In reading Slavenka Drakulic’s book, Café Europa, I came across the name “Arkan.” In the book Arkan’s disregard of tradition and meaning in uniform is used to show Europe’s eagerness to forget, or at least pretend to forget. The twentieth anniversary of the Serbian-Croatian war is approaching. Citizens of the former Yugoslavian states are still healing, twenty years after the devastating ethnic wars. That is why it is important to understand the complexities, to know the truth and seek justice through a correct portrayal of history.
Zeljko “Arkan” Raznatovic was one of the most notorious Serbian war leaders in the early 1990s. Born in 1952, he lived until January 17, 2000 when he was assassinated. Sources said that Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, as cruel as he was, did not compare to the brutality of Arkan.
Early Career
His hefty criminal background before the collapse of Yugoslavia sounds like something out of a James Bond movie. He is thought to have worked for Tito’s government in the Serbian Secret Police hit squads across Europe. Having an affinity towards bank robbing and other crimes, Arkan had convictions or warrents in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. He escaped jail numerous times and was on Interpol’s ten most wanted list. He was a thief and a murderer early in life.
In claiming to defend the Serbian people, Arkan committed atrocities on the scale of a genocide among Croatian and Bosnian communities. According to Genocide Awareness Network at the time of the wars, Arkan “through flamboyance and force of personality, has become the popular embodiment of the breakdown of civil order in Serbia.”
War with Croatia and Bosnia
During the Bosnian war he established a training camp and formed a one thousand man paramilitary force that came to be known as the Tigers. Among numerous other crimes, the Tigers were known for their destruction of the Croat town of Vukovar. Eye witness accounts state that Arkan personally led most of the attacks.
The US State Department reported Arkan’s forces to have murdered over 2,000 Muslim men women and children in one month in the Bosnian town of Brcko. His cruel forms of execution included decapitation and cutting off the hands and feet of victims. The number of rapes by Arkan and his forces was horrific. The Serbian government led by Milosevic supported his massacre by supplying and equipping Arkan’s forces with Serbian police reserves.
In 1993 he formed the Party of Serbian Unity and became its president. His ties with politicians and his strong nationalist appeal gave him power and influence in Serbian society. He was even elected to the Serbian parliament. His 1995 wedding to Serbian folk singer Ceca Velickovic was a lavish ceremony. It was here that Arkan wore various uniforms that he had no right to wear.
However, in 1997 he was indicted on twenty-four charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. While in Belgrade in 2000, Arkan was assassinated prior to his trial date. Some sources say Milosevic, also on trial, was afraid of what Arkan knew and had him killed.
Unfortunately Arkan became a kind of martyr for Serbian nationalists. Young Serbians today view him as a hero. Serbia would be better off with different heroes. It is ironic that in 1998 he wrote to then president Bill Clinton, warning him of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. Arkan’s horrendous actions took the same form, the same militarism seen today in Islamic fundamentalism. He killed innocent civilians, Bosnian Muslims as well as Catholic Croats.
Arkan did not care about Serbia as much as he cared for power over the lives and minds of people. And of course, there is always the love of money- the root of all evil. The root that fed Arkan.
Iemima Ploscariu - As a recent college graduate of Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, Iemima's writing experience consists of work done for ...
