Where is Mira Markovic

The withdrawal of Mira Markovic from the public scene was quiet but fundamental from mid-February this year when the last of her Diary column was published in Belgrade fortnightly Duga. At the same time, she left the Belgrade University Council at her own request and stopped showing up at party promotions across Serbia. She hasn’t been seen at the university school of Geography for a long time and her sociology teaching job has been taken over by an assistant professor. A group of students called for her dismissal from the teaching staff but that demand was ignored by the university authorities.

There are three theories about her withdrawal in Belgrade, all three from people who believe themselves well versed in the secrets of Serbia’s ruling family. It’s interesting that all three are not mutually exclusive. The first, conditionally termed psychological, says Markovic’s fragile mental system couldn’t stand the situation in Serbia after the vote-rigging in November especially since many protesters named her as the person responsible along with her husband. She saw the protesting people as heirs to the fascists who shot her mother in 1944 and are now preparing to come for her. Vuk Draskovic’s threats that all the JUL leaders would be arrested once he comes to power must have fanned those fears.

"She believes Belgrade has turned into a truly dangerous place and it’s not safe to go out onto the streets," one of her close associates said. "She admires everyone who moves around town freely," That theory was lent support by her February 1 column titled Cynical Inversion: "Why must someone be arrested and shot in my family every 50 years," she asked and concluded the column saying that the persecuted "always have the forests and hills they hid in from the Turks and fascists". In The February 15 issue of Duga, the last one she contributed to, Markovic voiced fears for the new born babies which could have "permanent, severe consequences" from the noise made by demonstrators. She also wondered who the insensitive "ideologists of violence" against babies are. "It’s clear that this fear for someone else’s children is a typical example of projecting your fears outside yourself," a prominent psychiatrist told VREME. "She obviously sees herself subconsciously as a baby, helpless and in mortal danger." The psychiatrist added that Markovic was a baby in mortal danger while her mother was hiding from the Gestapo.

Sources close to the Milosevic-Markovic family said she was greatly disturbed by the killing of Vladan Kovacevic Tref, her son’s main sponsor. That killing coincided with the "terrorist" activities of the opposition. Kovacevic, owner of the car club that Marko Milosevic joined as a racing driver, and owner of the Interspid company where Marko was a director, was killed on February 20 in front of his office and his killers still haven’t been found. Although the general feeling is that the killing was not politically motivated (Kovacevic was allegedly heavily involved in cigarette and stolen car smuggling), Marko’s mother saw it as the fall of the last wall of security that separates her family from the hostile world. "She was always especially sensitive to Marko’s safety," a VREME source said and added that when Marko had a traffic accident a few years ago she described it as a conspiracy of the ice against her son.

The second theory, closer to the male side of the family, says Markovic withdrawal was primarily motivated by politics. "The boss decided that it’s time to cut JUL down to size after assessments that it was doing more damage than good," the source said. He recalled that JUL got just two posts in the new federal government and that none of the fur deputy prime ministers are JUL members although the initial agreement was that two of them would be. That theory gains credibility in the light of the fact that along with JUL’s withdrawal, Milorad Vucelic is coming back into play as Milosevic’s confidante after a break of over two years. That experienced political operative and one-time second in command in the SPS never hid his intolerance of JUL which he saw as "a parasite on the SPS".

Milosevic really did not need political marketing experts to realize that his wife is probably the most unpopular woman in Serbia; all he had to do was take a look at TV reports from the protests. "He didn’t allow anyone around him to criticize Mira for a long time. He still won’t allow it but it’s obvious that he’s accepted some things," the source said but added that this is not irreversible.

The third theory says simply that Markovic has been working intensely on setting up a new magazine (it was initially meant to be called Focus but she later decided that the name wasn’t ideologically specific enough). That magazine’s staff will include the most prominent leftist writers in Serbia. Croatian journalist Mila Stula, who fled to Serbia from Zagreb just before the war and who Vucelic fired from the Serbian state TV, was planned to be the editor in chief. It turned out that not even the powerful JUL has enough money for the project and she and her staff decided to reduce the budget drastically and the ruling family’s court photographer Vican Vicanovic was appointed editor in chief of the fortnightly.

We’ll see how the magazine works but we can conclude even now that Markovic’s column in the new magazine won’t have nearly as much influence as her column in the popular Duga magazine. In Duga she could allow herself the intentionally created pretense of appearing as a private citizen who is simply "voicing her personal beliefs". That pretense proved to be a powerful weapon in her duels with real or imagined enemies. A party magazine like the one she’s planning to set up won’t allow her that freedom and her voice, as just part of the leftist choir, will remain captured in the ghetto reserved for publications of that kind.

If Markovic’s withdrawal from the public political scene proves permanent, many of Milosevic’s opponents will have lost their prime target and the single figure that can cause an instant and deep negative emotional reaction. "We should enter society with a bang, like a cannonball, or creep in silently as the plague," Balzac wrote once. Markovic chose the second option for both her entrance and exit.