If tonight was the foreplay (as they said), I wonder what actualy their finale will be made of, spooky!

Belgrade, 21 Feb 08

"Emire, Srbine..Eire, Srbine!!!" (movie director Emir Kusturica) Today is my lucky day, being Serbian stopped being an ethnic category; we became a civic society after all. Or did we?

Serbian collective frenzy, led by completely freed from sanity Serbian leadership, entered today into the new phase of blind chanting and open violence. The idea was seemingly to repeat so many times "Kosovo is Serbia" for hooligans to start looting Belgrade downtown, and everybody in the World inclusive of finally-happy Kosovars say "Ok, it, is, just stop repeating that!".

Today, Serbian "one million people march" claiming freedom for Serbian people, trapped in newly independent and Albanian dominated Kosovo, turned into a 200,000 people hate-mongered rally. During the two hour long state organized event Serbian government head Kostunica, the Radicals leader Nikolic, celebrated director turned into orthodox fundamentalist Kostunica, and a manipulated top world tennis player Djokovic, performed their emotional best to manipulate people into the subsequent violence and whatever else will come down at us during the coming days.

The shouting patriotic nationalistic speakers were openly attacking all that is Western and especially the US government. 'Long live Serbia, Long Live Russia" chant by thousands kind of returned me in my mind all the way to 1944/5. The row of pathetic odes and loud screams by speakers in front of the Serbian Parliament addressing the crowd were only interrupted by a number of five minute patriotic poems that were amplifying the former, recited by actors who were completely off their rocker, like on LCD or something. One poem, really disgusting one, a cry out about the lost Kosovo, was by Matija Beckovic, a leading creator of post 2000 Serbian nationalist, collectivist, anti-western, and retrograde ideology, that world, I fear, is yet to hear about.

The entire scenario and logistics behind it was already seen during the 1990’s. The crowd was shipped to Belgrade, and than invited (like in the Cubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” movie, ok, ok, others had it in their heads before they ‘arose’) to fight and defend imaginary values, and some of them actuary start doing it immediately after the wholly all Serbian event by smashing other peoples property and staling running shoes and other equipment from smashed sports shops. Those predetermined and additionally heated by the hate-speeches during the really, immediately after the rally torched a part of US embassy building. During this event a student from Novi Sad (1988, Z.V.) was torched to a horrible death. They also rampaged and demolished much of the downtown and looted a number of shops. Many like the leader of Serbian Liberals appeared soon on B92 television and called as damaging and wrong in terms of people from Belgrade destroying their own city because they are angry at somebody else. I would add that this was pathetic, sad, and so much telling about the present day Serbian nationalism, and the capabilities of the State of Serbia to do anything, let alone care about the 1.8m Kosovars they do not admit for citizens and yet claim for slaves. The overall gist I have is that of a left by his illtrated wife abusive and alcoholic husband had plead for her return, and now when all is to late, has started to drink again and show his genuine face again.

It is true that some 1000 or 2000 hooligans took part of the actual violence, but was that not enough!? Will that be not enough tomorrow for realization of some sick Kostunica & Beckovic’s project? How many were killing and looting in Bosnia!? How many of them will do that again somewhere else, now, again!? Kostunica was very blunt about this, in his threatening in the way "yesterday border barricades were blasted, today will do this, and tomorrow, guess?" he asked. I do not know what, really. But, a month ago, while discussing with friends over a dinner if to vote or not for Tadic, since some of us disbelieved he had capacity for the demanded job and that the new parliamentary elections should be rather the way forward, one friend said how she does not think that the new right wing movement/s in Serbia do not pose any serious threat. The truth is that there is such a proactive political far right wing group in Belgrade, several thousand of extremists, little known by the wider audience, following the Beckovic's and others ideology, and who regularly meet every Thursday at the Belgrade Faculty for Mechanical Engineering. Student organizations like “Knight”, a group of “Obraz”, etc, together with some Serbian Orthodox Priests (who fund summer camps and networking), merged effectively into a potent ultra right wing block that are capable of organized activities, tolerated by the Kostunica’s regime (alike the vent in Novi Sad last Fall). They are actively spreading the hate, xenophobia, orthodox fundamentalism, aggressive pan Slavism, and anti-westernism. Walking these days down the Belgrade streets you’ll find many new bookshops and outlets of these organizations and the Church. As well as the www presentations. Police did/does nothing about this. They became legit and courageous.

