Shock and huh

It's been slow blogging for me this week as I have been preparing texts for other people. One of them is now out, a piece for TOL on what appear to be the effects of the "Scorpions video" (not to be confused the video for the mediocre old heavy metal tune "Rock me like a hurricane," and no, there will be no bitterly pointing out from me that it is possible to distinguish between things that rock and things that blow). The others may be a while out, but it is all a part of the effort to use my short time here as intensively as possible.

Headline of the day

Dutch troops still traumatized by Bosnia
THE HAGUE, Netherlands | June 22, 2005 5:11:47 PM IST

Forty percent of Dutch soldiers who served in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war needed psychological help after the massacre, reports Radio Netherlands.

Poor things! It must have been really hard on them to abandon the people of Srebrenica and leave them at the mercy of General Mladic and his associates. My heart goes out to them.

Welcoming a new Euro blog

There is a new blog in the neighborhood, the European Tribune. It is modelled after the popular US political blog Daily Kos, which heaven knows has inspired any number of new entrants into this interesting medium. For now it seems to focus mostly on the part of Europe closer to St. Tropez than to Petrovac na moru, but maybe if enough of the readers of the Balkan blogs join up this could be shifted an inch or so.

A European time-out?

Olli Rehn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, has an op-ed in yesterday's Paris edition of the Times.

The piece begins by describing the doom and gloom that's enveloped the Brussels club after the Franco-Dutch slap of a few weeks ago, and this week's failed summit.

It then dives into the matter by stating,

Certainly we need to pace ourselves after last year, when 10 new members joined the Union.

The rest is very much along those rather surprising lines. The tenor is one of sauve-qui-peut enlargement -- we'll take a big leap (RO, BG, maybe HR) so we can retreat better (TR, the rest of the Balkans). We'll be proactive now so we can slack later.

Check this:

We have to take into account the concerns of those who consider that enlargement is moving too fast. Since the enlargement agenda is already stretched to its limits, we must be very cautious about taking on new commitments. But the EU was founded on the principle of sticking to one's word.

This means that Bulgaria and Romania will join the Union in 2007, if they fulfil the conditions. It also means that accession negotiations will start with Croatia and Turkey once the two countries meet the strict criteria.

Translation: we'll let them in because we signed all the papers already but after that the door will close. In fact, the entire piece -- despite referencing the Western Balkans -- only mentions the four countries with which there's some sort of formalized ties already: RO, BG, HR, and TR.

The only other place mentioned is Kosovo because the EU realizes that this is the problem to tackle this year and next, but for purely instrumental reasons -- because the Kosovo Albanians, after years of peaceful resistance, have learned the lesson that being peaceful will get you no points while violence will help advance your agenda.

With Bosnia or Macedonia, let alone Albania, no such instrumental argument can be made, or at least not as convincingly as for Kosovo. That's why I think the European perspective has received a serious blow in these countries -- perhaps a fatal one.

Triangulating the square around the circle

I am fully aware that my posting has not been so frequent since my arrival in Belgrade. This is only partly because of the unreliable dialup connection I have here in my lovely garsonjera. It is also because from the moment I arrived I seem to have been swept up in the whirlwind of NGO worthy causes and the long hours in kafići that follow them. One thing I have noticed about the worthy causes: they are no longer advertised. I got into last Saturday's invitation-only presentation on Srebrenica on the «imperial advantage» strategy—wear a suit, speak English and smile, and maybe they will think that you are important. Other events, including the documentary film festival in Dom omladine, I found out about through the friend calls a friend network, it was not announced and the audience rarely got above ten people. The nice folks seem to be closing the circle, whether because of intimidation or something else I do not know.

A high point: at the presentation of his new book Vampires like us: Writing down "the serbs", Tomislav Longinović described the image of the vampire: «it is an imaginary creature that has to feed constantly on the blood of others. So the vampire is a metaphor for the idea of the nation.» Toma's new book is in English, and deserving of high praise.

Should I mention that among the worthy events was the largest-ever meeting of worldwide Balkan bloggers?

Why's it always us?

BBC News reports,

Stolen Goya found in Montenegro

A stolen painting by the Spanish master Francisco Goya has been found by police in Montenegro.

The oil painting, Count Ugolino, had been lifted from a gallery in Turin, northern Italy, in December 2001.

Goya's work -- which evokes a gory episode from Dante's inferno -- was retrieved during a raid on a flat near the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica.

Evidence, and the need for more evidence

It seems that there is still a good deal of discussion over the videotape “Treskavica July 1995” that surfaced earlier this month showing one instance in which members of a paramilitary formation murdered civilian prisoners. Claims about the influence of the tape go all around, from people saying that it has transformed Serbian public opinion to those claiming (as in today’s Monitor) that some huge number of people believe the footage to be fake. It is probably indicative that many members of the Serbian parliament felt moved to push for a resolution condemning war crimes, but that the initiative now seems to have failed because the parliamentary parties could not reach agreement on the question of whether it is worse to murder people of one nationality than another. So much for consciousness.

For those who have not seen the film or who have only seen the varying bits of it that are shown on television, here is a brief synopsis:

Scene 1: The members of the Scorpions are blessed by a priest who chants to them an invocation including references to the need to defeat “the enemy people” (not the enemy armed forces).

Scene 2: The Scorpions have a little party and enjoy a few drinks.

Scene 3: The Scorpions take their six bound prisoners, teenage boys who appear to have been beaten, in a truck to a rural roadside where they are lain in a row on the ground.

Scene 4: The boys are taken away from the roadside into a wood where the Scorpions kill four of them with guns at close range.

Scene 5: The remaining two boys are instructed to carry away the bodies of the four who have just been murdered.

Scene 6: The other two boys are murdered as well.

Scene 7: The Scorpions enjoy a little barbecued lamb.

There is no doubt that the footage makes some horrifying viewing indeed. At the same time, more needs to be known about the time, place and conditions of filming to be sure about just what the film is evidence of. As it stands, the film could offer a convenient way for people who supported the Milosevic regime and its clients in Bosnia and Croatia to claim that large scale organized murders of civilians were not the result of policy, but simply the work of some armed criminals (Scorpions? White Eagles? Tigers?) going about under the name of one more animal.

The ethics of book reviewing

Yep, there is such a thing. Like, read the thing before you write the review.

But there is also a time-honored approach that sees reviewing primarily as an opportunity to advance one's own arguments rather than to discuss the arguments of the book in question . The piece I just read, from the March 2001 issue of Choice, squarely falls in that category. The reviewer, a prominent if controversial academic, describes the aim of the author as follows:

He wishes to show that Bosnia's tradition has been one of unity in diversity, with adherents of Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity linked in the spiritual pursuit of transcendence. The argument is that this traditional orientation towards transcendence has been lost to a politics glorifying individuality and modernity, achieved by the targeting of Bosnia's Islamic component and the slaughter of its Muslim population by those who deny tradition in order to justify separate nation-states.

You may or may not buy this particular argument of the author, but I think it's a fair summary of what he says. But then our reviewer continues, without catching his breath, with the following judgment:

Useful as an example of the arguments of Muslims who want a unified Bosnia in spite of the rejection of that project by most of their Serb and Croat neighbors, the book will be of interest to Balkanists as an exploration of Bosnian Muslim ideology. But it is not suitable for use by undergraduates without much explanation of why some non-Muslims in Bosnia may see its very Islamic argument as evidence justifying their fears of Muslim domination.

No comment needed, right?

Zone of peace and harmony

European foreign ministers agreed Monday to drop any mention of the four candidate countries Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Turkey from the statement the leaders of the EU member states will issue after their meeting this week. Britain, which will take over the EU presidency for the second half of this year, opposed any reference to Croatia as long as retired general Gotovina was at large; Austria (a supporter of Croatia's membership) and France opposed any reference to Turkish membership, and in the end the ministers agreed on the smallest common denominator, as is customary in such declarations. Is this the grand vision for a zone of peace and stability? Or even just the common foreign policy?

The power of images

First off two apologies -- one for disappearing in the foothills of the Vosges for several days, the other for boring you with stories of that video.

The L.A. Times carries a story today that contains the following passage:

To the amazement of many in the human rights community, who had condemned the Srebrenica massacre and war crimes for years without getting much response in either Serbia or the Serb-majority areas of Bosnia, broadcast of the video appeared to have jolted and even horrified Serbian politicians known for their nationalism and failure to acknowledge Serb responsibility for war crimes.

