‘Kosovo is Lost. It is Absolutely Lost,’ says US-Serb Olympian Milorad Cavic
Kosovo is lost to Serbia, says US-Serb Milorad Čavić. The Olympic swimmer, who created such a furore when he brandished a ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ t.shirt in 2008, told W!LDRooSTeR: “We are very proud of our history in Kosovo but I think it is lost. We can never accept that but, in reality, Kosovo is lost. It is absolutely lost. It is lost because of the people who stand behind them.
“The international community doesn’t understand what has happened. George Bush didn’t understand what happened when he gave away Kosovo, gave away something that wasn’t his. As a man from the state of Texas, where most of the state is Mexican and in 70% of the state they speak exclusively Spanish, if the Mexican people of that region said, ‘hey, everything here is Spanish, our heritage is Spanish and we want to take this for ourselves’, you’d better believe that George Bush would have said no.
“I don’t believe anyone put that into perspective. But he is part of the NATO Alliance and he has an obligation to support the allies of the Alliance, which of course, in some ways, Albania is a part of. I have two Albanian friends from university and they are fantastic guys. I never had anything bad to say about them. They are really great people and I never look down on Albanian people. But I just think it is absolutely ludicrous what has happened there.”
Čavić, who enraged international swimming organisers at the World Championships in 2008, went on to explain his feelings of how Serbia’s history is still haunting the country’s international ambitions: “How do you explain to the people at the top of the EU to support Serbia after everything Milošević has done? Of course there were evil people on all sides of the war, but Milošević was the head honcho of everything, at least to the international community.
“But these people are not bad. Serbs are not bad. They never were bad, never were monsters. Just as I do not believe that Croats or Bosnians were ever monsters, or even the Turks when they dominated this country for 400-500 years. It is just the leaders that took over and ran this country. They were the bad people and unfortunately that is something that the media fails to portray. They don’t read between the lines. People who have visited this country realise that it is really a great place. The people here are really nice. We had some bad men running the country and they were from these very old radical and communist political parties, which continued on through the Eighties and it was hard to kick them out.
“Now we have Radical Party leaders in the Progressive Party, which is just another set of the Radical Party, advocating going to war. They are fools. I would like for them to go to war. Of course, if I was called to war I would go but I think it is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”
On a personal note directly related to the Kosovo issue, Čavić raised heckles at the 2008 World Swimming Championshipsin Eindhoven, with his ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ t.shirt. As the publicity exploded after the incident, Čavić was hurried out of The Netherlands by the Serbian state – an incident he points to as an example of the squandering of state funds. “In March 2008, I was kicked out of Eindhoven and I flew back in a private jet,’ he explained. “The stewardess told me it cost 4,000 Euros per hour and they needed it for six hours to prepare the jet, to fly over from Belgrade to Maastricht and back to Belgrade, plus the expense of the pilot, the stewardess, the food and fuel. So they shelled out around 30,000 Euros for nothing. I could have waited another three hours for my flight from Amsterdam.
“It was a political thing, and I was rushed out of the country on a private jet. I was a hypocrite and I hated myself for it, but things kind of turned and started to get a little better from then on. I was not so much an athlete as a man of the people. And especially when you win medals they like you even more. Financially things improved for me after Eindhoven and I was able to do a lot more things that I wasn’t able to do before. But people supported me a whole lot more. So life has been good for me.
Serbia might have been quick to support their new-found hero following the Eindhoven episode, but those same people had kept their heads down when the young swimmer had previously asked for support. “Six months before I had a media campaign asking for 35,000 Euros to train for the Olympic games but nobody came out to help me,’ said Čavić. “But then all of a sudden, I am on this first class jet with a stewardess asking if I want some Champagne and I am thinking to myself, I am a hypocrite to even allow myself to fly back in this fashion. I am an absolute hypocrite. I am not proud of that. But I had never flown in a private jet before and it was fantastic.”
12 / 7 / 2011 1:03 pm
Now he is the one sounding pessimistic after accusing Serbs, in your other wordy write-up, of being pessimists.
12 / 8 / 2011 6:38 am
Wild rooster I want to thank you for blogging on Serbia. Cavic however is very incorrect. He was very opportunistic to wear the shirt he wore and now realizes hes not going to last in Serbia as a public figure so he needs to stay in the limelight by making these statements.
I strongly believe he is apart of the Democratic Party apparatus and is paid to make statements on what the ruling party things but cant say. Kosovo is only temporarily lost as far as I’m concerned. The majority of countries in the world do not recognize Kosovo as amputated from Serbia and this will continue. Further, I cant see the West bailing out shiptar aspirations every time a conflict rises. The 90’s were a different place than right now and it will be even more different in 10 years time.
What needs to happen now is Serbia needs to regroup, get rid of the cancerous Democrat party as well as the entire corrupted system in Serbia. Work on rebuilding the education, military and economy that has been destroyed by self serving politicians and then when the time is right, nothing will keep us from Kosovo.
I suggest this blog as well as your readers to look up a new Serb diaspora group called ’28. Jun’. In a short time they have received media attention in Belgrade and are doing a charity for Serbs in Kosovo which will send over a large container full of supplies needed to the Serbs in Kosovo.
THESE people are real patriots. Patriots are not opportunistic who are desperate to stay in the limelight by making outrageous statements. Patriots know that we cannot fight NATO, but that Albanians will not be able to live off their theft forever.
Our homeland needs to be great again.
http://www.facebook.com/28jun
12 / 8 / 2011 7:35 am
Hey WILD ROOSTER:
Why don’t you ever write about the 400 Serbs who have disappeared in the last 10 years thanks to those poor poor Muslims in Kosovo, they are so helpless right?
