Murder with a Political Extension

Ever since May 13 and the murder of Bosko Perosevic, President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina and a high official of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), in Novi Sad at the Novi Sad Fair, that city appears as if under siege.  The police is everywhere in the streets, all entrances to the city are controlled by special police forces, day an night someone is brought in for questioning, indictments are being issues and the public is bombarded by strict political statements.  The police and the political establishment are working on the uncovering of a conspiracy which supposedly controlled the arrested assassin Milivoje Gutovic who for some reason chose a small caliber competition gun which holds a single bullet in the murder of Perosevic at the Fair facilities with over ten thousand people present, surrounded with politicians who were there with the President of the Serbian Parliament, Dragan Tomic.

If there were no such pressure on the citizens of Novi Sad, a city which has been used for years now by Milosevic, and by NATO as well, as a testing ground for violence and repression, its people would sincerely mourn Bosko Perosevic.  Even though he is formally the local high official of a regime that is unpopular in Novi Sad, here and in an independent poll conducted by the Scan Agency last fall he was proclaimed the most popular politician in that city.  It appears almost like someone at the top of the government has assigned broader tasks in the murder of this young politician who is so uncharacteristic for the government.  However it is worth telling the details of the beginning of this story in which all the complications are hard to see, although the end result appears fairly clear.

DEATH AT A FAIR:  Everything began well on Saturday, the Day of Security (Tito's celebration for the police) at the Novi Sad Fair.  First the entrance to the complex was cleared, with the police arresting seven Democratic Party activists who were dealing out pamphlets against the regime.  After this selection of the audience, the high official guest, Dragan Tomic, President of the Serbian Parliament, solemnly opened our biggest agricultural fair.  In his speech he praised Serbia for stimulating agricultural policies (he probably though of the penalty tax introduced against all those who do not want to work their land at a loss).  Then he warned peasants that their patriotic duty is to produce food (hence, whoever is not in the field is a traitor).  He spent the most time considering the opposition which he called "loud individuals" who are "ready for everything - to betray and sell the land, the state and the people."  Then in the attendance of the local officials, among whom Bosko Perosevic stuck out with his youthful vigor and stature, he proceeded to see the fair.

In hall 27 where purebred cattle is on show, at around 2 p.m., an associate of Bosko Perosevic gave him a cellular telephone after exchanging several words with someone on the other side of the line.  Because of the telephone call Perosevic went several steps away from the crowd, and at that point Milivoje Gutovic, a porter with the Fair Security approached him from the back and fired a single bullet into his forehead from what appears to be a competition gut with a small caliber (which is only charged with a single bullet).  After the single shot, the murderer began to flee in the opposite direction.  When Perosevic fell down, some ten people from the security began taking out their large caliber weapons, Heckler und Kochs and other automatic guns, so that the cameramen at the scene who have combat experience thought that a blood bath would soon follow.  However, it seems that everyone was confused.  No one practically went toward the fleeing man, with a self-aware doctor and politician Dr. Zivorad Smiljanic, President of the Parliament of Vojvodina, jumping to Perosevic's aid.

After the initial shock, a shout was heard, "there he is, hold him," so that the man with the gun who was running madly was knocked over by several farmers and fair exhibitors while he was trying to exit the hall.  Two of Dragan Tomic's bodyguards shoved him into the exhibition house "Vagara" as he was the most important among all present (one of the Vagara attendants immediately called the police, thinking that the blenched Tomic had been kidnapped).  Later the SUP Novi Sad announced that assassin Gutovic "tried to use his weapon during his flight, preventing the police from arresting him."

In front of the hall a pickup was quickly located and the unconscious Perosevic was ushered into it with Smiljanic in order to exit the crowd from the fair to the ambulance car, which took the critically injured man at the old entrance to the fair grounds.  Soon a police van arrived for the already tied up Gutovic.  After this the high guests quickly departed the scene in their black limousines, so that it is incredible that none of the many visitors to the fair were not injured.  In the first announcement issued from the Surgery Institute of the Clinical Center of Novi Sad, three hours after Perosevic was shot in the head, it was stated that "appropriate therapy" is being administered, and at 4 p.m. Prof. Dr. Dragoljub Zoricic and Prof. Dr. Djordje Janjic announced that Bosko Perosevic had died.

OFFICIAL VERSION:  Less then an hour after the incident, news spread around Novi Sad that Perosevic, who was originally from Ratkovo, had been shot by a fellow resident of Ratkovo and his former next-door neighbor there.  According to some Serbian logic, this does not sound very strange and guessing over the motive outside of politics immediately began.

