BETWEEN NATION AND MAFIA

Beograd Jul 5, 1994

AIM, BEOGRAD, June 30, 1994 A Hot Summer in Subotica

In front of the City Hall in Subotica dealers trade with foreign exchange while on the marble pillar of the department store the Serbian Chetnik Movement wrote a threatening message: "Hey Croats, we shall slaughter you". At the door of the Franciscan Church there are still traces of the recently planted bomb. Some nice, suave people peacefully sip their morning capuchino on the restaurant terraces, while wrinkled snake-like files of buyers and profiteers, smugglers and petrol traders are passing by, on their way towards the best known flea market in Yugoslavia.

Hawks and pigeons

In this tropical heat, as if under the influence of drugs, the national cracks on the body of this city seem neither deep nor severe, deadly. Still, Subotica is no longer what it used to be, civilized, civil, neatly washed. The years of Milosevic's denouement have, despite its firm civil guard, cut deep into its tollerant tissue. All the nations have been counted long ago (46 percent of Hungarians, 16 percent of Croats and Bunjevci, 12 percent of Serbs, and the rest Yugoslavs), Catholic and Orthodox cemeteries were blown up according to the well-known scenario, and when it seemed that the citizens could take a respite from their own leaders, the directors do their best to keep up the tension. The last shock with the bomb in front of the Franciscan Church (at the time of Radovan Karadzic's visit) and the reactions to that event are a true test of party squabbles.

For Bela Tonkovic, leader of the Democratic Union of Croats (DSH), this was just another pressure on the Croats; for the Minister Margit Savovic, the representative of the state policy, the Croats were "voluntarily moving out"; the local authorities of Subotica (the DZVM and DSH coalition) have concluded that this is a regular phenomenon accompanying visits of different extreme Serbian leaders: Seselj, Arkan, Voivode Sinisa Vucinic. Is it at all necessary to mention that the Radicals from Subotica have stated that this "was a case staged by those who do not wish anything good to the Serbian people of this town"? The Lord-Mayor Jozef Kasa claims that people are under a shock, as they are not used to such tricks. Kasa believes that it is in the interest of the state not to discover the culprits and to keep the citizens under constant tension. He reminds us that the culprits who have planted the explosive to the Orthodox cemetery have been discovered immediately, while three years have passed since the first explosion in the Catholic Church and the perpetrators have not been caught yet.

The unfortunate Subotica is torn apart between the local Hungarian - Croat authorities and the rabble - rousing republican alternative which does not allow its right of "ownership" over the city to be forgotten. Voivode Sinisa Vucinic (The Serbian Royalist Movement) from time to time holds a press conference, calling Subotica the most beautiful Serbian town and threatening to turn it into Draza Mihajlovic's Ravna Gora. When a few dozens of faces unknown to everyone in town, extras before the camera, gather around him, the denizens of Subotica wave their hands and go to their gardens or look the other way.

  • The political parties of the Serbs (SRS, SDS and SPS) are practically war political parties, with the same diopter, says Bosko Kovacevic, Director of the Open University, an institution - personality of this town. - These are symbolic games to see who likes which leader more. The fact that a more moderate flank - the Union of Vojvodina Hungarians has separated from DZVM (The Democratic Union of Hungarians of Vojvodina) should be welcomed. It is good that now there is a competition of programmes in the Hungarian block. That is a process of maturing, we are moving away from general populism.

Jozef Kasa, the Lord - Mayor of Subotica has quarreled with his parent party- the DZVM, and has sided with the reform flank, so that this especially raises the temperature among the Hungarian population.

  • I could never tolerate extreme options, says Kasa. - Just like as I once felt that the Hungarians and Croats would suffer under SPS, I now feel that DZVM undermines the unity of the citizens. After numerous warnings that extremism does not lead to anything good, I am abandoning DZVM, as the party has abandoned me.

National counting has done its part, so that a typical Serb suspiciously watches every fellow-countryman who has anything to do with the "anti - Serb" Soros Foundation, who buys the "treacherous "Borba" or believes the Lord-Mayor Jozef Kasa. Likewise, it is equal betrayal of one's nation if an average Hungarians goes to the famous Subotica theatre to watch one of Ljubisa Ristic's brilliant plays, as all the languages of the former Yugoslavia can be heard there, and the theatre in exclusively the Hungarian language is a matter of national honour.

That is why the controversial director Ljubisa Ristic at whose performances the Albanian, Hungarian, Serbian and sometimes even the Mexican languages can be heard, is again in conflict with the local authorities.He is fighting his own battle for the Yugoslav cultural space (he thrives of battles), to be closely followed by some kids from Subotica, the loyal audience who adores his plays, fills the theatre and disregards the national key.

