BELGRADE, MAY-JUNE 1995
How are people bearing up in what remains of Yugoslavia under international sanctions? How do they view American policies and visitors in Belgrade? Will it be dangerous to visit Belgrade and the rest of Serbia? These were among the questions I speculated about while approaching Belgrade by train from Budapest in May 1995, Most direct air links with Belgrade had been severed as a result of internationally applied sanctions making the Serbian capital somewhat difficult of access. I was traveling to Belgrade by train from Budapest, Hungary with an undergraduate student who had prepared himself by studying the Serbian language under my direction. My purpose was to conduct research in Belgrade libraries and archives on the retrial of the "Black Hand" there in 1953. Other aims were to arrange for publication in Serbia of two books and to deliver a lecture in Serbian at the Academy of Sciences about an earlier boycott against Serbia, 1903-1906.
We were met at Belgrade's picturesque old railway station by my friend, Ljubomir Lazovic, Belgrade native and a medical student, and his friend. We drove to an apartment in Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) where we spent the next three weeks. Belgrade appeared little changed since my last visit there in 1991 before the war in Bosnia. There were few overt signs of the effects of the sanctions, but we were struck by the containers of gasoline being hawked openly at most street comers and by the hundreds of people selling American cigarettes throughout the city. Such sales were illegal, but no one seemed to bother the sellers. The flow of street traffic also appeared quite normal, and the stores seemed as full of goods of all types as before. There were no real shortages of anything in the city except gasoline, and that could be purchased on all sides. So much for a very porous blockade!
Next day - Sunday - I met at a cafe with Rade, an old friend. Formerly a leader of an opposition political party, Rade appeared very disillusioned and wholly discouraged with politics. He stated that after the recent dissolution of a political coalition seeking to unseat Serbia's Socialist (formerly Communist) President, Slobodan Milosevic, he had withdrawn completely from political activity. He saw no prospect then of achieving that objective and affirmed that Serbian opposition parties had been thoroughly infiltrated by the Communist-dominated secret police which had undermined a promising political coalition. Truncated Yugoslavia, composed only of Serbia and Montenegro, noted Rade, still retained virtually its entire Communist power apparatus. Elsewhere in eastern Europe, on the other hand, that apparatus had been destroyed when the Communists had lost power between 1989 and 1991. However, Rade considered the economic situation in Serbia considerably improved compared with the period of rampant and unchecked inflation in 1993, apparently the worst case in European history. (In Belgrade I was given - not sold - a 500,000,000,000 dinar note from that year.) At the end of 1993, receiving his monthly salary as a university professor, Rade with it could purchase only one pack of American cigarettes! He soon decided to go to a village where he had friends to wait out the inflationary holocaust. Early in 1994 an economics professor, appointed finance minister, introduced a new dinar pegged to the German Mark. Since then it had remained quite stable, although the new dinar in 1995 was no longer worth as much as the official exchange rate suggested. Because of the international sanction neither travellers' cheques nor credit cards were accepted in Belgrade, although foreign currencies could readily be exchanged for dinars.
Another old friend, Vasilije, also a university professor and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, was likewise pessimistic about the political situation in Yugoslavia and about its future. He saw Serbia under President Milosevic sinking back rapidly into dictatorship as the former rather extensive freedom of the media and political activity disappeared. Milosevic, he affirmed, then occupied a virtually unassailable position and seemed mainly concerned with holding onto his great personal power even if that meant abandoning temporarily his professed goal of a Greater Serbia.
A well-informed non-academic friend, recently retired with his wife from state service, was also pessimistic about Serbia's political and economic prospects and had become rather disillusioned about the Serbian character and behavior. He did not view Milosevic's concept of a Greater Serbia, apparently including parts of Croatia and Bosnia- Hercegovina, as a viable solution to the current chaos. Serbs of Serbia proper and Montenegro and those in areas north of the Sava and Danube rivers, he argued, were too different in outlook and culture to live harmoniously together. This was even truer of the Croats, Slovenes, and Bosnian Muslims, formerly members of the Yugoslav federation. He was now working privately in order to supplement his and his wife's miserably small pensions. His wife confided that her state pension was only sufficient to provide their teenage daughter with a little pocket money. The average wage in Serbia, he affirmed, was about $150 per month, but whereas lodging cost less than in the United States, food prices in Belgrade were roughly equal to ours.