Indeed, is the power of images sufficient explanation for this impact, or is the timing equally important? I mean, it's not as if people in Serbia were unable to know until last week what happened in Srebrenica, right?

The article continues,

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica described the video as showing a "brutal, callous, shameful crime committed against civilians."

Serbian Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic said the footage "was extremely important for the attitude of citizens toward war crimes. As a human being I'm truly shaken by viewing these images." [emphasis mine]

Why is viewing such images so much more shocking than knowing what happened? We've come to a point where the murder -- as brutal as a it was -- of six men appears more shocking than the massacre of thousands. It reminds me of the storming of Fallujah (with which Srebrenica has nothing in common): the shocking thing was not that the U.S. forces and their local allies (in fact, a battalion of Kurdish Peshmerga -- the other two Iraqi units had simply run away) leveled the city and made it uninhabitable for most of its population, or that they killed hundreds of residents -- the shocking thing was one marine killing one fighter, who he probably believed was booby-trapped. Why was it shocking? Because a cameraman happened to be nearby and filmed the whole thing.

Mladiću moj, problem je tvoj

The daily paper Danas is reporting today that the hiding place of Ratko Mladić, under indictment since 1995, is known to the government, to ICTY, and to journalists who are declining to release it beyond saying that it is «a large city in the interior of Serbia.» That his hiding place is known to people in power will probably not come as much of a surprise, but the news is coming out after a period of publicity surrounding new evidence, which many people are interpreting as preparation for Mladić's quick arrest. Authorities are denying the report, with Rasim Ljajić, head of the national council for cooperation with the Hague, observing that «the impression is created that we know where Mladic is, that we have known all along, but do not want to extradite him.» You don't say.

Thanks to loyal reader FB for pointing me to the BBC report by Matt Prodger which quotes an unnamed journalist making what will probably be a reliable prediction: «If Mladic were arrested tomorrow, there would be a huge outpouring of national outrage - from a handful of people.» For more perspective, have a look at the June issue of Republika, which has several articles on the subject (with thanks to Filaloganoga for the reference in the comments to an earlier post).

Serbia to Sapporo, let Kirin fend for itself

Okay, this offering from AR has to be the last word on the territorial ambitions ranging from the deep Balkans to the Japanese archipelago:



This one comes from an exhibition by the artist Aleksandar Dimitrijević at the Contemporary Art Institute of Sapporo. Which must be a sister city of Nikšić.

More grafitti news

Seen on the wall of the train station in Petrovaradin:

Србија до Токија, преко Милвокија
(or if you prefer: Serbia to Tokyo, by way of Milwaukee)

Yugo, girl!

Whitewash against whitewash

I am familiar enough with Belgrade's grafitti campaigns, usually from the far right, or that part of it unable to print posters, scrawling expressions of support for their favorite indictee (the spots where people changed «Šešelj srpski junak» to «Šešelj srpski šupak» and «Šešelj srpski junac» are personal favorites). Since I am arriving there tonight, I do not know how widespread the slogans pictured below (declaring «Scorpions Serbian heroes» and «Ten years since the liberation of Srebrenica») are.





The photos (courtesy of the mighty B92) show the grafitti being painted over in white by members of the Democratic Youth. Thanks to AR for bringing them to my attention.

Feast Ethnia

Credit has to go to the mysterious R Byrne for suggesting a guest blogger in the first place. I am (almost) back, but the really good news is that Teekay has agreed to remain. Follow the unique mixture of Northwestern (or is it New English) laconicity and Alpine precision as East Ethnia develops into your very squishy Balkan brain trust.

Prime minister tells foreign minister to get lost

...and about time it was.

Prime Minister Adnan Terzic of Bosnia and Herzegovina today dismissed the country's Foreign Minister, Mladen Ivanic, by accepting a resignation Ivanic had tendered in December last year. The move came amid mounting indications that early elections might be called to solve political gridlock.

The government has been in permanent crisis over a range of issues for months, most recently appointments to new central-level security forces. Its reform program also came under pressure when the EU put moves towards closer integration on hold due to Republika Srpska's refusal to consider a central police force whose administrative regions would not coincide with the current boundaries between the two "entities" that make up Bosnia.

Ivanic, who represents a supposedly moderate Serb party, has vowed to continue with his duties and disputes that the premier can sack him without parliamentary approval, according to press reports. Ivanic's party issued a statement that read in part, "The self-proclaimed and self-styled prime minister of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Adnan Terzic, in his sheer desire to build
Bosnia-Hercegovina for himself and one nation [i.e., the Muslims or Bosnjaks], is without any reservation violating the Bosnia-Hercegovina Constitution and the Law on the Council of Ministers forgetting about the scope and responsibilities of his post."

Terzic said the dismissal was necessary because Ivanic was obstructing government appointments, forcing the international high representative to step in. BH Radio 1 on 7 June quoted Terzic as saying that it would be "disastrous for Bosnia" to "forcibly and thoughtlessly strip the high representative of his Bonn competences," which allow him to sack officials whose activities obstruct implementation of the Dayton accords.

The Bonn powers have come under pressure from several sides; applied in a more transparent manner, they still seem to be quite necessary. What will those say who've been maintaining that the high rep was nothing but a foreign interloper and that Bosnia's politicians were perfectly capable of dealing with the issues on their own? Maybe they can find some silly quote from Hobbes or Machiavelli to support their position?

Ivanic, by the way, is a little p. of s. (That's my personal, unscientific, and quite possibly libelous view.) Foreigners have fallen for his passable English, good manners, intellectual pretense, and measured words for much too long.

Povratak otpisanog

Hello to the distinguished readers of East Ethnia from Budapest, which is still lovely but where it seems the bars now close at 12. Tomorrow I make my way to Belgrád from whence I will slowly resume blogging duties. Not just I, but also the two loyal readers I dined with last night, think that Teekay did a fantastic job in my absence. The coverage of the Srebrenica tape here has been some of the best material in English on the net.

For my part, what I learned while shepherding 17 students on a tour of Czech and Polish concentration camps over the past couple of weeks has been:

✮The utility of the Naški language diminishes in direct relation to how far north one has travelled.

✮Students are always happy to engage in a comparative discussion of atrocity memorials using sponsorship as an independent variable.

✮The sort of sleeping accommodations provided to students remain every bit as sketchy as they were when I was a student.

Other things I remain uncertain about, especially the most important ones.

Tape questions

In my last post, I asked a few questions relating to the videotape that was shown at the Milošević trial last week. Some of them have now been answered by Nataša Kandić, the human rights lawyer who brought the tape to light, in an interview with Senad Hadžifejzović of Bosnian TV Hayat during his news show Saturday night. (Additional information can be found in an article in today's Observer by Tim Judah and Daniel Sunter that explains the trajectory of the tape from its production all the way to the courtroom and TV.) Kandić said Del Ponte's reference to "additional tapes" that would be shown at The Hague was in fact to additional footage on the same tape, which runs to around two hours. One bit shows Legija and the Scorpion guy discussing executions near Cazin, where they were "fighting" on the side of renegade Muslim warlord Fikret Abdić. (Their talk about the "delivery of packages" leaves little to the imagination.) One important bit of information Kandić gave was that the prisoners from Srebrenica were brought all the way to Trnovo, where some sort of military operation -- probably diversionary -- was taking place, in order for them to appear as casualties of fighting rather than execution. (I'm not sure to what extent this would apply to other prisoners who were brought for execution to other locations around Srebrenica.)

What becomes clear from all this is that the Scorpions seem to have been a highly effective killing machine -- while I'm weary of comparisons with the Holocaust, they do appear as some sort of roaming Einsatzgruppe that would go wherever their services were needed.

Mladić arrest imminent?

Reuters is speculating that the broadcasting by Serbian state TV of video showing Serbian paramilitaries executing six males, apparently civilians from Srebrenica, was aimed at preparing public opinion for the arrest of Bosnian-Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladić. The story's main piece of supporting evidence is in this passage:

"This video will mark a turning point in the minds of our public and make it easier for the government to fulfil its commitments toward the (Hague war crimes) tribunal," said Minister for Human Rights Rasim Ljajić, a Muslim.

His words are code here for the arrest of General Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Bosnian Serb army. He is indicted for genocide in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, the July 1995 massacre at Srebrenica of 8,000 Muslim males.

This looks like rather flimsy evidence to me, but it's an interesting thought that might put some things in perspective that otherwise don't make much sense.

