Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is an American journalist living in Prishtina, Kosovo. When not reporting, Nate enjoys sampling the endless bounty of grilled meats and moonshine across the former Yugoslavia.

Ratko Mladic: The Hooligans’ Hero

May 28, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Protests in Belgrade following Ratko Mladic's arrest (Photo: Nate Tabak)


The images of Ratko Mladic gracing Serbia’s front pages and newscasts showed a frail shell of the stocky former Bosnian Serb wartime commander who went into hiding 16 years ago. But his capture Thursday inspired a frenzied nighttime rage among several hundred mostly young men who played a cat-and-mouse game with riot police in Belgrade’s Republic Square, the nucleus of Serbia’s capital.

At times they mixed the chants of soccer hooligans with crude attacks on President Boris Tadic, who made Mladic’s capture a top political priority. Most had to have been children in 1995, when Mladic is accused of masterminding the slaughter of some 7,500 men and boys in Srebenica.

On this night in Belgrade, they viewed the ugliest moment of the Bosnian civil war and post-World War II Europe through the lens of hooliganism tinted with fringe ultranationalism.

Their man, Mladic, had been dealt a red card, and they were mad as hell.

“Go to Kosovo!” the young men sniped at the riot police, who closed in. Serbia’s former southern province is another largely lost cause for the holdout extremists who reject their country’s increasingly European Union orientation.

The police got closer.

“You call this democracy?” one man yelled to an approaching officer at the rowdy but essentially peaceful assembly.

“Hey, reporter, no pictures,” the same man warned in Serbian, pointing to me as I shot photos from the perch of a bench. Apparently he did not count freedom of the press among his democratic values.

And then they scattered, and the lines of police officers split and gave chase. Some were arrested.

Only hours earlier, it was a typical lazy afternoon at Republic Square. Mladic’s arrest might as well have happened on another planet. Western tourists donning matching headsets streamed through the city’s nucleus on guided tours as Belgraders sipped beer and coffee at the numerous outdoor cafes.

That is the image Serbia wants the world to see: A mainstream, cosmopolitan European state, with a crown jewel of a capital. People here say that it’s a place that’s moved on from the dark days of Slobodan Milosevic and the brutal ethnic conflicts he fomented as Yugoslavia collapsed. And it has.

But just as men like Mladic lurk in the shadows, a marginalized but vocal fringe remains committed to kicking and screaming along every inch of their country’s progress.


Discussion

6 comments for “Ratko Mladic: The Hooligans’ Hero”

  • Anonymous

    Dear Nate,
    your article is heavily biased and you’re too opinionated to be a journalist.
    The image that you saw in Belgrade hours before the arrest of Mladic happened was a picture of a capital city enjoying it’s beauty and attractions. The picture you saw later was people that are angry and devastated because they have been humiliated and disrespected for years, by their own government, by EU, by the circus called Hague and more.
    You woudn’t be able to understand such thing, as you’d have to know history and facts, and be able to separate it from lies, propaganda and media war against Serbia (which you contribute to).
    So, I suggest you reffer back to journalist integrity next time you want to write about big boy stuff.

  • Anonymous

    Dear Nate,
    your article is heavily biased and you’re too opinionated to be a journalist.
    The image that you saw in Belgrade hours before the arrest of Mladic happened was a picture of a capital city enjoying it’s beauty and attractions. The picture you saw later was people that are angry and devastated because they have been humiliated and disrespected for years, by their own government, by EU, by the circus called Hague and more.
    You woudn’t be able to understand such thing, as you’d have to know history and facts, and be able to separate it from lies, propaganda and media war against Serbia (which you contribute to).
    So, I suggest you reffer back to journalist integrity next time you want to write about big boy stuff.

  • http://profiles.google.com/lpcyusa Jill Starr

    Irrefutable Proof ICTY Is Corrupt Court/Irrefutable Proof the Hague Court
    Cannot Legitimately Prosecute Karadzic Case By Jill Starr

    https://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa/IrrefutableProofICTYIsCorruptCourtIrrefutabl#

    (The Documentary Secret United Nations ICC Meeting Papers Scanned Images)

    https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite/irrefutable-proof-icty-is-corrupt-court-irrefutable-proof-the-hague-court-cannot-legitimately-prosecute-karadzic-case

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKe-5LORsGs (My YouTube VIDEO)

    This legal technicality indicates the Hague must dismiss charges against Dr
    Karadzic and others awaiting trials in the Hague jail; like it or not.

