Kosovo Finals

WHO RAPES SERBIA INDEED?

By Ivan Torov

Oh, how agitated the advocates and interpreters of "our" repeated NO turned when Maarti Ahtisaari, "laconically and so typical of him," said "Serbs and Albanians could negotiate on Kosovo for hundred years without reaching any single agreement!" They even deployed the heaviest ideological, media and patriotic artillery that was so abundantly used in "the Golden Age of our struggle for liberation in 1990s." All and sundry were mobilized to bare the fangs at "the snatcher and butcher of our holy land" and show him that actually we have always been open-minded and flexible, open to all possible bargains except for the one implying amputation of 15 percent of our territory before our eyes.

And so, between passing two decrees whereby the "technical" government was allegedly kissing goodbye to power by allocating apartments to its loyal subjects and "national" pensions to those who have outdone themselves in the renewal of the national being and dignity, a formula was found to counter Ahtisaari's "criminal offer." Yet another "pan-national" resolution was devised. Coupled with other, similar or same manifestations of "our staunch resolve to reject ultimatums" that resolution will finally call a spade a spade and give it straight to "Shiptars, that bastard and offspring of a Finnish Nazi, Ahtisaari, and that global monster called international community." Yet another comic performance was staged in the parliament. Tadic was imitating Kostunica, while Kostunica almost put on a white T-shirt with the portrait of his Radical buddy and fellow sufferer. Expect for "that LDP renegade and his gang," this soap opera troupe sang a YES to Vienna "consultations" (although there is no reason to go there at all) and a NO to any agreement whatsoever. As it seems, while "plotting to give Albanians yet another state in the Balkans" Ahtisaari was aware the Serbian side would be his best ally. A resolution on a platform, a platform for a resolution, a resolution and a platform for the Kosovo plan over and over again, to the end of time, fuel a story about "the final frontline" that should prevent Mt. Kopaonik from being the borderline with "independent Kosovo" and nourish a "childish game" as historian and writer Desimir Tosic put it. The latest resolution is supposed to show that Serbia has a say in the matter of Kosovo and that "democratic forces of this country are capable of restoring Milosevic's ruins." "We don't have a say in the issue of Kosovo. All we can do is plead to have Kosovo given to us. Kosovo is in the hands of the UN and will never again be in the position it was in 1999, 1945 or 1918. Every normal and conscious Serb should be aware of that. Three percent of total population rules not a single territory in today's world," says Tosic.

True, every "patriotic childish game," including this latest one, carries some symbolic meaning. Firstly, this game was played in the same building and in the same hall in which disintegration of "the big Yugoslavia" took place. Secondly and somewhat tragicomically, it was Borka Vucic - an innocent old lady today, but in her time infamous guardian of Milosevic's treasury whose banking "skill" was put to use for robbing people, financing wars and appropriating billions of dollars via mysterious channels in Cyprus and other known and unknown exotic islands - who took us to the zone of (un)predictable developments in and about Kosovo. The "honor\" was thus bestowed upon the person who - let's hope - definitely convinced us that history never ends in Serbia, and that patriotic robbing of people in the time of crisis - and the situation with Kosovo is such time, they say - is justified by the missionary role of Serbian politicians who are repeatedly saving us from this or that. And then, yet another cuckoo egg was planted in the nest to make us believe it possible to regain in no matter how virtual show what we have gambled not once but many times up to now. Optimism is enforced on confused and frustrated masses by the means of a lie, told over and over again, that "truth, law and justice are on our side only" and that such "truth" will forcefully crash all the stereotypes about Serbia and the Serbs. Well, all we need is some more time to convert all that "anti-Serb world" with "mother Russia's" helping hand, and thus defend not only Kosovo but also "regain all that has been taken away from us in near and far past - Spska Krajina, Republika Srpska, Montenegro, Macedonia and all Serb territories."

The resolution and the political-media campaign staged by the same Antic-Minovic-Vucelic's media backed by newly emerged media supporters of the newly composed "togetherness" of Kostunica's profile actually are the last frontline - not in the defense of Kosovo (since one cannot defend what one has already lost) but in the defense of the camouflaged and devastating truth that a nationalistically and ideologically hard-core oligarchy deliberately leads Serbia towards another agony. The oligarchy's "togetherness" is nothing but a plan to refuse negotiations and thus make it easier to Ahtisaari and the international community to do what cannot be avoided - to impose a solution for Kosovo - and at the same time shun any responsibility for it before domestic public. There must be something in the wind when the Serbian team travels to Vienna but would not negotiate, when it is common knowledge that Serbian-Albanian sessions are doomed to fail and when that expected failure would not be an obstacle to placing the Kosovo issue (in no matter what form) on the UN Security Council's agenda. Is it some masochistic acceptance but not recognition of the realities, so let the chips fall where they may? Or are we witnessing a scenario that cares neither about the future of Kosovo nor Kosovo Serbs but uses them both as a powerful weapon for domestic political, ideological and, in fact, autocratic needs. Actually, there is no dilemma at all: the manner in which the Constitution was proclaimed and the referendum campaign staged, the outcome of parliamentary elections and, above all, the inability to form some "normal" democratic government bring to the fore the ruling nomenklatura's intention to retain power at all costs. In other words, to undermine any attempt of using an issue - even Kosovo - for disturbing the existing balance of power whereby the "populist coalition" controls Serbia, the Democratic Party holds Vojvodina, Belgrade and the office of the President of the Republic, while the Radicals play the easy but highly profitable role of a regulator - or, to put it precisely, of a blackmailer. If such constellation - with Kosovo as an alibi - means that Serbia will not get a new government or get it in a form of some "collectivistic" creation that will keep everyone happy by the principle "sell the cow and sup the milk" and nothing but prolong Kostunica's power while taking Tadic and Democrats to the verge of political suicide, what happens to Kosovo is not the real question here. The real question is - is Serbia again heading to self-isolation, is she again entering the era of unrestricted violence against political opponents?

Indeed, who rapes Serbia at this point? Is it the world (and its "domestic mercenaries in the form of NGOs and incorrigible mondialists") that puts and end to an already ended Kosovo story or Serbian politicians who keep their state and people in chronic siege and uncertainty and by their greedy ambition to rule at all costs open up a new vicious circle of traumas and confrontation?

Or are they probably launching the scenario the disheveled sociologist and ideologist of "the third Serbia of togetherness," Slobodan Antonic, put forth in his column carried on February 13 in Kostunica's redesigned Politika under the title "One Fine Day!" For the sake of precision, let me quote him: "Oh, dear Serbia, cry your eyes out freely! But you must remember them all: those who have raped you, and those who have just stood by and cheered. For, one fine day."

...Of course, one fine day.

Ivan Torov