We Don't Talk About the Hague

VREME: What was your reaction to the attack of the special forces on the residence in the night between March 30 and 31, i.e. during negotiations on your father’s departure to prison, in the night of April 1?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Those were two separate nights. The first night was the one with the young men wearing stockings over their heads, when they shot and broke the windows…

VREME: How did you find yourself in the villa at the time of the attack?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I arrived in the afternoon, while it was still light, nothing was happening then, not even the paramedics had arrived, I didn’t suspect anything, it all started during the night. The first news that dad was arrested came to us in the evening. They told us that someone has published it somewhere. That’s how all of us who found ourselves in the house stayed there. I had arrived in the afternoon, in a track suit, I thought for only an hour, and I stayed three days, in the very same track suit.

VREME: Is it possible that you didn’t take the announcements that Slobodan Milosevic would be arrested on March 31 seriously, since that was the US administration’s condition for approving aid to Yugoslavia?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I didn’t read the newspapers; I know that a lot of dates were mentioned – March 10, then March 31 and various other dates… The only thing I knew for sure is that dad is ransomed for five million dollars and is a target for bounty hunters. That is why, when we saw those people as they were jumping over the gates wearing stockings over their heads, I was sure – as many of us still are – that they were bounty hunters who wanted to kidnap him that evening and take him to The Hague. Why would they mask themselves if they only wanted to take him to jail and to an investigative judge?

VREME: Didn’t your father previously receive a court summons, some court paper…

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I know for a fact that dad only got one court summons as far as court cases are concerned – charges in connection with the purchase of the house in Uzicka 32. He never received court summons for a criminal case from any investigative judge. And then all of a sudden those people arrived in front of the gates, they started shooting. They definitely weren’t policemen. At that moment I went outside of the house, to see what was going on. The lighting in the garden was turned off and it was pitch dark, and the garden is huge – a real forest. It was also dark in the circular, large entrance hall. I walked out of the house through that hall, to see what was going on. A white jeep was parked in front of the house – I say God himself had sent it, otherwise I wouldn’t be alive today. I stopped to see if I could discern anything. Of course, nothing could be seen since the lower entrance gate is far away, downhill, at the end of the garden stairs. As I came out, a shot whizzed over my head and broke a window. I didn’t even see which one, I only heard the crash. It was pitch dark and there was no one but me in front of the entrance. I squatted behind that white jeep until the shooting stopped and listened to the glass shatter and break. And I heard a bomb fall. When it stopped, I ran to the room where all the people in the house were sitting. They started consoling me, like, that wasn’t a real bomb, it was a shock bomb. As though that was supposed to make me feel better – I don’t even know that shock bombs and real ones exist, for me a bomb is a bomb. When they say bomb I imagine the cartoon ones with little squares… 

VREME: Did the people inside the house know that you went outside?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Dad was worried, he asked “Where’s Marija?”, they told me that when I returned. I said “I was outside”, and they asked “What were you doing outside?”

VREME: At that point, was the electricity cut in the residence, or did that happen later?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: It was dark in the garden, but I don’t know if that was the case because they’d already cut our power supply or whether the lights were simply turned off. I didn’t even ask. Out of that darkness, people who we couldn’t see were shooting at us. I wanted to go up to the terrace, to see, but dad and mom wouldn’t let me. Later, after I survived that first shooting, I had no intention of going to the terrace on the second floor.

VREME: Were shots also being fired from the residence, towards the gates?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No one from the residence fired a single shot, nor did anyone even attempt to! I don’t know if anyone was in the garden, I couldn’t see anyone in the dark, but Ilija was in the residence, head of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia, I saw him for the first time then, a man in thick woolen socks, he was in the people’s guard in front of the house, he came in to have some tea, there were also mom and dad of course and a couple of their friends. None of us fired. And fire where? While alone in the room? To fire from what? It’s true that there were police officers in the entrance hall, but I don’t know whether they went out into the forest… In the residence itself there was no shooting, except that others were shooting at us and they broke our windows.

