My personal experience with Slobodan Milošević

(20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006)

Slobodan Milosevic officially became Serbian president in 1989, in elections widely
regarded as rigged. He abolished Kosovo's autonomy the same year. 

An article by Dr. Ichak Adizes
Published in 1999

In July 1991, Mr. Zelenovic, the Prime Minister of Serbia at the time, invited me for consultations on the breakdown of the Yugoslav Federation. I was well known as someone who knew Yugoslavia well. I published two books on Yugoslavia, which were translated to several languages.

When I arrived, I met with a joint session of the cabinet and the leadership in the Parliament of the Socialist party, which was and still is in power. I did an interactive diagnosis of the situation with them.

My conclusion was that the problem was not Slovenia nor Croatia, which were seeking independence (Bosnia was not awaken yet), but that it was Kosovo. It had 2 million Moslems who did not wish to be part of Yugoslavia. With a population plagued by low literacy, high unemployment and high birth rate, the highest in the world with an average of 9 children per family, it was costing Yugoslavia 1.5 billion dollars a year to provide health, education and unemployment benefits.

"How can you keep doing this?" I asked. "While Serbian hospitals have no medicines, you are spending a fortune on Kosovo where people hate you. You yourself say that few years back the Albanians were only 400 000, now they are two million. When will this geometrically expanding wave reach Belgrade? Kosovo is the Serbian gangrene. True, 500 years ago Kosovo was the valley where the Serbian nation was born. OK. I accept your claim that it is the Serbian Jerusalem and one does not give up motherhood's help; but wouldn't you cut your own right arm if it had gangrene or would you let it spread?"

To make a long story short, after a week of debates, Zelenovic thought that I had a point and suggested we go and see Milosevic. It was a meeting of the three of us. No one else. No translators were needed because I speak Serbian fluently, being born there.

To understand what happened next, one has to understand Serb culture. When two people that do not know each other meet, the communication in the beginning is formal, using plural you (Vi). If they seek to become more friendly and intimate, the one with the higher status has to initiate it and the other one has the option to join in. It takes the following form: The higher in status moves to singular you (Ti). If the other person accepts the offered intimacy he moves to use it too. The two will become real friendly and the conversation will become sincere without any "make believes" when the higher in status curses the other person, or better, curses his mother. That is what happened 

here. We started with plural you's. I introduced myself. When he heard that I was born in Yugoslavia but raised in Israel he got excited. He considers the Serbs the Jews of the Balkan. "We suffer alike. Everyone wants to annihilate us but we survive in spite of adversity and the bad destiny." He expressed strong desire for Israel and Serbia to renew their diplomatic relations. Then he moved to singular you. I was waiting. The conversation continued and when he said "F'k your mother" I knew we could start talking about Kosovo.

I said: "I understand that Kosovo is the cradle of the Serbian nation. But the Kosovars already said they would win their battle against the Serbs in bed. They are multiplying at a rate you can not ever match. Soon they will be a majority not only in Kosovo but also in Belgrade. It's only a question of time. It is your gangrene."

Milosevic is a very bright person. I have worked intimately with many Prime Ministers and many CEOs of Fortune 100s. You can tell a person whose wheels are turning fast. Milosevic looks at you and you can feel that the guy is intense, a fast thinker and ahead of you.

He turned to Zelenovic and said: "What do you think?" I saw that as an opportunity to dare and say more. "Look Slobo" (I felt I could address him by his nickname after he cursed my mother.) "These 2 million Kosovars are not a fog that one morning we wake up and it is gone. What are you going to do with them? Shoot them all? You can not make them move out of Kosovo either. The world community will not let you do it. They will not allow two million Moslem refugees to be floating somewhere through Europe" Zelenovic agreed with me. "So, what is your suggestion?" Milosevic asked. " I suggest we take advantage of what is dear to the Western society: Self-determination. Let's announce 

that we recognize the right of the minorities and different nationalities that comprise Yugoslavia to have self-determination. Let us invite a blue ribbon committee headed by President Carter, who likes these kinds of things, to supervise and observe a national referendum. Those who want to stay in Yugoslavia stay, and those who want to leave, let them separate. The Croats and Slovenes will leave. We lost them anyway. The Serbian in Bosnia will vote to stay and we should do our best to encourage the Kosovars to vote to leave us. The end result will be that we got greater Serbia with no war and we got 

rid of the gangrene. It is politically viable in spite of the fact that what brought you to power is the promise to do the opposite: get the Kosovars out and the Serbs in. You can claim that you could not oppose self-determination, which you can make appear through the media which you control as a sacred value. Once the Kosovars are on their own and have to support themselves, they will have to control their reproduction rate. The danger that Albania will join them for a greater Albania is not real because the Albanian leadership 

does not want two million Moslems shaking the very delicate balance between the different religions that comprise Albania. They also do not welcome the Kosovo leadership that exhibits an attitude of superiority towards them."

