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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters And then there were none
By Zorka Visnjic
In David Fincher's movie Seven, a serial killer justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the seven deadly sins (gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath). The latest murders in Belgrade play like a lost sequence from the film -- this time based on a real story.
The murder of the Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic, which came only three weeks after the murder of the Serbian warlord Zeljko "Arkan" Raznjatovic -- presumed to be untouchable -- has been a shock not only to Belgrade's so-called elite, but also to ordinary citizens. Both sides are starting to fear for their lives; some of them understandably so, and some simply because it has become clear that nobody is safe in the capital any more. These days, people are resigned to Serbia sliding into chaos.
Bulatovic was assassinated on 7 February, while having dinner in a Belgrade restaurant known to be a meeting place for supporters of President Slobodan Milosevic. Bulatovic's murder is yet another gangland-style massacre -- he was shot with 17 bullets -- that leaves unanswered questions as to the identity and the motives of the murderers.
Speculation is rife in the capital, where conspiracy theories are the order of the day. Serbian officials point their fingers at the West, as well as Serbia's democratic opposition. Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj went so far as to threaten independent journalists, saying that dissident journalists had contributed to Bulatovic's murder and were in the pay of the West. "The gloves are down," Seslj said. "It's plain as day now and you won't be murdering any more statesmen."
The murder has caused shock and confusion in Belgrade, even more than that of the notorious Arkan. Bulatovic, unlike most figures in Yugoslavian politics, was considered a modest man, untainted by corruption or black market activities. Nor was he among the Serb leaders charged with war crimes by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague.
Some analysts in Belgrade venture that the latest killing is linked to the feud between Montenegro's government -- which wants to extricate itself from the Yugoslav federation -- and the northern Montenegrin clans. These clans include the Bulatovic family, who are loyal to Milosevic. But the predominant argument is that of the democratic opposition, who suggest that Bulatovic, like Arkan, was killed by Milosevic's government agents because he might have "known too much" about war crimes committed throughout the Balkans.
Speaking to reporters in Madrid, US Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering qualified the killing as "a sort of long-knives confrontation", suggesting that the members of Milosevic's government have begun to fall out among themselves -- like Hitler and the Brown-shirts in 1934. Similarly, former Belgrade Mayor Nebojsa Covie attests that the killings spell danger for people who have supported the "ruling couple" -- Milosevic and his influential wife Mirjana Markovic -- as well as those who oppose them.
The final proposed scenario is that Belgrade's elite is engaged in a turf-war with the primary drug traffickers in the Balkans, who are Kosovar Albanians. The poverty and lawlessness of the Balkans, as well as its convenient geography, funnel immensely profitable drug trade through the region. An estimated 80 per cent of Europe's heroin, worth approximately $400 billion per year, enters through the Balkan route. Kosovar Albanians have their own mafia, who control the drug trade and maintained close ties with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the struggle with Serbia. According to some experts, if the Serbian elite is trying to enter into competition with the Albanian-dominated heroin trade, it could very well spawn years of assassinations to come. Not only do ethnic Albanians have a reputation of fighting to protect their drug trade, but they already despise Serb nationalists for the violence against Albanians at Serbian hands.
Whatever the explanation for the string of deaths taking place among Belgrade's high-profile figures, one question remains: Who gains and why? Recently-elected Croatian President Stipe Mesic has a very simple theory that resembles that of the democratic opposition. "Bulatovic was just the latest of a dozen or so people killed by the powers that be in Belgrade, to stop them from testifying about war crimes," Mesic said. As someone who courageously blew the whistle on atrocities committed by his fellow Croats, Mesic knows what he's talking about.
This is the first time since the collapse of Yugoslavia 10 years ago that the Croatian and Serbian sides (albeit only the democratic opposition) share the same opinion. After the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, Croatia has slowly but surely moved toward a democratic Europe. Serbia, however, remains at a standstill. More and more, the world is wondering how long it will take for Serbia to follow the Croatian example.
The first thing to keep in mind is that Milosevic is still in good health and it is unlikely that Serbia will ever turn its eyes to the West while Milosevic is still in power. Furthermore, even though Serbs would presumably like to rejoin the "civilised world", the nation and its people have been besieged by Yugoslavia's collapse, 10 years of tyranny and a litany of lost battles -- including Kosovo. Serbs are left with little or no desire to fight any longer; the only thing they are still capable of fighting is themselves. It seems they don't need enemies anymore. They have each other.
One thing is certain: people in Belgrade see no way out of the poverty trap that grips the nation. The majority of the Serbian population earns $40 a month per person. The privileged elite, most of them deplorably corrupt, have likely made their money in the last 10 years through dubious deals or outright crime. The considerable power that has ensued has led many to believe that they are beyond the law -- or at least beyond harm. Whether things will remain as such is difficult to say.
People crave a political change. For a leadership that has so consistently engendered a prolonged atmosphere of terror and violence, there is a sense of poetic justice, should the pillars of Milosevic's regime slowly eliminate one another until there are none. Is this the political change the world over has waited for? It depends on who's next.
