SETimes.comBloggers wonder: does human life have a price?
19/03/2010
The decision to pay 250,000 euros in damages to the family of murdered Serbian President Ivan Stambolic takes bloggers back to the brutality and repression of the Milosevic regime.
By Bojana Milovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade --19/03/10
Former Serbian President and head of the Communist Party Ivan Stambolic was reported missing in 2000, just before Slobodan Milosevic was toppled from power. Three years later, Stambolic's body was found in a pit, covered in lime.
A court verdict confirmed that the murder was ordered by Milosevic, Stambolic's successor and one-time close aide.
Last week, the state paid Stambolic's family 250,000 euros in damages. "It is undisputable that the sum is not enough and that in some other European state it would total several million. However, the state's economic capacity currently does not allow for more," Justice Ministry official Slobodan Homen said.
Bloggers are fiercely responding to the state's decision. Many are particularly bothered by the fact that the Socialist Party of Serbia, formerly led by Milosevic, is now an important part of the ruling coalition, together with the forces that once fought the non-democratic regime.
"Even after this verdict, certain ministers still have a picture of Slobodan Milosevic, a proven murderer, hanging on their office wall! Tadic, who are you in coalition with?" asks Misa on b92.net.
Bezimena is also dissatisfied with the current coalition of Tadic's Democratic Party and the Socialists: "The consequence of the ceremonial reconciliation between the new Democratic Party and the old Socialist Party of Serbia has produced the piling of injustice upon injustice … Has anyone noticed that Zoran Djindjic is turning in his grave?"
Intelektualac resents living in a country where top officials are murdered. "Hey, banana republic, you have two assassinated statesmen in your recent history. And all that costs 250,000 euros, from the pockets of innocent taxpaying citizens? You should be ashamed, Serbia, every day."
Damir recalls that Serbia recently paid damages to the family of a New York college student, nearly beaten to death allegedly by Serb student Miladin Kovacevic, who then fled the United States in order to avoid charges. "This state recently paid a million dollars to a foreign citizen as damages for severe bodily harm. What happened to the Stambolic family is immeasurably worse."
Ivan Cacaj reiterates that the Milosevic regime did more than cause pain to Stambolic's family. "Imagine, when all those whom Milosevic caused mental, physical, material and other kinds of pain show up… we won't have enough even if we start printing money."
On Blic, Zoran argues that the state should not have paid damages to the Stambolic family with the tax payers' money. "Serbian citizens and tax payers were not the ones who had ordered Stambolic's murder and are not responsible for it. The one who ordered, organised and carried out that crime should pay for it. There's the property left after Milosevic's death, there's the property of (Milorad Ulemek) Legija and his villains, that property should be seized and used to pay damages to Ivan Stambolic's family."
Posting on the RTS state TV website, user Anonimus reminds everyone of the circumstances in which Stambolic was murdered and the cruelty of the Milosevic regime.
"This man died in lime. I cannot believe anyone can say anything nice about Milosevic. That's why we are where we are, because there are some who haven't learned anything from experience, and that's tragic," he writes.