The most obvious of these concerns the timing of the publication and the arrests. Human rights lawyer Kandić is thought to have dropped the tape off on 23 May. A week later it was shown at The Hague, but with a good number of the faces shown on it identified by first and last names, or in some cases by first names or nicknames only. Was that work done while the tape was in the prosecution's possession? Didn't the prosecution have the obligation to alert the defense to its existence right away? More importantly, how did they manage to put names on faces? It is here that things start getting interesting: just hours after the video airs on Serbian TV, the authorities announce that several of the paramilitaries shown on the tape had been arrested, including one of the executioners. (The numbers are hazy, but most reports put them at seven or eight.)

If, as the defense witness claims during whose testimony at The Hague the tape was shown, the Scorpions were not operating in Bosnia under interior ministry command, how come the government seems to have pretty complete files on these guys, including their current whereabouts? This happened ten years ago, so a good number of them would be retired by now; how does the government have their address? I think there's a fair bit of explaining to be done.

Moreover, there seems to have been some sort of complicity -- perhaps tacit rather than overt -- between Kandić, the prosecution, and the Serbian authorities. Otherwise, action could simply not have been taken so swiftly. I imagine that something like this might have happened: Kandić gets the tape and passes it on to the prosecution. She sits on it while the prosecution, perhaps with her help, is trying to identify the folks on the tape. (Incidentally, nobody seems to have worried too much about identifying the vitcims; Reuters quotes a woman who says she recognizes her son among those executed.) Once they're getting there, she passes it on to the government, perhaps already with names attached. The government is notified by the prosecution that this will be shown at some point during the trial, and the authorities are preparing to make these arrests.

The prosecution and Kandić don't care about the political constellation; their overriding interest is, rightly, to see Mladić in the dock. The Serbian government feels it has to do something to maintain the momentum of the last few months, when droves of indictees "surrendered" to the ICTY, some more and some less voluntarily. Perfect congruence of interests?

[Update, 4 June: a Reuters report (no link available) shed new light on this today. It said, "The video was obtained last December from an unnamed and now protected source by Hague prosecutors and Natasa Kandic, a Serbian human rights activist. They spent months authenticating it and investigating the men it showed. It was shown to Serbian war crimes prosecutors a week ago and its broadcast to a national audience was coordinated with the government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica."]

But what I don't get is the broader context. The victims seem too young to have been of any intelligence value. The question then is, were they shipped all the way from Srebrenica to Trnovo or Jahorina (again, the details of where the killings took place are hazy) just to be killled? If they were just to be killed, why not kill them right there, in Srebrenica, as happened to thousands of others? Why were these guys special? Why bother to get special police from Serbia to kill them?

Even thought he footage seems clear enough, this tape is hiding a secret -- whatever it may be.

Accounting for the past

Under headlines like "Srebrenica video sobers Serbia, brings arrests," "Serbia shocked by video showing Srebrenica shootings," "Srebrenica video sobers Serbia, brings arrests," or "Serbs stunned by pictures of massacre at Srebrenica" (though pride of place no doubt belongs to "Bosnia: Sick video killers arrested," for several reasons), the media this morning reported the fallout from a video tape obtained by courageous human-rights lawyer Nataša Kandić and shown at the trial of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milošević Wednesday.

The tape, excerpts of which can be seen here, shows the cold-blooded execution of six men by a special police unit from Serbia. The executions took place near Pale and, the Hague prosecution says, involved victims bused there from Srebrenica in the summer of 1995.

Kandić had handed over the tape to the Serbian authorities on 23 May, according to the New York Times. The footage was broadcast on Serbian public TV (RTS) and B-92 Wednesday night, the day it was shown at The Hague; within less than 24 hours, eight members of the unit, whose faces are clearly visible in the video, had been arrested.

A good analysis of the tape's contents and its significance for the Milošević trial can be found on the website of the Coalition for International Justice.

The Times story has some rather interesting vox pop from Belgrade that suggest that we've moved from the denial stage (this didn't happen) through refusal (we didn't know this happened) and relativism (also known as wavering: bad things happened but it was a war and bad things do happen in wars, and the others did it too) all the way to jaded weariness, as evidenced by two statements in the report:

"What was shown on that tape was just a tiny bit of the crimes committed throughout the war," said Neohjsa Mrdjenovic, a 29-year-old musician. "The footage will not change anything because people knew what had been happening. Everyone knew about the siege of Sarajevo all along. Unfortunately people don't care about it. They only care how to feed their family."

Rodoljub Cosic, 25, said: "The footage might change some people's opinion about Srebrenica, but the majority knew what had happened there. People knew what had happened in Srebrenica more than any other place as it has been often raised in public."

So now we're right at the stage where it's all just old news and we all knew about this anyway and what's all the fuss about. (I'm not necessarily imputing these feelings to these two fellows -- I'm always open to the suggestion that someone may have been misquoted or their statements taken out of context, or badly translated. But they seem indicative of a broader mood now that outright denial has become more difficult.)

And what these statement play down is the power of pictures over mere "information." People may have known what had happened at Srebrenica, though a good many Serbs still doubt the facts, but they never saw what kind of brutality is involved in the simple execution of just six men, a trivial occurrence by the standards of that war.

What the whole story also suggests, of course, is that the government -- and this may come back to haunt it -- is perfectly capable of arresting war crime suspects if it feels it's in its interest to do so.

What part of "no" don't you understand?

On Monday, the grandiosely named "National Assembly" of Republika Srpska, the parliament of the Bosnian-Serb statelet in Bosnia, rejected police reform proposals that were a precondition for the opening of talks on association with the EU.

High representative Paddy Ashdown commented in a press conference Tuesday, "The RS... has finally, it seems, turned its back on the future – and turned its back on Bosnia's future, too." Without giving details, he all but announced sanctions against the RS government and its ruling party, the SDS, over the next few days: "some consequences will follow quickly."

Police reform -- agreed to earlier in principle -- is one of the conditions for the EU to consider signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia, which is now off the table -- for the time being.

Ashdown said, "The road to Europe will remain closed for the country until, as must happen in the end, the Government of Republika Srpska is prepared to adhere to European standards."

He added, "I cannot break this logjam. The European Commission has, quite rightly, said that getting to Europe means BiH politicians doing it, not the High Representative. Bosnia -- and the RS, their politicians themselves -- have to meet those standards. But until they do, the rest of Europe won’t wait. This region will not move towards Europe at the pace of the slowest ship in the convoy."

Ashdown had hoped to announce at the press conference concrete steps to transform his office (OHR) from overseer to facilitator, from "high representative" to "EU special representative," and to transfer competences to the national authorities. The RS, with its customary, impeccable sense of timing fully intact, smashed these plans one day after the French voters said non to the EU constitution, a rejection that also constituted in part a rejection of enlargement.

But, as Ashdown pointed out, it will be the people of Bosnia who will have to live with the consequences.

Will that be enough to sway the RS? Are Ashdown's words still designed to force the RS into line, or already a recognition that the situation is hopeless? Will OHR take this opportunity, thrown to it by the RS, to sweep politicians out of office one last time, before the "Bonn powers" disappear?

Jack to Nick: I've read my Machiavelli

President Chirac has appointed a new government after Sunday's resounding non to the new (now defunct) EU constitution; he announced that his arch-rival Nicolas Sarkozy had been offered, and accepted, a "senior" position in the new cabinet -- reportedly that of interior minister. Who was it who said, "keep your friends close; your enemies, closer?"

Mark Twain on the French

From a piece by Stacy Schiff -- Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov's biographer -- on Americans in France:

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

From today's Times -- free registration required.

Zoran Musić, 1909-2005

The painter Zoran Musić was born in Gorizia, a provincial town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire that today is part of Italy. He spent several years in Austria as a teenager before enrolling in the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He spent time in Spain and Dalmatia before World War II and was deported as a political prisoner to Dachau in 1944. That experience -- he drew restlessly, and in secret, what he witnessed -- would come to dominate his work in the late 1960s, when his Dalmatian landscapes began morphing into skulls and corpses. After liberation, he settled in Venice and later had a second studio in Paris.

He died Wednesday in Venice.

In 2002, the Jewish Museum in New York showed a small selection from his work, a reinterpretation of his Dachau pictures. For additional biographical information, click here.

Turkey: part of Europe or...?

