Belgrade: A Step Back In Time

This post at Maria's Wish I Could Reach You In Belgrade blog about a travel book on the Balkans, which was written at the turn of the 20th century, got me wondering how Belgrade looked in the early(ish) 1900s?

So I did a quick search and found some interesting videos of Belgrade from the 1930s and thought I'd share them with you. You should be able to recognise some of the sights:

Update on new address
I'm still tweaking the new Balkan File site and it should be complete by Monday at the latest. So expect the new address then. If you're already subscribed to Balkan File via the RSS feed, it should automatically pick up the new site so you won't have to subscribe again. :-)

So Long Summer

Photo: dottorpenni

It seems that summer is well and truly over. After weeks and weeks of bright sunshine, clear blue skies and temperatures ranging from 30C to 40C, it was quite a shock to the system at the weekend. Cloud. Rain. 9C-12C.

At first I thought it was just a 'freak' day - and was quite happy to have some relief from the sweltering, summer heat - but no, it's still raining, it's still cold and I don't feel like going outside anymore.

See ya next year summer. Hello autumn, you've made a good start.

PS: I actually quite like autumn and winter, I just would have preferred a gradual transition!

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When Did Belgrade Get a Metro?!

Do you notice anything wrong with the video below? It was available on the CNN website a few days ago and shows footage from the riots that took place on July 29 in Belgrade during the Serbian Radical Party meeting in support of Radovan Karadžic.

If you have ever visited Belgrade, you should be able to spot some rather unfamiliar things in that video. CNN has mixed in footage of riots that took place in Budapest, Hungary, with that of the riots in Belgrade. "Surely, this is a simple mistake by the editing team," I hear you cry. Well, someone must have been pretty incompetent to mix in footage from over one year ago!

If you look carefully, during the first 19 seconds you can see/hear:

- Hungarian police officers
- Hungarian flags
- Cars on fire (no cars were torched in the Belgrade riot)
- The Hungarian language
- Hungarian license plates
- Water cannons to disperse protesters (that didn't happen either in Belgrade)

Then we are shown real footage of what actually happened in Belgrade on Tuesday. That's all good then, but during the last 12 seconds you can see:

- that suddenly Belgrade has acquired a metro system (wouldn't that be lovely?)

Okay, so what on earth's going on here? It's not as if there was a lack of footage from the Belgrade riots that CNN felt they needed to pad out their report with some other footage (which is not exactly a credible practice for a worldwide news outlet, is it?), Some comments on the web seem to hint that perhaps CNN were deliberately trying to make the protests seem more violent than they actually were - I don't really believe that, but still, how does somebody accidentally edit in footage from an entirely different country and which was filmed over one year ago?

It does leave you thinking whether you can actually trust what you see on CNN or indeed any other news outlet. The fact that CNN has yet to give any official statement on the matter just adds further to the mystery. What do you think?

Here's some quite lengthy 'as it happened' footage of the riots on Tuesday - perhaps somebody could forward it on to the CNN news team?

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Pro-Karadžić Meeting Violence

As everyone guessed, violent conflicts between Serbian police and football hooligans, thugs and children with nothing better to do have taken place during the pro Radaovan Karadžić rally in the centre of Belgrade. I've just watched a section of those present at the meeting in Republic Square (Trg republike) broke off and began throwing rocks, sticks, fireworks, homemade bomb-like devices. They also smashed a couple of shop windows on Makedonska street.

(FoNet)

Honestly, half of those guys fighting the police looked 16 years old. They weren't even alive, or just had a few years, during the Yugoslav wars. What exactly do they identify with? What has it even got to do with them? I understand to some extent the older generation still believing Karadžić is a war hero - but these kids are just looking to cause trouble and in doing so completely cancel out the message the peaceful protesters want to make and the Radical Party of Serbia and their allies just loose even more credibility.

The centre now looks a complete mess. Hopefully, those caught by the police will face the full brunt of the law - they need to finally realise that they can't cause violence in the city centre whenever they feel like it.

