Young Writers Society

I know it's old news-I say old because it's not mentioned in any headlines anymore-though it happened last month.

CBC News
Thursday, March 16 2006.

Tearful supporters of Slobodan Milosevic paid their last respects Thursday as the flag-draped coffin of the former Yugoslav president was placed on public display in Belgrade.

Milosevic died Saturday at a UN detention centre while on trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

The government of Serbia and Montenegro denied him a state funeral. Instead, his coffin was displayed in the Museum of the Revolution, a little-used monument devoted to former dictator Josip Broz Tito, who held Yugoslavia's fractious ethnic groups together from the Second World War until 1981.

Although Milosevic was ousted in 2000 after 13 years in power and is widely regarded as the architect of a series of Balkans wars that killed 250,000 people, he is still a beloved figure among many Serb nationalists.

Milosevic's Socialist Party colleagues had threatened to topple the minority government if he wasn't given some sort of ceremony and called for Saturday to be a day of mourning.

"This is a burial by the people, not a party," said Socialist Party official Zoran Andjelkovic.


'It is insane that such a Serb hero, the best of all, is gone'

Hundreds of mostly elderly mourners filed past Milosevic's coffin on Thursday and placed roses – the official symbol of Yugoslavia's Socialist Party.

"It is insane that such a Serb hero, the best of all, is gone," said Mirko Lekic, 62, a chef who said he "cried like a baby" when Milosevic's death was announced.

Milivoje Zivkovic, 81, limped his way up to the museum with a cane to pay tribute to "the man who loved his country more than any other Serb."


Milosevic's widow to return from exile for funeral

Milosevic is to be buried on his family's estate in Pozarevac, about 50 kilometres southeast of the capital.

FROM MARCH 15, 2006: Milosevic to be buried in hometown, official says


His widow, Mirjana Markovic, was to arrive Friday from Moscow for the burial, according to Socialist officials.

Markovic, who lives in Russia in self-imposed exile, had said she would not come until all charges against her for alleged abuses during Milosevic's reign were dropped.

Milosevic's brother, Borislav, will not attend because he is recovering from heart surgery in Russia, according to Russian news sources.

Milosevic faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged central role in the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, as well as genocide charges over the 1992-95 Bosnia war, which left 100,000 people dead.

In one of the most notorious incidents, as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slain by Serb forces in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

News of Milosevic's death was greeted with joy last week by mothers and widows of Srebrenica's victims, but many said they regretted that his death meant he would not have to stand trial for the killings.


There has been controversy over the physical circumstances of Milosevic's death. An autopsy has confirmed he died of heart disease, but there were reports he had access to non-prescription drugs and alcohol that could have prevented drugs prescribed by doctors from working properly.


Serbian General Ratko Mladic, alleged to have supervised the Srebrenica massacre, is still at large and wanted for war crimes, as is former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Kradzic.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/03/16/milosevic_mourners_060316.html


Some people may know him, some may not, but he was quite the notorious figure in the Balkans in the 90's. I would just like to get some feedback from people. Do you think his death may trigure or spark tensions, yet again, in the Balkans? The Socialist party is currently the largest party in Serbia, and being Milosevic loyalists, and Serb nationalists, a change in government could easily begin what had fragily ended not too long ago. Personally I, like many other Croat's, Bosnian's, and Muslim's, welcome his death, though unlike many of those I find it is the best judgment. I'm not speaking democratic 'justice', of course, I'm talking logical-a life for thousands, and better he dies for the crimes done then no one. So post away!

We... aren't missing much. I can't say I'm sorry for the man's death. It would have been better if he hadn't been poisoned, (by accident or otherwise, theres still some debate over that.) but so it goes. poo tee weet.

Indeed. So you, like me, then believe that his death is a better judgement than being 'sentenced' by the UN tribunal?

No, I believe that all death is inevitable. I also think that a sentencing by the UN tribunal would have been a more just death. But the nationalist in me says that everyone deserves some sort of a trial. The other part of me doesn't have an opinion, since I am not a child of the Soviet era.

Sentence him to death?

I'd have rather had him die digging graves. 250,000 is a lot.

Eh, but I'm rather cruel when it comes to dictators.

Griffinkeeper wrote:Sentence him to death?

I'd have rather had him die digging graves. 250,000 is a lot.

Eh, but I'm rather cruel when it comes to dictators.

Cruel? I don't know. It sounds just.

I believe forcing a man to dig his own grave actually does fall under cruel and unusual punishment, as a matter of fact. I also don't think that reducing any justice system to the level of the criminals themselves is justice, its revenge.

But then aren't you punishing him either way? Perhaps sentencing him to his own death is stooping to his own level, but, revenge or no, it is still justified. To massacre thousands for no apparent reason rather than to wipe out the Serbs ethnic rivals is not. He took the chance, and he (maybe) knew the consequences-he had already begun digging his hole.

I'd have rather had him die digging graves. 250,000 is a lot.

