The President of Serbia does not know if it is Milan Radoičić commanded an armed Serbian group in Banjska. Perhaps this most powerful and - along with the godfather Zvonko Veselinović - the richest man in the north of Kosovo was there in the capacity of an enforcer or a courier?
In any case, as soon as he finds some time, and it is convenient for him, there is Radoičić at the competent authorities. Which ones, Aleksandar Vučić did not say, and he would have to declare under what circumstances. The head of state is not to be blamed. As he says, in the last three days he slept only one hour and 48 minutes, only 18 minutes longer than when he was a guest on RTS.
Although any policeman would have excluded such a sleep-deprived man from traffic, Vučić still found the strength to announce the elections, "three in one" - Belgrade and provincial, parliamentary, and local elections in an as-yet-unknown number of cities. Who else can be interested in Radoičić while the head of state is laying foundation stones and opening plants? You have to look to the future, right?
There is a problem here. Whatever Serbia achieved or intended in Kosovo, the group with Radoičić poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. Vučić publicly admits this. So why didn't he expel the "Lord of the North" through the keyhole of the "elzet" lock? Why the choice of words against "a man who considers himself a freedom fighter" - as he chose to express himself. Such vocabulary is not Vučić's strong point. On the contrary, he christens every dissenter in a second as a scumbag and a foreign mercenary working against Serbia.
It seems that today's status of Radoičić corresponds to Arkan's at the end of the last century, so he shares the same attitude towards himself. Both of them heavily indebted their employers, gained a lot of knowledge and power, and seized even greater wealth and influence. There is only one difference: there is no picture of Slobo Milošević with Arkan, while there is a picture of Vučić with Radoičić for a bolder album.
An analogy is illustrative here. At the end of the eighties, when Arkan was in court for an illegal casino, he showed papers from a loan for the purchase of a house in Ljutice Bogdan got while working for the State Security. They didn't ask him anything more, and he was just at the beginning of what he would later become.
Can Radoičić perform something similar? Let's say, take out from his pocket the documents from which it can be seen that he acted in the spirit of Vučić's policy summarized in the sentence: "Serbia will not sit idly by on the first attack on the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija". Maybe he wouldn't have woken up in Banjska if he had been told in time that those words were exclusively for "TV Serbian World".
Be that as it may, Radoičić will not lack for anything. The price of his "struggle for freedom" is paid by the Serbs in Kosovo, just as they in Croatia paid Arkanova.
In the end, it is also possible that the director of BIA will be among the competent authorities before whom the vice-president of Srpska list appears - if he arrives and finds a parking space - as soon as he returns from his pilgrimage from Jerusalem. There is only one question: does Aleksandar Hadži Vulin address Radoičić as "commander" today, the same way police generals used to beat Arkana?
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com