VREME: Did you ever think that your father could be saved from an arrest by national guards, which at first were located at the upper gate, in front of Uzicka no. 11, and then moved to the lower one?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: We believed it wasn’t a legal arrest and that bounty hunters were outside.

VREME: You saw members of the special police units?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: The only thing I saw, I saw on BK television. Until then, I had only seen similarly clad people in movies, when four of them, at most five, enter a jeweler’s shop with those stockings or caps with the openings for the eyes on their head, rob the shop while the jeweler is lying on the floor or they kill him and leave. And now, all of a sudden, a bunch of those people with those stockings on their heads were in front of our house. I thought – those certainly aren’t any regular policemen but others who want to kidnap my dad.

VREME: In the meantime your father appeared at the gates and therefore disputed news that he had been taken to the Palace of Justice. His head was even circled on CNN and the tape stopped, in order to make him clearly visible in the mass of followers from the people’s guard. Had anyone from the government called him until then to inform him what was going on or to present him with an arrest warrant?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No, no one tried to present him with any kind of paper or to visit us. I went to the gate with dad, I was desperately afraid for him when he appeared in front of the people. I was afraid they would kidnap him then which is why I held him tightly by the hand. I was against his going to the gate, but all the others who were in the house believed that it was something he should do.

VREME: How did you spend the first night? Did they immediately cut your water supply along with the electricity?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: The first night was horrible. Water was cut the next day, in the afternoon. At that point it was all the same to me that there wasn’t any water. Who needs water when we will be killed? The water problem was secondary; you need water when everything is normal.

VREME: Someone wrote that during that night you had a serious conflict with one of the bodyguards, Sinisa Vucinic, that you told them to remove him from your sight, since he was “disrupting your mental structure”…

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Mental structure? I don’t use words like that. I don’t know if I talked to him, I probably did, since I told everyone I met that morning something, that’s what they told me later, and I was angry with everyone. If someone asked me something then, I probably answered, but I don’t remember, just like I don’t remember meeting dad’s lawyer that morning. I don’t remember half of it.

VREME: Did you know Vucinic from before?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I saw him for the first time on Friday, I didn’t even know who he was.

VREME: Did you have a chance to talk with your father alone, to suggest what he should do?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Negotiations, once they started, were held in the office and I didn’t take any part in them. There were lots of people in the house who had spent the night there. They sat, awake, talked, many didn’t have any strength left even for that. The second night I no longer had strength nor will for anything. I went up to the second floor, where dad and mom’s rooms are, and waited to see how the negotiations were getting on and what would happen. I mainly sat alone or with mom upstairs, I didn’t eat anything for two days and two nights, I couldn’t even sleep… That’s why I took some of my mom’s tranquilizers, but they didn’t help me, they had no effect at all.

VREME: Did you talk to your brother Marko?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: He called a few times, spoke to dad and dad told him he would go, alone. I was against that. I didn’t believe everything would finish with the investigative judge, I thought they would abduct him, take him away or kill him. I was afraid for dad’s life.

VREME: When did your father make up his mind and decide to go?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I think in the morning, the second night. I didn’t have a watch. He came up to see me, mom and dad came out of the elevator. He told me he was going, and came to say good-bye. I became angry and didn’t want to talk to either my father or my mother. It hurt me – to say good-bye to him because he was going to prison. Mom asked me to help her pack his things for jail. I didn’t want to help her.

VREME: Your father, if I understand it correctly, is your greatest support in life, a real friend. Why did you shoot when he was leaving?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Why did I shoot? I shot out of desperation, simply, I felt as if my head would explode, as if it was a bomb. I was totally beside myself. For two nights I was carrying guns in the pockets of my jacket, to defend myself if things got out of hand, and in the end he was getting into the car by himself and leaving. The car was leaving, I watched them leave and thought – this is the end of the world, for sure, this is definitely the end of the world and I don’t know it. Before that I had taken half of the tranquilizers from the package, together with some cognac and Coca-Cola which I found in the kitchen.

