Portraits From Mirjana Markovic's Diary

Markovic wrote about her family (son Marko, daughter Marija, husband Slobodan and her pet grasshoppers, but she focused on Vojislav Seselj.

She first mentioned him on October 9, 1993: ``Last night I saw Vojislav Seselj on TV for the first time. I am appalled by his aggressive behaviour... only because he was debating with my colleague and friend Dragomir Draskovic...'' She discovered that his aggressive behaviour is deeply pathological and that it was caused by a specific physiological or psychological weakness.

The Socialists broke up their alliance with the Radicals at the time and Seselj was no longer the favorite opposition leader. He instead became the fiercest critic of the Serbian President and his wife. She didn't spare him: she wrote that he personifies the extreme pro fascist right.

She wondered how such a fascist-oriented party could even have been registered in this country.

Her last note is the crescendo in the Seselj case: ``He ran away from the Bosnian front, scared of war and sought refuge in Parliament, in TV studios and incited others to a war which he didn't dare join (although the people he calls his own is at war) and threatens another man's wife. Me. He's afraid of men. Maybe he's afraid of a pack of women. So he chose to bully only one...

No, Seselj isn't a Serb. He's a Turk, in the most primitive historic form. Or, maybe, he's just not a man. Although, to be honest, I think he's neither. Neither a Serb nor a man'' (July 23, 1994). Markovic's diary said all that after Seselj appeared on TV Politika, a broadcast that cost Aleksandar Tijanic his Director's job.

Markovic's second most favorite topic is Serb politicans in Bosnia. On January 30, 1993 she said of Radovan Karadzic: ``In one of his many statements, the Bosnian Serb leader, Montenegrin Radovan Karadzic said that the Serbs were subject to ``genocidal extermination'' in the past when everyone was on their side and that now, in the past year, when many are against them, they are suffering less. In the flood of nonsense and lies, this one has no rival.''

She sees Biljana Plavsic as another Mengele: ``I read in the papers that Bosnian Serb Vice-President Biljana Plavsic said that this war was being waged, among other things, to see how much the Serbs can take. The idea about the endurance of the Serbs is not new; it was explained and implemented earlier. The Serbs can take a lot. That was proved by another doctor, known for his evil deeds in the Second World War... But Plavsic, even though she isn't sane, is still a Serb and I can't understand her tendency to waste the Serb people...''

Plavsic was mentioned again on September 11, 1993: ``Plavsic's statement on expelling all Muslims from eastern Bosnia and her readiness to give them part of the former BiH just so she would have no contact with them is pure nazism.''

Milan Panic wasn't spared either.

When he arrived in Yugoslavia before the 1993 elections, Panic earned a place in the diary on December 2: ``Panic arrived in Serbia and is taking part in pre-election activities. Two things aren't clear: first, why he is back and second, why he is taking part in the campaign. That is, I don't know if someone sent him here, but I'll bet someone invited him here. Possibly someone sent him to lend support to the opposition...''

She passed judgement on Vuk Draskovic's manliness. When he said it was time for a manly step in an interview to NIN weekly, Markovic said he wasn't the man (April 24, 1993). Just prior to the December 1993 elections Draskovic was in the diary again, this time anonymously: ``It's not by accident that some parties, or at least their leaders, are promising to lift the sanctions against Serbia if they win. Who have they made a deal with and on what conditions? Probably with the people responsible for the sanctions. And they were imposed, among other things, because of local resistance to making certain concessions.''

Draskovic's wife Danica was also suspicious because of her humanitarian activities. On December 15, 1993 she wrote: ``I don't know what's in the minds of the people who sent that aid, nor the ones who are passing it out, nor the ones who are taking it. But I do know that all together it is a form of humiliation that everyone involved in this ``humanitarian'' activity is subject to...''

Even though Belgrade Mayor Slobodanka Gruden never explained why she left the job, informed sources say Markovic deserves the credit because Gruden dared respond to her diary in public.

Gruden was included in the diary on April 10, 1993. ``Last night there was a party in the city hall on world theater day... I'm not in favor of a party just 300 meters from that long, patient, all-night queue in front of the Dafiment bank. That party in the city hall and that queue don't go together. Not on the same night.''

The second time was when the city transport service collapsed: ``A lot of things can be solved independently of the sanctions... They could if the mayor found the time to tackle those trivialities. And if she even deigned to tackle those trivialities. If she continues dealing with the Vance-Owen plan, the international situation and other world and Yugoslav issues, I don't see who's going to take care of the trams, lights, supermarkets, schools, markets.'' (July 2, 1993)

The diary passed judgement on Federal President Dobrica Cosic even before he was ousted: ``The attacks on Cosic by the extreme right for betraying the Serb people. If the people who attacked him used just half their time to read about the Serb people they could talk about his contributions to the interests of the Serbs. Perhaps Cosic wasn't born to be a politician, but he was born to be a writer. For one man that is a lot, for the nation he belongs to that is also a lot'' (May 22, 1993).

When Markovic criticized Information Minister Milivoje Pavlovic, he was considered politically dead.

On February 19, 1994, Markovic wrote about the Dictionary of Misconceptions, a book published by the information ministry:

``When I opened it at random I found a truthless and ugly article on page 65 which is completely counterproductive for Serbia. It does not only occupy itself with denying misconceptions and lies, but presents a lie that needs to be denied...''

Pavlovic ended up in Radio Belgrade instead of in an ambassadorial post.