The Final Peace

The over-politicized funeral of Sima Drljaca had a distinct purpose, to demonstrate to the Serbian patriots that "the brutes have killed the man", that is, to show that the great son of the Serbian people was murdered by the hand of the occupier. According to some interpretations coming from the circles close to the top in Pale, the green light for the murder of Sima Drljaca was given by the RS's president herself. "The big fighter for the Serbian cause" was murdered although the Serbs themselves say that he had several hundred Moslems on his conscience. The reactions of the citizens to the murder of Sima Drljaca vary from indifference to serious condemnation. To illustrate the point an air show was organized in Prijedor just after the murder with a great number of foreign competitors participating. However, the SFOR's press conference about the events in Prijedor, which was to be held in the hotel Bosna in Banjaluka was canceled due to anonymous threats that the hotel would be bombed.

The sharp protest coming from RS President Biljana Plavsic and addressed to the SFOR's Command of the Southwest Sector was almost insignificantly notified to the public. At the same time, in the first lines of those "mourning" at the funeral were Momcilo Krajisnik, the president of the actually dismissed Parliament Dragan Kalinic, and the police mates from all over RS. By carrying the posters of Radovan Karadzic and banners with the slogan "Your Conscious May Awaken One Day," thousands of citizens of RS took the side of SDS and the top from Pale in condemnation of the murder of Sima Drljaca, considering it to be the direct attack on the Serbian people. The eye-catcher is the alleged decision of the family of the deceased to bury him in Banjaluka, although he had only slight attachments to this city. With the many distinguished persons from Pale, big media promotion and the sounds of Lenin's funeral march, "the great son of Serbia" departed with all the dues appropriate for a hero. All of that took place in the city which had to be made aware that only a week ago it supported the president Plavsic whose interactions with the foreign factors indirectly brought about the murder of the "fighter for the Serbian cause".

The funeral bordered on bad taste with the arrangement on the enormous loudspeakers so that, apart from the live telecast, the farewell speeches and the funeral service given by the priests of the Banjaluka and Prijedor eparchies could be heard on the other end of the city. In his farewell speech to Sima Drljaca, the President of the Municipal Board of the SDS for the Serbian countries from Prijedor, Dragan Savanovic, attacked the "false prophets" who have "favored utopia, the devil's lies" instead of the God's truth. Lies have never been more skillfully "disguised and sugared than in our time," he said. While Savanovic asked for the eternal peace for Sima Drljaca, restlessness found its home among many Serbs, many of whom harbor suspicions that they also may be on the secret list of the accused for the war crimes.

Milenko Karisik, the deputy minister of the internal affairs of RS, who is mentioned in the documents on the illegal operations of Centreks and Selekt-impeks, parted from the "Serbian hero" also with an important speech. He stated that he couldn't believe that Drljaca was killed by those who came here to, as they say, preserve peace. According to Karisik's words, he became the leader and unquestionable authority in the police and among the people from his area. On the other hand, the previous statements of the family of Dusan Tadic, who has been sentenced in Hague that he is the one who pays the piper for Drljaca and Kovacevic, came in focus again. It was even more difficult to find words of praise for Kovacevic. What was even more ironic President Biljana Plavsic found them in one of her TV appearances, probably pressured by the load of unpleasant events. She said that he is a "wonderful man who was the raw model in every respect," and just a moment later it came out that she has never met him. On the occasion of her visit to the hospital in Prijedor, President Plavsic met the patients and other members of the staff, and had no opportunity to meet Kovacevic in person. Mistakes of this kind are hardly allowed, especially if there are rumors in public that Kovacevic was involved in the dirty business as the Director of the Red Cross in Prijedor and the President of the Executive Board of SDS. In the meantime, as Krajisnik said, "a man was killed who was not a suspect of war crimes, a patriot, without investigation and trial. He was killed unscrupulously from the back because they were scared to look him in the eye." The thorn in the side are, in his words, "domestic traitors", because "Sima Drljaca's blood would not have fallen for this country if the international factors had not found the allies among us." Not naming anyone who might hide behind this interaction with the foreign factor, Karisik pointed out that "there is someone among the Serbs who gave the green light for the illegal hunt after the Serbian fighters and heroes." Using the rewriting technique, Karisik has rewritten part of the Epistle of the Presidency of SDS, written for the occasion of the party's feast day, Petrovdan. The author of the epistle wrote that domestic traitors and foreign occupiers have the goal to "leave the Serbs without their army and police, in order to bring this people to its knees, as well as to cause the social discontent and this way drive the people to despair and hopelessness, break it and merge it into the unitary Bosnia". That which remained is "Drljaca's work that the Serbs will be proud of".