What about the fact that Sarajevo is a Muslim city now exclusively.. when before 1991 there were over 300,000 Christian Serbs.
Does any of this matter to you “civilized humanitarians” from England, US and the eurozone?
Why is that not one of you have the guts to help the over 1,000,000 Christian Serbian refugees all across Serbia?
Why? Why? Why?
12 / 8 / 2011 9:51 am
Thanks, Nikola. I have been looking into the group you mentioned and was considering writing something about their efforts and aims. I’ll get back on to it, as you suggest.
12 / 8 / 2011 12:48 pm
Not bad, not bad at all. There always was something fishy about that appearance in Holland, though I would disagree with that comment about Čavić being a tool for the ruling party. I believe he was acting out of personal belief; if he was used, I don’t think he knew about it at the time (although it seems it struck him when he was flying home in that jet). And he fell out of the limelight a long time ago, the people only love those that bring (gold) medals home…
Overall, it’s interesting to read about current Serbian affairs talked about by Serbs but presented through the lens of a foreigner.
12 / 8 / 2011 1:15 pm
Thanks for your comments, Zoran. The flight home does seem to hold significance to his story. Glad that ‘overall’ you find my writing interesting.
12 / 13 / 2011 6:34 pm
I agree with Milorad. Kosovo has gone and we should accept it and move on. I wish it isnt true but it is and nothing we say or do will get it back for Serbia. We only look stubborn and unreasonable to outside world. We should focus efforts on supporting the Serbs in Kosovo, not digging in our feet and wanting to turn back the clock. We dont want to listen but Milorad is right.
12 / 18 / 2011 4:12 am
Peter D – that is what the Turks said too “KOSOVO IS GONE” it took 600 years but guess what ISLAM lost…and so will the albanians and Wild Roosters projihadist government in the UK, and everyone else even if takes 10,000 years,
remember the austrian hungarian emprie? Where are they now?
do you remember the nazi empire? Where is it now?
Do you remember the ottomans? Where are they now?
Do you see NATO and the UK and the EU, who is going bankrupt, whose pathetic cries to the IMO and to the world – is it the Serbs crying or is it the Portugese, the Irish, the Greeks? All the same cowards that dropped DEPLETED URANIUM bombs ruining Serbia to build the first Islamic country in Europe.
do you see Europe crumbling? Do you see it? Yes it is happening..
The whole world put together can never take Kosovo, just like they couldn’t stop the 2000 year old prophecy that Israel would be a state again, I don’t care how intellectual you are, intelluctualize this:
GOD IS WITH THE SERBS, Jesus Christ God, and no one can take what God doesn’t give. They can pretend like the Turks did, but just like the Turks they too have to live with the history of losers.
2 / 19 / 2012 8:52 pm
Why do Serbs try to make an analogy with Mexicans in the southern US?
Big difference…. NO one is going to want to join with Mexico. They’re happy being Americans.
Therein lies the major cognitive gap in most Serbs:
THERE IS A REASON WHY ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF SERBIA, and it has nothing do with “history”, unless we’re talking recent history.
5 / 28 / 2012 9:24 pm
@Nikola,do you know that you Serbs will disapier after 100 years,and Albanians will double.So i sugest you and the rest of Comarades to harry up.
10 / 11 / 2012 6:00 pm
KOSOVO IS GUARDED BY FAITH… In Serbian “Kosovo Polje” means a “Blackbirds’ Field’. But this Blackbirds’ Field is also a field of death. And a shrine for Serbian patriots who sacrificed their lives in defense of their country, their culture and their freedom.June 28, 1389, a mighty battle was fought at Kosovo Polje. It pitted the Serbian defenders against the invading Ottoman Empire (Turkey) adherents of the Muslim crescent moon. Medieval Europe was fretting and hoping that the Serbs’ would prevail over the Islamic crescent moon. At one point, the bells of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris rang out in premature and erroneous salute to the Serbs’ victory. But it was not to be. The Serbs were defeated. One of them, however, Milos Obilic, managed to cut the gut of the invading Turkish Ottoman Emperor, Murat, with his sword, killing him, before being cut to pieces himself by the Sultan’s guards.For 600 years the battle of Kosovo Polje, the Blackbirds’ Field, has been seared into the hearts and minds of all Serbs who are conscious of their history. Kosovo Polje to a Serb is like Jerusalem, Alamo, Bastogne, and Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersbrurg) – combined.Kosovo is located in Southeastern Europe. Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. It was, it is, and will always be. Kosovo je Srbija. Kosovo is Serbia.
11 / 5 / 2012 12:15 pm
Thank you Max for this comment there are still lots of people out there who do not know the facts of Kosovo. Kosovo historically, geographically and in hart of every Serb will remain Serbian. It is occupied and stolen country and the world know this just shamefully closing eyes on these facts. For Doot – what an unintelligent comparison! In your education the wife was kidnapped and kidnappers were supported by bully guys who everyone knows are not right in many facts!!! Prejudice wins in the end that is where I will put my doot!
11 / 10 / 2012 1:12 pm
Dude.
Kosovo left because they didn’t want anything to do with Serbs. Maybe you should ask yourself why instead of crying always about how life isn’t fair.
Lack of introspection is why Serbia is dying.
10 / 12 / 2012 12:21 pm
Everyone knows someone who’s life unravels due to a traumatic break-up.
Well… Serbia is that guy.
Thirteen years ago, she dumped him, moved out and called the cops. Now he sits around in his unkempt apartment, underemployed, crying to anyone who will listen about his bitch of an ex girlfriend: how ungrateful she was, how much better off she was/would be with him and how they’ll be together again.
What do you do about a guy like this? Try to give him a hug? Laugh behind his back? a little of both?