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The daily newspapers have reported of Branimir Nikolic Branci’s suicide – he was one of the better known members of the resistance movement Otpor. After the fall of Milosevic (October 5th, 2000), he applied himself to investigating the business mafia – the newly rich tycoons. As a lonesome knight, completely independent, he began the complex and dangerous job of confronting these tycoons.
The circumstances of his mysterious suicide have not been commented on (even) by former members of Otpor, some of whom now occupy high ranking positions in the political establishment. Through strength and moral energy Otpor had, in 2000, successfully helped to topple Milosevic. However, later it turned out that it was easier to topple Milosevic than to deal with the mafia. Some of the members of Otpor, and that rebellious generation, have found their place in the establishment, while others have taken a step back from the public life. These young people belonging to the generation of “illusions lost” who worked through their best years in Otpor, let their voices be heard from time to time from somewhere on the margins, while those who got rich during Milosevic’s reign are still making profits.
Nikolic was one of those idealists who took the 5th of October revolution very seriously and honestly believed that Serbian society could be purified. Today it is, unfortunately, obvious how naive this idealism was. Until October 5th the anti-Milosevic demonstrations were equally attended by those who wanted to remove a plebiscitary dictator because he lost four wars in a row, as well as those who wanted to remove him for starting those wars. In the demonstration masses there were nationalists and liberals, as well as dissatisfied members of the secret police. The demonstrators were supported by tycoons and by some parts of the paramilitary formations. We could go on in listing the makeup of that colorful mass! Everyone got something out of the October 5th revolution - there were even some comical situations because many rushed to Belgrade at the last minute, when all had already been decided, only to be as close as possible to the now opening positions of power. Only the idealists lost.
The Parliamentary building was still in flames when the fight for the division of power started. These days, the repercussions of this fight are coming to the forefront. The Anti-Corruption Agency has been insisting that, in accordance to the new law, no one can hold positions both in the executive and legislative branches of government at the same time. It turned out that more than 1500 people would have to step down from either of their positions. On the other hand, those holding more than one position are requesting that the Anti-Corruption Agency allow them to continue with this status. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, since these are only the cases which are regulated by law. As it turns out the vast majority of politicians have been greedily collecting positions, especially in executive boards (which are very well paid) – while this practice is not illegal it is “just” a symptom of the aforementioned power struggle.
Branimir Nikolic took his ideals seriously – probably too seriously. Right after the changes of 2000 he started insisting that it must be investigated how some of these tycoons accumulated their wealth. The tycoons promptly sued him, the court fined him, but since he did not pay the fine he ended up in jail – all the while the “new capitalists” who got rich under the Milosevic regime, went about their business, and even today we still don’t know how they amassed their fortunes. Our current Minister of Justice recently commented on how independent the courts use to be. She said that there were cases where political parties “delegated” their own people to the courts. It is also well known that political parties are financed by the tycoons.
After he did his time in jail, Branci came to terms with the fact that the people he had named and suspected were not actually that important. There were far bigger predators on the scene. The media is full of reports about mafia members and the state seems powerless to deal with them. It isn’t a question of this or that mafia boss, but of the tycoons who, as if they were playing chess, hold the government in check move. A testament to the enormity of their power, to how influential they are, is the recent resignation of Radovan Jelasic (former Governor of the National Bank of Serbia) – he was severely criticized by tycoons during the past weeks because he refused to make interventions using Serbia’s foreign currency reserves to slow down the Dinar’s fall in relation to the Euro. The Euro’s climb was causing loses for those holding a monopoly on import. The Governor wanted instead to stimulate Serbian exports and was supported in this decision by the International Monetary Fund. Jelasic warned in vain that if the government continues to try to solve the budget deficit with loans Serbia will be facing the “Greek scenario”.
So it happened that the tycoons won that battle and the Governor, citing private reasons, handed in his resignation. It was clear to him that he had no chance against a far mightier opponent. He just said that he did not make this decision under political pressure. His explanation is acceptable but not many people will believe it considering that a little while before he quit Prime Minister Cvetkovic criticized the National Bank. According to Vladimir Gligorov, an economics analyst, it is clear that the tycoons were unhappy with Jelasic’s decisions, and that they are the reason of his resignation. So it is to be expected that the National Bank will be under their influence in the following period.
Considering all the corruption scandals coming to light right now it is evident that the tycoons, who accumulated their wealth during Milosevic, still hold the reins of power in a tight grip. The media reports on this or that corruption scandal, the government makes big promises, even proposing that it will be investigated who is personally responsible, kindly asks that those mentioned in the scandal prove where their capital came from, and they even make bold claims that they will put an end to corruption – but to no avail. Perhaps not even their intention was sincere. The promise made is just words.