VREME: Therefore, you didn’t aim at your father, Ceda Jovanovic or someone from the vicinity?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No, the bullet proof cars were already gone. I shot in the air. Five shots, my entire charger. How could I shoot dad, I was worried because of him and I certainly didn’t want any of the guests to die. People usually fire when they’re happy, at weddings, for New Year’s Eve, I shot out of unhappiness. I’m not one of those who shoot during New Year’s Eve celebrations. On the contrary, I usually duck then, so that I won’t be killed by a stray bullet. At five minutes to midnight, especially for Serbian New Year, I lie down on the floor, move out of the way, and five minutes after midnight I reappear. You must remember how many casualties there were in New Belgrade from stray bullets, when they shoot from their terraces during the celebration, and there are a lot of people outside, windows all around, buildings… Some people become really drunk and then start shooting. I’m not that type.

VREME: Do you remember telling your father (and others) ugly things as he was leaving – as published in the Belgrade press?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: The only thing I remember is being angry. “This is awful, you’ve arrested yourself”, I told dad. I was angry with him, with all those who were with him. And with myself. What is even worse, I don’t remember half of it. Ten days later, mom was sitting with the lawyer Toma Fila, I walk up to them, shake hands, introduce myself, and Toma Fila says that we’ve already met. I ask – when, and he says that we spoke for fifteen minutes that night. I don’t remember that. As though I have a memory gap. I remember the first day and the first night, until dawn of the second night.

VREME: You visited the investigative judge. Did he show understanding for your reasons?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I visited the judge and he asked me about everything, where I was, what I did, where the guns were and so on. I told him everything I remembered. I didn’t know exactly what time it was, nor how many meters there are from the gate to the entrance door. I know it was night, and it could have been night at three, four or five. Other people who were there were probably more composed, they didn’t drink anything and probably remember more. 

VREME: Did the shots from your gun endanger anyone?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No one was there. The garden was empty. Where I was standing there’s a hill, darkness. I think even birds didn’t want to fly anymore, not even a fly, that’s how scared they were by those from outside.

VREME: Did you really think it would be better for your father to kill himself?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I told him “that all of us would be killed here”, which was obvious, they had attacked us. By that, I didn’t think we would kill each other, amongst ourselves. It was obvious that the few of us who were in the house were no match for the ones outside.

VREME: Did you fear for your safety before, or is that fear more marked after September 24 i.e. October 5 of last year?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Our family’s safety has been threatened from eighty something, so that was nothing new. I was into music and didn’t pay much attention to other things, not even politics. I realized that something unusual was going on only on Oct. 5 of last year, when I heard that the federal parliament was on fire.

VREME: In those events, you fared better than Marko – no one liberated your TV Kosava then?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: As far as I know, in those days some people “liberated” state television channels and government media.

VREME: Was it due to fear that something like that could happen that you sold your TV station Kosava so quickly?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I sold Kosava, not out of fear, but because I no longer wanted to be in that business. I was disillusioned.

VREME: When you turn TV Kosava on now, do you regret that decision?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No. Anyway, I don’t watch television. That’s what I decided, why should I have any regrets now? I believe it was the right decision. Dad even told me: “Are you crazy, why are you selling it, there’s no need – that’s what you know how to do.” He probably thought I was in a specific state and that I would change my mind later. But, eight months have gone by and I’m not sorry.

VREME: And what have you done since October 5?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: It’s as though I’ve retired. From October until April 1, I spent my time watching video tapes and reading books…

VREME: Did you visit your father from the beginning?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I didn’t go the first five days. I couldn’t. I was in such a state that it was better for my dad not to see me. I expected something horrible, ominous to happen. Then mom talked me into going with her.