The Turkish government is not always making it easy for those in favor of Turkey's eventual accession to the EU. The failed attempt to criminalize adultery is among the milder irritations; Turkey's continued refusal to even begin to acknowledge what happened to the Armenians is a much more serious issue. An academic conference, organized by leading Turkish universities, was to begin proceedings today in an attempt to challenge the official version of the Armenian genocide.

It was not to be: after immense pressure from the government, including a speech in parliament in which the minister of justice called the conference a "stab in the back of the Turkish nation" and called for an "end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading propaganda against the [Turkish] nation by people who belong to it, the organizing university has now given in and "postponed" the event.

Were it not for tomorrow's holiday in parts of Germany, I can imagine the sort of coverage this would have gotten from the FAZ and similar circles opposed to Turkish entry. They generally use human-rights issues as a pretext to militate against something they hate anyway; but in this particular case, they may actually have a valid point. Until the official Turkey wakes up to its responsibilities, it has indeed no place in the EU.

Slovenian Communist charged with genocide

Reuters reports that Slovenia has charged a former Communist official, Mitja Ribicic, with genocide for his role in the killings of Yugoslav Nazi collaborators and anti-Communists at the end of World War II. This seems to be the first action of its kind and is likely to lead to heated debate about the crimes of the early Titoist era, which have never been fully discussed in the former Yugoslavia or its successor states.

Mitja Ribicic was a deputy chief of the Yugoslav secret service in Slovenia at the time and is 86 now. He faces a long jail sentence should he been found guilty. The Reuters story doesn't mention where he lives.

Breaking news: U.S. unpopular in Muslim world

U.S. journalists have discovered a new outpost of anti-Americanism in Europe.

Yaroslav Trofimov, a reporter on the Wall Street Journal, writes in Slate that anti-American feelings have been inflamed by the war in Iraq. (Must have missed that one.) As an example, he presents... Bosnia. Under the hed Those Ungrateful Bosnians (“We liberated them. Why are they still against us?”) he makes the argument that the deployment of a mine-clearing unit has proven so unpopular that it has pushed the Bosnian Muslims' positive feelings towards the U.S. to the sidelines:

The debate over the Iraq expedition has bared the extent of anti-American feelings that flourish these days, even in such unlikely places as Sarajevo. As reactions in Bosnia show, the U.S. engagement in Iraq, which was meant to convert the Muslim world to America's gospel by building up a model democracy there, has so far achieved precisely the opposite result: Anger over Iraq's unfolding tragedy has superseded the memories of America's own past good deeds in Muslim lands.

I find it rather curious to claim that the Iraq war was “meant to convert the Muslim world to America's gospel” -- I always thought it was about removing Saddam Hussein. It's not like Wolfie and Dick and Rummie were sitting around one day thinking, gee, how can we get the Bosnians to love us even more, and then one of them came up with the brilliant idea to invade Iraq.

But quite apart from this gaffe, the article just re-runs stereotypes we've seen time and again (and I bet you this article will be brandished by nationalist Serbs and Croats for months to come as proof of what they've been saying all along -- the Muslims were dangerous and had to be stopped at all cost, and why does the West reject us when in fact we just did what was needed to preserve Western culture, blah-blah-blah): of bearded Islamist publishers, fiery preachers at the main mosque, and Bosnians fighting in Fallujah (okay, that's a new one, I think). What the piece does get right, however, is the shameless double-dealing of the reis ul-ulema, Mustafa Ceric, who loves to present himself as a voice of moderation towards Westerners only to turn around and pander to the less moderate feelings of some of his supporters.

In any case, it seems to me that most Bosnians -- Muslim or otherwise -- care most about what happened in their country and about the current situation there rather than about Iraq or even Palestine. Heck, they didn't even care about Kosovo when the Serbs went on a rampage there in 1998-99. Human nature, perhaps?

American Steamroller Effects U-Turn

... or has it?

The USG has noticed that there's a need for vision and leadership in Europe, or more specifically, that there's some developments in the Balkans that will require those two qualities, which are in notoriously short supply in Europe. (That supply is at least as short as the USG attention span these days.)

Unfortunately, the USG routinely forgets that visions and leadership need to be implemented and realized, something at which the boring Europeans tend to be better than the fidgety Americans

But in the Balkans, the Europeans have been implementing and realizing piecemeal steps whose direction remain unclear. Nowhere is this more tangible than in Kosovo, a seemingly intractable problem the USG now woke up to -- again. In the diplomatic words of sources quoted by the Paris edition of the Times,

Some State Department officials acknowledged that the nearly intractable ethnic hatreds in the Balkans have been a side issue for the Bush administration, in part because of its concern about global terrorism.

Clinton administration officials, particularly former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, have suggested that the Bush administration was averse to trying to build on an achievement of the Clinton years, namely the bombing of Serbia and the setting up of Kosovo as a semi-independent protectorate.

Be that as it may, the Times article seems to suggest that there's been some sort of U-turn in the Western approach. The deal so far was that Kosovo had to fully meet a number of conditions before talks would be opened. The Trib implies this is no longer the case:

[under secretary of state for political affairs R. Nicholas] Burns said the United States now favored discussing the future status of Kosovo simultaneously with improvements in its democratic standards, with the hope that the improvement can become an incentive for achieving independence.

He said the aim was to settle Kosovo's status by the end of 2005.

While it is not clear to me how “improvements in democratic standards” could become an “incentive for achieving independence” if the two are explicitly uncoupled from one another -- if this were the key concern of the policy, then why not just stick to outright conditionality? -- it does seem to me that this is a more sensible approach, and in fact one that has gradually been taking shape.

An editorialist at Transitions Online agrees, in an excellent piece posted today. Money quote:

Explicit linking of progress on security, human rights, and democracy with the status issue was always wrong. Kosovo needed to become stable, tolerant, and democratic regardless of its status. In other words, human rights, security, and democracy should always have been presented as non-negotiable and separate from the status question. By making them part of the status issue, the international community injected an element of bargaining into its Kosovo enterprise. By the same token, whatever status Kosovo gains in the end, that status should stem from considerations wider than the current situation in the territory.

In any case, not all Europeans are going to be amused. As a (European) pal of mine put it none too delicately, though thankfully in French, the Europeans "se font à nouveau enculer."

Titoslavia, and an apology

That fine journalistic outfit from Bijeljina, SRNA, reports on the proclamation of the Republic of Titoslavia in the Sarajevo suburb of Rakovica -- the geographical center of the former Yugoslavia, explored by Zoran Solomun in his excellent Tagebuch eines Jugo-Nostalgikers: Im Zentrum Ex-Jugoslawiens, shown on Arte in 2003 -- planned for 25 May, Tito's birthday. SRNA reports that Titoslavia is

located on 3,5 hectares of land in a private park owned by Blasko Gabric, decorated with 133 trees originating from all over the world. Work is currently underway on the construction of a pool that will symbolize the Adriatic Sea.

The main motor behind the initiative is one Jezdimir Milosevic of the Sarajevo NGO Peaceful Action of Humanists. But SRNA didn't just write a fluff piece -- no, they went out and did their research, and they even interviewed someone who should have something interesting to say on the topic, Tito's eldest grandson, Joška. He told SRNA that things that were unimaginable during his granddad's rule could be seen in the Belgrade of today -- things such as the Albanian or Kosovo flag, “just because someone from Albania or Kosovo is visiting.”

Shocking times indeed.

Oh, and my apology is for cross-posting from my own blog -- it shan't happen again, and in my defense I shall point out that I just got back from a week of doing nothing and am too lazy to write two pieces tonight.

And a further apology is that Blogger's HTML seems to have trouble accepting all the little diacritics the South Slavs use in their names. I'll figure it out for future posts, or just avoid any names that got them.

Najbolje se putuje...

Okay, dear readers, today I am really heading off! The blog will be silent for a couple days, then Teekay will be filling in until I return around 10 June. Don't let any events pass you by during that time!

Homo homini lupus

It would seem that the wife of murderer, thief and drug dealer Milorad Ulemek, who is currently on trial for the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjić, has opened a private security agency under the name of "Lupus," according to B92.

Considering that the symbol of the agency is the same wolf's head that was the symbol of the "Unit for Special Operations" (JSO) that Milorad Ulemek once commanded formally (and subsequently informally), can it be a coincidence that she has named her business after a debilitating blood disease?

