One joke going the rounds in Belgrade has it that there is not even a copy of the Dayton agreement with Milosevic's signature on it to be found in the Serbian capital. The US-brokered agreement, signed in France in 1996, ended the Bosnia war. Milosevic, Tudjman, and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, ceremonially signed off on it before the television cameras. The anecdote illustrates the lengths to which Milosevic went to avoid leaving behind any incriminating evidence, in the sure knowledge that he could be arrested and convicted either by a domestic or an international court. Serbian investigators and magistrates building the case against the imprisoned Milosevic are struggling to find any smoking guns or fingerprints.
Documentation bearing the leader's autograph is frustratingly elusive.
The investigators are hoping that close aides, some of them also in jail, will eventually cave in and turn compelling testimony against Milosevic. Things could not be different in Zagreb where the new government of Prime Minister Ivica Racan and President Stipe Mesic was astounded to find on entering office last year that Tudjman's legacy included a treasure trove of documents and recordings detailing every move the president made through the 1990s. A locked room at the presidential palace in Zagreb contained a wealth of damning material relating to the Tudjman regime's dirty tricks, embezzlement, profiteering, and political negotiations. Tudjman was so blissfully convinced of his own place in history, of his untouchability, and of his position as perpetual president that he clandestinely had almost every conversation in his office recorded from 1991 to 1999. The locked room gave up some 14,000 transcripts and more than 800 cassettes, a veritable A-Z of the Tudjman years in power.