Ignoring a Death

Only those readers of Politika daily who read this paper in order to see whose funeral they should attend or whose anniversary of death they should attend were able to find out on Tuesday, April 18, from several death notices published in Politika that Vojislav Zivkovic, former high official of the Socialist Party of Serbia and long-time President of the Regional Council for Kosovo of the ruling party, had died.  There were dozens of news items on Kosovo and from Kosovo reported that day.  But the biggest news, the news that the man who until recently appeared on the front page of Politika as the most influential politician in Kosovo in the past several years was discovered dead on April 16 in his home in Smederevo, with all evidence pointing to the fact that he most likely fired a gun through his mouth.

Initially, rumors spread around Smederevo that Zivkovic had supposedly been beaten to death.  People in the Smederevo Health Center immediately denied such rumors, admittedly avoiding to comment on statements made by Zivkovic's fellow Kosovars that he had shot himself in the mouth.  On Tuesday afternoon, the former chief of the Kosovar Socialists was buried in Smederevo, where he lived since he left Kosovo in June of last year.  Beside family members, the funeral was attended by many high officials of the ruling party (Girca Gajevic, Milomir Minic, Zoran Andjelkovic, Mihalj Kertes), and certain members of the Serbian negotiating team from Rambouillet (Ratko Markovic), of which Zivkovic was a member last year, along with many residents of Kosovo who are not living in cities across Serbia (around 11,500 refugees arrived to Smederevo alone).  Politika reported the news about the funeral of the "suddenly departed" Zivkovic at the bottom of page 14.  In this report there is no mention of the high party officials who attended the funeral.  The news about the funeral was also hidden in Politika Ekspres, which Zivkovic worked for as a reporter for at least ten years.

RIGHT AFTER HIS GODFATHER:  Brief biographical reports (reported mostly in independent media) indicate that Zivkovic entered politics after a career as a journalist.  He used to work in Pristina Television, and then worked as a correspondent for Politika Express, based in the capital city of Kosovo and Metohija.  Of all the Kosovar journalists who entered politics following the eight session of the Communist Party, Zivkovic got the furthest - including those who ended up as diplomats.  Only his godfather Dragoljub Milanovic got further than he did, having gotten to the position of the top man at the state television, also having worked for Politika Ekspres at one point.  Both as a journalists and later as a politician, Zivkovic numbered among those who were completely loyal to Slobodan Milosevic.  He was also a member in the Serbian Parliament since February of 1997 and a member of parliament in the FRY Council of the Republics.

Being the top SPS man in Kosovo at the time that Zivkovic did that job meant that the only man above you is Slobodan Milosevic himself, while everyone else from Belgrade must come to you.  In theory, Kosovo was "holy Serbian land" for the Socialists, because on every election day SPS would have 23 seats in parliament even before voting began, just in Pristina alone.  The only uncertainty was how many Albanians would "come out" to vote in the government in Belgrade.  Such election gymnastics and the fact that there was shooting and dying in Kosovo gave special importance to the SPS officials in Kosovo.  No one entered the Serb political confines in this region for sometime - the Radicals were given crumbs from the opulent table, and Zivkovic even greeted JUL politicians in a manner that was hardly friendly, having to put up with criticism from the very party top.  Of course, there was no room for the opposition in Kosovo's enclaves, with all attempts by opposition politicians to occasional appear in Kosovo always ending up in failure.

Such a position permitted Zivkovic to occasionally raise his voice at his own people.  In the fall of 1998, for instance, Milan Milutinovic arrived to Pristina where he spoke with the political-economic center of the Region.  At that time the Serbian President criticized the Kosovo Socialists, accusing them of "not doing anything, and of allowing themselves to be swayed by events," relying on "Belgrade to take care of all problems."  Those who were present tell that Zivkovic responded passionately and said that the local Socialists are working very hard.  As proof of their hard work, Zivkovic supposedly mentioned Milutinovic's election win in the presidential elections, which was realized above all on account of the unusually large Albanian "turnout" in Kosovo.  The story goes that the Kosovo Socialists stood on the side of their president, refusing all criticism that Milutinovic brought with him from Belgrade.

POST-KOSOVO BLUES:  Since he left Kosovo in June of last year, Zivkovic worked as an advisor to the director of PTT (Serbian telecom).  He appeared in public rarely, with one of the Socialists in Smederevo explaining that since Zivkovic arrived to that city "he never opened his doors to the local Socialists, nor ever wanted anything from them."  The man who was until recently at the center of political developments and had insight into everything that happened in the economy, the army and the police with the Serb political corps in Kosovo, and who certainly know a lot, was suddenly completely forgotten.  By contrast with many marginal Socialists from Kosovo, Zivkovic did not take part in the founding and the operations of the Serbian National Parliament (the regimes counter to the Serbian National Council).  Neither was he among the delegates of the recent Fourth SPS Congress.  It is said that since he left Kosovo, he did not meet once with Milosevic, with whom he previously spoke often.

Journalists with the Glas Javnosti daily who were present at Zivkovic's funeral, reported the opinion of Zivkovic's school friend who said that "Vojislav would probably still be alive had he not gotten mixed up in politics."  "He simply fell apart," Zivkovic's friend tells, with many people who knew him saying the same thing about him ever since he left Kosovo.  A man who came from the village of Partesa in the community of Gnjilane and through Pristina and Belgrade ended up in Rambouillet as a believer in a politics and a national project, appears as a symbol of the politics which he served - he ended up completely forgotten as a refugee in Smederevo.  (Admittedly, by contrast with the majority of Kosovar refugees, he lived in his own house which, according to Gras journalists, he built while he was an official with the party in that region.)  He appears to have become the victim of the post-Kosovo blues - an emptiness in someone who once could do a lot, and who ultimately lived to be the victim of a politics which he believed in and which he supported for many years.  Zivkovic's friends claim that the once most powerful man in Kosovo visited his birthplace in Gnjilane in Kosovo several times in recent months.  He, who claimed even after Rambouillet that the Serb part of Kosovo will not remain without Serbs, had opportunity to see that outside of several enclaves, there are virtually no more Serbs in Kosovo.  He certainly had opportunity to hear how those who still remained in Kosovo are writing letters to Milosevic and are demanding that he reinstate all his staff to Kosovo which once used to serve their party there.  Zivkovic was probably also hurt by rumors that he departed from Kosovo in secret, hiding under a canvas, even though his friends and family claim that this is a lie and that General Pavkovic advised him personally on the day that the Kumanovo Agreement was signed, that he should take his family out of Pristina.

It was evidently clear to Zivkovic that after everything that happened, it would be difficult to defend himself from such stories and rumors.  He who certainly knew a lot and could raise his voice even to a man like Milutinovic, suddenly had the door shut in his face - he had no more access to Milosevic, he no longer existed for his godfathers television and for his former employer Politika.  He could not go back to Kosovo, and even tougher news was that Hashim Taci is holding an iron fist over Pristina from the parallel Kosovo state which official Belgrade denied for so long.