On the local Radio 021, there were attempts on that confusing afternoon to stop such speculation, with statements that supposedly Perosevic and Gutovic did not know each other and that Gutovic did not even work as a security guard at the Novi Sad Fair.  At that moment many people had the impression that there is feverish activity on putting together an official version of this assassination, for "the village knows everything."  Already by evening time, the whole of Novi Sad knew that Perosevic and Gutovic knew each other for a very long time, so that the only question was whether the motive for the murder was some neighborly jealousy, an old argument over money or politics, over some undelivered expectation or promise, and maybe even over passion.  However, political announcements soon followed in which the importance of the victim and the murderer grew with every hour.  Of course, what remains is the issue whether it will be possible to make a Sergei Mironovic Kirov from Perosievic (after Kirov cloudy murder on December 1, 1934, a long, final phase of clean up began in Stalin's Russia in which millions of "traitors, foreign spies and sycophants, and vicious associates of international imperialism" were executed).

Even though it is not possible to see from the outside who was the first to give direction to the investigation of assassin Milivoje Gutovic, the political context of this murder was formally established with the announcement issued by the Novi Sad police on May 14.  In that announcement it was stated that Gutovic's rented apartment in Novi Sad as well as his family house in Ratkovo contained, beside other suspicious writings and drafts, "posters and pamphlets from the Resistance and the Serbian Renewal Movement, along with booklets on terrorism as a form of warfare in the first world, para-psychological war."  This announcement goes on to claim that "undoubtedly" and "according to his own admission" Gutovic is "an activist of the organization Resistance and the Serbian Renewal Movement and that he is in close contact with some of their members and sympathizers who are known to have instigated and inspired this crime," and that it had been established that "he lived abroad and kept contacts with foreign citizens."

Why the editors of this announcement left in it the most staggering information - that the pamphlet "First Work Para-Psychological War" - is fairly clear, even though this view initially clashes with the entire political development of the motives for the murder (for the Resistance, the SPO and NATO are not para-psychological organizations).  Goran Matic, Federal Minister of Information, explained this detail at a press conference in Belgrade, on May 14, when he said that as far as Milivoje Gutovic is concerned, "he is an individual of suspect sexual orientation, a person that is susceptible to manipulation and blackmail."  Of course, with attitudes in Ratkovo, relations of a man with a woman that is older than him by several years and has two children must appear as "suspect sexual orientation."  However, more important that this "suspect orientation" is Matic's claim that this is an individual who is susceptible to manipulation and blackmail.  Could it possibly be that the Federal Minister simply had the slip of the tongue?  Or simply by introducing para-psychology and manipulation into the investigation, the space for developing the motives of this murder and the mechanisms of this assassination is freed from all limitations of dry, rational empiricism and banal material evidence?  However, an investigation is the only one that can uncover who possibly "manipulated and blackmailed" Gutovic and that perhaps this is the reason for the warrant issued for the arrest of two members of the Resistance, both native to Backa Palanka (close to Ratkovo) - Stanko Lazetic and Milos Gagic, and who are supposedly fled to Bosnia.  Or could it be that "manipulation and blackmail" are only beginning?

POPULARITY BECAUSE OF TOLLERANCE:  Bosko Perosevic entered recent political history of Vojvodina a little before the "yogurt revolution," when he became community president in Odzaci and adopted a written position in the conflict between the leadership of Vojvodiana and Serbia with regard to constitutional changes where he stated that Belgrade has primacy in such cases (at a time when neither Kertes nor Pankov dared stand for such a position in neighboring Backa Palanka).  When Milosevic destroyed the "autonomists" and when Dr. Radovan Bozovic became useful as Serbian Prime Minister, someone suddenly remembered that Perosevic could take the latter's place (some people say that Nedeljko Sipovac was doing the remembering), but that this supposedly did not suit Kertes who supposedly tried to convince Perosevic not to take on such a responsible position.  At that time Milosevic finally opted for Perosevic who in 1992 already had the image of a modern reform oriented technocrat.  Since that time the public secret in Novi Sad has been that Kertes considers Perosevic his political adversary, if not enemy.

Otherwise Perosevic was born in Odzaci in 1956.  He completed elementary school in Ratkovo, and completed high school and a professional school for machinists in Novi Sad.  He graduated from the economics faculty in Subotica in 1994 as the president of the government of Vojvodina.  It appears that he the professors at that faculty grew to like him after he organized the financing of several consultations - one in Novi Sad which was dedicated to privatization (chaired by the late professor Stjepan Han) and he delivered a fairly concise study.  Still, for his Master's thesis he graduated on an easier subject - "Specifics of Marketing Acquisitions in Trade Companies."  Some people say that he was a better mechanical engineer then economist, which does not agree with the personal wealth Perosevic managed to gather on  the modest salary of the Prime Minister of Vojvodina.  In connection with this, there is gossip about a chicken farm, and even of a mayonnaise factory, which helped him build a large house in Novi Sad.  According to the same gossip, he defended himself that the mentioned company is owned by his brother and that the house is also the result of family partnership - which was not well received by the chief.