The truth is that most probably these together with, by police for long time tolerated hooligans would-be-supporters of football clubs Rad, Partizan, and Zvezda, went forward into the rampage and killing, tacitly encouraged by the Kostunica made atmosphere and the realm of Beckovic ideology, alike before Milosevic 's regime tolerated and supported, now well known war criminal Arkan, back than just a football hooligan, in his Bosnian endeavors of war criminal. Policy did not fail tonight to protect people, property, and foreign missions, as some said, they actually declined to do so to create a political pretext for what they are planning for us and for stirring the people up to become responsive to their xenophobic politics! They are good at this, no wonder plenty of experience behind.

All they (first wave of late tonight interviewed officials together with absent-from-earth Belgrade mayor Alimpic, who the author of this piece happens to know from the times of the Democratic Party formation in Belgrade municipality of Cukarica in 1990-92) had to say, “all in under control”, hell was I’d say, and “well, people were provoked, frustrate, and one should understand”, wow, what a set of arrogant geniuses!

Maybe the most spooky thing of all regarding these modern day Serbiana-nationalism manifestation, besides the authorities tacitly inviting this violence by not securing the downtown and protecting important buildings, is that that we were told by all in charge, and most graphically by famous-yet-turned-mad director and a state-budget-sucker and regime artist Emir Kostunica, that he knows that all those "foreign mercenaries" that is "the fifth column", that is us, are now scarred into hiding in "mouse wholes". Sure thing we did since anybody since Sunday who would say anything to contrast the Serbian nationalist chant about how "Kosovo is Serbia" would be warned, for now, how it is not the right time to diverge and break file & rank ahead of the next Kosovo Battle. TV and radio station B92 was openly targeted as the next physical target. The crowd was chanting "Emire, Srbine..Emire, Srbine!!!" while the director was producing one of the most spectacular anti western speeches I have heard west of Damascus. He vastly improved since taking lessons from Nikita Mihalkov and the rest of pan-slavists and anti-western crew who live of the money earned from the same Western box offices. Anyhow, every authoritarian ruler had his artists, Kostunica happens to be one of Kostunica’s.

I feel very sorry for the family of the killed young student from Novi Sad, I also felt sorry for all those who had show up today as a part of today's ludicrous ideological masquerade in a form of a rally, like the members of the TV Belgrade orchestra, playing during the rally, and alike. Actually even some friends, teachers in Belgrade’s primary and secondary schools, reported that they were swiftly proclaimed by their superiors and more patriotic colleagues a traitors for not together with half animated and half pushed into all this pupils, leaving the school to come and join the rally’s crowd. Universities were obviously also corrupted, Belgrade's University Rector gave such a speech that I thought he was blackmailed with his family lives by Kostunica & Co. into sorrowing for lost Kosovo like it iz Nis or Novi Sad. He came on so incredibly naive and false that one would feel ashamed to listen, you know, like when you watch very bad B movie, this is how some of us felt. One of his intellectual bravura, he thought, was that he said he felt more respect for those who came to the rally today, on state sponsored and paid for coaches and trains, than for "all those Nobel prize winners" he use to give lectures to in the past. Che! Imagine this! What a character!

If any, the good thing is that only 200-300k people took part today, in spite of the pushy government and state institutions heads, and free transportations and sandwiches. Great many more people who very terrified by all this were hidden in the safety of their homes. The hope is that some of them will be the force that Kostunica will have to recon with, otherwise, Serbian European way forward may relay be lost. I doubt that the chief pretender, Liberal Party of Serbia, has sufficient capacity to lead on this way, far broader civil society has to close ranks, alike elsewhere during the tough changing times.

To warn, Serbia (read: Serbian government) have, again, slowly but most obviously (and I was saying this to my colleagues and friends for at least past two years), fall under another period of ideological one-mindedness and political authoritarianisms led by Kostunica, his party, and his circles of Serbian neo-nationalism of the 2000. If this governmental, social and media climate prevails, there will not be need to legally ban any civic freedoms, freedom of thought and speech, these have been already in a way suspended. Many is the world played down the ball by saying that if this is all of violence we’ll se coming from Serbia than we’ll be fine. Like, the things will work out themselves. Hell they will, I say, at least not for people living here during the times to come.