I'll write more about the protests in a bit once more information becomes available.

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Karadžić Arrest

During the night more details have emerged about the arrest of Radovan Karadžić. Apparently, he was arrested on Monday evening while he was travelling on one of the regular city buses in New Belgrade (Novi Beograd). It's not known how long he's been 'hiding' in Belgrade, but he had assumed a false identity under the name Dragan Dabić. He hasn't really been hiding at all, in the traditional sense, but has in fact been quite in the public view for sometime. Karadžić is now sporting a large white beard and is rather unrecognisable. To make a living for himself, he's been practicing alternative medicine at a practice in the capital, even giving several lectures in front of hundreds of people and even camera crews and regularly contributing to Healthy Life magazine. It's quite odd to think that perhaps I've walked past Radovan Karadžić in the city centre where it's said he often frequented to have coffee.


As expected, world leaders and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia officials have praised the arrest of one of the most wanted men in the world, whilst Serbian Radical Party officials have condemned the arrest, stating that 'it is a sad day for Serbia' and branding Serbian President Boris Tadić a 'traitor of the Serbian people'. The Radical Party have announced that they will be organising large protests over the coming days - a lovely invitation for Obraz thugs and other loutish nationalists to show up and cause some chaos.

Talking about chaos, we saw a small glimpse of what could be a regular occurrence over the next days in Belgrade today at Republic Square (Trg republike) in the very city centre. Several hundred people gathered, particularly young nationalist men, alongside a contingency of riot police. Squirmishes ensued with rudimentary exploding devices and fireworks being thrown all over the place. Here's a video of what took place at around 5pm today in Belgrade city centre:

Radovan Karadžić, a Bosnian Serb, is indicted by the Hague tribunal on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War (1992-1996) including shelling during the siege of Sarajevo, during which some 12,000 died, and the notorious Srebrenica massacre in 1995, in which 8,000 Bosniak Muslim boys and men were killed. He is likely to be transferred later this week.

It will certainly be an interesting time in Serbia the next few weeks. Let's hope nothing gets out of hand too much.

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Home, Sweet Home

I've just returned from a two week holiday to the UK, visiting my home town of Edinburgh and friends in London. It was lovely to be back in my own country, and in particular Edinburgh. I went to all the old spots with friends whom I haven't seen for nearly a year now and did some touristy things with V who'd never been to Edinburgh or London before.

Regardless how nice it was to be back 'home', I must admit I was very relieved and extremely happy to land back in Belgrade on Saturday and even the blocks of New Belgrade on the way back from the airport were a comforting and familar sight, and perhaps even more familiar sight than Edinburgh or London.

Yesterday, I took a stroll round the centre of Belgrade, the sun was shining (unlike in the UK where it rained, got a bit sunny, rained again and even snowed), and the city looked remarkably green and summer like. I had a coffee and a cigarette, inside the cafe and simultaneously - something missing from the UK for two weeks! I also treated myself to some delicious Sarajevo cevapcici - which was whole lot better than the overpriced Indian take-away I had been craving in London.

I think I can safely say that Belgrade and Serbia are now my true home. I don't think I could move back to the UK (perhaps Edinburgh as I spent most of my life there), and definitely never London. Both Belgrade and London are large, bustling cities, but Belgrade has that much more relaxed feel to the place, I can walk virtually everywhere - I detest the tube..eurgh), people are not rushing around and two coffees and two slices of cake don't cost 2,000 dinars/£20 (admittedly, we were in Covent Garden, but still!).

So, while walking round Belgrade, even the mundane small streets near my flat, I couldn't help but smile and be thankful that I discovered this place. Regardless of all the problems this city/country has, Belgrade is a fantastic city to live in and somewhere which is home to me now.

Here's some photos I took while walking around on Sunday:

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Sophisticated Belgrade

I found this rather funky Belgrade tourism commerical from the 1980s. It's a lot more interesting than Serbia's most recent attempt at tourism advertising. Enjoy!



Just try and tell me the tune is not even the slightest bit catchy.

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