On the other hand, drug lord Darko Saric business has successfully been uncovered – he had smuggled around two tons of drugs from South America to Europe. Up to this point the average Serbian citizen lived in the belief that in the region drug smuggling was something that the Albanian mafia did, and now it seems that there is a purely Serbian drug mafia. When this scandal was made public the leading politicians did their best to lay the blame on Montenegro, claiming that their politicians held Saric in favor and it was impossible to bring him to justice. There is no evidence regarding the validity of these claims. However, it is a fact that Saric is a citizen of Serbia and that for several years now, under the noses of Serbian tax authorities, he had been spending enormous amounts on real-estate, hotels, fields, building luxury villas in Vojvodina and no one from the relevant authorities found it necessary to question where he got the money for such purchases. For now the police are not saying who was officially responsible for monitoring whether Saric was abiding by the law, what mistakes were made and who was using personal connections to protect him. The media is still keeping the public’s attention focused on Saric’s Montenegro connections. In regards to this question a Montenegro opposition politician (and darling of the Belgrade media), Nebojsa Medojevic, took part in a live TV interview where he claimed that Darko Saric alongside Stanko Subotic (the tobacco mafia boss), is enjoying the protection of certain circles in the Montenegro government.
At that moment Stanko Subotic himself phoned in to the show but to the surprise of the host and Mr. Medojevic, not from Montenegro but from Switzerland. Among other things he said that Medojevic was being paid by Serbian businessmen Milorad Miskovic and Milan Beko – all in the goal of discrediting him (Stanko Subotic). He claims that Miskovic and Beko decided to do this because he, Subotic, had borrowed them 50 million Euros so that they could buy the port in Belgrade as well as the daily Vecernje Novosti for WAZ. Several days later Stanko Subotic gave a lengthy interview to the Montenegrin TV station IN and documented his claims.
In Serbia the reaction was as if a bomb had gone off – which leads to the conclusion that Saric is just a piece of the puzzle in the Serbian corruption panorama.
Following the interview there were vehement mutual accusations and denials. Both Miskovic and Beko have denied having any connection to Subotic. WAZ also denied any allegations, pointing out that they intended to buy Vecernje Novosti only with their own capital. They also stated that they had signed a contract with Manojlo Vukotic, chief editor of Vecernje Novosti, which stipulated that Vukotic was to mediate for WAZ in the purchase of Vecernje Novosti. Of course, Vukotic denied this, claiming that he was only a media consultant and that for this received 50 thousand Euros, but that all further cooperation had been stopped. After all these incidents the Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme published a report on WAZ which gives cause to believe that this German company was in the business of laundering money in Serbia. One of the suspicious business undertakings of WAZ in Serbia was its business connections to the tobacco mafia boss, Stanko Subotic, and drug lord, Darko Saric (Vreme, March 25th, 2010).
On the one hand, the weekly Vreme is making allegations against certain business people, while on the other it is not delving into the business undertakings of the other two tycoons – Milorad Miskovic and Milan Beko – it just accepts, without criticism, that they denied all allegations. They are innocent. Obviously, there are good and bad tycoons. The police are, as always, in intense investigation. The Minister of Internal Affairs has said after all that the government will show no favor to anyone, while the State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice has stated that they will put a stop to corruption even if it means government dissolution. Statements like these are very frequent. However, the government has not fallen yet, nor have the tycoons been hurt in any way – everything is as it was before. It should be noted that the job facing us is not at all easy – considering that the various tycoons had their business beginnings in the nineties and were made in the original mold of Serbian express capitalism. Confronting the past is becoming more difficult – as became evident when the Srebrenica declaration was being discussed in Parliament. After months of negotiations the Parliament passed a declaration, but not how the Democratic Party wanted it. Out of 250 members of Parliament only 127 voted for the declaration – which doesn’t mention the word “genocide”. The heir of Milosevic’s party - the Socialist Party, now a part of the ruling coalition, was firmly against the use of the term “genocide”. In much the same way and out of respect for the socialists the Parliament did not discuss which political parties were responsible for the genocide, that is, the crime that took place in Srebrenica, because that would mean delving into the past of the Socialist Party, which is part of the ruling coalition and which to this day has not condemned Milosevic’s policies.
The declaration was not received with great sympathies in the general public either. According to a commentator of the daily Politika (which is partly owned by WAZ), in the dirty Balkan war no one was completely guilty or innocent; therefore there is no need for a special declaration on Srebrenica. All of these occurrences indicate that the past is still a heavy burden in Serbia – whether we are discussing Srebrenica or tycoons.
