Nightmare on Pirate Island

by Stojan Cerovic

This is a double feature. The war film is at the end, and the gangster movie is just starting. We all know the killer from the very beginning, but we are not sure who is on the side of the law, who will get whom, and who we are rooting for

Ministers behind bars. Boss Jezda has flown the coop. The firm Jugodrvo which smuggled oil, has come up with two unexplained corpses.

Have we woken up and found ourselves living in a state governed by law?

The answer would be partially true, i.e. some kind of awakening has started, and we have a sort of state, and the law will show up sooner or later. It is important that the first signs for differentiating between dreams and reality can be discerned. The uneasiness and crowds in front of Jugoskandik branches are a magnificent scene, and it will be even better when the last ones, those who don't get their money, start smashing the windows and demolishing all the remaining dream factories.

In America there is a saying that something looks too good to be true. No one there would invest a cent in banks of the Jugoskandik and Dafiment kind. But people here have lived long in dreams and there was no way of waking them up until someone ran off with their money. The state did so, but always in a round about way and using excuses from the dreams. The dream became uglier and finally turned into a nightmare. It was important not to wake up. For Serbia, the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had been a dream of national liberation and unification. War is always a dream, the greatest and most expensive of all, but the people here were already somewhat worn out.

Reality was money, and interest rates which were put here in the service of the dream. Jezda and Dafina played the role once played by credit given by the West to pay for the self-managing Socialist non-aligned dream. That money was more real because Tito knew how to conduct a foreign policy which could then be charged from the West. He took great care not to spoil the dream, and left the country in the firm belief that something could always be had for nothing. But, no one wished to finance this war dream and that is why Boss Jezda and Dafina had to be invented. Their magic lamps made the citizen's hard currency dreams come true; these same citizens who are being relieved of their money.

The war efficiently helped prevent the waking up, at least in Serbia where the guns and cannons are not heard. While awake, one can count one's money. For all the rest, one can rely on Television, and believe all that is said of one's own state, the Serbs, borders, enemies, the betrayal of national interests, and of war. But, they can't persuade you that you have money, if you don't. And that is why there are printing works and banks straight out of the Tales from the 1,001 Nights, which give away money until the earth dries up.

The current situation which is being presented as a state governed by law in operation, could be viewed as the start of a natural selection among thieves and deceivers who have multiplied too much, in too short a time and in too small a space. As a rule, this process should not be interfered with, because there is no way of knowing who is worse, and because the selection could be stopped too early. When they start accusing each other, it is best to believe all of them, and not believe anything when they start talking of themselves. In this way we are closer to the truth, and in this way the greatest number of them will rub each other out.

This kind of selection is carried out, from time to time in better organized states when it proves that the system, for some reason, has not managed to estimate the correct percentage of thieves. Our case is more difficult. Mafia trash multiplied here precisely at a time when the people were exposed to the greatest self-denial and misfortunes. And what is worse, the ones who steal here, are precisely those calling on us to hold out a little longer, calling for sacrifices, for help for the endangered brethren, and to starve while the holy war is being waged for the national cause.

And the worst is, they needed war in order to steal, while sanctions were very welcome. Someone else's death is good for business and the greater number of dead, the greater the profit. Oil and other transactions are derived from this great business.

To acquire wealth from the misfortune of others and war, has always been a crime. What can be said of uncompromising patriots in authority who count the gains at night. They are in a position to profit from the war and will keep it going for as long as it "brings an income," as Jezdimir Vasiljevic said. Such people take racket from the entire nation, and in return give it poverty, misery and shame.

Why has Slobodan Milosevic decided to start practicing a state governed by law? Why now? It was obvious immediately that if he was serious, then he would have to start with the people around him. Some, like the arrested Minister Velimir Mihajlovic seem to have been put in office only to be sacrificed. I don't believe that it is only a matter of anticipating social disturbances with symbolic sacrifices. This seems to have something to do with bringing the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end, an end which Milosevic will not be able to brag about and be proud of. It will be a moment of settling accounts, and the relationship between Serbia's economic expenses and expected territorial gains in Bosnia will be such, that Milosevic must not be unprepared.

The battle against crime could have taken place in a manner reminiscent of the time when Milosevic came into power. Many people who have quickly gained wealth, power, independence and the capacity to corrupt the entire state and turn it into a pirate island, have become a part of the structure of authority, or very close to it. International isolation has helped this process greatly. Milosevic probably realized that he was slowly becoming a hostage to this mafia, over which no one would have any control, since they would not need him, especially once the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was over.

But, if Milosevic really wished to carry out this anti-crime revolution to the end and restore his lost charisma, then he would be risking too much, without hope of success. It would be easy to start a plot against him and remove him. Milosevic will probably allot the mafia various roles. A lesser number will become criminals, while the greater part will be on the right side of the law. Jezdimir Vasiljevic was probably allotted the first group and Mme. Dafina the second. This will be the case with various ministers and directors, and the police will remain sacrosanct.

Vasiljevic spoiled things a little with his departure, but there is much that Milosevic will be able to make use of, so that Boss Jezda took care of what he said. His accusations against the Montenegrin leadership are very useful. Milosevic has long had his knife in for them and would gladly fix things in Podgorica. Perhaps arrest Prime Minister Djukanovic, or just frighten and blackmail Bulatovic, so that not too great a fuss should be kicked up over there, while seeing to it that the Montenegrins lose their desire for independence.

But none of this will be easy anymore, as in the good old days when Milosevic embodied the will of the people. The people no longer have a will for anything, and a good replacement must be found, in the army and police. I would say that Milosevic's visit to an airbase ahead of his trip to Paris, carried more messages for internal consumption, than the necessity to demonstrate readiness in case of attack. Of course, things can become so complicated that the army will not know where to turn its guns first. To the inside, the outside or against each other.