yugoslavias implosion

opinion, could save Yugoslavia. Brandt believed that “Ćosić is a person
with the authority to create it.” Ćosić refused the offer because
he was supposedly busy writing a novel. In reality, he was setting up
the Serbian Democratic Party in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He was in regular contact with Jovan Rašković, a psychiatrist from
Croatia, and Radovan Karadžić, a psychiatrist from Bosnia. Ćosić
ensured that Karadžić was elected president of the party’s branch
in Bosnia by counseling “people from Bosnia who came to me to
connect them with Radovan Karadžić, psychiatrist and poet, chief
initiator of restoring the free and democratic life of the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
who was working toward creating the party intelligently,
tolerantly and persistently. Radovan frequently telephoned
me at night to let me know what he had done and what was going on
in Bosnia and Sarajevo, seeking my counsel and support. And he also
needed money for the party.” 113
Ćosić and Milošević met for the first time in June 1990 at the
insistence of a friend and discussed “national and state policy, the
Socialist Party, and the future of the Serbian people.” Milošević
struck Ćosić as a “Communist possessing a modern concept of economics,
communication, and development.” In December 1991, after
the European Union acknowledged the break-up of Yugoslavia in
conformity with the recommendation of the Badinter Commission,
an opinion the Serbian elite took as an ultimatum, Ćosić feared
that Milošević “did not have the political capacity and statesmanly
vision” the historical circumstances demanded. Ćosić was assured by
Milošević that he would “not bow to the ultimatum.” 114 Ćosić interpreted
the eu move as a “new Congress of Berlin” at which “imperialistic
forces were deciding the fate of Balkan peoples anew.” He
watched the reunification of Germany with apprehension because
he believed that “the Germany that supported Slovene and Croat
113 Ibid ., p . 290 .
114 Ibid ., p . 417 .
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