Milosevic is dead

In 2001 I was sitting in a bar near Portoroz, Slovenia watching cable news when the first attempt to arrest Milosevic was going on. That eventually went nowhere but shortly afterward the deed was done. In the bar at the time were several Yugoslav (Serb) students, some of whom were active against Milosevic in local movements, all of whom wondering what the future would bring.

The attitude of the diehard Milosevic sympathisers is understandable if misguided - if he had gone to Russia I doubt he would ever return. It sickens me to be honest when some are deemed too old/sick to stand trial when they reached that old age walking over the bones of those they murdered.

As the BBC obit points out, until the Dayton accords Milosevic was still untouchable, swanning around the world signing peace accords while sizing up his next target. Is it too much to hope that rather than obsessing over Milosevic's supposed martyrdom, Serbia can move forward towards an open society, as Croatia did with the death of Tudjman? Is it too much to hope that tonight Bob Mugabe sleeps uneasily, and that Mbeki and the others in South Africa propping up his regime and planning their own landgrabs?

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