The other day the following happened in Belgrade: the Serbian President Boris Tadic “shopped” a prominent patriot and public figure, former leader of Bosnian Serbs, to perfidious and cruel Hague tribunal. With time, the “traitor” Tadic will be requited like it happened to Zoran Dzindzic and the repenting Serbia will return to brotherly Russia.
Millions of our compatriots believe this interpretation of Balkan developments, given by a TV commentator Konstantin Semin. Generally, all Russian TV has been convincing us for years that Milosevic is the Serbian national hero, despite the fact that most Serbs consider him to be responsible for all the country’s troubles of the 90’s. And what about today? Even quite liberal Russian media, referring to “authoritative” experts, vie with each other telling about some final turn by Serbia towards the West and about freezing of relations with the Kremlin, and about Russia losing again and failing to attach Serbian orthodox brothers.
So what has been happening? The Russian modern political culture has engendered a pathetic and conceited ethnocentrism where all the outside developments, even those having no relation to Russia, are considered in a fatal dualistic context of “ours – not ours”, pro-Kremlin – anti-Kremlin etc. In case you get praised by Washington or Brussels, you become an enemy for Moscow. Even when you have just abolished the visas for Russian tourists, as a sign of special favor!
And we are naïve enough to believe that others do not notice that. A Serbian colleague of mine told me how Gazprom officials examined the enterprises of the Serbian oil processing complex. They were doing it in the way as if that plant already belonged to Gazprom. No wonder that others turn away from us at the end.
Now to the story of Radovan Karadzic. The former leader of Bosnian Serbs was detained on 18 July in Batainits, a Belgrade suburb, when he was getting on a regular bus. He was “captured” smoothly, in the way characteristic of situations where the special services do not really want to do it, but have to. Karadzic is no criminal, but political subject. No accusations brought on him were really proved. They say he ordered to shoot people. Well, actually his post implied giving such orders. He refused giving up to Hague tribunal for former Yugoslavia and has been hiding for 13 years. If he had been yielded himself prisoner, like Bilyan Plavcic did, he would have been forgiven. Not surrendering but “shopped” Milosevic died in the Hague prison under mysterious circumstances, having written a letter saying he was going to be killed. It’s only the prosecutor Karla de Ponte who was really concerned with the fact of “strange” death of the ex-dictator. She had insisted on thorough investigation. But soon she was sent to work as the Swiss Ambassador in the Argentine. Then the rumors appeared that there had been either ethnic Albanians or Bosnian Muslims among the guarding staff of the Hague tribunal. This is what must have been by no means. However, someone was really dismissed after Milosevic’s death, being charged with negligence.
In relation to arrest of Karadzic the newspapers are discussing the “assistance by some of foreign intelligence service”. However, it is more likely that the operation had been worked out by Serbian special service alone. After murder of Zoran Dzindzic this organization was cleaned out of all real and potential supporters of Milosevic in person and pan-Serbian idea in general. Serbia did not adopt any Act on lustration – everything just happened in accordance with inner logic of the country’s life, which was not thought to be separated from Europe and the EU. Hopes by the Russian elite that after getting rid of the ballast in a form of Milosevic Serbia would become almost like “an Orient” are at least delusive. The standing President Boris Tadic dreams of “normal” Serbia. Arrest of Karadzic seems to be a logic step in that direction. And it’s exactly now that Serbia needs to confirm its adherence to European values, after the failed in Ireland referendum on the European Constitution has put a damper for further extension of the EU. An opinion has been maturing in the depths of the European Commission to accept Croatia and to suspend the process for a while after that. So the supertask by Tadic is to try to convince Brussels to consider Serbian application in one package with Croatia, or else the political credo of his coalition would be ruined. This is why Tadic has smoothed the sovereign anger related to recognition of Kosovo and ordered two weeks ago that the recalled Serbian ambassadors return to their duties in the European capitals.
…There is a really nice Canadian documentary. It tells about the youth from all over former Yugoslavia gathering once a year in a resort near Sarajevo. They communicate in the Serbian-Croatian language. They tell one another the memories by their parents and relatives dedicated to the past war. At the end of the gathering all of them get in a circle, hug among themselves and give a vow to one another never again to allow fratricide on their common land. Honesty, that scene of the film is really touching. It makes one wish to forget as soon as possible all those Karadzics, Mladics, Milosevics and those others who still try to put their names on a pedestal.