VREME: Are you, after everything, sorry that Slobodan Milosevic is no longer the president of FRY?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I’m sorry that so many years of such hard work were rewarded in this way. But I’m pleased that he’s no longer the president. I think he has enough years, that he has worked really hard and that he needs to rest. As my friends say, it would be nice if dad, just like all ordinary people, could go fishing in a quiet spot. We’re fed up of everything. But I’m not indifferent to all that is happening in the country, that there is arson, threats… Why can’t we be like other normal countries, where after an election people still normally go to work, prepare lunch and don’t care if the president of the country has a different name. Here, when a government changes it can’t be left at that. All of that would have to be different. I couldn’t care less who’s in power, if I can live normally and do my job.

VREME: During the first 30 days of imprisonment, your father was unexpectedly transferred to the Military Clinic (VMA). Then a group of doctors issued a statement and the media let it be known that the family was exaggerating the seriousness of his medical condition?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: It is a fact that my dad went to prison a healthy man. And then after ten days in prison, they take him to VMA because he is seriously ill. That wasn’t something mom and I concluded, the prison doctor did. Dad’s blood pressure was enormous. Even kids know that such blood pressure, 200 over 130 – isn’t normal. For a month and a half his lower blood pressure didn’t drop below 100, which is frightening. Even his pulse was 160, not even sportsmen have that. I saw that on the monitors in the prison hospital room. And when the prison doctors became alarmed that he would die there, they sent him to hospital. In hospital, they did an EKG and suggested angiocardiography. I understand those things because as a journalist in Ilustrovana Politika I was in charge of covering health issues, and I know that angiography is a serious surgical procedure with an aim to set a diagnosis. Something is inserted through a great artery of the right leg into all the large blood vessels, to the heart. At the puncture point where the wound on the leg is, a special bag with sand is kept there for 24 hours, which can’t be removed even for a second, otherwise the patient can bleed to death and die.

VREME: Did they ask for your consent to conduct the procedure?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: They didn’t ask for mine. Thanks to that procedure, the doctors only found out what he doesn’t have, instead of what he does have! That was a diagnostic method, and not treatment of any kind. They wanted to send him back to prison that same afternoon. We had to fight to allow him to rest there 24 hours, as required. Doctors from the Dedinje hospital and VMA were there. 

VREME: Are you trying to say that your father’s life is in danger?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Doctors should know that best, anyway, his discharge list says diagnosis, angina pectoris. What is certain is that dad was brought back to his cell even sicker than before he went to hospital. That’s why for me, that day was even worse than the night he was arrested. I was out of my mind when I saw them return my dad to prison in a wheelchair, and he himself couldn’t move, he couldn’t get up. And they took him back to his cell in that state because, they say, hospital treatment wasn’t necessary!?

VREME: Isn’t it in the interest of both the prison management and the democratic government of Serbia for Slobodan to be alive and well in prison, pending a decision on possible criminal charges or extradition to the court in The Hague?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I don’t understand how he became so ill in only ten days. All sorts of ideas were in my head. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I have a right to be after all that has happened. They wouldn’t allow any patient with such symptoms to go even home, where you have some sort of normal care, someone to watch over you and to help you, and you have no one in prison.

VREME: Did you see what the EKG report said?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: The device prints results on its own, a paper like a fax comes out of it with all those lines, and on top it says: abnormal.

VREME: What did the doctors tell your mother and you when you raised the alarm that things couldn’t go on that way, that Slobodan Milosevic needed doctors and hospital care?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: First, they held a meeting which went on for four hours. That was a group of doctors which consisted of three doctors from VMA and six doctors from the Dedinje Hospital. They had to write the truth, while at the same time to slightly mask the facts. They obviously couldn’t write that his blood pressure was super and that his EKG was normal, that’s probably why it was so difficult to phrase it. So they spent a full four hours writing two pages, all so that they could explain that he is seriously ill but is still being sent back to prison. That’s why they had such a tough time to formulate that he was sick but healthy. That can’t be easily done in any language, otherwise they would have written his discharge list in ten minutes.

