Culture and crime

When it comes to culture and crime, Yugoslavia never ceased to exist. Just a few weeks ago, the Serbian author Predrag Crnković won the Croatian VBZ price for his book Beograd za pokojnike (Belgrade for the deceased). The day before yesterday, the Zagreb based rock band Hladno Pivo (Cold Beer) performed in Belgrade for thousands of delirious fans. It was Hladno Pivo's biggest concert in Serbia ever, and they are around for already twenty years. Bands from Belgrade, such as Darkwood Dub and Partibrejkers, are equally popular in Croatia. Toše Proeski, a Macedonian singer, wasn't even a teenager yet when his country gained independence, but he nevertheless grew into pop star all over the Balkans. His untimely death, in a car accident on 16 October 2007 in Croatia, sent shock waves through the region.
The same story goes for the crime scene, where the inter-ethnic relations are no less than excellent. The brutal murder of Ivo Pukanić was committed by a truly Yugoslav mafia, with members in all former republics. And that is just one example.
Meanwhile the political relations between Croatia and Serbia echo war drums. The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that it has jurisdiction to examine Croatia's allegation that Serbia committed genocide in the period 1991 to 1995. The Serbian government in turn announced that it will countersue Croatia for genocide against Croatian Serbs from the Krajina region.