East Ethnia and West Ethnia

This is my daughter's favorite feature of the web stats program, to find out where the readers are. It looks like this blog, which has a small but very high-quality readership, has more readers in Europe than in the Americas.



This relation seems to change meaningfully only in those rare instances when East Ethnia gets a mention in the US media or one of them megablogs. Is it the subject matter? Or more evidence for what our import marketers (shoes, cars, kitchen gadgets...) constantly tell us, that Europeans have better judgment and are more tasteful? Or is it the recognition of my inner European?

Your Inner European is Spanish!

Energetic and lively. You bring the party with you!

Who's Your Inner European?

This is something I did not know, though it sets a boy to wonder how many other inner Spaniards there may have been in lovely Freeland, Washinton. Turns out the inner Mrs Ethnia is Irish and the inner Ethniette is Swedish, as well. Who would have guessed?

Balkanski gosti

I am working on getting a fine bevy of guestbloggers to populate East Ethnia in my absence. Welcome to your mental space Mr Teekay, of Over at Teekay's, who in contrast with me actually knows how to operate one of those computer machines all the young folks are using these days. With any luck, at least one more person will be climbing on board. Watch this space for announcements...

History, memory and tourism

As long as I am continuing to post during my hiatus (once I actually leave Wednesday, don't expect much), let me draw your attention to a very fine analysis of the new Berlin Holocaust Memorial by Ulrich Buechsenschuetz. He is not too sanguine about its symbolic value, and his photos show the place having more potential as a picnic spot (or as he puts it, "a fun maze") than as a site serving its intended purpose.

Appalling notes on domesticity

There is an interesting conflict over jurisdiction in the case of the notorious KP Dom in Foca, which ICTY would like to refer to a domestic court. But which domestic court? Both Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia-Montenegro are claiming jurisdiction. The ICTY prosecutor wants the case referred to a Bosnian court, in the territory where the crimes were committed.

As reported by SENSE, the accused are offering different strategies to argue that their cases should either remain before ICTY or moved to a venue friendlier than the one where they committed their crimes. The deputy warden of the KP Dom in Foca, Savo Todovic, claims that he would be unable to present a defence in a Bosnian court. The commander of the guards, Mitar Rasevic, raises a similar concern but does not oppose a trial in Bosnia-Hercegovina as long as it is speedy. Accused rapist Gojko Jankovic argues that Bosnia-Hercegovina's witness protection regime makes a fair trial impossible.






The accused: top to bottom, Gojko Jankovic, Savo Todovic and Mitar Rasevic. Photos courtesy of ICTY.

Gojko Jankovic argues that he can be considered a citizen of Serbia-Montenegro since he lives there and has applied for dual citizenship. Savo Todovic justifies the claim for competing jurisdiction on the fact that he has been a citizen of Serbia-Montenegro for the past two weeks.

The case is an early illustration of one of the basic dilemmas that is going to confront ICTY as it prepares to close shop and refer cases to domestic courts. First, it is not clear which courts are "domestic," as governments continue to claim proprietary rights over their victims and their criminals. Second, the obligation to prosecute would seem to be on a permanent collision course with the right to a defence. Serbia-Montenegro has compromised more than the law by appearing to offer fast-track citizenship to individual criminals from neighbouring states. People have been complaining for years that an outside institution like ICTY cannot dispense justice--but is it possible that an outside institution protects both witnesses and accused better than a kobajagi domestic one can?

Thanks to loyal reader and regional cuisine specialist AR for tips and links. This was important enough for East Ethnia to break its pre-travel silence.

Inspired by Amtrak

Just like those "high speed" Acela trains that get you to their destination only when you have the good luck to find them running .... East Ethnia is now entering a period of, erm, limited service. I am off next week for a journey, and will not be posting with any frequency until 10 June or so.

I'll be leading a group of students on a summer study program for two weeks, then rewarding myself with a couple days of relaxation in lovely Budapest, and then I should resurface in Belgrade in the second week of June. Rely on the excellent Balkan blogs in the link list on the right to keep you supplied with commentary in the meantime, and enjoy the onset of summer!

60 years later

At the end of the day, it becomes clear to me that this blog has had nothing clever or poignant to say about the spectacles that have been made to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the victory over fascism. The reason has to be that I am not persuaded that fascism has been defeated. Widespread declarations of virtue notwithstanding.

NYT observes that controversial director is controversial

Dan Halpern has a piece in the Sunday NYT Magazine profiling Emir Kusturica. A lot of it is dedicated to rehashing the "which side is he on?" controversies that have followed the director since 1992, for which Mr Kusturica has a ready answer: "Nobody's perfect." Mr Halpern also interviewed Nele Karajlić (Nenad Janković), who has a simpler explanation: "Emir likes to make a mess." That really is about the extent of it, but it might be worth reading for some colorful descriptions of the films.

Goodbye, Queen of sadness

Vida Pavlović was known as "the Queen of good Roma music," and "the Queen of the kafana," and has now passed away in her sixtieth year. She said of herself, as reported in Večernje novosti:

"I am the Queen of pain and sadness. What glamour, what pomp. All my songs are nothing but longing and emotion. Those are the things that have marked my life. Like they came directly from my tears. Like I was ground by stone. That is how my life has been. All the songs I have sung, I have also lived. My life is one song, a long one, with many sad and beautiful verses. From my earliest youth I have watched people celebrate, mourn and make parties around my songs"



Her musical career began at 14, when she began to sing for her uncle's band and continued along the way "from Šabac to Virovitice, from Sydney to New York, Vienna to Berlin, Paris and Oslo." Her name was regarded as "a synonym for an artist who sings from the soul and to whom the public is always happy to listen."

Vida Pavlović, "Već godinu ima" (mp3) (do wait for it to load)

The Friday random ten thingie

It is Friday, isn't it? Faced with stacks of work to finish, the best thing is to take a moment off to post the Friday Random Ten. Here goes...

Carmen Consoli -- Bambina impertinente
Miss Kittin -- Madam Hollywood
John Cale -- Paris 1919
Cabaret patetico -- I will survive
Sleater-Kinney -- More than a feeling
Al Green -- Love and happiness
Kevin Ayers -- Stranger in blue suede shoes
Squeeze -- Up the junction
The beautiful south -- Just a few things that I ain't
Snakefinger -- Beatnik party

This week the iTunes bot seems to have pulled up a lot of stuff I have not listened to in a while. Nice of it.

On the sacrament of property appreciation

Maybe by now you already know the story: young Benjamin Halbe buys a used 1999 VW Golf for, let's say, the price you might expect. Then he discovers that the former owner was one Joseph Ratzinger, more lately known by the name Pope Benedict XVI. What would any reasonable person do? Of course, he put it up for auction on an internet auction site, where it was sold to a Texan collector for €189,000.

All of this would be merely gossip, except I also have a VW Golf, which is a couple years newer and has fewer miles on it. I'm not selling it, of course, but it seems that it would have to be worth more than the six year old one that Mr Halbe sold. You might object that I have never been and will never be Pope, but I have met lots of people named Popović.

The wrong Sarajevo band in mind?

This is the "no comment" photo of the day from PCNEN. They seem to have got all the other languages right.



This may be a good moment to mention the veb sajt of the group Zabranjeno pušenje, which offers an alarmingly large selection of MP3 files for your listening pleasure.

"You can't have a one-person conspiracy"

The Abu Ghraib torture case will not end with a few low-ranking soldiers being compelled to give guilty pleas. A military judge, colonel James Pohl, rejected Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea today after testimony made it impossible to believe that she and a private, Charles Graner, had conspired to commit torture. England had testified that the photos which made the world aware of the torture which was being committed were made on personal initiative, while Graner testified that he had ordered her to make the photos because they "had a legitimate training use for guards." Pohl took into consideration the conflicting stories of the "conspirators" and rejected the guilty plea, observing: "You can't have a one-person conspiracy."

The story of a few soldiers taking over a prison to commit torture was not believable to the judge, and the clear implication is that the torture had to be part of a policy. That does not mean that the high-ranking military and political officials responsible for making torture a policy will be prosecuted, only that the evidence now shows that they should be.

Wayne S. Vucinich, 1913-2005

One of the first and best American Balkanologists, Professor Wayne Vucinich, has died at the age of 91. Stanford University has released a detailed and thoughtful obituary, describing his influence and citing several of the scholars he influenced. Anybody wishing to express their respect is advised, "In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Stanford University for the Wayne S. and Sara Stys Vucinich Fund for Slavic Studies, Stanford University, Attn: Gift Processing, 326 Galvez St., Stanford, CA 94305-6105."