    Unfortunately for the Signatures Of the Rome Statute United Nations member
    states instituting the ICC & ICTY housed at the Hague, insofar as the,
    Radovan Karadzic, as with the other Hague cases awaiting trial there, I
    personally witnessed these United Nations member states having a substantial
    conversations, and, openly speaking about trading judicial appointments and
    verdicts for financial funding when I attended the 2001 ICC Preparatory
    Meetings at the UN in Manhattan making the iCTY and ICC morally incapable
    trying Radovan Karazdic and others.

    I witnessed with my own eyes and ears when attending the 2001 Preparatory
    Meetings to establish an newly emergent International Criminal Court, the exact
    caliber of criminal corruption running so very deeply at the Hague, that it was
    a perfectly viable topic of legitimate conversation in those meetings I
    attended to debate trading verdicts AND judicial appointments, for monetary
    funding.

    Jilly wrote:*The rep from Spain became distraught and when her country’s
    proposal was not taken to well by the chair of the meeting , then Spain argued
    in a particularly loud and noticably strongly vocal manner, “Spain (my country)
    strongly believes if we contribute most financial support to the Hague’s
    highest court, that ought to give us and other countries feeding it financially
    MORE direct power over its decisions.”

    ((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((( Instead of censoring the
    country representative from Spain for even bringing up this unjust, illegal and
    unfair judicial idea of bribery for international judicial verdicts and judicial
    appointments, all country representatives present in the meeting that day all
    treated the Spain proposition as a ”totally legitimate topic” discussed and
    debated it between each other for some time. I was quite shocked! The idea was
    “let’s discuss it.” “It’s a great topic to discuss.”

    Some countries agreed with Spain’s propositions while others did not. The point
    here is, bribery for judicial verdicts and judicial appointments was treated as
    a totally legitimate topic instead of an illegitimate topic which it is in the
    meeting that I attended in 2001 that day to establish the ground work for a
    newly emergent international criminal court.))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

    In particular., since “Spain” was so overtly unafraid in bringing up this topic
    of trading financial funding the ICC for influence over its future judicial
    appointments and verdicts in front of every other UN member state present that
    day at the UN, “Spain” must have already known by previous experience the topic
    of bribery was “socially acceptable” for conversation that day. They must have
    previously spoke about bribing the ICTY and ICC before in meetings; this is my
    take an international sociological honor student.

    SPAIN’s diplomatic gesture of international justice insofar as, Serbia, in all
    of this is, disgusting morally!SPAIN HAS TAUGHT THE WORLD THE TRUE DEFINITION
    OF AN “INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT.”

    I represented the state interests’ of the Former Yugoslavia, in Diplomat Darko
    Trifunovic’s absence in those meetings and I am proud to undertake this effort
    on Serbia’s behalf.

    http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa  (My Political
    Satire Blog)                    

    International
    Relations Consultant & War
    Crimes Investigator
    - War
    - Peace
    - Preventive Diplomatic Strategies
    - International Law
    - Charitable Causes
    - International Business
    - International Political Economy
    - Human Rights – Politics
    - War Crimes Investigations
    - Anti-Terrorism
    - Law Projects Center Funded Projects (YCICC) Internationally
    https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite

     

     

     

     

     

  • Anonymous

    Jelena,Jelena. I agree with you, people of Serbia did suffer under their own government, but let’s not forget that most of them supported that government when it was sending troops to kill and butcher Bosniaks.If people are sickened by seeing that someone can support mass murderer like Mladich, that’s not “media war against Serbia”, that’s just sad serbian reality.Decent people all over the world celebrate whenever war criminals like this one get the chance to feel the strenght of justice (does not matter what nationality they belong too),and only crippled minds call human garbage like that “our hero”.

    • Dejan Ivanisevic

       No bosnians were butchered, please stop believing the western lies of propaganda toward the Serbs and read some factual information. No genocide ever occurred either, stop being so blatant with everything thinking Serbs did this and that. If anything Serbs suffered more than any other state in the former Yugoslavia. And by you writing “support the mass murderer like Mladich” I can infer that you have absolutely no clue as to what you are talking about. In what way is he a mass murderer other than what he has been portrayed by the Western Media? What evidence links him to being a mass murderer other than the lies that are so vivid in today’s media? Show me the proof to your blatant statements. I am man of justice and can honestly tell you Mladic was only protecting himself and the Serbian people, something you don’t have a clue about, and I proudly say to everyone that I know that Mladic is my hero, and the greatest one that I can possibly name. Something else you should ask yourself is how did Naser Oric kill over 3,000 serbs in Srebrenica and to date no one even mentions it. Just like it never even happened. You’re way too one sided, but one thing the author also needs to know is that he’s not the “Hooligan’s Hero” yet should be every single Serb’s hero in the world. If you are Serbian and don’t consider Mladic your hero, then to me you are not a true Serb, you are a nobody.

  • Maxov Max