So long as Croatia exists, the Ustashe will be a part of her.
Posted on 07/06/2008 1:08:11 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BELGRADE - They sit like open sores at the heart of this turbulent eastern European nation.
Long before international fugitive Miladin Kovacevic revived tensions between the U.S. and Serbia, NATO bombs reduced a row of once formidable government buildings here to hulking shells.
The ravaged red-brick and concrete buildings are still standing nearly 10 years after the American-led aerial assault. They represent a wound that, many Serbians say, still runs deep.
"Our people look at America like it's an enemy," said Niko Percovic, 30, a reporter based in the northern city of Novi Sad.
That is one of the reasons, Percovic said, the tale of the monstrous Serb athlete who pummeled Brooklyn college student Bryan Steinhauer and then fled the country received almost no attention here for weeks.
"Nobody wants to say anything about Kovacevic or write anything about him in the newspapers," Percovic added.
But Kovacevic's story isn't going away anytime soon. The U.S. and Serbia are locked in a diplomatic battle over how to get Kovacevic back to upstate New York to face American justice.
A solution could take months - if one comes at all.
International attention focused on Serbia after Kovacevic, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound jock, fled there following a May 4 bar brawl that left fellow Binghamton University student Bryan Steinhauer, 22, in a coma.
The hulking Kovacevic, 20, escaped the U.S. on June 9 with the help of a consulate member, prompting Sen. Chuck Schumer to blast the Serbian government and demand the fugitive be returned. The U.S. ambassador to Serbia this week echoed Schumer's demand.
A month after Kovacevic fled, he remains a free man.
A Serbian prosecutor said the U.S. has still not filed the formal documentation necessary to spur local authorities to act. Even then, Serbian officials have suggested that their law may forbid them from extraditing Kovacevic.
American officials have conceded their best hope is that Kovacevic is persuaded to surrender voluntarily.
One question looms large - why would he?
Kovacevic has been spotted strolling around in a T-shirt and gym shorts near his hometown of Kula, a tiny city in the north with a sinister history.
Located 100 miles from Belgrade, Kula is known as the former base of an elite military unit, the Red Berets, which reportedly carried out political assassinations at the behest of the notorious Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
Residents there continue to view the U.S. with skepticism. Kovacevic's family friends said he was the victim of a conspiracy.
"The most he is guilty of is that he is big," one friend said.
Around Kula's three-block downtown, residents said they were shocked - and baffled - that one of their own had become a headline-grabbing fugitive.
"Was the [victim] somebody famous?" asked a man at an outdoor fast-food shop in between bites of a pljeskavica, a Serbian hamburger made with pork, lamb and beef. "I heard it was just a fight."
Belgrade, Serbia's bustling capital city, pulsates with life in the summer months.
Outdoor cafes remain packed deep into the night with people sipping iced coffees and wine. Hordes of stunning young women stroll past boutique shops wearing eye-catching outfits. Weekend nights don't end until the sun rises.
Questions about the Kovacevic case were often met here with looks of confusion.
"I don't know about it," said a 42-year-old sunglass vendor who declined to give his name. "We have our own problems and they are big ones."
Very big. Beyond the glamour and frenetic nightlife that Belgrade has become known for lies a government in tatters.
A parliamentary election in early May ended with the pro-Western party winning the most votes, but with little hope it could form a united government with its nationalistic opponents.
Two months later, the country is still without a functioning government - a black eye for a nation used to strife.
The police appear to be on edge. On two separate occasions this week, Serbian police ordered a Daily News photographer to erase his photos.
In 1999, Milosevic, intent on driving ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo, sent Serb soldiers and police rampaging into the neighboring province.
Then-President Bill Clinton pushed for the NATO attacks, which killed thousands of Serbs and left several government buildings obliterated. Today many political observers believe the bombing campaign was unwarranted.
In Serbia, feelings are still raw.
Dragana Grujin, 30, said she hates Clinton for the devastation he brought to her country nine years ago.
"I don't like it when people get killed for nothing," said Grujin, a hotel worker from Belgrade. "What America did was not necessary. Everybody here feels the same way."
As for Kovacevic, Grujin's views of the case mirrored many of her fellow Serbs. "There was a fight and the Serbian guy was tougher," she said. "What's the big deal?"
>How about turn him over or we just start bombing?
>There is a time and place for gunboat diplomacy.
And here I thought that liberals were the only ones who made knee-jerk emotion only no-thought statements.
Bombing over extraditing some bum who beat up someone in a bar fight? That is WAY too much. Also, his two friends were Bosnian Moslems-do you support bombing Bosnia too?
Link?
Seems you've confirmed the former and strongly suggested the latter.
You're kidding, right (?).
I didn’t think you were talkig about the current situation in Kosovo.
I thought you were talking about the conflicts in the 90’s.
you are going to be able to point out several incidents per each ethnic group where they were the aggressor.
The Serbs were also aggressors throughout the 90’s.
Is it correct to refer to a group as being the aggressors when they were in fact responding to aggression?
Actually, the Canadian officer was caught lying at the trial. LMAO.
Maybe you should brush up on your history of the Balkans. Your view is incredibly one-sided.
It wasn’t a German occupation of BiH. It was a legitimate annexation. BiH wasn’t Serbian land.
The reports of the Ustashe atrocities were not limited to the testimony of a single officer.
Not surprised that you find anti-Serb atrocities funny, Tropoljac.
Tropoljac wrote: “Maybe you should brush up on your history of the Balkans. Your view is incredibly one-sided.”
When the Ustashe says that, it means you’ve nailed the truth and he’s choking on it. LOL!
The Ustashe were WW2 and we’re talking about now. I understand it’s difficult for you to realize that the wars were 50 years apart. And the commanding Canadian officer at the trial was caught out lying about the shelling of Knin and had to retract his comments.
No, what I’m saying is that he, like you, is ignorant on the topic of Balkan history.
Yes, and fascist Croatian fantasies still find their roots in the Ustashe doctrines, eh Tropoljac?
So, there was no retraction concerning the butchered elderly Serbs? Sounds like confirmation to me.
Which means that I’ve nailed the truth as well and you’re choking on it, Tropoljac! LOL!
Sorry, but the Republic of Croatia is based on the SR Croatia, not NDH Croatia. Once again, you’re wrong....just like the Canadian officer who had to retract his testimony after being proven a liar.
So long as Croatia exists, the Ustashe will be a part of her.
Name one major action that the Chetniks of Dalmatia and Lika committed against the Axis during WW2. Can you name even one?
How's about this: On which side did the Serbian Chetniks take part in the battle of the Neretva in 1943: on the Axis side or on the anti-Axis side?
Let's see how knowledgeable you are on Balkan history.
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