Overdue

Posted in Daniel Serwer - November 18, 2016 - 3 Comments

Praveen Madhiraju, a pro bono advisor to the Bytyqi family, writes: 

Recently, the credibility of Serbia’s many promises to resolve the state-sponsored murders of three American citizens and brothers took a sharp downward turn.

US Ambassador Kyle Scott summarized the problems in the Bytyqi case well:

This is obviously a burden for the Bytyqi family, but also a burden for our bilateral relationship[.] When three of our citizens were arrested by the Serbian police, handed over from one unit of the police to another, and then found out back with their hands tied, executed gangland style, someone is responsible and it defies logic that no one saw anything and no one knows anything.

I find it is very difficult to understand that nothing happened to any of the members of that group and that in fact, the leader of that unit [Goran “Guri” Radosavljevic] is now in a position on the Executive Board of the leading party in this country.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s response? To go to bat for the main suspect:

And now, I have been asked, why is he [Guri] a member of Vucic’s party…You should be ashamed of yourself, what do you think, that I will allow someone kicking me in the head and not reply with facts…. Never [would] the enemy of the USA and killer of the American people get [an] invitation to NATO.

Mr. Vucic then protested that no one did anything in 13 years to resolve the case and now he is to blame.

This is unprecedented. Many people (me included) have opined that Prime Minister Vucic still protects war criminals. Before 2008, he had a long history of doing so. But this is the first time he so overtly went to bat for the prime suspect in the murders of three American citizens.

Remember that Prime Minister  Vucic has previously pledged to resolve the case by the end of Summer 2014 and March 2015. In June 2016, he pledged resolution, “very soon or much sooner than anybody might expect” to the American public, Vice President Biden, and others. Each time, he has done little to nothing. It seems like the only time Mr. Vucic authorizes Serbian prosecutors to work on the case (and yes, it seems like they require his authorization) is when he needs something from the United States.

The Associated Press, Tanjug, and Radio Slobodna Europa, all covered Fatose Bytyqi’s recent visit to Belgrade.  A new independent investigative outlet called Insajder (Insider) produced a 30 minute mini-documentary on Serbia’s failures in the case. Yet Serbian officials seem content in their complacency.

Despite his many promises, Prime Minister Vucic just took a stand for war criminals. But he still has time to reassert the independence of the investigation and distance himself from the main suspect, Goran Radosavljevic. After all, it’s what he has promised to do many times.

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3 thoughts on “Overdue”

  1. I am glad the author finally presented an article accurately describing Vucic’s intentions and ultimately his character.
    It just happened that Milosevic’s notorious Serbian security operatives with full support of Aleksandar Vucic (then equally notorious Milosevic’s minister of information) executed “the wrong people”, citizens of the USA.
    Unfortunately, there are many many more people with similar destinies that the Serbian PM knows about but he remains silent because no-one forces him to discuss anything about them yet.
    Equally true is the fact that as long as Serbia lets Kosovo gradually slip away from Serbian influence towards the full UN membership and keeps under control Milorad Dodik’s policies in Republic of Srpska, the West will turn a blind eye on Vucic’s internal policies projected against reforms and human rights. Sad but pragmatic display of real politics in a relatively unimportant region for the current Western interests.

  2. A paradigm shift in science occurs not when a majority of scientists in a field are eventually convinced of the advantages of a new model, but when they die off and are replaced by a new generation for whom continental drift, say, is the natural way to think about geology. Look at the leadership in Serbia today: President Tomislav Nikolic, nationalist politician and Šešelj partner under Milosevic ; PM Aleksandar Vucic, Milosevic’s propaganda chief; FM Ivica Dacic, his spokesman; MP Vojislav Šešelj – leader of various hate groups until voluntarily turning himself in to the Hague, rumored to escape being picked up for involvement in Dindic’s assassination. No paradigm shift here; only the haircuts have improved. Vucic and his contemporaries are still young and will be weasling around for decades yet.

    There may be little hope of satisfaction for the Bytyqi family, and the Kosovar people may have to resign themselves to decades yet of provocations from Belgrade while they wait for the demographics of the two countries to finally resolve the problem. Serbia (minus Kosovo) has been losing population since the mid-1950’s and is on the brink of an accelerating rate of decline, if not population collapse: its largest age cohort is in its sixties, while Kosovo’s is 25-39 years old, with a small overhang of pension-age elders. It will be adding workers and potential soldiers for the forseeable future.

    Going back at least to the early 1900’s (based on descriptions of the region by some of those intrepid Victorian [Edwardian?] lady travelers) and even the clueless Rebecca West, the Albanians in “Old Serbia” were described as cheerful (and throwers of rocks by children at passing Serbian vehicles) and the Serbs as being on the dour side, nervous at being surrounded by majority Albanians and unwelcome by their government in the Serbian-controlled north.

    Based on their traditional attitudes [think: FM’s Enver Hoxha and Ivica Dadic] and considering their futures, the Kosovars may find the wait easier than the Serbs, despite the nails being constantly strewn in their path http://koha.net/fo/29/20161117082308518646.jpg.

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