My Dear dr. Watson

Despite fierce competition, in their Warholl-like five minutes of fame (such as they were) the filer of the complaint, the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade, fought for initiating the indictment against the most responsible people at “Evropljanin”.  In this case the five minutes dragged out a bit and lasted full 24 hours, as long as it took the magistrate judge in Belgrade, Mirko Djordjevic, do read the draconian sentence for the accused.  Immediately following the sentencing, however, the filer of the complaint disappeared from the public view and inspired old, malicious and never confirmed rumors that the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade is a “phantom” organization.

ARGUMENTS AND RENT:  If the truth be told, long standing public doubts about the existence of the Patriotic Alliance were temporarily dissipated on October 12 of this year, when in the journal “Argument” an interview with the President of the Alliance, Mr. Milorad M. Radevic (better known as Mica), was published.  VREME learned from obliging colleagues at “Argument” that Mr. Radevic had not complaints about the interview.  Therefore: “The Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade was founded on July 25, 1992, as a politically non-aligned democratic movement of citizens whose objectives are: fighting for peace, democracy, independence, dignity of the motherland and realizing economic, social and political stability in society through moral, spiritual and economic renewal.”

Since even a movement guided by such noble aspirations is unfortunately not immune to the widespread pennylessness, Mr. Radevic explained in the same place why malicious people call the Patriotic Alliance a “phantom organization”: “We were forced to give up our offices in the Beogradjanka skyscraper because we did not have money to pay the rent.  We still did not succeed in finding new office space, so that we do not officially have a telephone number which interested people can call.”

In point of fact, the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade did vacate its thirty square meters in Beogradjanka in December of 1997.  A PTT employee working in the telephone listing department stated for VREME that there is no listing for this organization, pointing out, God knows why, that the same happens to be the case with the Patriotic alliances of Serbia and Yugoslavia.  However, VREME found out from reliable sources that the Patriotic Alliance is no longer homeless, for it only recently moved into the Usce Business Center, which formerly housed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. At the reception desk of the Business Center we found out that the Alliance even had a phone installed on Tuesday, October 27.  But what is to be done when even on Tuesday and Wednesday, during working hours, the phones rang off the hook?

EVIDENCE:  Elementary, my dear Watson: you must go to the scene of the crime.  At the entrance to the building, visitors are greeted by courteous, well dressed, clean cut young men, whose appearance suggests that any messing around would be highly inadvisable.  “Where?” “The Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade.”   A moment of silence.  “You can call from this phone.” - “It’s no use.  They are not answering the phone.  Can I go up.” - “Just check into the front desk.”

At the front desk there await all the necessary papers: “You are a journalist?  Do you have ID?  Aha, just a moment.”  One phone call - no luck.  Another: “There’s a journalist from VREME, he’s looking for someone from the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade”.  - “No, no, no, from the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade”.  “But they’ve been...” the employee cut himself short.  “But that’s Mica Radevic’s place.  Is there anyone there?  O.K.”  The more relaxed tone suddenly becomes formal: “You see, when anyone of them comes, they always take the keys from the front desk.  There is no one there now, and you can’t go up.” -  “And how long have they been here?”  Instead of an answer, a melancholy-lively-helpless facial expression followed, with the attempt at seeing a door with the plate “Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade” on it having remained unfulfilled.

What about the documents?  The text of the complaint against Slavko Curuvija, Dragan Bujosevic, Ivan Tadic and DT Press is signed in the following manner: “Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade - President Milorad M. Radevic” with the address, which certainly bares no reference to the Central Committee.  Unfortunately it was not possible to contact Mr. Radevic by telephone even at his home phone number, for at first he was “taking a nap”, then “he went out”, and then no one answered the phone any longer.
The same situation occurred at Mr. Mica’s place of work, the Serbian Archives.  Faced with unscrupulous harassment, the President of the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade did however leave a message for VREME that he “will not give interviews until a decision is reached.”  However, the courteous secretary could not tell us whose decision is being awaited.

QUESTIONS:  Therefore only the documents remain.  At the mentioned court hearing an investigation was conducted into the registration of the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade with the authorities.  Thus, the Alliance exists and appears mostly with announcements in which it offers support to President Slobodan Milosevic, as on October 14 of this year.  That would be that for now.

There is a lot more information about the President of the Alliance: it is known that he was born in Montenegro, that he graduated sociology, that from 1982 to 1986, as delegate of the Montenegrin Association of Syndicates he carried out the duties of President of the Federal Council of the Syndicate of Printing, Newspaper and Publishing Workers, and from 1986 to 1990, he was President of the Committee of the Presidium of the Federal Syndicate of Yugoslavia on Questions of Education, Science and Culture; it is also known that he published scientific works, that he is a member of the League of Communists of the Party of Yugoslavia, but that this does not “effect in any way” his “leadership of the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade as a politically non-aligned organization”; it is also known that in recent years he has been Director of the Serbian Archives.
What is not known, and what VREME wished to ask him, is: was he really an honors student in sociology at Belgrade University; did he belong to the same party cell at the time as Ph.D. Mira Markovic; was his Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade really the official organizer of the countermeetings in December of 1996; does the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade have anything to do with the Patriotic Alliance which purchased an entire page in Politika on March 31, publishing a photo of Robert Gellbard, American Special Envoy to the Balkans, and Ibrahim Rugova, President of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, with the caption: “Rugova hugging the neutral Gellbard.”  Is his disagreement with last year’s creation of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia only motivated by the explanation that “it is not possible to form a Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia without first forming the Patriotic Alliance of Montenegro,” or some other reasons, maybe even vanities?  Is the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade a collective member of JUL?  Beside him, does the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade have any other members?  Are there any new complaints being prepared for the courts, and for whom...

Someone more adept than us might get to the answers firs, My dear Watson.