Today is the second anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister of Serbia. Zoran Đinđić was undoubtedly the leader of the new Serbia. Life without fear for one’s life, security or job became possible in this country only after the democratic changes in October 2000, which he had crucially contributed to. He helped bring us the freedom we had fought for over a decade. He took every critical remark we made with benevolence; he was always willing to think about them and he would usually reply by including us in his famous metaphors.It was banter amongst friends and fellow combatants.
During the two years he led us, the atmosphere in Serbia was brimming with change. How unreal it seems now. Were the twenty-five months, from January 2001 to March 2003, merely a ‘historical incident’?
Đinđić began building a free and modern Serbia with the help of well-intentioned people in this country but he did not have time to lay solid foundations for it. We had naively believed he had completed the job and that all we had to do is bicker over details and modes of future reforms. They stopped us in our tracks. Both him and us. Only now do we realise how strongly and how deeply. Serbia turned to go backwards two years ago. This is why anything seems possible and little seems achievable in this country today.
Our past seemed hopeless many times in the past, too. But there were always people who believed there was hope for a modern, European and enlightened Serbia. Zoran Đinđić believed in and worked for a European Serbia, even when hardly anyone else did.
We will keep on trying, for that reason, for our own future. Some people did not love Zoran Đinđić very much. But he commanded respect of all those who mean Serbia well.
Belgrade Centre members, associates and friends supported the first democratically elected Prime Minister in decades and in the new millennium. With such a Prime Minister, Serbia had the chance of starting this century on time, abreast with other nations and states. This brief remembrance is one small way to pay our respects and gratitude to him for everything he had wanted and particularly for everything he had succeeded in achieving for new Serbia on its path to Europe.