VREME: Did you ask for an opinion of Slobodan Milosevic’s personal physician, who treated him for hypertension in the last years?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Dad was also examined by his personal physician. But he didn’t make the decision. He gave him medicine and increased its dosage, but all of that didn’t help.

VREME: Did you try to contact some of the leading government officials and ask for a more humane treatment for your sick father?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: We did.

VREME: And?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Nothing.

VREME: How would you evaluate the political paths of your parents and the turnabout after the last elections?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I never dealt with politics. My dad devoted his whole self to this nation and this country. And he didn’t reap any material benefits from it. He will remain, I am certain, well recorded in history, but I need him now, immediately, alive and well. I’m not worried  about history. There are all sorts of reports in the papers every day, and I can’t believe that almost all of those around him have become wealthy, while he only has a construction site for a home in which we lived and which is being renovated. That’s all that he has. And they’re talking about tons of gold, accounts abroad and all sorts of other stupidities!

VREME: Many will say – is it possible that he didn’t provide for himself on time, a president of such a powerful country, to allow others around him to take advantage, while he only remains with a single house in Dedinje, without a penny?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: He isn’t a man to whom material goods and money are primary. He did his job, he was in politics, from morning till night. I remember that negotiations in certain years sometimes lasted deep into the night, until 4 or 5 in the morning. He wasn’t a young man even then. That’s what he was paid to do. Mom wrote books. Someone once misconstrued my statement that they wouldn’t have had an easy time if mom didn’t write books. It’s true that their salaries weren’t large, mom’s professorial one and his, the one which he earned, were modest in comparison to loads of people who have private companies, businesses.

VREME: What stands did your father, mother and brother have in relation to the armed rebellions during the collapse of SFRY, which lasted almost a full decade? Did those stands differ from the ones they stated publicly?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: My parents aren’t people who publicly say one thing and privately another. We rarely talked about politics, just like they didn’t discuss top lists and other similar things with me.

VREME: Nothing about the cleansing in Srebrenica, trucks full of gold bars? How do you view the accusations against your father for ethnic cleansing, financial malversations, elimination of his political opponents…

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: God forbid! What a load of rubbish!

VREME: Will your mom reproach such language?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: You know what – I now accuse mom and dad for having brought me up wrong. They taught me that every person has his good and bad characteristics, and that we’re friends with them because of the good ones and that I shouldn’t pay attention to the bad ones. They brought me up totally wrong. That’s why I was shocked so many times. If they had told me: “Watch out, Marija, people are evil. If you do someone a favor, he’ll repay you with a bad deed. Don’t do anything good for anyone, take care they don’t rob you, steal from you, especially those who are closest to you, because they can betray you most!” And they brought me up totally differently, to help everyone, to perform a kind deed and to be considerate towards others… And all of a sudden now it turns out that half of those people never really knew me. That’s why I was never really sure if someone was with me because I am Slobodan Milosevic’s daughter or because I’m me. In any case, at least now I know who my true friends are. And if every good deed is repaid with good, only chocolates from heaven should shower upon me.

VREME: You and your father, or so it appears, have opted for a defensive tactic, unlike your mother and brother, who denied media allegations in connection to certain accusations…

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I read that interview in VREME. It’s true that mom and Marko deny such things. I didn’t deny a single illegitimate child, although I don’t have one, nor a single marriage, even though I only had one, and tons of other things… They said that I was in South America during the bombardment, and I was in Belgrade the whole time. I had no intention of denying it. You know what denials can do to you, denials upon denials… Although maybe dad should have denied some things for political reasons, but he knows better about such things.

