Belgrade 2.0

The Death of Dr. Zoran Djindjic: Five Years After

Posted 2008-03-12 19:38 under Politics , History by Cvijus / 6 comments

Photo taken during the presidential election campaign in 2002: “[Kostunica] didn’t want to come by himself on October 5th, we had to carry him over here!”

I can still remember clearly the day when Djindjic was murdered. When I first heard in the news that he was shot at, whereas there were no updates on his condition, I was strongly hoping that it will be nothing and that he would survive this attempt and Serbia would continue its speedy way in its European integrations. However, at the moment I heard on BBC that he is dead, it became clear to me that this assasination markes the introduction of a difficult era in Serbia which would be marked by an identity crisis and the question of which course should Serbia take. This tragic era I hope will end with the new parliamentary elections and the defeat of obsolete political views and perspectives.

Much can be said about the first democratically elected Prime Minister of post-Communist Serbia. But what I perceive as most important is the untypical Serbian way which he adopted in dealing with the outside world. Unlike the current political leadership of Serbia, Djindjic employed a non-confrotational manner toward the West, whereas in its essence pursuing similar goals as the current political leadership. The fact that he based his actions on civilized and argumented dialogue, instead of confrotation, surely gave him a great deal of credit in the eyes of the western leadership and surely showed the West that Serbia is definitely not a land full with mythomanic politicians, but has quality politicians that speak a dimplomatic language that Europe understands. No wonder that he was highly respected in Europe, especially in Germany, as he was a German student. Once at a gala dinner in Germany, the host of the dinner remarked that Serbia is more progressive than Germany, as they have a highly intelligent and handsome Prime Minister. Unfortunatelly, not anymore.

Djindjic had a clear vision and he was ready to give his best in integrating Serbia into the European Union. For this cause, he undertook a frontal attack on forces that were an obstacle for this goal. He made a daring act of arresting and sending Milosevic to The Hague, a highly unpopular act, which for me however proves that Djindjic was a patriot in the healthy sense of the word and was ready to sacrifice his public image for the sake of Serbia and its people. Nevertheless, Djindjic was above all a realist and he understood the traditionalist character of Serbia, typical for every Balkan society. He wisely attempted to bring traditionalism and modernism into balance and model his vision of the society according to similar European societies, for which he also gets my credit.

After his death, Serbia received a highly destructive government, which is credited for the secession of Montenegro and the loss of Kosovo-Metohija. However, I believe that even if Djindjic was to survive the attempt, these two important events were a process which Djindjic himself could not affect greatly. I still remember in 2001 when Djindjic and the Montenegrin PM Vujanovic were at a TV show. It was arguments against populism and a practical european vision against particularistic interests. Most probably Montenegro would anyway be independent, as well as Kosovo-Metohija, but what could have been different with Djindjic could be the approach to these problems. Unfortunatelly, a Serb with the greatest qualities has been assasinated by people who could not understand the modernity, and were too dumb for arguments.

My grandmother, an old Belgrader remembers the funerals of King Aleksandar, Tito and Djindjic. She says that only at two funerals Belgrade cried sincerelly, at the King’s and at Djindjic’s, at the funerals of two visionaries. But the greatest tragedy for Serbia is assasinating its leaders with a progressive vision and ambition, Prince Mihajlo Obrenovic and Dr. Zoran Djindjic. It seems as our curse. Serbia has lost a lot with the loss of Dr. Zoran Djindjic, but his memory should be the driving force that should inspire us to fullfil his vision.

Нека му је вечна слава

6 Comments

Comment

1. bganon on 13/03/08 01:13 AM

   I agree with you cvijus that Djindjic would not have been able to greatly influence the situation in Kosovo and Montenegro, that the end result would have been the same. But at least he tried to do something with regard to Kosovo, rather than Kostunica’s ‘do nothing’ approach.

   Lets not forget that he was not without faults and it is not healthy to venerate anybody to greatly, but the fact is that Djindjic is more sorely missed today than we could ever know when he was first assassinated.

   My greatest regret isnt that they succeeded in shooting Djindjic, my greatest regret is that he died as a result of his injuries. We can only speculate but I feel that the following state of emergency led by Djindjic from his bed and election would have pushed ‘patriotic’ forces right back. They would have been forced to cede ground on important issues, yes above all because of the power of a victim of an assassination attempt and the subsequent popularity of such a man.

   Ultimately its one of those ‘what might have been scenarios’ that some of us think about in darker moments…

2. anti-dispensationalist on 13/03/08 03:13 AM

   Djindjic is the father of Montenegro independence (and Stanko Subotic Cane is its godfather). In 2000, the independence option there had insufficient support for a successful referendum. A strong government in Belgrade helping significantly the pro-Yugoslav forces counteracted the support that the West was providing to separatism. The 5 October coup changed all of that. Still, a diminished Vojislav Kostunica tried to maintain a weakened Yugoslavia helped by a softer, and thus less effective, version of the Montenegro People’s Party. Djindjic worked with his fellow Stanko Subotic Cane associate Milo Djukanovic to destroy Kostunica’s powers and set up the monstrosity called “Serbia-Montenegro” which guaranteed Montenegro secession. After all, S&M was a fake country with a separatist president, not worth fighting for. So let’s blame Djindjic and his associates for doing the work that their Western financiers paid them to do.

   You pro-Djindjic people remind me of the story of the Cattle Kill in Xhosaland in southern Africa. When the British were trying to conquer these people, they arranged that a fake “prophet” show up among them, claiming that killing their cattle, the mainstay of the Xhosa economy, would lead to the British defeat. When the cattle kill caused weakening of the Xhosa that caused British to defeat them again and again, the prophet claimed that insufficient cattle was being killed, that was the problem.

   Djindjic was the false prophet. His followers continue to tell Serbia to kill its cattle. It’s good that some Serbs had more sense than the Xhosa did.

3. Viktor on 13/03/08 09:22 AM

   So what you’re saying is that Montenegro was our cattle?
   No, seriously, I never connected Djindjic to Montenegro independence, but since you are so convinced, I will give him credit for that as well – it turned out to be a good thing, both for Serbia and Montenegro.

   As for the Kosovo case – it’s ‘what might have been scenarios’ as Bganon says. Here’s what I like to think – I like to think that Djindjic had enough capacity to even save Kosovo in Serbia’s borders had he wanted to put his mind to it. The question is would he want to do that?

4. bganon on 13/03/08 06:06 PM

   There I was thinking that it was Havier Solana who created SCG! I stand corrected, it was Djindjic’s project, with the assistance of Cane.. Learn something new everyday.

   As for prophets, all research shows that democratic leaning voters are least inclined to be taken in by prophets / cult of personality. If anything its the ‘patriotic’ block that are manipulated like sheep over and over and over again. Still, what can you expect – they consist of people who had portraits of Tito on their walls for years, then they replaced them with Milosevic, now they have badges of Seselj. No, of course no contradiction there in terms of policy, none at all. Still who needs policies when you can have heroes?

5. smokva on 17/03/08 12:03 AM

   “Unfortunatelly, a Serb with the greatest qualities has been assasinated by people who could not understand the modernity, and were too dumb for arguments.”
   You can’t be serious. The same people that assassinated him, assassinated others for him to help him gain power. Did they understand Djindjic’s ‘modernity’ then?

6. Ania (from Belarus) on 22/03/08 01:08 AM

   Zoran Đinđić was a real hero of our time. It’s very sad that there are no such man in our country.