As non-smokers, my student and I soon discovered that smoking remains a pervasive national disease in Yugoslavia. Nearly all young people, men and women, as well as older people, smoke a variety of American cigarettes, virtually everywhere. A few places are smoke-free: buses, theaters, and a few other public places. Even most doctors and medical students, including our Belgrade host, smoke heavily. Most younger Serbs appear to believe that smoking is an indispensable badge of manhood or womanhood. Our host was surprised that my student resisted his offers of cigarettes. Most Belgraders show very little consideration for the rights of nonsmokers, rights that are rarely respected.
In Belgrade people were going about their daily affairs seemingly unconcerned about the grave situation in neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina whose three chief elements - Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Croats - were embroiled in bitter and bloody conflict. Nor did they seem to accept any responsibility for the blatant ethnic cleansing that their compatriots across the Bosnian frontier had carried out there. Major Belgrade newspapers, such as Politika and Nasa Borba (Our Struggle) had written extensively about this imbroglio. By May 1995 they were no longer resorting to extremism or scare tactics. Moderation in tone and content, dictated from above by President Milosevic, now seemed to be the rule. Belgrade taxi drivers expressed to me very vocally their anger over the remaining sanctions as representing unfair persecution, even genocide. They asserted that the United States had been responsible for imposing them.
The international sanctions, despite their general ineffectiveness, have impacted children and pensioners most severely while leaving those in the power apparatus - their supposed targets - unscathed. Serbs generally still appeared to suffer from a severe persecution complex, believing that they were not to blame for the Bosnian conflict. In Belgrade books and magazines had appeared accusing the Croats of mass atrocities against Serbs, especially during the recent (June 1995) conquest of the Serbian enclave in western Slavonia. Many Serbs blamed outside powers, especially Germany and the United States, for having provoked the sudden breakup of the Yugoslav federation in 1991 by their overhasty and ill-advised recognition of parts of the former federation - Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Macedonia - as independent countries, triggering fear among Serbs especially in Croatia and Bosnia that they would be persecuted as has occurred during World War II when hundreds of thousands were massacred. The Serbs seemingly have forgotten none of their bloody thousand-year history.
BELGRADE AND ZAJECAR, OCTOBER 1995
In mid-October 1995 I returned to Belgrade to participate in the scholarly conference held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Serbian politician and statesman, Nikola P. Pasic - born on December 19, 1845 in Zajecar. The conference met in Belgrade, then Zajecar October 16-19th. Arriving in Belgrade from Budapest by train late on Sunday October 15th, I shared a compartment with two nice young Serbian ladies. The mother of one of them kindly drove me to the Lazovic's apartment in New Belgrade. Seeking out a young friend, Milan Ristic, I was soon surrounded by his classmates and older schoolmates who bombarded me with questions in Serbian and English about possible peace in Bosnia, American policy and education in the United States. All of them were very friendly and courteous. While we were absorbed in eager discussion, the lights went out in most of the buildings of the apartment complex. At 6:15 next morning I went for a short run with young Milan and a small black dog.
At 7:15 AM that morning Mrs. Lazovic and I proceeded to the bus stop where a large crowd of prospective passengers had gathered. During my May visit there had been relatively few waiting passengers and buses had been frequent. Now when the double bus arrived, we barely managed to squeeze in the rear door. The bus remained terribly overcrowded until we were half-way to Zeleni Venac in downtown Belgrade when enough people had gotten off to make the rest of the ride tolerable. Buses - at least in New Belgrade - were infrequent and overcrowded, apparently from insufficient and highly priced gasoline. Since May prices for Serbs had risen considerably and the value of the dinar on the free market had fallen to about 3.5 dinars to the dollar. Living standards and production had declined further. Western sanctions clearly held Yugoslavia in an iron grip, crippling its economy and fostering high unemployment. That combined with the disaster that had overtaken the Serbs in Krajina region of Croatia made Serbs in Belgrade discouraged or even desperate.
Thus the conference to commemorate Nikola Pasic, one of the chief figures in the unification of Yugoslavia in 1918, served the purpose of promoting patriotism and unity among Serbs. As the first conference devoted to Pasic held in Serbia, it represented also atonement for the negative and condemnatory approach towards Pasic and the Karadjordjevic dynasty prevalent during the Tito era. That view had been reflected especially in the 1953 retrial in Belgrade of the leaders of the "Black Hand" (Unification or Death!). The exoneration of Colonel Dimitrijevic-Apis and his chief colleagues in June 1953 constituted one of many blows struck by the Tito regime against the royal Yugoslav regime in an effort to discredit it and build legitimacy for a Communist regime that had seized power in 1945.