Times are tough

But that is not reason enough to respond to this job announcement.

Tito po drugi put

Twenty five years ago, on 4 May 1980, Josip Broz Tito died. Writing for ANSA, Beatrice Ottaviano reports that he has become an icon for the young left of the Balkans, and speaks of his "renewed popularity."


Tito with a cheetah, photo from Titoville.

The spokesperson for the "house of Flowers" memorial museum in Belgrade, Svetlana Ognjanović, tells ANSA that that the museum received 14.000 visitors in 2003, 35.000 in 2004, and expects 60.000 this year. Some people are making their visit part of a pilgrimage, walking the 450 kilometres from Tito's birthplace in Kumrovec to the memorial in Belgrade, and not all of the pilgrims are from the territory that Tito once governed. Ms Ognjanović also reports receiving a group of 300 Americans.


Tito with Edward Kennedy, senator from Massachusetts, photo from Titoville.

Beatrice Ottaviano also calls attention to the mystery of the seven miracles of Tito: "Everybody worked, but nobody did anything; nobody did anything, but all of the plans were fulfilled; all of the plans were fulfilled, but the shops were empty; the shops were empty, but everybody had everything; everybody had everything, but everybody stole; everybody stole, but nobody lacked anything." Dayenu!

Worth a visit

The Sarajevo daily Oslobođenje has revised and updated its web presentation. More articles are available, the graphic resolution is clearer, and the whole thing is much pregledniji. If you haven't been there for a while, enjoy their new look.

Winner in the "most overlooked" category

That is indeed what the New York Times has to say about the tourist potential of Zagreb. Shall we start with the backhanded compliments? Oh, we shall. Their travel writer Alex Crevar admires the "charms and chutzpah of an Old World city that is still coming to grips with modernity," and observes its "lack of tourism savoir-faire." But he does note that there is much good food and wine to be had, together with a pleasurable consumer and club scene. And he truthfully observes that "Zagreb was made for walking." Most importantly, he realizes that "there seem to be as many cafe-bars in Zagreb as people," which is good enough for me. But he misses my favorite restaurant, contact me personally if you want perfectly prepared high cuisine served to you while you sit on an Adolf Loos chair (for a pretty lipa, yes).

For a tepid summary of the promotion, have a gander at Večernjak.

The mysterious number, 9999

Somebody in Belgium is the 9999th visitor to East Ethnia. For you, a dog picture:



This is not actually a photo of Lajoš Gordy, but of some other dog of the same breed. Looks a lot like him, though.

This is not simply self promotion

It is also promotion of my friends! The project that resulted in Facing the past, facing the future: Confronting ethnicity and conflict in Bosnia and former Yugoslavia (table of contents at the publisher's site) began with one of the yearly "Konjic seminars" in 2001, and the book is finally out.



Congratulations to editors Florian Bieber and Carsten Wieland, and thanks to Angelo Longo Editore and the Europe and the Balkans International Network.

News for the doggies of Zagreb

Hina's articles claims that all European cities have this, but I was really not aware. It seems that Zagreb will put doggie WCs in several major parks, thereby providing a great convenience to owners (26.000 of them registered in the city) and to other users of all those non-WC spaces.

Apparently what they are really building is a bunch of sandboxes with garbage bins nearby. Which is still nice.

Setting the Cambodian tribunal in motion

Certainly all of the readers here are familiar with the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, under which cities were emptied and several hundred thousand "class enemies" liquidated. Estimates of the number of people killed cluster around 1.7 million, out of a population of 8 million. Count on the United Nations: within thirty years they have snapped into action and given the go-ahead for a tribunal to try those offenders that are still around.

Extensive documentation on the Cambodian genocide (or am I obligated to say "democide"? "politicide"?) is available in either eight or ten languages, depending on how you count, through Yale University's genocide studies program.

The museum of external debt

Yesterday the Museum of the External Debt opened at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Buenos Aires. The museum graphically follows the evolution of the Argentine debt, which began with a 700,000 pound loan from Baring Brothers in 1824 and grew in the last part of the twentieth century from 8,279 million dollars in 1976 to 191,000 million in 2004.

The exhibition includes historical material, but also illustrates the debt through works of art: a speeding "financial bicycle," an installation by the Escombros group "Golden dreams and a cardboard nightmare" designed to remind people of the megalomaniac projects that ended with mass trash-picking for subsistence (it is a cardboard train car painted gold, filled with cardboard). Along the way one can admire portraits and speeches of past presidents and finance ministers who provided the source material, as well as duelling currencies issued between 1969 and 2005.

Eduardo López, the designer of the exhibit, notes:

"It is an atypical museum. When a person visits other museums in the world, they see paintings, sculptures, art, that is, patrimony. This museum is just the opposite, it shows the patrimony that does not exist, which the country has lost."

The exhibit is scheduled to be open for six months. So hurry to Buenos Aires and bring back a catalog for me.

Short encyclopedia of the Serbian soul

It would seem that literary circles in Belgrade are atwitter over Viktor Jerofejev's accounts of his epic journey to that most interesting city, which is coming out as a series in Književnost. The newspaper Danas has two excerpts in this place (it's toward the bottom of the page) and this one.

The screamingly hilarious narrative would not be done justice by translation of brief excerpts, you just have to read the whole thing. It includes a blindingly fatuous establishment writer, many drunken publishers, automotive adventures, attractive waitresses, and singing typesetters and philosophers. But no goat milk.

Praise to Ludost for the links.

Letter to the president and ministers

Earlier we reported here that the Serbian Ministry of Defence had decided to leave off, for the summer, arresting and prosecuting people living in other countries who had not fulfilled their military service. Now a group of young people has written to president Boris Tadić, defence minister Prvoslav Davinić and diaspora minister Vojislav Vukčević seeking a permanent solution to the problem in the form of a general amnesty. The following quotations are from the English version of the letter:

"Under a law of the former Yugoslavia, all conscripts who wanted to emigrate where obliged to apply for permission to do so from the Yugoslav Army High Command. In the chaotic situation that existed during the war it was difficult, complicated if not impossible to obtain such permission. Many conscripts had no option but to leave Yugoslavia without an agreement from the army.

To worsen the situation further, during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Milosevic’s regime in Serbia and Montenegro, had changed the upper age limit for conscripts from 27 to 35 years of age. This was done to ensure that the men who have so far evaded the military service couldn’t do so any more. This has meant that the men who have emigrated in the early years of the war could not return back to the country without being arrested, sent to serve the military service and any prison sentences.

Under the Dayton agreement in 1995 and the Kumanovo peace accord signed with NATO in 1999, the general assembly of the former Yugoslavia (then consisting of only Serbia and Montenegro) had adopted an amnesty for those men who have refused to fight for the Yugoslav army during the war. However, those conscripts who didn’t serve the military service or have not responded to drafts were still required to join the army."

[....]

"We believe that everyone has a right to visit relatives and friends in the country of their domicile. This kind of measure of rebuilding trust has been organized even between enemies of war in the cases of Korea and Cyprus. We truly believe that time has come, the time when this problem finally needs to be resolved."

The organisation maintains a site (with a version of the letter in Serbian) at www.dijaspora-vojna-obaveza.info. There are also versions of the letter in French, in Spanish, in Italian, in German, and in Czech.

Cleanliness is next to the toaster

Having lived in tiny apartments my whole adult life (unless one counts a brief tragic period in a rented suburban house when we first moved to Massachusetts) I have never had a laundry machine of my own. But as of about fifteen minutes ago, the Gordy family is happy to be able to do its own wash.



This little machine both washes and dries, is small enough to fit in our apartment, and is ready to go after a lovely seven hours with the plumber. We now have to figure out something clever to do with the quarters we have been collecting all these years.

In memoriam: Perica Vučinić

Perica Vučinić, editor of the magazine Reporter and a former correspondent for the magazine Vreme, died today in Belgrade at the age of 46.


Photo courtesy of B92

He founded Reporter in Banja Luka in 1997, and received the Swedish Federation of Journalists' award for courage in 1999 and World Press Review's recognition as international editor of the year in 2000. Tomorrow a memorial will be held at the Independent Association of Journalists in Belgrade, to be followed by a burial.