VREME: They ascribe a fondness towards weapons to you. Allegedly, you once stated that you won’t have children because it isn’t compatible to hold a baby in one hand and a gun in the other?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: That was figuratively said. It is a fact that it would be a lot more difficult for me if I had a child now, which they could abduct from me on its way to school, to blackmail dad… That’s how it turned out that in the last few years it wasn’t convenient for me to have a child. Beside that, I really don’t know which man is with me out of love, and which out of interest. You know how it all looked all those years – the daughter of Slobodan Milosevic. There were situations where someone who knows someone who knows me already thought he had a chance to reap some benefits from it?! The final, and the most important thing – there is no love nor fondness towards weapons. If that was true, I would have gone hunting every day and would have visited shooting ranges and shot, from morning till night. No. I got my first gun as a present from the police. And I went to the police shooting range with them (the one that was bombed during the war), to learn how to shoot, I was supposed to know that as security to “defend myself in certain situations”. And not because I was some kind of criminal and carried a gun to loot a shop, or threaten people. I never even drew a gun in my life, I carried a small 38-caliber one.

VREME: The newspapers published that three guns were confiscated from you, among them one which is prohibited in Yugoslavia?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I only had guns which were registered. I don’t know that any of them were prohibited. I had a license to bear arms, I didn’t even carry them afterwards, nor did I go anywhere.

VREME: And the weapons taken out of the residence?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Dad received gifts, they had luxurious leather cases, with the police or army seal on top. Truly ultra luxurious packaging. And when you open it, satin inside, and a gold plated gun with an inscription: To the greatest son of the Serbian nation, freedom fighter Slobodan Milosevic, on such and such a day, from such and such a lieutenant-general and other such names. And on the sword they found in the house in Pozarevac there was an inscription from the Yugoslav Army. There was also a CZ 99, in the same packaging, from, for example, the Zastava factory for November 29, ‘97. All of those cases, lined on top of each other, as each holiday came and went. If he had been a woman, he would have probably received perfume. Since he is a man, what can the generals give him other than – weapons. No one ever fired from those guns, they were more like trophy weapons. Gold or gold plated, and the barrel or butt had the inscription, for example, to Slobodan Milosevic, chief commander, on such and such a holiday. They were presents, just like others received watches or rings. There was loads of it, just count – for each holiday, he would receive – a gun, a rifle, as though he was crazy about them.

VREME: He didn’t shoot from those guns, but he kept his own weapons on his night table?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I think everyone in town who has a kiosk keeps a gun on his night table, next to his bed, what to say about someone whose head has been evaluated at five million dollars! That’s why I don’t think that’s unusual.

VREME: Do you worry about your safety, now that you’re no longer armed?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Now I’m worried about dad’s. That’s more important now, mine has moved to the background.

VREME: Can you lead a normal life?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I can’t. During these eight months, I have severed contacts with some people and I often think how people who have retired live. That’s why the life I am now leading is totally abnormal. The alarm clock goes off in the morning, because I want to visit dad in jail, I pass through all those gates, just to see him for an hour, which is frightening. I can’t make any plans for the future because of all this. The only thing I would like is to live on some barren mountain, with my dogs, where there are no people. Who could live normally if all of this was happening to him?

VREME: Are you in contact with your brother, why doesn’t he come back?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: You should ask him that, maybe he’s disillusioned and has left. I told you, I would also go to a desert, it doesn’t have to be abroad, I suppose we have some deserts as well, just so I won’t see anyone in the vicinity. Maybe he had a similar need, sat on a plane and left. I understand that, because he’s very emotional as well.

VREME: Do you visit your father regularly?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: We can see each other for an hour and I always stay for the same amount of time. We check dad’s blood pressure, temperature, see how he looks, that’s the most important thing – how he’s doing. He encourages us, we encourage him. The two of us worry about him, he worries about us. He doesn’t want to trouble us; just like I don’t want to worry him with my sand, he doesn’t want to worry us with his heart. So no one complains to anyone in the family.

