By Milivoje Mihajlovic
A year has passed since the murder of Oliver Ivanovic and in the past weeks the media has renewed their memory of a leader who was much larger than his small party, a victim of political assassination in Kosovska Mitrovica. Tens of thousands of people walked in silence in Belgrade in his honor. All the newspapers and televisions reiterated the sentence: “They did everything they could up til now — apart from shoot me,” – which he stated two months before the murder.
I have no intention of searching for motives, killers and instigators by tumbling through assumptions. I am scared of the conclusions we are led to by rumors. I am hurt by the brutality of tabloids in manipulations and fabrications. I am disgusted with the audacity of those who have demonized him the most and now they are acting like they are mourning him. The murder of Oliver Ivanovic is a paradigm of the time in which we live – twisted values, lost ideals, shaken stability, in which only the usable value of a man is appreciated. The age of cheap human lives.
Oliver Ivanovic has gone through all the stages of the „Balkan treatment“. He was alternately praised and criticized, glorified and gossiped about. He was a „hero“ and „a spy“, a „hero“ and a „criminal“ – depending on the time and interests of his opponents or followers. And many of them often did not know when they were his opponents and when they were not. When he was targeted by a part of the Serbian media, it was clear that he had offended those who hold the power. Before that (at the time he was arrested) he was targeted by Albanian media. It was then clear that he also bothered the powerful players south of the Ibar. When he was arrested, it was noticeable that some international centers of power had placed him on the „blacklist“. When he was anathematized by some – others „defended“ him. The saddest thing is that many are still trying to use him. This game also has a national note – a large number of Serbs think he was the last chance and many Albanians do not think, even today, that he was a saint.
Now, a year after the murder, the investigation turned into an exchange of charges from one side to the other. They all swore to do everything to find the killers, and they are doing everything to obstruct the investigation. The „investigation“ is conducted through the media, tabloids and portals. Some unknown journalists held press conferences, reported information about this crime, and then they were kidnapped (or kidnapped themselves), then they were found and mysteriously sank into oblivion. News about the identity of the killer arrived every day. And who is not a killer. Who traveled to Thailand. With whom. From where. Which fans or members of Belgrade, as well as Montenegrin, criminal clans at the time of the murder visited Kosovo and the north. In which hotels they stayed. Polygraphs, satellite images, video surveillance footage – everything was mentioned only for the public to be convinced of the „resolve“ to shed light on this murder. But the other side does not want cooperation – the pulpits thundered. It could be heard from Pristina: „The killer is in Belgrade“, and from Belgrade – that the murder was planned among the top echelons of the Kosovo government… Who was arrested? Who is the suspect? We „received“ answers to these questions both in simulated arrests and in pointless accusations… I had the impression that both Pristina and Belgrade know much more about this murder than can be concluded from the statements of officials and that, through the media, they are leading some strange „dialogue“ by presenting information about the evidence or alleged evidence. It is like they are blackmailing or perhaps silencing each other.
Instead of being investigated, this murder is used for internal conflicts in Serbia, for political conflicts in the Kosovo government, for bickering between Belgrade-Pristina… Many used it as a reason for their presence in the public…
At the anniversary of the murder, two photographs were published – which say nothing.
The public was assaulted with stories about this assassination and all the stories had only one goal – to distance the investigation from the perpetrators and the instigators. And that is a signal that it is a serious conspiracy.
Support for the killer (or the killers), a burned car, a cleaned scene, cameras which were turned off, unusual behavior of the police, a sloppy investigation – all this leads to the conclusion that this was done by professional killers who had strong logistical planning. A well-run publicity campaign focused on rumors also suggests that a certain number of media (either consciously or unconsciously) contributes to the search spinning around in a circle and that the aim is not to find murderers and instigators. Everything looks like a thriller about the connection of politics, crime, secret services, police…
On the same day, three years earlier, a candidate for mayor, associate, and close friend of Oliver Ivanovic, Dimitrije Janicijevic was killed in Kosovska Mitrovica. Both murders have the same „manuscript“ and political motive.
Who was bothered by Oliver Ivanovic? When he was arrested, it was known that it was done with the aim of removing him from the political scene. He bothered extremists, unrealistically ambitious politicians, the corrupt part of the international mission in Kosovo… After three years in jail, he returned to politics. In the Kosovo public, he carried a weight of accusation. The doctored trial broke all international connections of a man with whom every diplomat who stepped foot in Kosovo after 1999 met with. Belgrade did not understand him. He did not even understand Belgrade. In Mitrovica, they were afraid that he had strengthened and that he had a halo of a martyr in an Albanian prison. Many did not like his story of reconciliation and coexistence. They had a different vision of the „normalization“ process. No one has yet looked for the answer to the question: Is the murder linked to the arrest and the doctored court process?
For a year, there has been no agreement, even on a joint investigation – and this is evidence of obstruction. The north needed a leader in 2018, as it did in 1999, to rise against the brutal criminalization, against the degradation of Serbian interests, against the robbery of money that arrived from Belgrade, against the absurd idea of partition… That is why the murder of Oliver Ivanovic is an assassination with political conspiracy. But, the last case painstakingly illustrated by the pointlessness of EULEX in Kosovo. It is strange that the „mission of justice“ (as EULEX promoted on its arrival in Kosovo) showed no interest in resolving this crime. Is it because Oliver often, and in various places, talked about the corruption at the top of EULEX?
A professional crime is left to an amateur investigation. As long as a serious (say, international) team of investigators does not start dealing with this murder, the citizens of Kosovo will live in fear of a new crime and an evil „solution“.
This assassination will, sooner or later, be resolved. Then, we will understand that the battle for peace in Kosovo is not a fight against windmills and we will receive answers to many questions.
Did Oliver pay with his life for believing that Serbs and Albanians could and should live together or one next to each other, either way, just to live in peace? Is this just a part of the power center conspiracy or an example of punishing the disobedient? Is his „sin“ that he has prevented the ethnic cleansing of the north? Is his murder embedded in the foundation of the project on the partition of Kosovo? Who is trading with this murder? Who is blackmailing whom with Oliver’s death? Were they crueler to him while he was alive or now?
The punishment for the murder of Oliver Ivanovic is now paid by everyone, not just by those who shot him, nor by those who ordered it.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
