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Milosevic's endgame >> According to a Milosevic biographer, the Serbian leader is on his way down-literally
by PATRICK LEJTENYI
Chuck Sudetic, the New York Times's former correspondent to the Balkans (199094) now living in Montreal, is more qualified than most to speculate. Sudetic, a Cleveland native of Croatian descent who is now a contributing editor with Rolling Stone, and is currently working on a Milosevic biography, settled in Montreal with his Belgrade-born wife and young children last August; he chose Montreal because the living is easy and because he wants his children to learn French. During his time in the Balkans, Sudetic witnessed firsthand the carnage and horror of the Bosnian war, and watched as people lived through the frustrations of broken promises and international apathy. He feels that NATO has started a process that will ultimately lead to Milosevic's overthrow. And the final nail in Milosevic's coffin, says Sudetic, is the UN's decision to charge him for war crimes--a process set in motion by Canadian UN prosecutor Louise Arbour, recently appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. "By indicting [Milosevic] as a war criminal, the West is sending out a message to everyone around him that long-term investment in him and his regime won't pay," says Sudetic, who is currently working on a biography of Milosevic. "Sure, we can still negotiate with him, and we'll be able to get what we want out of him. We can stomach that for a while. But this increases the chances of the Yugoslavs, especially the army, getting rid of him for us. They created this guy, they carried out his policies, they got fat off him, and they can remove him." Ironically, says Sudetic, Milosevic could have been unseated from power years ago with much less trouble. Popular anti-Milosevic demonstrations were seen in Belgrade as long ago as 1996. Then the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began carrying out terrorist attacks against Serbs, providing him with a clear external enemy to scapegoat. Now, political opposition to Milosevic within Serbia is mounting once again--even among those who were closest to him. "For the first time, the opposition is going after him personally," Sudetic notes. "There used to be this deference towards him. Now that deference is gone, and the army is looking for its own scapegoat to blame for the bombing. "Personally, I don't think Milosevic will ever be tried for war crimes because he's going to get thrown out of some window." |
After two and a half months of around-the-clock bombing, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's troops pulled out of Kosovo earlier this month. They left behind a shattered and devastated province, to be governed by bickering allies and still teeming with weapons and ethnic hatreds. In Serbia, Milosevic is claiming victory; in the West, NATO is; the Russians, meanwhile, are patting themselves on the back, saying their diplomatic savvy ended the war. Now that UN troops are in Kosovo, trying to keep whatever peace there is to be had, all eyes are on the endgame. What happens next?