Shut Up And Bow!

When Zoran Sokolovic, the current Serbian Minister of the Interior, ceremoniously opened the refurbished National Theater in Belgrade recently, his employees and everybody else knew that the ceremony had nothing to do with the above mentioned gentlemen's cultural affinities. That is why they would have beaten up Mme. Nada Bulatovic even if they had known that she was an actress and the recipient of the prestigious theatrical Sterija Award, just as they wouldn't have hesitated to beat up anyone they didn't consider particularly attractive at that particular moment. Simply put, open season on citizens has been declared, and they are now game for whoever gets them first--criminals, the police, shop managers, municipal bus drivers...

In just one day the media reported that one citizen waiting in a queue at the post office had shot another citizen who was also in the queue; that two persons suspected of stealing 3.7 million Deutsche Marks from the ``Jugoskandik Bank'' were members of the Serbian Police; that the policemen who had beaten up Nada Bulatovic had been suspended; that a sack containing pensions totalling 15 million dinars had vanished in front of the Post Office in Valjevo; that two policemen had beaten up a Belgrade railway station employee after he refused to open up the waiting room for them ``which they wanted to enter with a woman,'' since under the station's rules, the waiting room is always closed from midnight to 5 a.m.; and finally, that Minister without Portfolio in the Serbian Government Mihalj Kertes's cabinet chief had been arrested.

These days the public `scare-board' shows high marks for: stories on the subject of organized crime, terrorism and ``death squads,'' while arms trafficking, various forms of racket, the activities of war profiteers, i.e. certain paramilitary organizations belonging to ``certain'' political parties, are old stories.

The murder of Belgrade's well-known underworld names has never been solved, just like the latest murders of two successful businessmen. Whose job is it to shed some light on these murders, to catch the perpetrators, and arrest them? This is the job of the police. Why haven't the police done anything? Because there are not enough policemen in Serbia? Because they are not well equipped? Because they are not trained to do their job? Because they don't wish to catch the perpetrators? If, God forbid, they don't wish to catch the perpetrators, then why don't they wish to do so? Because they have been told not to stick their noses in a hornets' nest, or because they know that they shouldn't do so?

The two members of the Serbian police who took part in the ``Jugoskandik Bank'' robbery are still at large.

Those who do not have access to such exotic sums of money, do the best they can with small-time money and deal with foreign currency in the streets, and if necessary, they first arrest and beat up a few ``real'' dealers--such are the times. The definition of police duties is based: ``on competencies contained in the Law on Internal Affairs, the service carries out the following tasks: the protection of the life and personal security of persons; the prevention and uncovering of criminal acts; the discovery and capture of perpetrators of criminal acts and their handing over to competent organs; the maintenance of public peace and order...''

The authorities and the police seem to have extended this list to include: the beating up of unarmed opposition leaders, the beating up of participants in demonstrations and casual passersby and their murder (Branislav Milinovic, March 9, 1991), hitting respectable citizens who had the misfortune to find themselves in front of Television House at the time, and the beating up of ordinary citizens whose only sin is that they weren't attractive to the police.

The explanations given are as arrogant as the crimes. When it was determined a few weeks ago that two policemen had taken part in a fight and that they had killed a man, the statement issued after the event said that they had not been on duty at the time. If someone were to ask Minister Sokolovic if he was a minister when he was at home, or if Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan was an Assembly deputy when he was leading his ``Tigers'' against the UN ``blue helmets'' on Batina Bridge--both would probably give affirmative answers.

These two, along with Radmilo Bogdanovic, a powerful policeman who officially isn't all-powerful, are the only ones the citizens can turn to in their growing fear of the police. Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan said a few days ago that Belgrade, in spite of a series of murders, was a relatively peaceful city, and that the police were doing all they could. Bogdanovic said on the independent TV station Studio B, that police efficiency depended on the cooperation of the citizens, while Zoran Sokolovic said in the Assembly that there was no proof of police abuse. Realizing perhaps, that beating up Nada Bulatovic was going a bit too far, and that a lot of unwanted political fuss was being kicked up, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic said that those ensuring our ``peaceful sleep'' should not be vilified because of two rotten apples.

So far all this has concerned public security. State security is another matter, so that its violations and abuse are less known. For the moment it will suffice to cite Minister Mihalj Kertes speaking in the Serbian Assembly, when he defined the Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (DZVM) led by Andras Agoston, as a nationalist-fascist-chauvinist party (dumping it in the same lot with Seselj's Serbian Radical Party), and, as he admitted, he had tapped the phones of Agoston and other Hungarian minority representatives for six and a half months.

Briefly, there is a word in the Serbian language which describes what the Turks did during their 500 years-long occupation of this part of the Balkans, and this same word can be used to describe the behavior of the current authorities. Zulum or evil doing, violence, reign of terror, oppression... No single authority in this territory, with the exception of the Turks, has done its best to convince the people that they exist only in order to bow to the authorities. The police sum up the attitude of the current authorities. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's brainchild has been given a Police Academy, modern weapons and a free hand in beating up elderly women queuing for flour. The credo of all authoritarian regimes is to dominate through fear. Apart from inflexibility in international relations and the forceful putting down of political disagreement at home, drastic examples of abuse against ones own citizens are coming to light--so don't complain while queuing for flour.

The arrogance of the authorities can be seen in the fact that the two policemen were suspended, and that the statement mentions ``eventual criminal proceedings.'' Of course, this had to be done, but as a beginning it wasn't nearly enough. A minimum would have been Sokolovic's resignation, forced if need be, because the rules of decent behavior require that the man in charge of a service responsible for such acts--resigns. This naturally wouldn't change much, because Radmilo Bogdanovic was also forced to resign, but his influence remained unaffected. The citizens' safety and elementary dignity, their physical integrity, and right to life will return when deeper changes have been made, changes reaching to the very roots of this authority.