No one said anything to imply digging his own grave ; Griffinkeeper, I believe, intended him to dig graves for all those dead he's responsible for. It would keep him occupied both physically - and morally contemplating his life. Not cruel or unusual. Convicts work.

Either way, whats wrong with revenge? Revenge is good, when it has its own time and place, and this would have been it. While this is most likely Gods judgement, I would have rather have it been the People's judgement.
Personally, I would have LOVED to see him meet his fate similar to the way Mussolini met his...hanged and shot by angry mobs in the street.

Exactly.

He had the rest of his life to reflect upon his crimes of war, in a jail cell, no distractions. That should be punishment enough. If the man really did have no conscious, why would we waste our time on trying to find punishment for him. He isn't worth the time of day. Revenge is superficial, it does not make a person feel any better despite what we think we feel, and doesn't bring back all those thousands of Serbs and Muslims who died because of his decisions.

Besides, the United Nations didn't even fire a shot during the war. As if they would have done anything but to let him rot. In the end, the mind has the capacity to destroy a person. Whether he is gone or not, the war is over and no one can apologise to the dead.

hawk wrote:He had the rest of his life to reflect upon his crimes of war, in a jail cell, no distractions. That should be punishment enough. If the man really did have no conscious, why would we waste our time on trying to find punishment for him. He isn't worth the time of day. Revenge is superficial, it does not make a person feel any better despite what we think we feel, and doesn't bring back all those thousands of Serbs and Muslims who died because of his decisions.

Besides, the United Nations didn't even fire a shot during the war. As if they would have done anything but to let him rot. In the end, the mind has the capacity to destroy a person. Whether he is gone or not, the war is over and no one can apologise to the dead.

boo hoo hoo. The man was a murderous dictator, and deserves to be treated as such. He shouldve been dragged from his bed at night by angry, armed mobs, and dragged into the town sqare of Sarajevo, and beaten publicly, and then shot in the head, and hanged in the street for a week as a memorial.

It pisses me off when people somehow think that time in a jail cell, even a life sentence is somehow equal to or worse than a death sentence. Fact of the matter: its not. In jail, you still live. You still have hope to get out. You still have human contact. When youre dead, you don't, Just like the thousands of Serbs, Bosnians and Muslims he murdered don't. He shouldn't have rotten in prison. He didn't DESERVE prison. He deserved death.

You can devise all sorts of violent methods in your mind about ways of punishing him, but it will end. I think feeling good about another’s' suffering is quite perverse, as well as contradictory. We may think we feel better about it but we don't. It is better for the survivors and the relatives to try to move on. I'm not belittling the crimes he committed, but I think the surest way of disappointing him would have been to forget him. It's a hard thing to do, and I'm certinally not saying he should be forgiven. I'm not that Christian.

hawk wrote:You can devise all sorts of violent methods in your mind about ways of punishing him, but it will end. I think feeling good about another’s' suffering is quite perverse, as well as contradictory. We may think we feel better about it but we don't. It is better for the survivors and the relatives to try to move on. I'm not belittling the crimes he committed, but I think the surest way of disappointing him would have been to forget him. It's a hard thing to do, and I'm certinally not saying he should be forgiven. I'm not that Christian.

How dare you tell me what I am supposed to feel and think. I think very much I would like to have revenge, were I related to someone who was murdered by him and his thugs. Hell, Im not in any way, shape or form related to Croats, Bosnians, Muslims, etc. BUT I still want revenge. He was a mass murderer and a brutal dictator, two things of which I have no tolerance. And revenge is sweet. He shouldve been killed by an angry mob, as I've said before. I don't care to hear any of your uber-liberal, goody-goody bs about "moving on" and "closure". Your people have never experienced genocide and persecution, and so its easy for you to say, because it doesnt mean anything. Sure, it'd be nice to just have him sit in prison and rot, but what kind of closure is that? Oh, okay, so he's....still alive, after killing all those people? How 'bout that!? Is the basic response most people would and should, have. Sure he wouldn't be able to kill others again, unless he oh, I don't know...escaped...but still, either way, HE IS STILL ALIVE. Thousands of Bosnians, Albanians, Croats, etc. are not.
I know how genocide pervades all aspects of cultural life of a people. We do not forgive, we do not forget. Once your ethnic group becomes a victim of genocide, it is forever etched in your communal memory. Ask any Jew, Bosnian, Albanian, Croat, Gypsy, etc. Ask Erethor. He'll tell you, same as me.
I know Jews who still will never set foot in Germany because of the Holocaust. Say what you want, but revenge brings closure. We never got our revenge against Hitler. We got Eichmann, and lower ranking officers, and hanged them like the dogs they were, and THAT brought some closure. But I still wish we could've hanged or shot...or no! GASSED hitler...(call ne a sicko, I don't care)
Do you get the point? Revenge isn't always such a big taboo/"no no" subject. Sometimes it brings closure.
I have no tolerance for dictators nor genocide. He got too good for him.