"New Europe" rapidly aging

Donald Rumsfeld called the countries that offered their token support to the war in Iraq the "New Europe," even though there is contention for the name of "Old Europe" that includes a German restaurant in Washington, a Polish restaurant in Cucharras, Nevada, a place reputed to have the best pierogies in Pittsburgh and most likely a lot of other places. In any case, Deutsche Welle reports that the moniker is not sticking where Mr Rumsfeld wanted it stuck. DW reports that the formerly willing countries "are gradually turning their backs on the United States as rewards fail to materialize." Complaints include cost, lack of popular support, political friction with other European states, and the failure of the United States to reciprocate with political or economic benefits. Since the adventurists in the Bush administration seem to have exhausted the newness of one Europe and will probably not find a newer one, it could be a good time to listen to the old and middle-aged ones.

A moment of clarity

An advisor to Serbian Prime minister Vojislav Koštunica offers his assessment of the surrenders of people indicted for grave violations of international humanitarian law by the ICTY in an interview in Blic for 27 April. Miša Đurković explains:

"The story with the Hague had to mature. Time had to pass for the indictees to gain confidence in the government. The key thing was the two-directional cooperation with the Hague, however much people laughed at that. The provisional release of Stanišić and Simatović was a sign to all of the people who decide to surrender that the state and the government stand behind them."

So a mature story leads to the fulfillment of the legalist ideal: a state in which criminal indictees have confidence in the government, which gives them reason to believe that the state stands behind them. Why confront the past when you can absorb it?

Update: Interestingly, Mr Koštunica put the matter differently in a speech reported in Politika. He was quoted as saying, "Serbia is ready and able to take up its part of the responsibility to give its contribution for the whole region to move ahead and become a constitutive part of the European Union." You do see how much difference phrasing makes.

A forecast of slow posting

My apologies to the fine readers of East Ethnia, it is a bit of a busy week and I have not been posting much. I expect by the end of the day today to be back to my usual lazy schedule, and to have some new items for you. In the meantime, there are a few new links to the right of your eyes, check them out and enjoy them. By the time new items are up, I should have the papers from my Bologna students (Ciao!) graded, course plans and readings finished for the fall, and a fine new washing machine installed in the kitchen.

Update your bookmarks, again

The exile from Blogger is continuing, with Split's leading blogger Drax settling into a luxurious and comfortable new home at Typepad. Raise a glass to welcome him.

New York: Bosnian-Hercegovinian film festival

East Ethnians who have the good fortune to be in New York from 29 April to 1 May will certainly want to catch the Bosnian-Hercegovinian film festival at the Anthology Film Archives theatre (2nd and 2nd). The program includes films by Srdjan Vuletić, Pjer Žalica, Ademir Kenović, and others, with several guest appearances, and a fine time to be had by all.

The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened

It is hard not to be delighted by Matt Taibbi's very dishy review of some book by a fellow named Friedman, who is apparently a columnist at the New York Times. A favorite passage:

"Friedman is a person who not only speaks in malapropisms, he also hears malapropisms. Told level; heard flat. This is the intellectual version of Far Out Space Nuts, when NASA repairman Bob Denver sets a whole sitcom in motion by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" in a space capsule. And once he hits that button, the rocket takes off.

And boy, does it take off. Predictably, Friedman spends the rest of his huge book piling one insane image on top of the other, so that by the end—and I'm not joking here—we are meant to understand that the flat world is a giant ice-cream sundae that is more beef than sizzle, in which everyone can fit his hose into his fire hydrant, and in which most but not all of us are covered with a mostly good special sauce. Moreover, Friedman's book is the first I have encountered, anywhere, in which the reader needs a calculator to figure the value of the author's metaphors."

But there is a lot more. I have no intention of reading the book in question, but it would seem that there is one.

The counterrevolution will be silkscreened

While I try not to make a habit of reproducing advertisements that amuse me, this one amused me.



If anybody really wants to put the image on a t-shirt, they can. Probably it would go best on this type of t-shirt.

And he's off?

No details yet, but B92 is reporting that ICTY indictee Nebojša Pavković, who said before that he would not go to the Hague alive, has announced his decision to go to the Hague. Alive, most likely.

Update: B92 reports that Mr Pavković feels ready to go on trial since he has prepared a defence. BBC reports that he has decided to face trial because he is, as he says himself, an "honourable soldier who has devoted his life and honour to his country." BBC also reports that cannibal Armin Miewes will have to face trial again.

Imagine all the people

The project Zamisli Srbiju (Imagine Serbia) has set out to encourage young people to take a role in imagining the future of a country in which "there are powerful structures which revolve around big capital, big crime and big politics, for whom the status quo is convenient, and who are very worried that they will one day have to face European standards which could threaten their monopoly positions and profitable activities." They are asking participants in their forum and some public figures to discuss how they imagine Serbia. One answer came from the cultural-political journalist Petar Luković:

"One June morning in 1977 -- I remember for a reason -- I was drinking my first morning coffee, espresso with cold milk, in the garden of the Šumatovac restaurant, I looked into the blue, sunny sky and found myself deciding that I would go to London that afternoon. The Sex Pistols had released the single "God Save the Queen," the Stranglers had just celebrated their debut album, the Clash had a concert then ... a perfectly good reason for me to organise a nice weekend on the Island. I got travellers checks and some pounds at Ljubljanska banka, bought a plane ticket at the main office of JAT, and I brought my red passport in which there was no visa (I remind the younger residents of Serbia that we never needed visas then, the majority of owners of SFRJ passports had no idea what they were for). I told my parents that I was going to England and the only thing they asked me -- I remember -- was when I was coming back.

I pulled this episode out of my memory as the only possible answer to today's science-fictitious question of how I imagine Serbia, if I am able to imagine anything at all. I imagine being free to, if it crosses your mind, go to London or Paris or Amsterdam, being able to afford that from your pay, not having to fuck around standing in line 96 hours in front of every embassy, where you will have to patiently explain to the officials the reason you want to go to London, to prove that you will not liquidate Bosniaks on Trafalgar Square like the Serbian national heroes of the Mladić or Karadžić or colonel Beara type, to promise that you will behave respectably because, you know, England is not Republika Srpska or Kosovo and that on the Island they use freezer trucks to transport ice cream and not corpses."

The essay continues, listing reasons why "Serbian society -- like in a cartoon -- is hurrying backward" and any imaginary rendition seems like, well, imagining.

Tourists not to be subject to forced mobilisation

Since Serbia-Montenegro does not relieve its citizens living in other countries of the obligation of military service, one barrier to young people visiting their families, say, for a summer jaunt, has been the possibility that they will be arrested at the border and forcibly mobilised, which can nearly ruin anybody's vacation. Now the federal defence minister Prvoslav Davinić has agreed that people who can prove that their stay in another country is "justified" will not be kidnapped into servitude between now and 1 October, reports Dnevnik. The next task is to distill this charming practice down into an appealing slogan for tourism.

More on Mittal Steel, Omarska and Ljubija

In February we gave a few details on the plan by Mittal Steel to purchase and refurbish a mass grave site near Prijedor. Recently the magazine BH Dani published an update. However, since Dani keeps its content behind a subscription portal, this has not been available to everyone. Now Domovina.net has made available an English translation (by Maja Lovrenović), together with the photos. Just follow the link and scroll down. Thanks to Justwatch.

For your European reading pleasure

Thanks to Sivola for the link, many of the readers of this site might also be interested in the magazine Café Babel, with a choice of editions in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Catalan. The current issue includes a feature and forum on European Roma. Read and enjoy.

Travel reading

B92 has launched a section of travel essays. The current feature is a fine photo essay on Bangkok, and there is a nice archive developing. Write your own travel essay for the site, and you may be the proud recipient of a book or CD published by B92.

Carnival of the Balkans #3!!

Every time I try to compile the Balkan Carnival, blog.hr goes down! it happened again today, but they seemed to recover fairly quickly. Drax points out that technical reliability is not the service's only problem--they are also worried about acquiring a non-serious image, as blogs are not respected by mainstream media in the Balkans. But we respect one another (yes?), so here is another selection of this month's favorite items from Balkan blogs.

Yakima Gulag realized that it had become a Balkan blog, and explained to readers how and why. At Science and Politics, the variations on identity come together with a religious, political, and scientific reflection on how the heck our kids get so smart. It makes for an interesting reflection on identity and its pleasures and problems, and also at least by implication on ways in which Balkan identity can be chosen.

