Desperate Serbwife

Gotov Je!

"Gotov Je!" is the phrase Serb protesters chanted when they overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and it is what we chanted at the “flash mob” peace rally on Saturday. It means, “It is finished!” And now that the Butcher of the Balkans in finally in the ground, his influence is most certainly finished…forever.

It has been quite a week in Serbia with rumors flying constantly about how Milosevic died, what was going to be done with his body, where he was going to be buried and whether his family members would actually risk being brought to justice by attending the funeral. All the while, the vast majority of Serbs went about their business of trudging through the snow to work and trying to make ends meet in the post-conflict but still economically depressed Serbia.

The rest of the world didn’t get a chance to see that the majority of Serbs were more bothered by the fact that the Milosevic era was coming back to haunt them – CNN and the BBC were too busy filming the few, remaining die-hard Socialists lining up to sign the condolence book or light candles outside the Socialist Party headquarters.

The week culminated in the huge, pre-burial ceremony on Saturday. This rally was certainly the last hurrah for the Socialists as they bused in thousands of old-guard supporters from small towns and villages all over Serbia to attend the final Milosevic rally. According to the Serbs I know, it was a sad moment to see so many citizens glorify a man who brought international shame upon their nation. My friends were particularly troubled that there were still thousands of older Serbs who reminisced about an era when Milosevic stirred the nationalist sentiment in order to entice people to turn against their former Yugoslav countrymen.

However, as I attended the peace rally held later that same day - a rally which was organized in very short order via text-messaging - I realized that despite the strength shown by the thousands who showed up for the pro-Milosevic rally, it was the last rally Milosevic would be able to inspire. His cult of personality is forever gone and there will be no one strong enough in the old-guard who will be able to fill that gap. The Milosevic supporters – who are overwhelmingly over the age of 50 – will slowly fade, just as the era over which he presided will become simply a memory of tougher times.

I think Serbs still have a lot of work ahead of them to make their democracy as strong and transparent as it should be – and I definitely think that 2006 will be one of their most challenging years because of the up-coming referendum on Montenegrin independence and the decision on Kosovo. But I also think that no matter what challenges lie ahead, Serbia can finally say "Gotov Je!" to the Milosevic era.

posted by Brooke @ 5:09 PM