The Nockout in the Parliament

It was the most serious incident ever since June 20th, 1928, when a Radical, Punisa Racic, shot the MP's of the Croatian Farmers' Party during the parliament session. On this occasion the attacker was also a Radical (Branislav Vakic), but, fortunately, nobody was killed. There were no Croats there either, so that the person was injured is a Serb, Mihajlo Markovic, a federal MP of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) from Kragujevac.

Mihajlo Markovic is famous for having unrelentlessly worked on raising the blood pressure of the Socialist-Radical Serbs from the speaker's platform (first of the Serbian, and now of the Federal Parliament) for tow and a half years. In the last parliament session, Markovic fiercely stung the Radicals (with undisguised pleasure) by quoting Seselj's panegyric to beloved Tito and demanding that the leader of the Radicals take responsibility for his anti-state activities (the contacts with the circles close to Tudjman). While Markovic was speaking in the afternoon of June 1st, an one point an MP of the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS), Radovan Radovic, turned to the Radicals and lightly struck his fist against the palm, nooding his head towards the platform.

After the Speaker denied him the floor, Markovic went into the corridor where he continued the discussion with a group of the Socialist MP's, who suddenly stepped back and made room for Branislav Vakic, who hit Markovic hard in the face. The MP of the Serbian Renewal Movement collapsed on the floor and fainted, while Vakic calmly walked off, followed by Radovan Radovic's look full of admiration. Markovic was taken to hospital. He was shortly released with a diagnosis, which said "light body injury."

It would be very difficult to find a federal MP who is a greater expert in body injuries than Branislav Vakic. Namely, Vakic is a former boxer, a member of the state team, 1973 state champion in the light weight category, and European junior champion in 1972. He was born in Nis in 1951, is married and has four children. He has not confined his boxing skills to the ring only. The Belgrade daily "Politika" wrote about "a mischief form his youth", when Vakic with a group of minors stole a bus and rode it from Nis to Leskovac, changing the passengers they picked up along the way for the tickets.

After his boxing career ended, he worked as a taxi-driver all until a multy-party system was introduced in Serbia. That is when he "got involved in politics," joining the Serbian Renewal Movement(SPO). They claim at the SPO that he was evicted in the beginning of 1991 because of his "detailed criminal file" and "extremism." As a new camp is not hard to find, Vakic soon became an official of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). Thanks to his "war merits" around Vukovar, he became a "chetnik major", then the deputy commander of volunteer units, only to, after eight months on the front, be promoted President of the Serbian Chetnik Movement for "all Serbian lands", President of the District Board of the Serbian Radical Party in Nis and the Party's candidate for the Federal Parliament from the south-eastern Serbia. Mid May this year Vojislav Seselj made him a "Chetnik voivoda", along with 17 other similar men.

His name is also being mentioned in connection with a series of explosions in the pubs in Nis, while the local representatives of the Serbian Renewal Movement accuse him of throwing a hand-grenade in front of the students' dorm of the Technical Faculties during the students' revolt last year. Last autumn Vakic was arrested after the carousing which disturbed the whole town of Nis. An automatic rifle, several magazines of ammunition and a hand grenade were found during the search. An investigation was launched. but Vakic was soon released. The whole thing was "settled" after the elections.

The MP's of the Serbian Renewal Movement claim that this blow was not the first "close encounter" of Vakic and Markovic. The previous day, Vakic pressed Markovic against the wall and hissed, "I've cut many throats before. It would not be a problem for me to cut yours as well. I'm only afraid of being denied the immunity."

It depends on the Federal Parliament, more precisely on its ten-member Commission, comprising 5 MP's of the Socialist-Radical coalition, 2 of the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS), and one of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Socialists and the People's Party of Montengro, whether Vakic will be left without his immunity and what consequences he will have to face after this assault. It is interesting that the Radicals have distanced themselves form the move of their party official, although they claim that he did not hit Markovic. Naturally, it is not a problem to disown the direct executioner, especially if this is what he is like. What is important is that the goal has been reached.