 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Murder of a mass murderer
By Zorka Visnjic
On the Serbian national stage, where the real-life drama Conspiracy, Paranoia and Murder has been showing for years, one of the leading characters for almost a decade is no longer there. Just like in a soap opera when the director decides that he no longer needs one of the leading actors and therefore all of a sudden "kills" him, the actor in this play had to be killed as well. The only difference is that he was killed for real and will never star in another play again. Is his death a proof of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment -- that we are all punished sooner or later for committing a crime? The question remains unanswered for the time being because, as Novak Kilibarda, an academic from Montenegro said, "This assassination speaks more about the regime itself than about the killers."
Zeljko Raznjatovic, better known as Arkan, the alleged warlord and notorious criminal indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for the crimes he committed in both Croatia and Bosnia, was killed last week by gunmen whose identity will probably remain unknown indefinitely. With that fact in mind, his assassination is seen by some as a very mysterious act; yet on the other hand, those who were not afraid to speak, immediately pointed their finger at the still very powerful regime of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, saying that, "Arkan was killed simply because he knew too much, and with him out of the way those who really needed to be punished had nothing to worry about." What makes this explanation even more plausible is that Arkan was not the first, nor is he likely to be the last, to be killed in order to prevent the public from finding out the truth. Vladan Batic, an opposition leader, said, "Someone is pulling the strings and deciding each morning who will be next." And it just happened that Arkan's turn came last Saturday afternoon.
According to some sources, 500 similar murders preceded this one. However, even with Arkan silenced for eternity, there are two more "undesirable" characters that need to be removed from the afore-mentioned stage -- Jovica Stanisic, the former head of state security, and Franko Simatovic-Frenki, who runs a paramilitary corps which was active in Kosovo last year. Stanisic was removed from his position when he disobeyed orders from Milosevic's wife and refused to shoot at students during demonstrations in Belgrade in 1996.
Arkan was buried last Thursday in Belgrade's new cemetery at a funeral attended only by family members and close friends. He lived as a criminal, but was buried as a hero. The entire opposition, as well as the citizens of Belgrade, insist that the infamous Milosevic ordered his murder. This assertion, made by unidentified sources in Belgrade, came after widespread rumours alleged that Arkan's lawyers had been negotiating a possible 'deal' with The Hague's tribunal, which would give him immunity in return for extensive information regarding the regime's role in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as some sensitive information about the Milosevic family. Although Carla Del Ponte, chief war crimes prosecutor for The Hague tribunal, denies that such negotiations ever took place, one of the tribunal officials refused to comment.
Opposition leaders and figures in the independent media refer to Arkan's assassination as "state terrorism".
"Serbia looks more and more like the Latin-American dictatorships because the law doesn't exist here at all. It is obvious that the reason approximately 500 mysterious murders [in Serbia] remain unsolved, is either because the authorities are incapable of solving them, or because they are actually behind most of those killings", said Vladan Batic, leader of an opposition party.
Serbian Renewal Movement spokesman, Ivan Kovacevic, urged the Serbs to fight state terrorism. "That is the only possible answer for the people of Serbia who don't want their country to become a concentration camp due to state terrorism. The regime is trying to spread panic and fear among the citizens. The crime committed in the lobby of the International Hotel [where Arkan was murdered] in Belgrade was an attempt made by the authorities to divert the public's attention from some other crimes being committed currently. Soon, there will be another crime, and once again, the truth about Arkan's murder will become secondary. And so on...," said Kovacevic.
Not surprisingly, government officials resent these accusations; they claim that Arkan's murder is in no way linked to Milosevic. They allege that he was killed by the Montenegrin mafia "that wants to take over Belgrade". Information Minister Goran Matic, after having given an interview to the International Herald Tribune, and mentioning the same motive for murder, only 24 hours later denied such a statement.
Although regarded as one of the worst criminals in the last 50 years, and as someone who should have paid the price for the crimes he committed, Arkan took to his grave the truth about the people whose punishment should be much harsher than bringing them before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Punishment commensurate with the magnitude of such crimes simply doesn't exist.
Conspiracy, Paranoia and Murder is still showing. We don't know if the director will ever let us discover the real identity of Arkan's killer. The only thing we do know is that in the last scene the killer greeted him, and then a few moments later pulled the trigger.
