[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 41 (Thursday, March 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S3721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE ASSASSINATION OF SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER ZORAN DJINDJIC

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, when Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in 
Belgrade yesterday, Serbia and the world lost a champion of freedom who 
gave his life in service to it. We mourn his death and condemn his 
assassins' attempt to destroy democratic rule in a country that was 
only recently liberated from Slobodan Milosevic's tyranny, but had 
already come so far.
  I first heard about Zoran Djindjic in 1996 when he took to the 
streets of Belgrade with hundreds of thousands of Serbs to force 
Milosevic to accept local election results. He was victorious in that 
battle. It took him four more years of hard and dangerous work to 
defeat Milosevic at the polls and in the streets.
  The Serbian revolution of 2000 showed the world that democracy can 
succeed, in the Balkans as elsewhere, if leaders are wise, persistent, 
and courageous. The Milosevic government was the last Balkan 
dictatorship to fall. Zoran Djindjic was the person pushing hardest at 
the pillars of the authoritarian state. Once he became Prime Minister, 
he made the tough decisions to transform Serbia from dictatorship to 
democratic republic. He sent Milosevic to The Hague, despite fierce 
internal opposition; he implemented critical economic and political 
reforms; and recently he had begun to aggressively fight organized 
crime. It was one battle too many.
  Those who would corrupt and destroy democracy in Serbia presumably 
hope by their actions to extinguish the Serbian people's aspirations to 
live under rule of law and in liberty as part of a secure and 
prosperous Europe. They have failed. Killing one man will not stop 
reform or diminish the passion of Serbs to be part of the European 
family of free nations. I hope it will only invigorate Zoran Djindjic's 
many followers to carry on the struggle they began together in the dark 
days of Milosevic's rule.
  Our prayers are with the Djindjic family, his colleagues in the 
Democratic Opposition of Serbia, and the Serbian nation. To the people 
of Serbia, we say: Please continue to fight for those principles your 
Prime Minister represented with honor, skill, and courage. He will be 
written into the history of a very difficult time. His name will be 
known for the freedom he helped bring to a long-suffering people. 
America salutes a fallen hero.

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