However, it is a fact that Perosevic was not fired because the top man in the SPS assessed that such an unknown individual is best suited for the position of the Prime Minister of Vojvodina.  In journalistic circles there is rumor that Perosevic did not have any political influence for years, even though he occupied the highest political positions in Vojvodina.  Two years ago, for instance, journalists in Novi Sad said that the editor in chief of the Dnevnik daily (published by the Parliament of Vojvodina and whose editor in chief is supposed to be appointed by that parliament) in Novi Sad did not publish an interview with Bosko Perosevic for months.  At the same time, Mihalj Kertes was the main figure at all celebrations of this publishing house.

However, during all that time Perosevic managed to keep his nerve and to remain true to his truly civilized political nature.  Even Vuk Draskovic stated after the assassination that "hate speech" could never be heard from Perosevic, while opposition leaders in Novi Sad all say that they always had very civilized relations with Perosevic.  Even the citizens of Novi Sad liked this attractive politician.  He took walks along the streets of Novi Sad with his wife and two children in recent weeks - it seems without any body guards and as a citizen with a clear conscience.

He was killed at the beginning of a new chapter in his political career.  Three months ago he was suddenly appointed President of the SPS Municipal Council for Novi Sad (which is certainly a more important position than that of regional prime minister without any authority and a budget), even though the process of "democratic candidate selection" (Communist style) has left the old heads in the municipal organizations in place (Cikos and Laza Isakov), without any connection with Kertes, while they got extensions of their mandates.  At the electoral session, where no discussion on any candidates was permitted, it was not easy.  That is probably why new rumors spread soon after.  The majority of those unconfirmed stories suggested that the skillful Perosevic gave up on waiting while the political boss gets over his ill tempter, and addressed the chief of JUL herself.  However, it is more logical to assume that someone at the top of the SPS realized that after the catastrophic showing of the SPS in the last local elections, the right man for the job is a man who managed to become the most popular politician in town without anyone's support.

Not even when he became the chief of the Socialists of Novi Sad (prior to 1998) did he change his style, so that he mostly supervised the rebuilding of the bridges, spoke about agricultural development and revitalization of the metal industry in Vojvodina - while he passed over the mudslinging of the opposition to his spokesmen.

>From all these entries in his political biography, at the very least it can be seen that no one in the opposition had or could possibly have anything against Bosko Perosevic.  On the contrary, if anyone from opposition ranks in Novi Sad thought that it is possible to reach compromise with a current in the SPS - then people like Perosevic were the only ones who came into consideration.  That is why there is no rationality in the relation between a murderer who chose a gun which is loaded with a single bullet and Perosevic as a symbol of Socialist power - a symbol that should be liquidated in order to destabilize Serbia.

Logic suggests that the escalation of the "crawling civil war" has in fact been feverishly sought, and that in such a situation the murder of Bosko Perosevic is welcome - in order to make the Resistance illegal and to provide counterweight to Draskovic's "sand truck."  In this way the human tragedy of two men takes on extremely serious and dangerous implications leading into this "first world para-psychological war."

CONSCIENTIOUS, PRIVATE, IREFUL

Who in fact is Milivoj Gutovic?  A reporter of the Glas Javnosti daily who was the first to visit Ratkovo to get information about what kind of man Gutovic is, heard that he belongs to an immigrant family from Prokuplje which came there in 1946 and which was plagued with a chain of tragic events in the past 15 years.  Two of his brothers and a father died, while he himself, although he completed the Higher School for Agriculture, only occupied the position of a technical person at the Novi Sad Fair and lived in a rented apartment in that city.  The Perosevic family, right next door to the Gutovic's, were a lot more prosperous, mostly owing to the successful Bosko.  The Glas Javnosti also learned that Milivoj Gutovic was prone to giving speeches at funerals.  Thus he spoke once against the government, and at the funeral of his godmother, Persida Tanaskovic, to the astonishment of all present, he spoke of Lenin and Stalin, and stated that we can succeed in the renewal and the rebuilding of the country with the help of our commander and president Slobodan Milosevic.  At that time the funeral party got the impression that Gutovic is nervous and confused.  One of Gutovic's five sisters, whose house was surrounded on Saturday without any explanation and even before the residents of the house found out what is happening, believes that there was no argument with the Perosevic Family - certainly not because of land, because the Perosevic Family does not own any land.  Some residents claim that one day before the murder, Milivoje Gutovic "waited" for Perosevic in the village old-age home, because he heard that the latter will be opening the water works in Ratkovo.  However, Bosko Perosevic did not come where Milivoje Gutovic was.

Bosko Perosevic's father, Milivoje (with whom his son did not speak for many years after his father separated from his mother) says that he knew Milivoje Gutovic well and that it seemed to him that the latter was jealous of Bosko, even though Bosko, although younger, helped him out with his studies at the faculty of mechanical engineering (which Gutovic did not complete).  Colleagues at work described Milivoje Gutovic as a conscientious, private and ireful, while his neighbors in Novi Sad never had coffee with him.

Both the Resistance and SPO energetically denied that Milivoje Gutovic was ever a member of their organizations or their activist.