist pathology of Serbian nationalism. By
Aleksandar Hemon, May 29, 2011
Serb Fugitive Slowly Starved of Friends and Cash
What
the Serbian government knew about Mladic's
whereabouts, and when they knew it. By Doreen
Carvajal and Steven Erlanger, The New York
Times, May 29, 2011
Ratko Mladic's arrest is a hollow victory in a country that refuses to
apologise The Serbian state was ostensibly hunting this
man while he enjoyed a military salary and pension. I spent a drunken night
in Belgrade not long ago with Mladic's lunatic entourage – men who had been
arrested for sheltering him and who made it very clear they were in
communication with their mentor. There has been no real reckoning among the
Bosnian Serbs – and very little in
Serbia proper – of the kind the Germans underwent. The EU may deem that
sufficient movement towards amends has been made to warrant negotiations for
Serbian entry into its family of nations, but on the ground nothing has
actually occurred. The north-west of Bosnia and the Drina Valley in which
the worst atrocities occurred remain cesspools of the hatred that led to the
slaughter; a crazed, nonsensical mixture of justification and denial which
suggests that, given a fair wind, the communities for whom Mladic is a hero
would do it all again. "Reckoning" is one of the harshest words in the
English language. It means coming to terms with what was done in the wake of
calamity, staring at oneself in the mirror, and making amends, historical,
political and material. The delivery of Mladic for trial is an important
moment, but for justice rather than reckoning. The substance of reckoning is
on the ground and among the people who gladly carried out Mladic's heinous
orders. There, it is not happening. And without reckoning, there can be no
reconciliation, and thereby no real peace. By Ed Vulliamy, May 28, 2011
The long-delayed arrest of accused war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic
His arrest had much more
to do with political expediency for Serbia than with justice. The
apprehension of Mladic and other fugitives, as part of cooperation with the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has been a
condition for granting Serbia's candidate status for membership in the
European Union. By Peter Lippman, May 28, 2011
Mladic Arrest: The Silence of the Ghosts
Recent polls say that, despite the suffering and
ignominy Ratko Mladic brought them, 51 percent of Serbian citizens would not
have given him up to the international war tribunal in the Hague. No, not
for any money. We citizens of Serbia all knew that Mladic was hiding among
us; don’t ask me why, but we never believed the many tales spread about his
death or his exile. Given his modest rural circumstances, he was concealed
more discreetly than the Pakistanis hid Osama bin Laden — but the parallels
there are obvious. Mladic had his protectors in the covert wing of the
government, and the Serbian government is traditionally an enterprise in
which everything is covert, and yet everybody knows. Ask them not why they
turned him in, but why they delayed until today. By Jasmina Tesanovic, May
26, 2011
Serbia and Kosovo: war of nerves
Since the ICJ ruled Kosovo’s independence legal last year, Serbia’s position
on Kosovo has become untenable, both politically and in international law.
Will the country’s politicians finally recognize that it is in their own
interests to recognize Kosovo?
By Milan Marinkovic, OpenDemocracy, April 22, 2011
Europe Tested as War Crimes Suspect Remains Free
After 15 years on the run, sometimes in plain sight at soccer matches and
weddings and sometimes deep in the secretive fabric of Belgrade, Europe’s
most wanted war-crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic, is being hidden by no more
than a handful of loyalists
New York Times, October 22, 2010
Nationalism in Serbia - Dangerous dream of a great empire
Belgrade has still not cut itself loose from the nationalist ideology of
Greater Serbia, which in the 1990s led to the worst genocide in Europe since
the Second World War and resulted in the disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia. But there is also another factor that prevents positive
developments in the region: it is the unfocused, inconsistent and
short-sighted policy of Europe. Europe still does not want to admit how much
harm it has caused with its constant concessions to Serbia's policies, and
how much this has contributed to the current disastrous situation in Kosovo,
in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Serbia.
By Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich), August
15, 2010
Early warnings
to Serbia about Kosovo may come true
Serbia hasn't gained anything on
Kosovo in the EU in recent years. It has only lost a lot of the support for
speeding up its own European integration. Patience and understanding for
Serbian politics towards Kosovo is evaporating.
By Zeljko Pantelic, August 17, 2010
Private security firms in the Balkans harbor corruption, observers say
Organized crime has infiltrated
southeastern Europe, particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, and
corrupted legitimate business in the region, according to a regional network
of investigative journalists. The Sarajevo-based Organized Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said this development put into question
the ability and willingness of the region's governments to combat crime and
detain war criminals.
Deutsche Welle, June 20, 2010
The Pink Panthers
Milosevic, apart from being a very brutal
autocrat, essentially criminalized the state completely. When Milosevic was
removed from power, in 2000, the climate of corruption that he had fostered
remained remarkably intact. Meanwhile, a generation of young people had
grown up in a state run by thieves, murderers, and other criminals. Many
currency dealers worked directly for the state, in a vast system of theft
organized by the Serbian government. Once the Serbian state had transformed
itself into a criminal enterprise, many Serbs turned themselves, willingly
or reluctantly, into criminals. By
David Samuels,
The New Yorker,
April 12, 2010
Serbia pursues Ejup Ganic for war crimes. Or is it a vendetta?
