ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

opposition community. This consisted of opposition party leaders, NGO leaders,
reformist intellectuals, representatives of the very limited independent media that existed,
and so on. These were the people I had most often as guests in the residence. Some of the
human rights activists in particular, like Sonia Biserko or Natasha Kandic, were very
courageous people but they had little influence on the larger political scene. Their
influence came much later, after Milosevic’s downfall.
Q: What about Vuk Draskovic? He was quite a name at the time.
PERINA: He was probably the best-known dissident in the West. Milosevic contributed
to that by having thugs beat him up very seriously shortly before my arrival. I knew Vuk
well but considered him a little out of his element as a political leader. He did not really
understand politics and came up with very strange ideas and suggestions. He was a writer
and a poet, and not a serious political thinker. The most impressive opposition political
leader I knew was Zoran Djindjic. He had been an exchange student in Germany and
seemed to me to be the most astute of the opposition figures. We had him at our house
many times. He in fact became Prime Minister in the post-Milosevic era and was very
instrumental in shipping Milosevic off to the Hague. Then he was assassinated by Serb
nationalists, which was a big loss for Serbia.
Shortly after I arrived, I also met Vojislav Kostunica, another opposition leader at that
time who subsequently became both Prime Minister and President of post-Milosevic
Serbia. At the time I knew him, he was completely without influence or power. We met
once, and it was not a good meeting. He was a strong Serb nationalist who did not hide
that he disliked American policy toward Serbia. He was a very frustrated and angry
person. He did not have any constituency or much influence during my entire time in
Belgrade.
I also went a couple of times to see Patriarch Pavle, who was the head of the Serbian
Orthodox church. He was a very frail, elderly man but very influential in the country. We
wanted him to condemn some of the things happening in Bosnia, the sniper shootings of
civilians and so on. He listened to my arguments but would not say anything remotely
critical of the Bosnian Serb forces.
Q: What about Montenegro?
PERINA: Montenegro was interesting because amidst all the other developments at the
time, it was always toying with the idea of breaking away from Serbia and becoming
independent. There was this tension between Belgrade and Podgorica, the Montenegrin
capital, always in the background. The fact is that Montenegrins were split on the issue of
independence almost 50-50. Contrary to what some believe, U.S. policy was not repeat
not to support Montenegrin independence. We felt this could lead to yet another war in
the region. I visited Montenegro several times to talk to local politicians and get a sense
of the mood. Fortunately, no serious problem with Montenegro erupted in my time. The
situation became much more serious in later years.
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