B92 Blog

Ah Radovan, heading for the Hague at last.

Many of us never thought we would see this day come, that the unholy trinity of  the secret police, the criminals and the priests who protected you would ensure an enduring freedom until your dying day.But luckily for us, even pessimists are wrong, at least some of the time. And so finally it looks like you may be going to face some of your victims in nice room with blue chairs and cameras in a northern European city by the sea.

Having spent some time a few years back investigating your absence from the Hague, your presence or lack thereof became a bit of an obsession with me. I knew your house, your old office, the roads you used to drive, your o

So Vojislav Kostunica has finally been given the boot. Gotov je.

Out, finished, toast, loser, failure, dud, history, has-been, yesterday's man, etc.

After staking all on "Kosovo" and losing in epic style he is leaving the building, and although the end will be more Elton John than Elvis, who can grudge this Balkan cat-lover one last tantrum before exiting stage left?

I expect more of the same-same in his swan-song: delusional self-justifying negativism coupled with vague threats, false history and lashings of primitivism.

Fans of opera and pantomime are encouraged to predict his farewell speech lines in the comments section below. My odds-on favourite phrase  begins 'Everything I have done, I have done for...." Fill in the blanks.

Although nothing's official with the elections, the coalition building an' all, that Kostunica is finished became clear today when the secret police cast their very public vote by arresting indicted

To celebrate Vojislav Kostunica’s “resignation”, I thought a timeline illustrating Vojo's rhetoric vs. achievements might be in order.

2000: Vojo says that Milosevic will not be sent to the Hague tribunal.

2001: Milosevic is extradited to the Hague tribunal.

2001: Vojo says he will preserve the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2002: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is dissolved

2000: Vojo says that the security services wi

It may be just me, but there seems to be something inherently wrong with so-called “people’s protests” which are in actual fact not organised by the people themselves, but by those working in state institutions.

Slobo used them to great effect in the late ‘80s, bussing in the confused, ignorant and fearful for the yoghurt revolution and similar managed pantomines that collapsed autonomous governments in Vojvodina and Kosovo presaging the years of misery that followed.

As the great unwashed move to round II in front of the US embassy, the good news is that it appears as if law enforcement are indeed being diligent. The bad news is for Kostunica.

For the first part, shouting offensive remarks about Albanians while crying "Kosovo is Serbia" in one breath, and support for mass murderer Ratko Mladic in the next is a general blow to  the "international law" themed PR that's been doing the DSS rounds.  Burning cars, attacking police, smashing traffic signs and punching journalists while waving the Serbian flag does no favours to what some refer to as the "branding" process and others call "national pride".

And while rioting outside US embassies has proved a popular past time in many countries, the fact that  Vojo K. specifically targeted the US in his earlier whine on national TV will not be lost on the Americans.

Not that inciting rio

Watching demonstrations is an interesting business. The movement of the crowd and the energy it projects make the heart beat faster. Then there is the collective sound the mass of people make. But the key is always in the faces. Whether the Nazi rallies of the 30s or Slobo's shows of strength in the late 80s and 90s, the mean, pinched faces tend to give away whether this is a mob you want to join, or not.

By contrast, the opposition demos of the mid to late 90s in Belgrade were filled with different kinds of faces. And different kinds of sounds. Candles, whistles, hope and songs, a feeling of resistance, with the violence generated by the other side. A lonely battle indeed in the hope of a better tomorrow.

And so it goes. The latest two demonstrations in Belgrade continue to present a vision of two very different Serbias. The first, on the February 11 would not look out of place in any European capital: a civic procession with peaceful purpose, smiling faces but a serious message, cheerful

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the photos and moving images from Arandjelovac made for a whole novel about the situation in Serbia today.

On the one hand, there was the majority, the invited audience, predominately women and men dressed in respectable clothes who would not look out of place in any other European spa town.

Sitting quietly, they waited for their visitors from Belgrade to begin their discussions, but found themselves by  turns embarrassed, discomfited and downright frightened by the great unwashed who had turned up uninvited in their midst.

The yahoos and no-nothings were having a fine time. Their leaders, identifiable by th

As the no-new news caravan that is Kosovo continues to hog the headlines on a daily basis accompanied by much sound and fury, I’ve started a competition in which all are free to participate.

It’s a spectator sport searching for the politician, businessman, celeb, man-in-the-street etc. who invokes “Kosovo” in a blame game – as an excuse or buck-passing - for something quite unconnected in reality.

My Kosovo blame game nomination for November goes to the leader of the Party of International Law, Vojislav Kostunica, who blamed Kosovo for a report damning Serbia’s mental health institutions in mid-November.

The report, issued by Mental Disability Rights International (

The reality-impaired coverage of Kosovo dominating the headlines for the past 18 months has been interrupted of late by a tangled web of accusation and insinuation which when unravelled gives a far clearer indication of  the state of the Serbian body politic than delusional comparisons of Kosovo with Baltic or south China sea island chains.

At the heart of the matter is  Miroslav Miskovic, a – pardon the euphemism – “Milosevic-era tycoon” long-blacklisted by the US government for his alleged involvement in cigarette smuggling and other bad behaviour during the good old, bad old days of the Slobo n’Mira roadshow.

Miroslav has had a little more press attention than he would like of late, photographed over drinks with the head of the secret police, various politicians &amp

The pictures of street protests coming out of Burma (Myanmar) in recent days may remind tens, if not hundreds of thousands of B92 citizens of their own experiences of trying to unseat a vicious regime back in the good old, bad old days. The more democratic elements of the current government may also recall the urban demonstration vibe - feelings of camaraderie and hope mixed with anger and fear - as rumours of the next imminent baton charge by Slobo’s doughnut boys swirled through downtown Belgrade. Many may remember how dangerous it can feel to face off against a regime which creates an army out of a police force, beats and shoots demonstrators and imprisons or disappears opposition leaders.