Belgrade gangs:
47-708: Outside the Balkans: The Zemun Clan ( Serbian : Земунски клан , romanized : Zemunski klan ) is one of the Belgrade clans of the Serbian mafia . It is named for the gang's base in Zemun , a municipality of Belgrade . The peak of the clan's power and influence occurred between 1999 and 2003 and they were considered to be one of the most powerful organisations in Southeast Europe . In 1993, Dušan Spasojević ,
94-564: A former lower-league association football player who would later become the head of the Zemun clan, arrived to Serbian capital city of Belgrade from his home village of Retkocer, near Medveđa in southern Serbia. Retkocer's proximity to Kosovo is what earned Spasojević the nickname Šiptar ( the Albanian ), even though he was an ethnic Serb. On his trip to Belgrade, he was accompanied by his childhood friend and future associate, Mile Luković, called Kum (
141-513: A grey Audi (dubbed the "Audi of Death" by the media) and, in at least one case, grinding the victim in a meat grinder. The group definitely parted ways with Buha after he decided to turn legitimate and start a road construction company, called Defense Road . The Zemun clan grew in prominence after the downfall of Slobodan Milošević with an influx of many veterans of the Special Operations Unit (widely known as Red Berets ), including
188-463: A part of the 5 major organized crime groups operating in the country. A courier package of 5 kilos of cocaine was intercepted from Paraguay and 4 Belgraders were arrested. The busts were part of Operation Balkan Warrior ; an international drug smuggling case that involves mainly the new Zemun Clan. The leader of the new drug ring is Željko Vujanović. Serbian language Serbian ( српски / srpski , pronounced [sr̩̂pskiː] )
235-690: A villa with an adjacent shopping mall in Šilerova street, a relatively poor neighborhood within Zemun. Built for around 8,5 million German Marks, it was surrounded by 7m high walls, contained an Olympic swimming pool with ocean rubble, and chairs covered with pony hair. The villa also had a torture chamber in the basement, however the clan usually avoided keeping the hostages there. In 2002, the clan attempted to assassinate Buha twice: once in front of his company Defense Road in Belgrade, and again during his vacation in Istanbul . The last attempt prompted Buha to drive all
282-436: Is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia, which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian . Serbian is practically the only European standard language whose speakers are fully functionally digraphic , using both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić , who created it based on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet used for Serbian ( latinica )
329-688: Is a drug dealer, Luković's father committed suicide. Spasojević and Luković soon became close to the leader of the Surčin clan, Ljubiša Buha . The two men used Buha's numerous connections to their advantage and established their base of operations in Zemun neighborhood, relatively close to Surčin. Nominally, Spasojević and Luković were considered members of the Surčin group, but later became increasingly autonomous in their operations. During this period, Sretko "The Beast" Kalinić joined Spasojević's group as their chief hit-man. His methods included drive-by shootings from
376-514: Is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina ), which is also the basis of standard Croatian , Bosnian , and Montenegrin varieties and therefore the Declaration on the Common Language of Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Montenegrins was issued in 2017. The other dialect spoken by Serbs
423-580: Is closer to the Kajkavian and Chakavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian ). Speakers by country: Serbian was the official language of Montenegro until October 2007, when the new Constitution of Montenegro replaced the Constitution of 1992. Amid opposition from pro-Serbian parties, Montenegrin was made the sole official language of the country, and Serbian was given the status of a language in official use along with Bosnian , Albanian , and Croatian . In
470-517: Is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, the Serbian Alexandride , a book about Alexander the Great , and a translation of Tristan and Iseult into Serbian. Although not belonging to the literature proper, the corpus of Serbian literacy in the 14th and 15th centuries contains numerous legal, commercial and administrative texts with marked presence of Serbian vernacular juxtaposed on
517-620: Is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs . It is the official and national language of Serbia , one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kosovo . It is a recognized minority language in Croatia , North Macedonia , Romania , Hungary , Slovakia , and the Czech Republic . Standard Serbian
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#1732858182635564-435: Is the only general historical dictionary of Serbo-Croatian. Its first editor was Đuro Daničić , followed by Pero Budmani and the famous Vukovian Tomislav Maretić . The sources of this dictionary are, especially in the first volumes, mainly Štokavian . There are older, pre-standard dictionaries, such as the 1791 German–Serbian dictionary or 15th century Arabic-Persian-Greek-Serbian Conversation Textbook . The standard and
611-817: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbian, written in the Cyrillic script : Сва људска бића рађају се слободна и једнака у достојанству и правима. Она су обдарена разумом и свешћу и треба једни према другима да поступају у духу братства. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Serbian, written in the Latin alphabet : Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i svešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva. Article 1 of
658-708: The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from 2001 to 2004. Mihajlović was born in Valjevo , FPR Yugoslavia on 27 September 1948. He earned a degree from the University of Belgrade 's Law School . Dušan Mihajlović reconstituted Social Democratic Youth in New Democracy or Liberals of Serbia with its base in Valjevo , Serbia. He was elected as member of the National Assembly of Serbia between 1993 and 1999. During
705-619: The Proto-Slavic language . There are many loanwords from different languages, reflecting cultural interaction throughout history. Notable loanwords were borrowed from Greek, Latin, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian, English, Russian, German, Czech and French. Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages , and included such works as Miroslavljevo jevanđelje ( Miroslav's Gospel ) in 1186 and Dušanov zakonik ( Dušan's Code ) in 1349. Little secular medieval literature has been preserved, but what there
752-508: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Du%C5%A1an Mihajlovi%C4%87 (politician) Dušan Mihajlović (born 27 September 1948) is a Serbian politician. He served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and as