The end of the conversation, which took four hours, was that Zelenovic was given the task of drawing a map of Kosovo. The part called Metohija, where most of the Serbian monasteries are, were supposed to remain in Serbia and the rest was to be let go.

My assignment was to speak with the American ambassador about this deal and get his cooperation. One should not forget that Milosevic himself refused to accept the American ambassador and talk to him. I had a problem now. No one knows me at the State department. I am a nobody there. Who will believe me? Fortunately I had a friend I met through the Young Presidents Organization: Ken Adelman who was the head of the disarmament negotiations for President Reagan and an ambassador to the United Nations. "Ken help," I called him. "Here is what is happening with Milosevic and I need to talk to Ambassador Zimmerman. He does not know me. Make the introductions, please".

The next day when I called the ambassador, I was greeted warmly and when we met I was ushered to a room that appeared secured from electronic eaves dropping. Two young men were sitting there taking notes. I presented what happened the day before with Milosevic. "I do not believe Milosevic," said Zimmerman. "No way” was his conclusion. That is where this initiative died. And come to think Zimmerman might have been right.

I was supposed to meet Milosevic the week after, to deliver Zimmerman's response. I was never asked back.

Poor Zelenovic. He drew maps that Milosevic never asked for. After one week of waiting to see Milosevic I left for South Africa where another assignment was awaiting me. "If anything happens, let me know" I told Zelenovic. The next thing I knew was that Zelenovic got sacked unceremoniously by Milosevic. Insiders in the cabinet, who knew Milosevic intimately, told me that it was because of the affair with me. Zelenovic showed a weakness in his determination on Kosovo.

What Milosevic did was an old Tito trick. "How do you know where the weeds are? You water the garden and wait for them to raise their head. Then you mow them out." That is what Milosevic did. He encouraged me and Zelenovic to tell our true feelings and thoughts. He kept to himself what he really thought and then acted as he thought right. "Uh, I said to myself. This guy is fast and a political genius." And the events thereafter reinforced my judgment.

Milosevic removed all the leadership of the ruling party and put young inexperienced people to lead it. They depended for their political survival on him. Even economically they depended on him. The leaders of the party were people who would starve to death if the party would loose in the elections because they had no profession except being apparatchiks of the party. He had an iron grip on power. After my visit he got Milan Panic, a Serbian immigrant to the United States who even forgot how to speak Serbian and had zero political following to become the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

"This whole visit, it occurred to me was a 'job interview'. They were looking for an unknown, but still legitimate face, for  Prime Minister and I had blown my opportunity (Thanks God)". That was 1991.

Years passed by and I wondered all these years how in the world was Milosevic going to deal with Kosovo. I have been writing, warning the world about the forthcoming calamity in Kosovo. I had a personal reason to worry too. I was saved by Albanian Moslems during World War II. I felt I had a debt of honor to pay.

Watching the bombing of Yugoslavia on TV, listening to interviews with strategic decision makers like Sandy Berger, the National Security Advisor to President Clinton, I finally realized the morbid genius of Milosevic. Yes!!! He is going to expel the Kosovars out of Kosovo. The two million of them, and he is going to do it with the full cooperation of NATO. How? NATO is in the air only, right? He has a free hand on the ground. Few atrocities will do the trick. A massive exodus will follow. True that in the meantime he will be loosing some airports and several factories because of the raids. He might also loose a few thousand soldiers and civilians but he will clean up the Serbian cradle, something he promised to do when he climbed to power. He will be remembered in the annals of Serbian history as the great liberator. And he can do it under the cover of war. These are war refugees and he is doing it without impunity. How can NATO stop him now? Do more bombing? Of whom? Civilian targets? Bomb Belgrade? It is fine with Milosevic. It will make him an even bigger hero of his nation. He will become the true martyr. Will the Serb people rise against him when the destruction becomes overwhelming? No! It can not be worse than what they experienced in Second World War where every ninth Yugoslav was killed. This nation is used to hardship. They have had a five hundred year long hardship boot camp under the Turks. They will eat grass and leaves and not yield once attacked. Americans yield once they see body bags. Serbs, when hurt, call for revenge and get more hostile, not less. They have been under Turkish influence for a long time. Turks never retreat. Americans think rationally. Serbs think first with their emotions, than they 

subordinate their logic to it and if there is no logic, they make it up to fit what they emotionally have decided to do.

Milosevic has played his cards very smart and the West made all the wrong moves. He will clean up Kosovo and the West will end up silently thanking him for it because he removed the Moslem threat of a new Moslem state in Europe. Will they take him to Hague after the war and charge him with crimes against humanity? I doubt it because so far this guy has been more intelligent that any of his counterpart.