The issue of identity and its being chosen or rejected came up again in relation to the question of language. Filologanoga offered a linguistic-historical reflection on the new recodification of the Croatian language, contrasting concerns about uniqueness with enthusiasm for creativity and diversity. Meanwhile a completely different take on linguistic diversity is offered by 20-month old David Muir. The final word on the question of identity comes, as it should, from an advertisement by a sweets manufacturer.

Economic conditions remained challenging in the region, as Drax reports that they are threatening even establishments for gambling on sports matches. In Croatia, Seesaw reports that tourists are finding that Serbian agencies offer the best prices for coastal destinations in Croatia. However, there may be an incipient growth market for Bosnian snail farmers.

Not all of the economic and political improvements are moving at a snail's pace, though. Seesaw reports that >Romania and Bulgaria are expected to lead the Balkan charge into the EU. And Serbia-Montenegro was susrprised to get a favorable feasibility study which nobody seems to have got around to translating. The trifecta of developments led to a debate on whether Balkan neighbors are pleased by one anothers' success in dealing with accession to the EU.

While CNN continued a daily osvrt on the scandals of Croatian public life. On scandals elsewhere in the region, Morpheus informs us of the plan for war criminals to be captured by Pierce Brosnan. And East Ethnia followed war-criminal developments on other fronts.

It was a good month for Balkan musicians. The Bosnian supergroup Bijelo Dugme announced reunion plans, a fact which Bosny celebrated with a song translation. And "Crvena jabuka" is now 20 years old. Chuck Berry is older still, but the Partibrejkersi will open for him in Zagreb. In the folk-jazz department, electronic harmonikas Belinda Bedelkovic was featured in an interesting video. In the folk-crime department, Ceca tried to do a foreign tour but was denied visas by Canada and Australia.

The local and global competed in a pro-sljivovica poster provided by Novala, while spring was hailed by dandelion salad recipes from Yakima and from the eastern part of Ethnia. At Gulistan, there was food porn for lovers of squid.

Several Balkan blogs offered new features and changes. "The Glory of Carniola" tried a design change in the spirit of April 1, and then changed the page design anyway, from the touristy to the newspaperish. Kushtrim Xhakli put up a new interactive map of his regular destinations in Prishtine. And quiet for a while, Dvevnik ulice is back. The Burekeaters are also moving to a new home. We hope it will be large enough to hold the creation that breaks the record for the world's largest burek. In the news about bloggers, Mat Savelli is headed to grad school. And Teekay faces the technical and cultural shock of moving from Sarajevo to some distant place. Had he gone to Britain, he may have got some benefit from the advice that was found by URLanje.

A few new blogs made their appearance, including Hamburek and investigative journalism by Zeljko Peratovic. Let's keep seeing more as the blogosfera gets wider and more well rounded.

The carnival is coming

Thanks to all of the people who sent submissions to the Balkan carnival. I am arranging, editing, and compiling, but probably will not have the thing up until tomrrow. Watch this space.

Reminder: Balkan carnival #3 on Monday!

I will be off enjoying life in New York this weekend, but I will leave this post at the top throughout to remind everyone to send me their submissions for the Carnival of the Balkans, the periodic collection of the most informative, telling, amusing or otherwise good Balkan blogging.



If you are from the Balkans, write about the Balkans, have visited the Balkans, or have dodirne tačke of any Balkanic sort, send your submissions to me at eastethnia at gmail dot com, replacing the ats and dots with the appropriate symbols. The carnival will be posted here and at the carnival archive site on 18 April. Take part in the best that Balkan blogging has to offer!

Enjoy the weekend likewise

Okay, we are off to New York, and I expect to be enjoying it far too much to do any posting, so blogging should continue in force on Monday. But I can't leave without posting the Friday Random Ten, that silly blog game in which you open up your mp3 player, set it to "random," and list the first ten songs that come up:

Obojeni Program - Abcd avioni
The Jam - Absolute beginners
Carmen Consoli & Almamegretta - Hard to handle
Üstmamò - Cosa conta
Luna - Friendly advice
Half man half Biscuit - For what Is Chatteris
They Might Be Giants - Sapphire bullets Of love
Zabranjeno Pušenje - Stanje šoka
Groucho Marx - I'm against it
Curtis Mayfield - Move on up

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Update: Heh, I take back that bit about leaving. It seems the Angels of Transport who operate the national rail carrier Amtrak have cancelled all of the Boston-New York trains because of yet another mechanical failure. So I'll drive together with Mrs Ethnia and the Ethniette tonight. DoDo, please come and take over our system!

Vic dana iz Danasa

Razgovaraju dve mame:

- Zamisli, moj sinčić ima samo godinu dana, a već hoda, govori, čak igra rok... A što je pametan - da ti ne pričam!

- A moj je tek napunio pet meseci - a već sve zna o političkoj situaciji u našoj zemlji!

- Šta pričaš! Pa on još ne zna ni da govori!

- Da, ali stalno plače!

Prilog čitateljke Maje Vuković iz Beograda

from Danas, 15 April 2005

East Ethnia makes a political endorsement!

There seems to be a bit of debate as to whether an endorsement of a political candidate by a blog constitutes an in-kind donation (of publicity?) or something of the like. But whatever. Deval Patrick has announced that he intends to be a candidate to unseat the appalling Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts, and I intend to support him enthusiastically. If that is a contribution from me, it came mighty cheap.

On authority and inhibition

There is an interesting little summary in the Chronicle of Higher Education on research by Vilmos Csányi and his associates regarding the cognitive abilities of dogs, and how their relationships with humans influence them.

"... in scientific circles, animal-cognition studies have largely ignored dogs, focusing instead on closer human relatives, like chimpanzees and gorillas. Dogs, as a result, have not been considered very brainy.

[....]

That never sat well with Mr. Csányi who, like many in dog-loving Hungary, had dogs of his own. Dogs, he suspected, were simply more inhibited than their wild cousins, requiring permission from their masters before doing something as rash as opening a gate, which they may have regarded as a violation of their master's rules. So eight years ago, he and his colleagues conducted a problem-solving experiment of their own. With their masters present, 28 dogs of various ages, breeds, and levels of training had to figure out how to pull on handles of plastic dishes to obtain meat on the other side of a wire fence. Regardless of other factors, the dogs with the strongest relationship with their owner scored worst, continually looking to their owners for permission or assistance. The best results came from outdoor dogs, who obtained the food, on average, in one-third the time. Most telling, when owners were allowed to give their dogs permission, the gap between indoor and outdoor dogs vanished."

Also, the article includes some provocative theses on the differences between dogs and wolves, and which is more likely to jump into your lap.

This week's favorite music links

Not that I have music links to share every week! But I have come across these in the past several days.

The Modena City Ramblers: It includes news and photos, and a few songs to share in the "Multimedia" section.

Do jaja: Follow the alphabetical links at the top and find tons of slow-downloading mp3 files, some of them good.

Obojeni program: Everything about the finest Novi Sad band this side of Pekinška patka, including 12 or so music downloads.

Darkwood dub: Strictly for lovers of Flash animation.

Boris Kovač: Do have a look at his "poetical CV."

This week in court

The trial of the people who were involved in the conspiracy to murder prime minister Zoran Djindić started badly, with multiple delays and not all suspects at hand, and continued fitfully, with numerous efforts to intimidate witnesses, court officials and those present. Now it is delayed again, but this did not occur before two important testimonies during the past week. Čedomir Jovanović came to testify about the conspiracy that took off in order to prevent the "Svedok" operation against organised crime, an appearance that ended in an exchange of insults between him and prime indictee Milorad Ulemek, after which Mrs Ulemek whacked him with a handbag. Then Vladimir Popović ("Beba") came to accuse the current government of protecting suspect, letting slip that conspirator Vladimir Milisavljević ("Vlada Budala," or "Vlada the fool," a nickname he is rumoured to have earned because alone among the criminals, he had completed a university degree) was in Vienna and that his location was known to Serbian authorities. Reports today would seem to confirm Mr Popović's claims.

Update: The reports on Vladimir Milisavljević would seem to be contradictory, after all. The embassy of SCG in Vienna confirms Mr Popović's claim that Milisavljević was sighted in Vienna, that this was reported to the embassy, and that the embassy fowarded the information to the Serbian interior ministry and security agency. But the Serbian interior ministry released a statement saying that the Austrian police found the sighting of Milisavljević to be a false alarm. The Austrian interior ministry, meanwhile, has no record of anything related to Milisavljević.