Serbia’s institutional traces in Kosovo were erased in Kumanovo in 1999, the well-known Serbian writer Svetislav Basara is convinced. In an interview for the magazine “Radar” he explains why the autocratic regime of Aleksandar Vučić and the current student revolt are equally disastrous for the country. According to him, the clash between them offers no hope for change, but resembles a challenge where, whoever wins, Serbian society will be the big loser.
In an interview with the independent Serbian magazine “Radar”, one of the most prominent Serbian writers and harshest critics of nationalism, Svetislav Basara, spoke at length about the deep political and social crisis that has engulfed Serbia.
In his latest novel, “Đinjjiq: Memories from Beyond the Grave,” Basara analyzes recent Serbian history, starting from the Kosovo issue to the seizure of the state by Aleksandar Vučić, the role of the church, and the responsibility of political elites led by Vojislav Kostunica and Boris Tadić.
Commenting on the regime’s current policies towards Kosovo, Basara disagreed with the assertion that Aleksandar Vučić is erasing the last traces of the Serbian state presence in Kosovo. He said that the last traces of the Serbian state presence in Kosovo have been erased in a process that ended geopolitically much earlier.
According to Basara, the last traces of Serbian statehood in Kosovo were effectively erased on the day the Kumanovo Agreement was signed in 1999. All the structures or “institutions” that Belgrade claimed to maintain there after the war were nothing more than false images created for internal political consumption, just as the institutions of the Republic of Serbia themselves have become, Basara added.
According to the Serbian writer, Serbia’s decline to its current state cannot be blamed solely on Aleksandar Vučić or even Slobodan Milošević. Basara claims that the current situation is the product of the waste swept under the carpet for more than a century and a half.
“Vučić is not the one who made Serbia what it is; he only took off the gloves and removed the last veil from its ugly face. The carpet under which for more than a century and a half the regimes hid crimes and dirty deeds has rotted and the foul-smelling contents have come to the surface,” Basara says.
He adds that today’s politics are continuous and structural: the epic war for Kosovo, xenophobia, hatred of the West, and clericalism in the style of fascist Dimitrije Lotić, nurtured for decades by nationalist intellectuals and adapted in the 21st century by ideologues like Dobrica Qosić.
One of the most striking parts of the interview relates to the figure of former pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and the background to his assassination in 2003. Basara reveals that Djindjic no longer had any chance of surviving politically or physically, because he attempted to break the cycle of nationalism and make structural changes.
“Đinjić was killed even though he shouldn’t have been killed. He had realized that he couldn’t do anything he had planned because of the obstacles and was already negotiating with several European universities to leave politics after the first elections. His political circle knew this. They killed him partly out of pure anger, and partly to send a message: ‘This is how anyone who dares to disrupt the order of the bazaar will end up,’” Basara argues.
According to him, the immediate successors to power after the assassination – Vojislav Kostunica and Boris Tadic – were the first beneficiaries who enjoyed unlimited power for eight years, paving the way for the return of the radicals.
Basara directly accuses Kostunica of establishing “state continuity” with Milosevic’s structures, supporting the armed rebellion of the JSO unit, and using the means of the state and clericalism to block reforms.
On the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church and clericalism, Basara mentions cases of direct political and judicial intervention, such as the closure of investigations into pedophilia against Bishop Pahomije on direct political orders from Kostunica, or the promotion of fascist and military ideas under the guise of religion.
Asked about how Aleksandar Vučić has captured every pore of the state, security services, and media, Basara underlines that Vučić received power as a gift from Tadić’s failures and the incompetence of the self-proclaimed democratic elites.
Today, the border between the state and the mafia has been completely erased, but this is not something new since, according to him, the highest bodies of the police and secret service were also involved in the execution of the country’s own prime minister two decades ago.
Regarding the possible elections and the current student and civic revolt, Basara expresses skepticism. He criticizes the Serbian opposition and intellectual circle for instead of organizing into a liberal-democratic party, slipping back into the same dangerous nationalism.
“I see the possible choices as a choice between the ‘Serbian world’ of Aleksandar Vulin and the ‘Serbian point of view’ of Milo Lompar (Serbian literary critic, nationalist and close to the protesting students). Neither of them is my choice. Almost like the slogan of the movie Aliens vs. Predator: Whoever wins, we lose,” concludes Svetislav Basara, warning that without a radical conceptual change, Serbia will continue to remain stuck on its dead end path.
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