2005-02-02

Pokraj mene više nisi, zato plovim sam na Tisi

People are continuing to respond to the statements by Vladimir Popović in his two interviews broadcast on B92. Today's round of responses comes from the military intelligence side. Former military security director Aleksandar Vasiljević denies knowing anything about a secret meeting between Vojislav Koštunica and Slobodan Milošević, saying "I do not know whether that meeting was held for the simple reason that I went fishing and was on the Tisa [river], in a dinghy, cut off from media, newspapers, and all that, so I know nothing about the whole business."

Ljubodrag Stojadinović, Politika's commentator on military affairs, has more to say about the role of military intelligence, which is not subject to civilian control. He says, "There is no longer an environment in which the military, along with other agencies, can set up their own [intelligence] agencies as a means of exercising their power. They can do it outside of institutions, which makes it more dangerous. So they are able to produce chaos which nobody can control, not even they are able to control it themselves, and we have seen that chaos in the form of the criminalisation of society and several killings and other acts, which are on the border between crime and state security. In that sense the military security service is not so different from other services, especially the services that are essentially political police." Mr Stojadinović is being a little enigmatic, but it seems as though he is confirming Mr Popović's charges, in a roundabout way.

2 comments:

Bora Zivkovic said...

Of course, you need to continue the lyrics...

Pokraj mene vise nisi, camcem plovim sam po Tisi,
AL' JOS TE UVEK VOLIM JAAAAAAA!

Eric Gordy said...

It's a great old song! A few years back the Del Arno Band did a reggae version of it, too. Darn shame I haven't got a copy.