Pressed for interviews by Belgrade TV and the newspaper, Nasa Borba, I could attend only portions of the brief initial session of the conference held in the formal hall of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. Afterwards I accompanied the other participants to a cocktail reception in the Club of the Academy hosted by Academician Vasilije Krestic, director of the conference's organizing committee, who had opened the initial session.
The second session of the conference convened at 4 PM that afternoon featuring the life and work of Pasic before 1917. As the sole participant from the United States, I read or summarized in Serbian portions of a paper on "Nikola Pasic, the 'Black Hand,' and the Salonika Trial of 1917." The only other foreign participants were Sofija Skoric, a librarian from Toronto, Canada, and two talented young Russian doctoral candidates from Moscow. Each session had a different chairman - all were Serbian academicians except for me.
We foreigners and some Serbs from out of town were quartered at the comfortable Palace Hotel, a five-minute walk from the Serbian Academy. Our expenses for lodging and food were covered by the Academy which supplied a small sum to cover incidental expenses in Belgrade. After the afternoon session of October 16th a formal supper hosted by Academician Krestic was held at the Palace - the usual, traditional six course meal with much to eat and drink. Attending most of the lengthy third and fourth conference sessions on October l7th, I found some of the papers very hard to understand since they were read rapidly and indistinctly. Different was the presentation of Dr. Latinka Perovic whose every word was clear, and that of Milan St. Protic, direct descendant of Pasic's authoritarian colleague, Stojan Protic who spoke without notes because of eye trouble.
ZAJECAR, OCTOBER 18-20
About 8:30 AM on October 18th many conference participants gathered in the Palace Hotel's lobby, then marched together to nearby Kalemegdan park where a bus from Zajecar, Pasic's birthplace in eastern Serbia, awaited us. We arrived about noon at the Felix Romuliana complex of Roman ruins about seven miles west of Zajecar. These were the excavated ruins of a splendid imperial palace where Caius Valerius Maxmianus, co-ruler with Emperor Diocletian (293-305 AD) was born and buried. We toured these remarkable symbols of Roman grandeur with Academician Dragoslav Sredojevic director of the excavation project. Afterwards came another formal dinner.
Upon arrival in Zajecar, a city of about 70,000 persons in eastern Serbia, we occupied rooms in the Hotel Srbija, allegedly a first category hotel. It looked fine from the outside, but the interior was dingy and rundown. The only elevator rarely worked, and the beds were rock hard. Breakfasts were barely tolerable with stale rolls, and the service was poor. Hotel Srbija represented an unfortunate holdover from the preceding Communist era.
Early that evening we walked to the nearby building of the Yugoslav army which, however, appeared very peaceful. There Professor Rados Ljusic of Belgrade University opened an exhibition of pictures and materials about Nikola Pasic featuring many documents drawn from various Belgrade archives. Visnja Vukotic, a journalist from the Belgrade daily, Politika-Ekspres, then asked to interview me. "You have devoted many pages to the leader of the 'May Coup' of 1903, Colonel Dimitrijevic-Apis," she began. "Why is he such an attractive subject for you?" I explained that Apis, a fascinating personality, had played a major role in Serbia from that coup until late in World War I:
Apis' role was not wholly positive. He was an ardent nationalist and his aim to unify Serbs can be interpreted as a patriotic act. What is problematic is that as an officer he became involved in politics which was not beneficial either for the army or for the country.
Vukotic inquired whether anyone currently was playing an Apis-like role. I mentioned Russia's General Alexander M. Lebed. "It is not unrealistic to anticipate that he might become Russia's president. Unlike Apis, that could be positive because Lebed seems rather moderate and Russians believe they need a strong leader."
The interview then sought my view of Nikola Pasic. I responded:
I consider that he was the greatest Serbian politician and a great diplomat. Thanks to him Serbia obtained the support of Russia at critical moments. He was a very pragmatic politician who until almost the end of World War I favored creating a Greater Serbia, then somewhat reluctantly supported a Yugoslavia.
Vukotic noted that many now considered royal Yugoslavia to have been a mistake. "Do you think so too?"
Yes, the mistake lay in the fact that the Serbs failed to grant enough rights to Croats, Slovenes, and others. A better solution would have been a federation desired by the Yugoslav Committee in London.... That desire of Pasic to create a Greater Serbia remained unachieved but was not unrealistic. That possibility arose again recently only to be prevented partly by the NATO bombardment of the Bosnian Serbs.
