The Milosevic

Reports that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milo я sevi л c will be placed under round-the-clock police surveillance, that the president of the country will discuss his further fate with Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal on War Crimes, only confirms the wisdom that nothing lasts forever. The stars, political ones included, appear the same as they burn out, nationwide support multiplied by fear turns into apathy at best, and absolutely different personalities take over the roles of key players. Milosevic‘s career had to end sooner or later, and in some years the Serbs will hardly recall him as a hero of resistance to NATO expansion and struggle to retain Kosovo.

Milosevic‘s career is a glaring example of how an individual, having become a hostage of play of big interests, can be used up by them despite all the seeming strength of his position. If one avoids making a judgment on whether this precise individual was entirely negative or not, one can still recall that some years ago Milosevic was mentioned as the key figure in reaching peace in the Balkans, a participant in the Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia, and great men shook hands with him. Nobody would have called him a war criminal then, six years ago, for he was in his place, performing a useful service for “the world community,” doing what nobody else could do. In principle, nobody ever canceled the diplomatic double standard, although, of course, the Yugoslav president did not entirely believe it. And few believed that to remove him a military campaign would actually be held. This led to some perhaps unwanted consequences for Washington, for in spite of all the assurances that ammunition with the depleted uranium are harmless to military personnel that used them, the confidence between the United States and their European allies is already far from complete.

It may well be that the fate of former Yugoslav president has many instructive moments. Some may conclude that this is a fine thing. This way the country is reduced to a common denominator with others and reminds others that nothing lasts forever, especially dictatorship. Other can argue that Milo я sevi л c is by no means the last and that consequently we can expect developments in other directions. Taking into consideration in particular the fact that the Western press today is quite unfriendly toward the CIS states. All this is not indisputable; there is an obvious air of truth in it.