Alija Balijagić can neither be a hero nor a hajduk, but only proof of the state's inability to control extreme violence. He is just a stripped-down image of harsh social reality that only understands fear
More than two weeks special police forces Serbia and Montenegro are unsuccessfully searching for Alija Balijagić, a repeatedly convicted criminal and murderer who is hiding in the woods on the border between the two countries. This man, who under normal circumstances would be a pensioner in a year, was imprisoned on several occasions for decades for robbery and rape, and the search for him was launched after the double murder of a brother and sister, Jovan and Milenka Madžgalj, in the village of Sokolac in Bijelo Polje. For days, in the mountain villages around Prijepolje, Čajetina, Bijelo Polje, people on both sides of the border have been in great fear. Darkness falls very early, hamlets are scattered across the mountains, and witnesses speak of the occasional appearance of this hajduk, probably the only one in Europe in the 21st century.
It is very unusual to observe how the modern media of mass communication function when confronted with a part of our dark tradition. Namely, hajducija is part of our patriarchal, national epic, it is a fight for freedom against Turkish oppression, it is a story about national identity, a breath of freedom during the Ottoman occupation, a story about bravery and heroism, about heroes who spent the winter in the mountains because of Mitro's tribute under the protection of Jatak.
You won't find any of that in the story of this sociopath, a man who simply wasn't ready for a life of freedom. His case shows the dark side of that myth as his crimes are psychopathic signatures that reveal a complete absence of control over emotions, impulses and drives. In robberies, he stole money and objects worth a few thousand dinars, raped a 75-year-old woman, and on several occasions seriously injured and beat people who tried to resist him. There is absolutely nothing romantic or positive in the character and work of Alija Balijagić, so perhaps he just fits into the role of antihero in popular culture. His essence that can intrigue is some kind of primitive longing for absolute freedom represented by his running away from the police and hiding in the mountains. He is a kind of antipode to the Mountain Emperor, the weakest protector, his dark and murderous Shadow.
Alija Balijabić is not even Rambo, from the modern myth of the PTSD veteran, although there was bloodshed and war in that area during the nineties, when various paramilitaries crossed the border between Serbia and Montenegro. However, in this case, violence is the only form that Alia understands and uses. The similarity can only be found in the inability of the two countries and even before their institutions to cope with it. Armed to the teeth, masked special forces, drones, thermal cameras, special search dogs, quads, cannot find the 64-year-old criminal in winter conditions. Alija actually showed the impotence of the state to enforce the law, and before that to try to change criminals and socialize them through courts and prisons. Instead, whenever he was out of prison, he continued to commit crimes. It is strange how no one realized this during the years of his captivity.
Alija Balijagić does not even fit the profile of today's criminals, who have been smuggling drugs, weapons and people in that area for decades. One police official from Montenegro became famous with the bizarre statement that Alija Balijagić is "a person who committed a series of heterogeneous crimes, and his habitat is the wilderness." This parapolice language only underlines the strange attitude of the media, which begins to speak about this psychopath with a sense of awe. Officials from Serbia, including Minister Dacic and President Vucic, have already been wrong several times when they said that the capture of Balijagić was only a matter of days. Of course, sooner or later he will be arrested, but it becomes strange how with the length of the search, those who catch him become frivolous.
Balijagić is not even Čaruga, who would be some kind of proto-socialist variant of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and distributing "treasures" to the poor. Neither did Kuduz, whose story became the template for Ademir Kenović's feature film, based on the script by Abdullah Sidran, on the eve of the war in Bosnia. Aliyah is equally feared by Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
In TV reports from this area, the residents are so afraid that one of the mountaineers who met him in the forest asked that his face be hidden and his voice changed as if he were a witness in The Hague. These people know very well that in the mountains and forests, the government and the police are far away, and Aliya can jump out of any tree or bush. Imagine the fear of Balijagić seeing you on television in an area where there are no people, and televisions are even rarer. The police visit the houses and related facilities on the abandoned estates and talk to the rare inhabitants of this area. This story doesn't really have an ending other than the fact that at some point Aliya will be caught and returned to prison, or killed, or disappear into the ravines in the winter among the beasts. I highly doubt that a man like this could have friends who would willingly risk life and liberty to protect him and provide him with a hiding place. People will not report it solely out of fear of retaliation, which has happened in the past.
That's why this psychopath can neither be a hero nor a criminal, but only a proof of the state's inability to control extreme violence. Aliyah is just a completely stripped-down picture of the harsh social reality that only understands fear.
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