In Europe

anything that's worth their while, no clothes, wine or meat. We don't have anything others want but don't have. We write books, okay, but that's for a tiny little group. Besides, as you know, people who read books don't make politics. They stay at home, they read and think about things.
    ‘Sure, a lot of intellectuals supported Miložsević. And now they support him even more; with his defeats, he has now become the symbol of this tormented nation. He has become a fool, they have become fools. He's no longer allowed to travel in Europe, they're no longer allowed to travelin Europe. More and more, they're becoming just like Miložsević. We share the same fate now, because of this war, and because of our isolation.
    ‘Under Tito, the legends were forgotten. Tito wasn't a Serb, even though he was pro-Serbian. After he died, everything went wrong. The Serbs panicked and started fantasising about their past. Suddenly they remembered that there had once been this big empire, and that they'd had kings, things like that. The poverty, the country's disintegration, all those uncertainties created a reality in which it was almost impossible to live. And from that myths were born, the one more fantastic than the other. So that's an answer to a situation, but that's not how it begins. What else can we do but tell each other stories?
    ‘And that foolish poor man? He still believes in it, after all these years, and at the same time he doesn't believe in it any more. He needs those stories to comfort his soul, but he doesn't believe that they will save him. A resurrection of Serbia, dreams like that, no one believes in them any more. That poor man is in a state of shock.
    ‘I once had a dog named Jackie. One winter's day that dog ran away, along the Danube, and somehow he got out onto an ice floe. Some children from the neighbourhood came and got me. “Mr Tižsma, your dog is going to drown!” I ran down there, called to it, all the dog had to do was take one little step, but it just sat there as if it were paralysed. The animal was in a complete state of shock. Finally the children were able to get a hold of him, and everything turned out all right.
    ‘That's the way this country is too: it's sitting paralysed on an ice floe, doesn't know what to do, and meanwhile the ice is floating away on the current.’

Chapter SIXTY-FIVE
Srebrenica
    WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF MARSHAL TITO ROSE FROM THE GRAVE? ON my last evening in Novi Sad, žZelimir showed me one of his short documentaries, a fascinating experiment. He'd had an actor made up to look exactly like Tito, he put Tito's sunglasses on him, and then he walked around all day with this fake Tito through the shopping streets of Belgrade.
    The film went like this: ‘So tell us what has been going on in our beautiful country,’ Tito asks his old driver – the real one – after he has risen from his mausoleum and got into the back of his Mercedes – the original one. ‘It fell apart, sir,’ the man sighs. ‘They destroyed the federation, they took down all the red stars, and then the war started.’
    As soon as Tito gets out of the car in the middle of Belgrade, a crowd gathers. For the first few minutes the crowd plays along, but soon they become bitter. ‘Traitor!’ a few angry passers-by shout. ‘But I left a lot of reliable people behind, didn't I?’ Tito murmurs. ‘Forget it. It's your fault. You were the leader of a bunch of bandits, those are your successors. When you go back to the hereafter, please take them all with you. I'm not even allowed to build a pigsty nowadays!’
    Tito walks past a bookstall: ‘What are these weird symbols? And why are we using German money?’ A young man, overwrought: ‘The young people loved you. We learned poems about you, you were the sun shining down on us. We formed an honour guard in front of your portrait when you died!’ A woman: ‘I wept, too. You took wonderful trips to foreign countries, you lived in villas, meanwhile I worked shelling peanuts in a factory, but I still wept. God, do I ever regret that now.’
    A man, beaming with joy, pushes his way to the front of the crowd.‘So you're back again. We used to have one Tito. Now we have a dozen of them. Great to see you back again!’ Tito: ‘There certainly are a lot of people just hanging around. Don't any of you have to work? Do you all have the day off?’
    žZelimir:‘Then the police came and arrested us for disturbing the peace. Me, Tito, the whole crew. We were