Honouring Karadordevic and Karadzic

by Cvijeta Arsenic

The people of Dobrun near Visegrad were enriched last weekend, not
by some newly constructed factory to give employment to the impoverished
inhabitants of the region, but by a bronze monument to Vozd Karadjordje
Petrovic, founder of the Karadjordjevic dynasty. The monument was
supposed to be positioned on an elevated spot above the Orthodox monastery
graveyard, to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the outbreak
of the First Serb Uprising.

The monument, produced by the 'Radovic Brothers' arts workshop in
Belgrade, was supposed to be lowered onto its crag with the aid of
an RS Army helicopter, but because of its weight (a ton and a half) the
helicopter's engine gave up. Then it was decided to raise the monument
manually to its elevated site, but this undertaking failed too. Then
they sent an request to SFOR, to allow them to use a Serbian army
helicopter of greater capacity, but the request was turned down. The
Vozd is for the time ensconced on a meadow beside the Dobrun monastery.

A procession led by Patriarch Pavle, Metropolitan Nikolaj and other
Serbian Orthodox church dignitaries, and by representatives of the
present-day power structures on both banks of the Drina - Vojislav
Kostunica, [RS president] Dragan Cavic, president of the RS national
assembly Dusan Stojicic, [Serb member of the B-H presidency]
Borislav Paravac and RS premier Dragan Mikerevic - then decided to
visit the Dobrun scene. On the bridge built by the Ottoman Empire's
great builder Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic, Paravac made a speech in which
he appealed to all people of good will to help financially the
restoration of a monument that is part of world cultural heritage.

The delegation next set off towards a little bridge funded by
an American businessman of Serb origin Slobodan Pavlovic, which is
likewise declared a significant architectural undertaking. Pavlovic
was so familiar with the site on which the little bridge is built
that he was unable to divine the name of the stream it spanned.
He called the river Rzana instead of Rzav, provoking a reaction
from a lady standing behind him who kept whispering to him: "Rzav,
Rzav". But why should Pavlovic be concerned about whether it was
Rzav or Rzana, seeing that he is a 'trans-Atlantic patriot' who
turned up in RS after the war as an investor, not as a humanitarian.
This means that Pavlovic always calculates that his investment must
produce a twofold or threefold return. For example, he has already
had an ample return on the money he put into the Pavlovic bridge
(over the Drina) near Bijeljina, by charging for tickets to cross
over it.

The RS delegation went for a boat-ride too, on the artificial lake
of the Visegrad hydro-electric station, and also made its way to the
town's House of Culture, where things were more than interesting. To the
surprise of associates of Milorad Dodik (and others), the RS police chief
Radomir Njegus - who recently sent Dodik an official letter asking him
to present himself for questioning at MUP headquarters - went up to
the SNSD leader and greeted him warmly. From somewhere there popped up
also the former B-H Presidency member Mirko Sarovic and his crony
Slavko Tosovic (the suspended mayor of Serb New Sarajevo municipality,
suspected of being part of the network of support for Radovan Karadzic),
who likewise buttonholed Dodik. The SNSD leader politely excused himself
and went off to visit the fifty-odd unfortunates in the Visegrad refugee
settlement, whom God himself has forgotten about.

The Dobrun festivities; suppers with gusle music at Sula in honour of
Radovan Karadzic; the organization of a dinner entitled "Contribution
to the Truth" at Medun near Podgorica (also in honour of Radovan Karadzic,
where the guests included Luka Karadzic, Bishop Amfilohije Radovic,
the poet Rajko Petrov Nogo, the painter Nikola Kusovac and others from
the International Council for Truth about Radovan Karadzic - all these
are really part of a nationalist political campaign launched by the
Serbian Orthodox Church. "Those who are ready to die for their guts,
and not for the holy cross and golden freedom, do not belong to the
Montenegrin people, but to the people of gut-worshippers" - this was
the message addressed by Bishop Amfilohije from the Medun gathering
to all 'gut-worshippers' on both sides of the Drina, meaning for
some strange reason particularly the Montenegrins.

/This report has been translated from Dani (Sarajevo), 3 September 2004./