Armed and Dangerous

Firearms are used for killing.

This is hardly open to discussion, despite euphemistic terminology such as “destroying enemy forces and military technology”.  Politicians in civilized, democratic countries take great care not to be photographed with firearms (except when hunting, and even that today is unpopular and politically incorrect); Winston Churchill was an exception when he was photographed with a Thomson M-1928 in 1940, at the most difficult period for Britain.  Politicians of the likes of Saddam Hussain, who brandishes firearms at mass rallies, and Jasser Arafat, who always dons a uniform which is naturally complemented with a lethal weapon, do take photographs with firearms.  Afghani, Chechen and other guerrilla types are hardly worth mentioning in this context.  Among well bred people, public display of firearms is considered bad taste and indecent behavior; the only exceptions are uniformed and authorized individuals: policemen, soldiers, security personnel, etc., whose job description includes the carrying of firearms.  According to accepted hunting and shooting rules of behavior, but also legal regulations, the European tradition only allows open carrying of firearms when accompanied by a uniform, and hunting rifles only in hunting grounds.  Americans are more flexible in this — but even they are changing.

SYSTEM OF VALUES: However, as we — as is well known, right? — are great heroes, a heavenly people, the people of Obilic and Njegos, with a tradition of knighthood and battle, our national leaders and nationalists began since 1991 to publicly brandish their pistols.  The new war-criminal aristocracy, which arose during the war and sanctions, has made a status symbol of carrying and showing firearms, part of the famous contraction 4P (Pajero, pager, pussycat and pistol), and an irresistible part of the “dance-culture”, whose model to be followed is the conjugal couple Raznatovic.  Public workers and certain journalists, who are fascinated by such a system of values, began to support it.  Thus we arrived at a point where “carrying a piece” is considered normal and desirable, as if it is likely to protect the carrier.  Everyone of those killed in the “Belgrade series” since 1990 to today was armed and regularly carried firearms, which did not save them.  Namely, hand pistols can hardly be considered as defensive (consider the case of the Lausic brothers), especially not the most recent pistols with at least 9 mm caliber, and the smallest capacity of 12-13 bullets, which are so popular nowadays: these are firearms made according to the specifications of the American Army demands in 1973, in which the Italian F-92 “Beretta” won acclaim.  What is the chief editor of the local television station doing with such a gun, let us say our CZ-99, our official police gun?  Will it protect him from unhappy viewers, angry politicians or insulted clients?  If the former Miroslav Bizic, a trained special unit policeman, did not manage to defend himself, how can the Chief Editor of a local TV station, the Director of the Institute for Maintaining Monuments, the Protosyncellus of SPC, a university professor, a banker, a Shakespearean Specialist, and all those staunch nationalists, both from the left and the right, who are otherwise civilians — how can such characters be expected to save their lives?

No, evidently something else is at issue here.  Of course, there is the psychoanalytical, Freudian aspect to the whole story: the pistol is viewed as the extension of the shriveled phallus; the phallic aspect of firearms has been pointed out and discussed to death, and therein perhaps lies one of the sources of shame associated with public demonstrations of firearms in our civilization.  However, this aspect is less significant in this story.  Our ritual “showing off” of firearms is an expression of something else: aggression as a political method; it is a threat to anyone who thinks differently, a show of superiority, pride and enjoyment of ones privileges.  Automatic gunfire at a public place (prohibited for civilians), on the occasion of someone’s wedding, is a message that states: “Look, rubble, see who’s boss!”

If someone can breathe easier as a result — which should hopefully not be the case — things are just as bad in Croatia.  They have the same types there, doing the same things that our types are doing here.  Borislav Skegro, Minister of Finance, threatened a journalist of Novi list with a gun which he took from the belt of a parliamentary security guard; Drago Krpina, a HDZ confidante managed to shoot himself twice by accident, just like the Serbian confidant, Krste Bijelic.

