The High Style Hearth

Why is it that the villa in Tolstojeva street 33 (326,36 square metres plus 16,88 square metres of garage space, which the president is buying out, may turn out to be more detrimental to his career than all the dead and the injured?

Before the war , Dedinje was not an elitist area of political functionaries. Instead, it used to be the cottage area of affluent Belgraders whose homes were in the centre of the city. So, the Dedinje villas built before the Second World War were in effect, summer houses and were representative of the way of life in "old Belgrade".

After the war, of course, everything changed. Marshal Tito moved in the villa in Uzicka 15. Villas were taken from their previous owners-some were seized, some simply occupied. First Tito's close associates were accommodated. Then his associates were given new villas, while the ones in Uzicka street have become the Republic villas-each republic and autonomous region and the Federal Executive Council had their own villa so that the functionaries had somewhere to rest after a hard day in Parliament. Thus the villa which our President is buying out with the instalments of 15.977,30 dinars a month, a man who was in the past said to have no designs on Dedinje (he used to live in Save Kovacevica street, in the centre of the city), who came to power after the "antibureaucratic revolution"-against the rule which also owned or used the villas in Dedinje.

The villa in Tolstojeva 33 was built at the beginning of the seventies, for a functionary from Vojvodina, Jovan Veselinov. Veselinov until then lived in Uzicka street, in the villa which used to serve as the residence of the Chinese ambassador. However, that house became too big for Veselinov, so a smaller one was built for him in Tolstojeva. It would be interesting to note that the building site was provided by the city of Belgrade whereas Vojvodina paid for the construction of the house. Nobody, however, knows whether the villa is the property of Vojvodina, or is it a property of the city. Vojvodina, in turn, got the villa in Uzicka. When Jovan Veselinov died, his son continued to live in the villa. From that time until Milosevic moved in, the villa was significantly extended, one floor was rumoured to have been rented to foreigners (for a sum of 1000 to 2000 American dollars a month), that it used to serve as one of the main casinos...

The house looks somewhat different since the President moved in. Before it had a gate made of metal bars painted green which served more as a decoration than as the security device, with a nicely cut hedge. Now it has a high wall on one side and a heavy metal board on the other. And many policemen.

It would be interesting to note that the first street below the Tolstojeva street is full of old, derelict houses with run down facades.

Uzicka street presently has around ten vacant villas which are regularly heated and cleaned. They even have a superintendent. Here in Uzicka 38 stands a huge villa of the city of Belgrade. The Macedonian villa is just across the street, which Kiro Gligorov ( the Maceonian President ) visits occasionally. When will a Slovene enter its villa again? The Montenegrin villa is just across the street. Its garage has been empty for some time. There is also a Kosovo villa-directly opposite Uzicka 15. A Croatian villa is also in the vicinity. Stipe Mesic used to drop in until recently, but it has been empty now for some time. Some are now posing the following question: "Why don't they let the refugees in, who are now being cramped in flats, with 15 of them living together? These villas could easily be adapted to fit their needs, with the space being big enough to accommodate them all. The same goes for the three- storey, vacant Vojvodina villa in Tolstojeva street, right across the one belonging to the President. The refugees could eat at the famous MPs Club in Tolstojeva, which was built over a 20 years ago, where one could dine at a low price. The new elite, that is the ones who have rejected communism do it even today. If the ones who made them refugees can do it, why can't they?