Pro-Democracy Activist Turned Diplomat Takes the Reins at Serbian Embassy in Ottawa
By Jeff Davis The first time Serbia's new ambassador Dusan Batakovic gave orders to his embassy is Ottawa, he held no diplomatic rank. Nor was he a member of his country's government. When the regime of Slobodan Milosevic imploded on Oct. 5, 2000, Mr. Batakovic was in Toronto mobilizing support for democratic change among the Serbian diaspora. At the time, the historian held a key role in the Serbian pro-democracy movement as president of the Council for Democratic Changes. After hearing of Mr. Milosevic's outster, Mr. Batakovic called his embassy in Ottawa. "I just presented myself, and said this is Dusan Batakovic, member of democratic opposition of Serbia," he says. "They said 'yes, yes sir, is there anything we can help you with?'" he says. "They realized it was over. The parliament was burning." This Sorbonne-trained specialist on Balkan history's first act was to arrange for free visas for Canadian journalists wanting to cover the historic events occurring in his country. "I gave him one name, two names, three names, then I said just give visas to everyone who asked," he says. The response, Mr. Batakovic says, was "aye-aye, sir." He also made a visit to Foreign Affairs headquarters in Ottawa that week. "I was authorized two days later by the new Yugoslav government to come to the foreign ministry in Ottawa to present my compliments of the new government, and to pass the message of the new president that we are ready to re-establish co-operation," he says. After the fall of the Milosevic regime, Mr. Batakovic was invited to join the foreign service. As a public intellectual, he says, he was compelled to accept. "I couldn't stay and write another book of history while the whole house was burning," he says. He was immediately appointed ambassador of Serbia to Greece, where he served for four years. Mr. Batakovic says that while he was a newcomer to official diplomacy, he did have plenty of relevant experience. "I had field experience because I was involved in the democratic anti-Milosevic movement, and I was talking to ambassadors and foreign representatives for years before I became ambassador," he says. Mr. Batakovic presented his credentials to Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean six weeks ago. He is Serbia's first ambassador in Ottawa since Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in May 2006. He takes over from chargé d'affaires Slobodanka Kojadinovic, who returned home a few months ago. He says his top priority as envoy in Ottawa is courting support for Serbia's position on the ongoing issue of Kosovo's sovereignty. Kosovo, a constitutional province of Serbia, attempted to succeed from the former Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War of 1996-1999. This bloody and brutal war between Serb and Yugoslav security forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army caused thousands of civilian casualties and displaced many others. In 1999, NATO launched a bombing campaign to stop the ethnically-charged conflict. By the power of a UN Security Council resolution, Kosovo was placed under international control. The province is now under the control of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, as well as provisional institutions of government. Kosovo is now about 90 per cent ethnic Albanian and five per cent Serb. Before the war, Mr. Batakovic says, about 75 per cent of Kosovars were Albanian, while 25 per cent were Serb. Mr. Batakovic says that after the war ended, the KLA "organized wave of post-war ethnic cleansing" against Kosovar Serbs. International forces, he says, failed to protect them and large numbers were driven out of the province. "The real aim of post-war ethnic cleansing was to scale down the number of Serbs from 25 per cent to five per cent, to a number of an insignificant minority," he says. By driving out the Serbian population, he says, Albanian Kosovars think they "can claim with more certainty independence." "This is why we are strongly opposed to independence of Kosovo," he says. "We will not accept fait accompli, and the situation based on ethnic cleansing." Mr. Batakovic says his country is pleased with the recent failure of the Ahtisaari Package. The Ahtisaari Package was a proposal to the UN Security Council that allowed for the UN Mission in Kosovo to transfer its responsibilities to Kosovo's provisional government. The package failed when Russia maneuvered to have a draft resolution of the Ahtisaari proposal formally discarded. "The Russians insisted on a solution acceptable for both Belgrade and Pristina. Something that will not be one-sided," says Mr. Batakovic, who spent two years helping negotiate the deal in Vienna. "Ahtisaari actually gave us nothing of what we have asked," he says. "[The deal] gave us approximately 15 per cent of all demands of Belgrade and the Kosovo Serbs and 85 per cent of all Albanian demands, plus prospects for independence, which is unacceptable to us. "We are in favor of supervised autonomy, not independence," he says. Last Wednesday, says Mr. Batakovic, Serbia signed a stabilization and association agreement with the European Union in Brussels. This, he says, is a first step towards joining the union. He says he expects the accession process to be complete between 2012 and 2015. "People are favorable to the partnership, there is no doubt," he says, adding that about 80 per cent of Serbs support EU accession. Serbia also joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program recently, Mr. Batakovic says. According to NATO's website, the PfP, "allows partner countries to build up an individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for co-operation." There is disagreement among Serbs today, he says, about whether to pursue further integration into the military alliance. "People are divided on it...entirely because of the Kosovo issue," he says, adding that memories of NATO bombings are fresh in the minds of many Serbs. Serbia, he says, is linked to both Russia and the West. "Serbia was a staunch ally of western democracies in both world wars and we are now trying to revive old alliances," he says. "But in parallel we continue to have good relations with Russia. Not only strong cultural and historic ties, but also some economic interests: we are energy dependent on Russia." A widower, Mr. Batakovic is accompanied in Canada by his two children, Marco, 14, and Olga, 16, both of whom are enrolled at Lisgar Collegiate. Mr. Batakovic speaks English and French and can understand German and a number of Slavic languages. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2007/november/14/diplomaticcircles/