POWER AND SATELLITES: Here the fashion of brandishing firearms was introduced into political life by Milan Paroski and Mirko Jovic, somewhere around 1991, when they brandished firearms at someone’s funeral (which, otherwise, is not a part of Serbian or Orthodox Christian burial rights), but Ph.D. Vojislav Seselj deserves full credit for popularizing this practice.  Ph.D. Seselj pointed his Hungarian gun at striking teachers, at photographers, used to bring it to live TV shows, claiming that he was ready to use it.  On his ritual visits to Vukovar and Sarajevo, the good doctor carried with him an automatic rifle of the Kalasnikov brand — as if it was of any use to him.  In Knin, for the first time he took a photo with a borrowed machine gun, and appears to have liked it.  Later he even bragged that he took a few shots with the weapon in question.

Then this fashion spread like wildfire.  Security guards at parliaments of the federation and the republics barely have enough space in their desks to fit all the artillery which the gentlemen MP’s, national representatives and other officials deposit with them.  As far as the type of firearms used, there are differences in status and in taste.  It has been observed that the left — JUL and Communist Alliance of Yugoslavia — prefer proven service weapons made by “Crvena Zastava”: M-57 (“tetejac”) and M-70 with a 7.65 caliber, despite the fact that the latter is a mechanically unsafe and a generally bad weapon, but is of small dimensions and can be carried more easily.  More serious and more powerful people go for the more expensive, better models: CZ-99 is the standard, but bigger revolvers are also carried.  Somehow Mihalj Kertes and Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan prefer the automatic weapons “Heckler und Koch MP-5 SD”, with silencers, probably not to disturb the public, even though they also go for bigger caliber, rustproof pistols and revolvers.  Major Veselin Sljivancanin had a decided preference, during the fall of Vukovar and later, for more exotic weapons: he used a shortened version of the Soviet automatic rifle AKSU-74, reportedly with great success.

The ruling family deserves separate mention.  For our President Slobodan Milosevic, his former son-in-law says in his reminiscences that he “always carried a small pistol tucked into his belt, on the back”, even when he lived in Vracar and was only Party Chief in Serbia.  Then Slobodan Milosevic received a present from factory workers, while on a visit to Crvena Zastava in Kragujevac, a model CZ-99 with a gold engraved Serbian coat of arms, which he took an immediate liking to.  It is unlikely that he carries it with him — at least for the time that he has the Police General Senta Milenkovic and his boys to look over him.  For Ph.D. Mira Markovic, it is not known whether she owns any firearms.  But it is known that her daughter, Marija, owns a pistol, which she publicly brandished on more than one occasion.  Son Marko bares firearms, and has been seen carrying the automatic gun “Heckler und Koch MP-5K” (short version).

SURPRISES: As far as the opposition is concerned, Vuk and Danica Draskovic, just like other heads of the Serbian Renewal Movement — let the truth be told — were never seen publicly carrying firearms.  Nor was Zoran Djindjic, nor anyone from the Democratic Party (DS).  Somehow SPO managed to accomplish things verbally; the Democratic Party is considered a well bred group.  Milan Paroski and Mirko Jovic prefer bigger caliber revolvers with the Smith and Wesson systems.  Protosyncellus Filaret of the Orthodox Church in Zemun, as a dignified man opted for the machine gun M-52 (nicknamed “sarac”).  It is not known what the former Ph.D. Nikola Koljevic carried with him, but it was announced that he shot himself with a service revolver.  Nebojsa Jevric, a writer and a volunteer, liked the automatic gun Thomson M-1 A1.  The more refined and delicate spirits among Serbian confidants, such as Brana Crncevic, Matija Beckovic, Enriko Josif, Milic Stankovic and his daughter, Dragos Kalajic, Dobrica Cosic, and the rest of the metaphysical-monarchist gang and their ilk — took care never to be seen with firearms in public, because, after all, they have spiritual strength to protect them.

However, the biggest surprise was staged by Vojislav Kostunica, Leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).  This man, who is considered the epitome of good breeding and civil manners, reserved to such a degree that he sometimes appears boring — in one word, “the mother’s son” — allowed himself to be photographed in Kosovo with a Kalasnjikov rifle, all happy and smiling, for the first time since he appeared in public.  Was a rifle really necessary to make the otherwise deadly serious Mr. Kostunica laugh?  Looking carefully at the photograph, it is apparent that Mr. Kostunica is not quite sure how to hold that rifle, but that this does not make him any less happy.  On the contrary: his face is beaming as if he just heard that Zoran Djindjic repented, put on his goat’s hide and came to beg to be let into the DSS fold.  If it is as it appears on the photograph, perhaps DSS should hire Captain Dragan Vasiljkovic (Daniel Snedden) to teach the party president how to handle this weapon, so that no one suffers as a result of negligence.  Once that is accomplished, next in line is the creation of para-military DSS units, to be armed with weapons with silencers (to maintain the image of a party of well mannered, quiet people and intellectuals), and their spreading through Kosovo, before Vuk Draskovic, who is desperate because no one wants to impose martial law in Kosovo, does not come up with the idea of once again forming a Serbian Guard — God forbid.