The journalist queried what had caused the history of Serbia to have been based upon constant shocks. I responded:
The first cause is its geographical position where three continents meet. A rather large role in this also is the mentality and character of the Serbs. They are a fighting people who cannot stand to remain under anyone's domination. Thus the Serbs were the first Balkan people to rise against the Turks.
"Throughout history relations between the United States and Serbia were always good," commented the reporter. "How do you explain America's present [hostile] behavior toward the Serbs?" I replied:
The present American political leaders regard the Serbs as responsible for the war in Bosnia and wish to restrain Serbia. However, now in Washington they hope that [Serbian President Slobodan] Milosevic has changed his policy and favors a peaceful solution to the crisis in former Yugoslavia, so one should anticipate that these relations will become normal.
I then compared President Milosevic with Nikola Pasic as a pragmatic politician and statesman.
After the ceremony opening the Pasic exhibit a large formal supper was held at the Yugoslav Army building. The Pasic exhibit and conference was a major event for little Zajecar. It contains a pleasant three-lined center, but its outskirts appear rather primitive.
The following morning - Thursday October 19th - was held the first of two conference sessions in the auditorium of the town hall. It was packed with spectators including some high school students. Because Academician Vladimir Stojancevic of Belgrade had to be absent, Professor Krestic asked me as a member of the Serbian Academy to preside over the morning session. Given no information about the participants, I introduced them briefly and kept the session on time by reminding them if they exceed their allotted time, to Kretic's considerable amusement. Knowing the Russian Andrei Shemiakin from his student days in Belgrade, I could give him a proper introduction.
After that morning session, Sofija Skoric of Toronto "kidnapped" me to accompany her and a Serbian couple for a drive to the city of Knjazevac, some twenty-five miles from Zajecar. There we visited a small museum in the home of Aca Stanojevic (1855-1948), godfather and close friend of Pasic We were taken on a personal tour of this attractive nineteenth century Serbian residence, then were served coffee and cognac. We hurried back to Zajecar. arriving at a restaurant just before the formal dinner ended. At 3:50 PM we were served the complete dinner, and our pictures were taken for a Zajecar album about the Pasic conference. I also gave a complete interview for a local Zajecar weekly.
That evening, following the second formal session, another full supper was held at the restaurant bar, "September 7th," featuring beer named after Nikola Pasic Soon with tongues loosened by generous ministrations of slivovica ((plum brandy), cognac, and Pasic beer, a woman journalist-participant from the recently conquered Krajina asserted belligerently that President Clinton was a Fascist responsible for committing genocide against the Serbs, that the United States was an imperialist power seeking world hegemony. Rejecting her assertions of Fascism and genocide, I inquired somewhat facetiously whether she was familiar with V.I. Lenin's pamphlet: "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" (1916). She denied having read it, but I concluded that she knew this work, which became the official Soviet explanation for the evils of Western imperialism, by heart! Sitting next to me, Professor Krestic, my personal friend of many years, rather angrily echoed her assertions of genocide against the Bosnian Serbs by American airplanes under NATO command, adding that the United States had acted consistently in an anti-Serbian manner. Denying this, I countered that many Serbs appeared to suffer from a persecution complex, believing that everyone was against them. Recently, I contended, Presidents Clinton and Milosevic had played a mediating role in the Bosnian conflict and were seeking peace. Later, when toasts were being given, I rose to admit that the United States and Clinton had committed mistakes early in the Bosnian conflict, chiefly of omission, but had never been guilty of genocide. Then I offered a toast to peace in Bosnia-Hercegovina. This seemed to break the tension with Professor Krestic, but not with the female journalist whom I called a fanatic in the worst traditions of the "Cold War." While those present mostly considered me a friend of the Serbs, that warmth did not extend to President Clinton or American policy generally.
On the morning of October 20th our bus departed for a winery outside Rajac village. The almost two hour ride over narrow, hilly roads seemed interminable. At one point a bus had gone off the road and was mired in mud. The director of a Zajecar archive who was leading our tour suggested facetiously that I as the lone American could push it out of our way! However, with difficulty our bus managed to get around that obstacle and reach the winery. We walked up a steep hill to the winery (pivnica) passing a large complex of squat stone buildings. Every homestead in Rajac village had a facility there for preparing and storing wine. The building I toured boasted two containers holding 1,000 gallons of wine each. After touring the complex, we were served another complete six course meal with marvelous white wine; each participant received a large container of wine. After the dinner I failed to recall clearly how I had reached the bus or the bus ride back to Belgrade. All in all it was a fascinating excursion, and I felt fortunate to have gained only eight pounds in seven days of dining and wining in Serbia.