Appearing here are selected editorials exclusive to FreeSerbia, tackling various aspects of social and political life in Yugoslavia. We welcome your reactions to any of these comments.

OPEN SOURCE
Autumn in the City
Ivo Skoric
September 14, 2001
Yesterday, it was such a beautiful sunny September day in New York city that the only cloud in the sky was the one raising from the rubble of the World Trade Center (WTC).

POLITICS
JUL in July, DOS in August
Jovan Palavestra
September 11, 2001
Do you like cartoons? Well, I do, especially those where two cartoon characters of approximately equal strength just keep banging each other on the head with big clubs all the time. First one of them hits, then the other retaliates, and then the first one goes again, and so on and on, with stars and little birdies fluttering merrily around their heads, and this just goes on and on until something so dramatic happens they have to stop fighting. And all this time, neither one nor the other is hurt, nothing really happens, except that beating is kind of interesting to look at. Especially for little kids.

STATE AND CHURCH
Spiritual Commissars
Ivan Djordjevic
July 13, 2001
The imparting of national and other ideologies brought us to where we are now. Why then do we need new "spiritual commissars" to instil God in our children? Haven't we had enough of instilling dogmas in "their little minds"?

ECONOMY
Will the Yugoslav dinar depreciate?
Dusan Kosanovic
June 30, 2001
Central Bank governor Mladjan Dinkic has learned some lessons from his popular predecessor Dragoslav Avramovic who is fondly remembered for having halted the hyperinflation of the early 90s. On the one hand, citizens' favorite economic indicator is the stability of the national currency ("dinar"), whereas the prime minister's top priority is to attract foreign capital and strengthen export-consequently PM Djindjic is not among the fans of an overvalued dinar. However, it appears there is some political background to what at first would appear as nothing more than an ordinary economic dispute between Dinkic and Djindjic.

OPEN SOURCE
Yugoslavia and Europe: breaking up, making up
Dejan Jovic
June 28, 2001
A decade of war and dissolution in ex-Yugoslavia makes the region the test of whether a post-Cold War Europe is possible. What will Europe become when the Balkans is no longer its simple mirror-image?

BEHIND THE NEWS
Either him or us
Boris Milicevic
June 11, 2001
Serbian deputy Prime Minister Zarko Korac told Dutch daily Trouw that Milosevic would be turned over to the Hague tribunal: "It's either him or us. There is a danger that we become Milosevic's hostages once again, and that has got to stop," said Korac.

BEHIND THE NEWS
Unpleasant witnesses
Boris Milicevic
June 06, 2001
One can't help wondering why the case "Depth 2" was opened just at the time DOS was battling the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro over the Law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal. It might be a sign of pressure on the coalition partner, but also a sign of the upcoming extradition of Milosevic to the Hague.

OPEN SOURCE
Right time (?) for human rights
Dusan Kosanovic
June 04, 2001
Do you ever run into a same-sex couple strolling casually on the streets of Belgrade? Is Serbia a homophobic (i.e. antidemocratic) society? The answer to the first question is most likely "no," and to the second one a resounding "yes."

BEHIND THE NEWS
The case of Bojana L.
Vladan Milicevic
May 26, 2001
Television B92 surely did not enjoy having its editor-in-chief receive an award from a competing TV station, but perhaps it should be viewed as an endorsement of her merits, and endorsement of her station. Taking into account that TV B92 is applying for a national frequency, with six contenders for three spots, this station may now be disqualified from the race.

TRANSITION
Sumadija - Virginia or Columbia?
Boris Milicevic
May 23, 2001
Prime Minister Djindjic announced the good news: British American Tobacco is building a tobacco factory in Kragujevac, Sumadija, the home of the now defunct Zastava car factory. The bad part is that this multinational is charged with grave criminal misconduct all over the world.

THE HAGUE CHRONICLE
Milosevic getting closer to Hague
Boris Milicevic
May 19, 2001
Immediately after his return from Washington, President Kostunica filed a detailed report to the DOS leadership about his visit to the U.S. and about his obligation for the Law on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal to be adopted by the Federal Parliament by the end of May 2001.

HOT 'N' YELLOW
Sexually harassed Serbia
Dusan Kosanovic
May 08, 2001
"Democratic, expanded" Main Board of Social Democracy party (political left - i.e. pro-equality) hounded Jelena Milenkovic, one of the signatories of the petition demanding the resignation of Vuk Obradovic, with tough masculine shouts "whore, get out!", conveying clearly to the bold insurgents that in Serbia the topic of sexual harassment is terra incognita

OPEN SOURCE
Paddling our own canoe
Dusan Kosanovic
April 28, 2001
The Yugoslav venture is the most progressive idea of the Balkan peoples from the last millennium, but the debacle of all attempts to realize the Yugoslav dream is no reason for the Serbian nation to be frustrated and lost

ELECTIONS 2001
Defeat Belongs to Montengro
Boris Milicevic
April 27, 2001
In spite of the amazing turnout Montenegrin citizens failed to provide any answers to the burning question: would Montenegro embark on the path to independence, or would it remain in a federation with Serbia.

