Memento: Zoran Đinđić (1952-2003)

"There is only One Life we have..."

Four years after Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was murdered, at a moment when Serbia is still without new governement after elections in January and when negotiations about the future status of Kosovo are going straight to nowhere, we have to remember the man who started a new era on the Serbian political scene


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


On Monday, March 12, there will be four years since the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was murdered, in front of the government building , while coming to his office. Everybody knows today who did it, although the Court still didn't finish this trial. Everybody knows how. The question "why" - has different answers, mostly according to political, ideological and some other aspects of so many different people and groups in Serbia. First and foremost the opinion of the Court is that criminals were afraid of announced actions that Đinđić and his government started and planned to take against them and they had to kill him to get some free space. Second, the opposite, you will hear: he was their friend, what else could he expect of such "a nice company"?

However, people in Serbia are still very separated talking about Zoran Đinđić and his work. But all of them must agree that he was the man who started a new era on the Serbian political scene. The intention of this article is not to discuss Zoran Đinđić's political attitudes, his moves before 2000 and while he was the Prime Minister of the first democratic Serbian government (after decades of communism and almost 15 years of Slobodan Milošević dictatorship). This is just to remind of the man who brought something new to Serbia: hope.

Biography

Zoran Đinđić was born on August 1st, 1952 in a place named Bosanski Šamac, in the ex-Yugoslav republic Bosnia & Herzegovina. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1974 and then went to Germany where he finished postgraduate and PhD studies. U.S. weekly magazine "Time" proclaimed Đinđić as one of the 14 leading European politicians of the Third Millenium. Also he got the German award "Bambi" for politics. He is one of the founders of the Democratic Party, at the very beginning of the multi-party political system in Serbia. In September 1990, he became the president of the party's Executive Board.

Đinđić was the first non-communist, or a so-called democrat, Mayor of Belgrade. He was elected Mayor in February 1997, as a candidate of coalition of opposition parties - "Zajedno" ("Together"). That was the time when Milošević and his party were still ruling in Serbia. He spent only seven months on this position but long enough to take off the five-sided star, symbol of communism, from the City Council building.

All through the 1990s, Zoran Đinđić was in the oppostion block, fighting against Milošević and his regime. In 1997, the opposition parties won the local elections, in the most of big Serbian cities. After protests and three months long demonstrations, dictator had to accept the results of voting. But he had left the throne by 2000, when the big alliance of all the opposition parties, except SPO (Serbian Renewal Movement), came out together against Milošević. It was one list and one opposition candidate for president - Vojislav Koštunica - but Zoran Đinđić was the real leader of this coalition of 17 political parties.

Fights for Democracy

After the well-known peaceful Serbian revolution on October 5th, 2000 and the new elections in December the same year, Đinđić became the first democrat Prime Minister of the Serbian government, on January 25th, 2001, and he remained on that position until the tragic March 12, 2003.

There are many people that didn't like him because of his work but he just had to make some unpopular moves. He came into position when everything was broken after years of dictatorship - corrupted politicians and whole society, destroyed economy, high inflation and unemployment growing, privatization didn't start. It was obvious that his realistic and practical politics would not be soft and people will be worried about their future but one of his mottos were: "If you have to eat frogs, take the biggest one first!"

He was brave enough to take responsibility for arresting Slobodan Milošević and then sending him to the Hague Tribunal. It was a real bomb for the whole country but someone had to do that. Đinđić and his government brought the country back to the international community and institutions and also brought foreigners back to Serbia - guests, students, tourists, investors... Serbia wasn't marked as the black hole anymore.

Today, four years after Zoran Đinđić was murdered by professional criminals, at the moment when Serbia is still without new a governement after the elections on January 21st, and when negotiations about the future status of south province Kosovo are going straight to nowhere, we really have to remember this man and his work. Because, as he said: "There is only One Life we have..."