[Nettime-bold] 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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