Mira Marković

Mirjana "Mira" Marković (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирјана "Мира" Марковић, pronounced [mǐrjana mǐːra mǎːrkɔʋit͡ɕ]; 10 July 1942 – 14 April 2019) was a Serbian politician and wife of former Yugoslav and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. She was the president of the now defunct Yugoslav Left political party from 2002 to 2003. Marković, who was wanted for fraud charges, lived under political asylum in Russia from February 2003 to her death on 14 April 2019.

Biography

Early life

Marković was the daughter of Moma Marković and Vera Miletić, who were both fighting for the Yugoslav Partisans at the time of her birth. Her aunt was Davorjanka Paunović, private secretary and alleged mistress of Josip Broz Tito. Her mother Vera was captured by German troops and allegedly released sensitive information, under torture. She was then executed in Banjica concentration camp by the Germans.

Marković met Slobodan Milošević when they were in high school together. They married in 1965. The couple had two children, son Marko and daughter Marija, who founded TV Košava in 1998 and was its owner until 5 October 2000.

Education and career

She held a Ph.D. in Sociology and taught the subject at the University of Belgrade. Later, she became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She wrote a political column in the weekly Duga during her husband's years in power.

She was considered very powerful in the country and sometimes described as the only person who her husband really trusted and closely consulted. Also, as the leader of Yugoslav Left political party, she held some independent political influence. Marković was largely responsible for erecting the Eternal Flame monument, shortly before the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000.

Marković was also the author of numerous books, which were translated and sold in Canada, Russia, China and India.

Asylum in Russia and death

After her husband's arrest, Marković went to Russia. The authorities of Serbia issued an arrest warrant for her on fraud charges which was circulated via Interpol, but the Russian authorities refused to arrest her.

In December 2006, nine months after her husband's death during his trial at the ICTY, a Serbian court also ordered her arrest on charges of ordering the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija.

Foreign Minister Vuk Drašković stated that his ministry would demand the extradition of Marković from Russia.

In 2008, a Serbian prosecutor announced that Marković might be tried in absentia.

In March 2012 a collection of her columns for Pravda from 2007 to 2008, as well as for online portal Sloboda from 2010 to 2011, titled Destierrada e imperdida was published in Belgrade by Treći milenijum, a publishing house owned by Hadži Dragan Antić. After the 2012 elections, a spokesperson for the winning Serbian Progressive Party said that Marković and her son were welcome to return, but it took no steps to rescind the charges against them.

Marković underwent several operations, and died in a spa hospital in Sochi on 14 April 2019.

Political views

Marković's political views tended to be hard-line Communist. Although she often claimed that she agreed with her husband on everything, Milošević seems to have had fewer authoritarian tendencies than Marković. She claimed also to be a feminist.

Marković reportedly had little respect for the Bosnian Serb leaders. Vojislav Šešelj appeared before a court on 18 June 1994 to face charges of breaking microphone cables in Parliament. He read a statement, saying, "Mr. Judge, all I can say in my defense is that Milošević is Serbia's biggest criminal." Marković replied by calling Šešelj a "primitive Turk who is afraid to fight like a man, and instead sits around insulting other people's wives." Karadžić was apparently unable to telephone Milošević because Marković would not tolerate his calls.

Commenting on her husband's arrest to face war crimes charges, Marković stated:

Neither East nor West has betrayed him. The only person that can betray him is me. But people have short memories and you have to remind everyone of everything. In the early 1990s, my husband was accused by many circles, in Yugoslavia and abroad, that he had wanted to keep Yugoslavia alive, even though it was falling apart and the Croats and the Slovenes wanted to leave. That was his big sin. "Crazy Serbs and Crazy Slobo," they said, they want Yugoslavia. Now, in The Hague, they say he broke up Yugoslavia. Let them make up their minds.

Books

• Night and Day: A Diary - Dragisa Nikolic, December 1995 - 978-8682005223
• Night & Day: A Diary - Quarry Press, May 1997 - 978-1550821680
• Answer - Quarry Press, March 1997 - 978-1550821697