In between the two national wings is the civil block

  • "The Pigeons of Subotica". Petar Doroslovac, the founder claims that it rallies about eighty distinguished men who mock nationalists of all colours, trifling with party and national nomenclatures. Everybody is angry with the "pigeons" as they prevent the halving of the city.

  • The city is reacting brilliantly to provocations, claims Bosko Kovacevic, a sympathizer of the "pigeons". - Very soon every excess is absorbed, there is no chain of tension, so that our extremes have to think of something new. Unfortunately for them, this town is the best shock absorber of all the madness coming from different political retorts. The pigeons won 16 percent of the total number of votes at the elections, and only half of the electorate had turned out. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that while the local authorities and the republic are squabbling , the citizens abstain and do not want to get involved in these retributions. I only want to feel safe, which this system doesn't guarantee me. And, there is no difference between DZVM and SPS, we do not have a serious political party, these are all from the same matrix, the same uniforms. First of all, we have totally incompetent clerical staff which is unable to do elementary things. Our reality consists of stampedes of smugglers and the lines of cars make life impossible.

Ghost Bosses

The war and the turbulent transition from one system to another were monstrously reflected on Subotica. The economic collapse of the country and the vicinity of the Hungarian border made it the entrance to Europe. The inflow of both legal and contraband goods in private storehouses, this winter when the stores were empty, turned it into a "center of Serbian commodity reserves", a source of survival for masses of unemployed Yugoslavs, impoverished refugees, misfortunates of all types. About 30,000 people came each day to town from Serbia, Montenegro and "liberated areas" with a strong instinct for the quick accumulation of capital or just mere survival. Now the police tries with nightsticks to mend the crack in the economic structure of the society.

Despite the fact that Avramovic's programme has filled the stores, Subotica is still a major market of smuggled merchandise. The fact that foreign exchange can no longer be bought in the banks has revived the dealers' business and one German mark can be bought for 5 to 20 percent over its official value. Retail trade in petrol is flourishing, and the price for one liter is two DM, which is sold in Belgrade for 2.5 DM (while in Hungary one liter is worth 1.3 German marks). At numerous market counters people communicate with gestures, Rumanian, Hungarian, Polish and Serbian are spoken. Goods from Istanbul are displayed next to those coming from Sofia or Temisoara, and there is everything, from a needle to a locomotive. Taxi drivers are prospering - five German marks for a ride from the station to the outskirts where the market is. Cosmetic products, jeans, house necessities are bought wholesale to be resold in Zvornik or Bijeljina, bringing a small, but not easy, profit.

At war with the traders are policemen,out of necessity, who in increasing numbers speak the Bosnian dialect and somewhat alarm the population. They do not react when juvenile gangs break up half the city, claims Kasa, only to beat up half of Chantavir after that because of the too loud singing of two future soldiers. The Internal Affairs Department (MUP) of Subotica is a pain in the neck of the city. Under the full control of the Belgrade authorities, a secret state within a state, with no local control whatsoever. No one knows where and for what reason the Head of the Subotica Militia Milan Jelikic has been put away and how did Subotica become a Mekka for major illegal deals, wholesale trade in alcohol and cigarettes, an empire of racketeers and profiteers. How have the once bad students of Subotica turned overnight into powerful bosses? It is well known that Momcilo Rajic, called "Spas" ( the salvation) controls trade in alcohol, while the brothers Djordjevic, with the initial capital earned in trade in cigarettes have just completed an "original accumulation" and bought the famous "Suboticanka" factory. During last year 14 murders were committed in the territory of Szeged, Subotica and Kecskemet, while it is no secret that the murdered men were the sponsors of various parties and important businessmen.

Marinko Magda (an ex legionary), leader of a group suspected of murder was arrested in Hungary. During detention he promised to reveal the names of two bosses from Serbia who ordered the murders. The hot Subotica summer is additionally heated by crime stories of classic mafia showdowns. The majority of suspect groups are people who were on the battlefield as members of Arkan's Serbian Voluntary Guard. Has Magda turned apostate or is he merely Arkan's executor, the denizens of Subotica wonder. In the Subotica pot where fiendish deals are being brewed up, taxes are evaded and million worth profits are made, it seems that national counting, the planting of bombs or a battle for a nationally pure theatre serve more as entertainment for the masses, a rattle offered to the poor. Dolce vita does not stick out of the pockets of small-scale petrol resellers, nor is it hiding in ethnically pure blood cells. Had not the sanctions been imposed the ghost bosses would have had to invent them.

Gordana Igric