The isn't the first time Serbia has
sought to press charges against Bosnian leaders where the cited facts are
shaky at best. The tribunal investigated similar allegations against Ganic,
who at the time was vice president of Bosnia, for nearly a year and
dismissed the case in June 2003 for insufficient evidence. Last July,
Interpol, the police clearing house, rejected a Serb request for an
international warrant against Ganic. By Roy Gutman, The Christian Science
Monitor, April 12, 2010
Patching things up - Serbia tries to repair its local relationships
Serbia's Parliament passes a resolution condemning the
Srebrenica massacre - barely.
The Economist, March 31, 2010
What lies behind the arrest of Ejup Ganic
The London arrest of a Bosnian
wartime leader heralds a new phase in Serbia's unrelenting aggression
against Bosnia-Herzegovina, in which the British authorities have now made
themselves unwitting pawns. A member of Bosnia's war-time presidency, who
subsequently served as president of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Ejup Ganic, was arrested at London's Heathrow airport on 1 March 2010, at
the request of the Serbian war-crimes prosecutor and on the basis of a
European extradition treaty. Ganic appeared at a London court on the evening
of his arrest, and has been remanded in custody until 29 March; bail was
refused on 3 March and he remains in Wandsworth prison, denied contact with
his family or lawyer. It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand
the British government's own role in the arrest.
By Branka Magas, Bosnian
Institute, March 4, 2010
Serbia Still ‘At War’, Using Other Means
Sonja Biserko, head of Serbia’s Helsinki Committee, says Serbia still
relativizes its crimes and has failed to tell young people the truth of what
happened in the 1990s. Interview by
Dragana Erjavec,
BIRN, November 4, 2009
Radovan Karadzic's New-Age Adventure His fictitious
fugitive life as a quack medicine peddler. By Jack Hitt,
New York Times Magazine,
July 26, 2009
Dealing with impunity in Serbia: options and
obstacles
(Executive summary)
The brutality of the wars of Yugoslav dissolution in the 1990s took the
world, and many Yugoslavs, by surprise. While the region is certainly not
the only one in recent times to experience mass violations of human rights,
its location in the heart of Europe provoked a special sense of shame and
responsibility among the international community, which led to its
engagement in conflict resolution, peace-building, and development measures,
not least in the field of transitional justice. Yet despite this investment,
willingness in the war-affected states to confront their past and end
impunity for the crimes then committed remains weak, sustained only by the
persistence of democracy and human rights activists, and the range of
carrots and sticks offered by the international community to take up the
measures it proposes. By
Impunity Watch, July 2009
Action to Combat Impunity in Serbia: Options and Obstacles
Examines the root causes and nature of impunity for crimes committed by the
Serbian state and citizens during the wars of Yugoslavia's dissolution
during the 1990s. The 86-page document presents research findings, along
with policy recommendations drawn from wide-ranging policy consultations
with state and non-state actors for better achieving truth, justice,
reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition of grave crimes against
international law.
By
Impunity Watch, December 2008 (PDF)
Serbia after Karadzic - the Serbian Predicament
Reflections on the recent Serbian elections, Serbia's position in Europe,
Kosovo after independence, and the Kosovo war. By Jeremy Harding, London
Review of Books, August 14, 2008
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
First justice. Next, truth. Only then is reconciliation possible
With the fall of charismatic murderer-poet-doctor Radovan Karadzic, Serbia
can lift the veil of denial over its past.
By Slavenka Drakulic, The Guardian (UK), July 23, 2008
Women in Bosnia and Serbia Hail the Arrest of Radovan Karadzic
Mr. Karadzic was one of the two
architects of the Srebrenica massacre, which claimed the lives of more than
8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in July 1995. "Not only is this good news for the
victims who need justice, but it is an important step for the future and the
next generation," said Beba Hadzic, founder of the Bosnian Family (BOSFAM),
a Tuzla-based women's organization. Stasa Zajovic, founder of
-Serbia, a leading
women's advocacy group and AP partner, called Monday's arrest a "victory of
justice for the victims of genocide." The Advocacy Project, July 22, 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. --Balkan Witness Editor) 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, Balkan Insight, 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 (Republished February 21, 2005)
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 (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), May 31, 2000 (Republished September 6, 2005)
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 (IWPR),
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 (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), 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 (IWPR), February 11, 2000
Serbian Human Rights Campaigner Faces Opposition Wrath
The Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko is condemned by the
opposition after accusing it of having close links to the Serbian
leadership. -- Vlado Mares, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR),
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 (Republished November 10,
2005)
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
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Some perspectives on the death of
Slobodan Milosevic, March 11, 2006
"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
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
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.
I refuse to lend exclusive importance to a man who was only the
executor of forces behind him - the dark and dangerous forces of
Serbian nationalism. By Gordana
Igric, Balkan Insight,
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
-------------------------
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.
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