THE SOUTH SIDE
Moderate Optimism in Spite of Differences
Boris Milicevic
April 16, 2001
Although changes in Belgrade are slow to reach the south of Serbia, political representatives of Albanians from the region are nevertheless somewhat optimistic.

SIX MONTHS LATER
The Messiah Myth
Ivan Djordjevic
April 12, 2001
Vojislav Kostunica's approval ratings have made a mindboggling jump from 2 to 90 per cent. Let us take a look at the secret behind this fantastic success story, a success so fantastic it was hardly expected even by Kostunica himself at the time of his acceptance of the presidential nomination.

THE BALKANS
(Mis)communicating vessels
Dusan Kosanovic
March 11, 2001
Ten years after the divorce: some entirely accidental, and totally inexplicable (dis)similarities between Croatia and Serbia.

OPEN SOURCE
Away from the Milosevic legacy
Ivan Djordjevic
March 11, 2001
Hate has found its way into Serbia's political mainstream, and it is going to take a long time for this to change. The time is ripe to take a long hard look at this issue. Or else: we might someday just find ourselves wondering how Milosevic could have happened to us again.

CROSSROADS
The Hague spring
Ivan Djordjevic
February 23, 2001
What has Slobodan Milosevic indebted the citizens of Serbia with that was so great that they would risk new sanctions or termination of financial aid, by keeping him safe from Carla Del Ponte "the white dragon's" embrace?
[Analysis]

DOSSIER LUKIC
Clean(s)ing Agents for Police
Boris Milicevic
February 21, 2001
Appointment of the controversial Lieutenant General Sreten Lukic to the post of State Security chief obviously suggests to what an extent the Serbian Democratic Opposition (DOS) and the whole of Serbia lack professional cadre. His personal story is only one in a series of stories about those people of which all regimes are in need.
[Analysis]

RETROSPECTIVE
New Yugoslavia - new division
Bojan Bozic
February 07, 2001
Montenegro on the way to independence: From two eyes in one head, to second chair in the United Nations [Analysis]

The Second Congress of Otpor (Resistance)
Political Ceremony of an Undemocratic Organisation
Vladimir Markovic
February 05, 2001
Serbia facing its future, readiness for changes, adoption of new technologies and new role of Serbian diaspora were just some of slogans and catchwords lined up within a meaningless construct of ideological mist in which Otpor leadership wrapped itself up, craving to assume a new role on the political scene.
[Open Source]

SERBIA 2001
The end of Otpor?
Dusan Kosanovic
January 23, 2001
Will the movement which contributed to the overthrow of the dictatorship ultimately "devour itself"?
[Analysis]

SERBIA 2001
Daltonism on the political scene
Dusan Kosanovic
December 26, 2000
How are the Serbian political parties going to regroup, after the definite change of power and the imminent breakdown of the winning coalition?
[Analysis]

Conmen
The chain of St. Slobodan
Biljana Stepanovic
August 8, 2000
So it happens that the latest bate, thrown by the legendary Agency for Reconstruction, caught many gullible fish. And the bate is, as usual, done in a conmen manner - cheap apartments are offered, on credit up to 20 (twenty) years. The interest is miserable five percent per year. The bankers, until know giving credit only up to three months, but preferring those up to 30 days and with interests up to 30 percent per month, are stunned.
[Open source]

We'll be splashing about yet
Vaca J.
August 7, 2000.
They say we should avoid wearing dark clothes in this weather because they absorb the heat. The girls of this city seem to have taken it seriously so they're wearing virgin purple only. It's quite difficult to find white or possibly black T-shirts - everything's pale purple. It's particularly hard to find white T-shirts with black or black ones with some white. They'll ban such T-shirts by law, in all probability.
[Open source]

Children's perception of causes and consequences of war
Professor Ph.D. Zarko Trebjesanin
Saturday, June 10, 2000
We classified these indeed fascinating children's answers to our questions, determined their frequency and examined whether there were variances in frequency of their replies among the children of different age, place of residence and gender. I will present here only some of the results we obtained.
[Analysis]

The Parting Diary
I.P.
June 8, 2000
And while the "harmless complexed populist" takes his toll of my friends, a new fear starts in me and unstoppably takes over me more and more intensely: the Fear of Loneliness.
[Personal views]

Time of Fear
Slobodan Petkovic, PhD
Monday, May 29, 2000
The situation in Serbia today is tragic for the majority of people, preoccupied with the day-to-day struggle for subsistence and living in fear of war. Such circumstances, however, are ideal for the manipulation of the masses, which is necessary if the present regime is to keep, or increase, its power.
[Analysis]