When all this is seriously considered in the light of experiences, all that remains is a biblical message for writers, priests, university professors, leaders of political parties, chief editors of TV stations, bankers, pastry shop owners, presidents of republics, art historians in civilian clothes, discotheque owners and other staunch nationalists: (Matthew 26:52) “Then Jesus told him: put back your sword in its place; for all who wield a sword — will die by the sword.”
 

What do they use?
(Photographs mentioned below can be found in Vreme number 407)

1. Seselj’s artillery: on ground, near Vukovar, Ph.D. Seselj carried a domestically produced automatic rifle (Crvena Zastava) M-70B, with a folding butt, caliber 7.62 x 39 mm, using a Kalasnikov firing system.  This is the most common and the most popular weapon in all wars waged here up to now.  As a civilian, Ph.D. Seselj carries a semi-automatic pistol manufactured in Hungary, type AP, caliber 7.65 x 17 mm, a modification of the famous 1929 “Waltehr PP”, and otherwise a popular export product by the Hungarian military industry.

2. Veselin Sljivancanin: his favorite weapon in the campaign on the fall of Vukovar was his shortened version of the Soviet automatic rifle AK-74, known as AKSU-74, with a caliber of 5.45 x 39 mm.

3. Milan Paroski: in the photo he’s brandishing the revolver “Smith & Wesson”, model No. 10, with a shortened barrel, caliber .38 Special.  This is a very popular weapon (up to 6 million pieces sold up to now).

4. Protosyncellus Filaret: the servant of God is holding an M-52 machine gun, the Yugoslav version of the German MG-42; a very good design; popular up to now in many NATO countries and beyond; caliber 7.92 x 57 mm.

5. Slobodan Milosevic: on the photo he is admiring the engraved pistol CZ-99, given to him by the weapon makers of Kragujevac.  The pistol is of a 9 x 19 mm caliber (there is also a version in the S & W .40 caliber), with 15 bullets, double action and answers to the most modern requirements in the field.  Service weapon of the Serbian Police and export item for Crvena Zvezda.

6. Vojislav Kostunica: in his hands he is holding an automatic rifle M70-A, with a wooden butt, produced in Yugoslavia, employing the Kalasnikov firing system, caliber 7.62 x 39 mm, with 30 bullets.

7. Boris Yeltsin is trying out a hunting rifle modeled on the Kalasnikov rifle, caliber 7.62 x 39 mm, semi-automatic, with a lengthened barrel.

8. Saddam Hussain: in the photo he is holding a British repeating rifle “Lee-Enfeld No. 4", caliber .303 British (7.7 x 56 R).  This was a service rifle in the British Kingdom from 1889 right up to the Sixties.  It can still be found in former territories of the Kingdom and among poorer members of the Commonwealth.  The rifle was given to Saddam Hussain as a sign of loyalty by a tribe which is located on the Iraqi border.

8. Mihalj Kertes: in the capacity of a “People’s Minister” in Radoman Bozovic’s Government, today’s Director of the Federal Border Patrol, is overseeing ethnic cleansing of Ilok and appropriation of cattle for Yugoslav National Army use in the summer of 1991.  On his shoulder he is carrying the automatic gun “Heckler und Koch MP-5SD”, probably the best weapon of this type manufactured up to now.  It is an automatic weapon with a 9 x 19 mm caliber, with a built-in and fairly efficient silencer.  The automatic gun fires when the bolt is closed, which greatly increases precision and safety during handling; SFRY bought thirty thousand of those weapons for the use of its police agencies in the period from 1978-1982.  The middleman was a British firm, which would later lead to an affair and a court investigation in Germany.