<nettime> chevapchichi

[Aleksandar Gubas <eurindie@sezampro.yu>]

-------Heiko Recktenwald wrote:
> Same old story. Chevapcici.........

* There is long tradition of the Serb violence in Kosovo. After Marshall
Tito died, there was great outburst of violence in 1981, when the Army
intervened to stop Albanian intifada in Kosovo and many Albanians were
killed. During the period 1981-1987 Kosovo seemed to be peacefull, but
Albanians, who controlled all aspects of Kosovo province autonomy, put the
great pressure on the Serb minority to sell their houses and move out from
Kosovo. Month after month there were less and less Serbs in Kosovo.

In April 1987 Serbs organized demonstrations in order to make Yugoslav
authorities aware of that problem. Kosovo police, almost ethnically clean
(Albanian), used the force to stop the demonstrations. This time Albanians
were beating Serbs. Then Milosevic came to Kosovo and told that legendary
sentence to the gathered Serbs: "Nobody can beat you!". And he
automatically became the national hero. He was seen as a strongman who
will solve all the problems that Serb nation ever had since the Kosovo
battle in 1389. He was supposed to revenge the humiliation which Christian
Serbs suffered during 500 years of Islamic Turkish domination.

And how did he do it? By sending tanks to Kosovo. In the period 1987-1989
Milosevic installed Serb police and Army control in Kosovo, arrested
Albanian leaders and extincted Kosovo autonomy. That was the real
beginning of the problems, but the Serbs thought it was the best way. It's
their historical mistake.

There is an excellent BBC documentary on Milosevic, where everything
between his sentence "Nobody can beat you!" and Dayton peace agreement was
skipped over. The thesis of this documentary is that, after that sentence,
Milosevic promoted violence as conflict resolution, and wars in Slovenia,
Croatia and Bosnia were generated in the same way: with lack of
responsibility, too much power and avoiding dialogue. Methodologically,
all these wars were repeating the mold established by Milosevic's deeds in
Kosovo in late '80s. This all led to the decade of wars, tragedy and
misery, and the Serbs were victims too. Year after year, Milosevic was
producing new problems in order to push aside the old ones. He never
really solved any problem, and he didn't care. Once he got the power, he
refused any serious dialogue with anyone: Albanians, other nations in
former Yugoslavia, his opposition in Serbia, syndicates, international
community (whatever it is)...

Kosovo is a perfect example of his approach to the problems. He didn't
want to bother himself with boring dialogue; he used tank shortcut again.
And then turned his eyes away from Kosovo, where Albanians installed their
parallel state during '90s. They had their illegal national government,
with unofficial schools, hospitals... and in 1998 they got their
paramilitary troops, known as KLA. Then the things went serious, and
Milosevic had to stop turning his eyes away and do something. Of course,
he applied the only method he knew: extreme use of force. And
Serb-Albanian war began.

It was useless to prove that KLA are terrorists who attack civilians and
journalists - Milosevic already made Serbs usual suspects for everything.
The first bombing threats came from the NATO. As the reaction, in October
1998 Milosevic turned his rule into a kind of dictatorship with his
absolute power, which got worse during the bombing and after that.

It was the essential violence. And Serbs wanted to get rid of that at
last, because they were treated as fools and their children were beaten.
That's why they voted against Milosevic in 2000, and that's why they are
happy now, when he is behind the bars. The Serbs had to ask themselves why
they didn't react earlier, when the others' children were beaten and
killed. It's an unpleasant question, but it should be asked sooner or
later.

Kostunica is now being worshipped maybe even more than Milosevic was, and
it's not good. Milosevic came to Kosovo in 1987 to protect Serbs from the
Albanian controlled police; Kostunica came to Kolubara coal mine after the
elections in 2000, to protect rebelled miners and their families from
Milosevic controlled police. The both acts took courage to be done. 14
years ago Serbs recognized Milosevic as a prophet who can solve
everything; I'm afraid they have the same feelings for Kostunica now, and
it's not good.

But what makes me a moderate optimist is the fact that the new Serbian
authorities seem to learn the lecture: no more irresponsibility, no more
avoiding dialogue, no more blind force. That's their approach to the
crisis in Southern Serbia (Presevo, Bujanovac, Medvedja). This approach
prevailed during the arrest of Milosevic. The restraint, responsibility
and dialogue, words completely unknown to Milosevic, seem to be the
essence of the new Serbian politics. I want to believe that this new
optics will lead to the reconsidering of the key national mistakes and
delusions from the past.

Milosevic was an influential and charismatic teacher; his excellent pupils
were Franjo Tudjman, Alija Izetbegovic and Hashim Tachi. And Bill Clinton.
Tudjman is dead, Izetbegovic retired, Clinton too, Milosevic is arrested.
Only Hashim Tachi remained active at the moment, and his followers keep
talking in the language they've learnt from Milosevic - the language of
weapons and causing crises by violent means. KLA, a bizarre mixture of
Islamic and Marxist fundamentalists, pronounced the good guys during their
fight with Milosevic, are the big problem for the West now. They terrorize
non-Albanians in Kosovo, they kill civilians in the buses (like NATO did),
they attack towns and villages in FYRO Macedonia. How come, when they were
supposed to be the good guys? Ladies and gentlemen, the Serbs are not the
problem now. They've arrested their Milosevic. There are other guys who
should shut down their Milosevics.

Heiko is right when telling that Milosevic was not the only one devil. But
the West made him the main bad guy. Now he's gone, and it's time to see
the Balkans as it is. And it's not easy. People tend to accept nice, cosy
and simple ideas of the world. But the idea of the world should not
replace the world itself. The world is not simple at all. Especially not
the Balkans. Best,

Aleksandar Gubas





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