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The Serbian people want to bring Slobodan Milosevic to justice first

By Vladimir Sukalovic - posted Sunday, 15 July 2001


The protests continued for days, and will be repeated until Slobodan Milosevic is set free. The protesters called all people of goodwill to join them, they even extended an invitation to Vuk Draskovic and his SPO party (they are rival parties and long-time enemies) but Vuk refused to join. Clearly the protesters are right. Zoran Djindjic put himself above the law and he abused his position and power to do something he shouldn't. By doing that he showed us he is no better than the man he sent to Hague. Personal revenge, under the cloak of "best interests of the people" was a tool Slobodan Milosevic used to justify his deeds. Zoran Djindjic did the same. The rest of the DOS, people and parties, who are still committed to democracy and justice, cancelled their DOS membership a day later. First to get out of DOS was Vojislav Kostunica, who promised that no one would be sent to the Hague unless proper legal procedure was satisfied, and kidnapping is not proper. The federal government collapsed and if a new one can't be formed before July 27th we will have new Federal elections.

On the street there is growing unrest and disbelief about Zoran Djindjic’s actions. The Serbian people walked the streets for 10 years to see democracy in practice and now all we can see is that democracy is dead before it had a chance to live. I think that every man has rights and I walked the streets for 10 years, attended every rally, and was at every demonstration to fight for my rights. For 10 years those rights were non-existent thanks to Slobodan Milosevic and his rule. This is not a question of whether he is guilty or not, but he should answer to the people of Yugoslavia before the Tribunal. His greatest crimes were against his own people. He took the 10 best years of my life, he took my friend, my loved ones, and he took my future. That is something he can't repay as long as he lives, but still I don't cry for revenge. Even he, as a citizen of Serbia and Yugoslavia, has his rights, and no one should deprive him of those rights. We missed our chance to show the world that we can be democratic, too.

Kostunica left the DOS, but since the Socialist party and Radical Party are his old enemies, he can't join forces with them. Parties like "Nova Srbija" of SPO already condemned Zoran Djindjic and his "law", but they are not willing to join the protests on the street. Most likely they will ask for new elections at the Republic level in the hope they can reduce Zoran Djindjic’s majority. Until then we have to hope that this dictator will be easier to replace than the previous one.

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BTW. For the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic, the USA and NATO countries rewarded Yugoslavia on the "first donors conference" with some US$1.3 billion. Most of the people will never see that money, but the notion that we sold one of us out will haunt us for generations. On the other hand, Carla Del Ponte will have a hard time proving that Slobodan Milosevic is guilty but as Slobodan says in court: "That's your problem". Maybe calling Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague is not a good idea after all, since he can ask for a number of top-ranked politicians to show up in court, and can you imagine Robin Cook or William Walker doing so?

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About the Author

Vladimir Sukalovic lives in Belgrade and works as a Research Assistant while completing a PhD project on "Computer Aided Modelling of Dopamine Receptor Ligands". He was born in 1971.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Vladimir Sukalovic
Related Links
Article about Kostunica's refusal to co-operate
United Nations web site on the Milosevic trial
Photo of Vladimir Sukalovic
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