VREME: Do you ever talk about The Hague?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: No…

THE EVENING NEWS

VREME:  Did your father plan to retire after these elections?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: We never talked about it, but I think it’s time for him to have a rest from all this, these ten years were difficult ones, that isn’t a normal job. I used to visit them practically every day, we had lunch together, talked about all that was new, had family conversations. I would stay with them until 10:30 in the evening. They watched The Third Newscast on state TV and went to bed. The moment the program started – I went home, because I didn’t want to watch the news, it didn’t interest me. Everyone knew that I was at mom and dad’s place until 10:30 pm, and that I went home afterwards.

VREME: A lot was written about Kosava in the newspapers, that you were privileged to open up a radio station and be allocated a frequency?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I think it would be easier for me to open up a radio station now when DOS is in power than back then. All the unpleasantness that I had, if you could find a press clipping, you would see what sort of “privileges” I had. Kosava was launched on the roof of the former CK building. When we walked in, there was half a meter of dust, old tapes and we had one CD player from the car, not a home one, but a tiny one, really taken out of a car, a double deck, my tapes from home and my boyfriend’s CDs from the glove compartment of his car. If we hadn’t had a transmitter, it would have looked as though we were playing a game. We didn’t even have a microphone, nor a newscaster, they were all DJs who worked in Belgrade’s clubs, none of them were network technicians nor engineers. And we had a transmitter of 300 Watts, but we couldn’t turn it up that high, it only went up to 250, so that it wouldn’t break down, and a single antenna directed towards one part of town. We were happy it worked. It was windy up there, true Kosava (strong, Belgrade wind). At the beginning, I refused to stop being a journalist, I thought radio would be my part-time job, but then it totally took hold of me, I stopped writing and totally devoted myself to radio. We played good pop music in the year when throughout the city only folk music could be heard. People said we were forbidden from listening to Croatian singers, and it is a well known fact that their music was always good, which we used to listen to. Oliver, Alka, Doris Dragovic, Magazin, Kemal Monteno… That’s why I started playing their music, despite the threats which I kept receiving. That’s how we became the most popular radio station in Serbia, which is why so many people advertised with us, which created material conditions for us to modernize and develop. 

MARGUERITAS IN CUBA

VREME: How did the break-up with Hadzi-Dragan (Antic, former head of Politika daily and confident of Milosevic’s family) go, he used to live in the apartment below yours? There were rumors that in a shootout you killed his dog and that he left for Cuba after that.

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: First of all, there was no break-up, we never even had a fight. We’ve been friends for 15 years. In the press they had us married, divorced, children were ascribed… And since October neither he nor I worked, so we had coffee every day and watched video tapes, until he left towards the end of December. As for the dog. We had four dogs, which is a great complication, he had two and I had two. They kept attacking each other which is why we had a timetable when they were allowed out into the garden, like a change of guards. I bought that dog for him, as a present for his daughter’s birthday. Once a fence fell which separated them and our two males tore at each other, his and mine. That was purely a canine thing. And that wasn’t the first time, since his dog had already once bitten mine, I was angry with Struja for a week then, because he didn’t take care. We made up just before New Year’s Eve. And then dad tells me, what do you need all those dogs for, you have five in the garden.

VREME: Do you envy Hadzi-Antic on his margueritas?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I envy him his margueritas and that it’s warm there. I don’t like winter.

GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT

VREME: Did your father seem calm and decisive at the moment when he made up his mind to go to jail?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: Yes, he was calm and decisive.

VREME: General Senta Milenkovic (Milosevic’s personal bodyguad for 15 years) left the residence few days prior to March 31. Did you begrudge him that?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I was horrified, shocked, disappointed. I couldn’t believe such a thing was possible. He spent fifteen years with my father. He used to say he would take a bullet for him. And then he denounced him in this way. That is one of my greatest disappointments.

VREME: Wasn’t Senta’s departure a few days earlier a sign for alarm, that something was being prepared for your father?

MARIJA MILOSEVIC: I don’t exactly know when Senta left; people like that don’t deserve my attention. And the abnormal state had gone on for such a long time that it was difficult to discern the various abnormalities…