799-457: The official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution . The Latin script continues to be used in official contexts, although the government has indicated its desire to phase out this practice due to national sentiment. The Ministry of Culture believes that Cyrillic is the "identity script" of the Serbian nation. However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language , or standard language itself by any means, leaving
846-488: The 2023 Montenegrin census, 43.18% declared Serbian to be their native language, while Montenegrin was declared by 34.52% of the population. Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic ( ћирилица , ćirilica ) and Latin script ( latinica , латиница ). Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia , a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or
893-553: The BIA, lending them information on Kosovar Albanian insurgents in exchange. During 2001, the clan kidnapped several influential businessmen and demanded millions as ransom. Among those men were Milija Babović and Miroslav Mišković , widely considered to be the most powerful business people in Serbia at the time. In both cases, Ulemek offered his help to the police, in his official capacity. He abused that position and provided insider information to
940-564: The Godfather ). Luković came from Donji Gajtan near Medveđa, and has previously worked as a prison guard in Priština . Upon arriving to Belgrade, the two men soon got involved in car theft. In 1995, Belgrade police arrested Spasojević and Luković while they were trying to steal a civilian car parked in front of a military hospital. The car theft operation was led by a certain "Peca", and targets were people coming to visit wounded friends or relatives in
987-819: The Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one. Latin script has become more and more popular in Serbia, as it is easier to input on phones and computers. The sort order of the ćirilica ( ћирилица ) alphabet: The sort order of the latinica ( латиница ) alphabet: Serbian is a highly inflected language , with grammatical morphology for nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well as verbs. Serbian nouns are classified into three declensional types, denoted largely by their nominative case endings as "-a" type, "-i" and "-e" type. Into each of these declensional types may fall nouns of any of three genders : masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun may be inflected to represent
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#17328581826351034-410: The Latin script predominates, although both scripts are commonly seen. The Serbian government has encouraged increasing the use of Cyrillic in these contexts. Larger signs, especially those put up by the government, will often feature both alphabets; if the sign has English on it, then usually only Cyrillic is used for the Serbian text. A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors
1081-450: The Latin script tends to imply a cosmopolitan or neutral attitude, while Cyrillic appeals to a more traditional or vintage sensibility. In media, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia , predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink , predominantly use the Latin script. Newspapers can be found in both scripts. In the public sphere, with logos, outdoor signage and retail packaging,
1128-571: The Operation. Milan Sarajlić, the Deputy State Prosecutor of Serbia, was arrested and confessed to being on the payroll of the Zemun clan. The Red Berets were dissolved on 23 March 2003. Spasojević and Luković were killed by the police in front of their hiding place in the village of Meljak near Belgrade, on 27 March. The official explanation has been that both were killed in a shootout with the police, but this has been disputed by many, including
1175-476: The beginning of the 13th century, the entire official correspondence of Dubrovnik with states in the hinterland was conducted in Serbian. In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature,
1222-439: The choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials, which have to be in Cyrillic. Traffic signs and directional signs, and place names, on main or international roads are to be written with both Cyrillic and Latin script To most Serbians,
1269-468: The clan: for example, when he found out that Babović's family quickly and easily collected the ransom money, he advised the clan members to demand more. Eventually, all the hostages were released, however, some were severely beaten and tortured in the process. Alerted by the increasingly brazen kidnappings, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dušan Mihajlović has ordered the formation of an undercover unit within
1316-568: The early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić promoted the spoken language of the people as a literary norm. The dialects of Serbo-Croatian , regarded Serbian (traditionally spoken in Serbia), include: Vuk Karadžić 's Srpski rječnik , first published in 1818, is the earliest dictionary of modern literary Serbian. The Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (I–XXIII), published by the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1880 to 1976,
1363-415: The famous Serbian lawyer Toma Fila . The villa in Šilerova street was demolished. In 2006, it was revealed that Spasojević was a source of information to Serbian Radical leader Vojislav Šešelj , whom he had given information about high-profile murders carried out in Serbia, written about in Šešelj's two books (Šešelj referred to Spasojević under the pseudonym Laufer ). After a period of relative silence,
1410-440: The hospital. Due to the ongoing Yugoslav Wars , the number of such visits was large. Presumably, the group operated either under the control, or in cooperation with, the Surčin clan, the largest organised car theft group in the country. In 1997, Spasojević and Luković moved from cars to pushing drugs in the Belgrade suburb of Karaburma , and after getting arrested again, they became police informants. After finding out that his son
1457-552: The major 'levels' of language shows that BCS is clearly a single language with a single grammatical system." It has lower intelligibility with the Eastern South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian , than with Slovene (Slovene is part of the Western South Slavic subgroup, but there are still significant differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to the standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian, although it
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1504-588: The matrix of Serbian Church Slavonic . By the beginning of the 14th century the Serbo-Croatian language, which was so rigorously proscribed by earlier local laws, becomes the dominant language of the Republic of Ragusa . However, despite her wealthy citizens speaking the Serbo-Croatian dialect of Dubrovnik in their family circles, they sent their children to Florentine schools to become perfectly fluent in Italian. Since
1551-407: The most notable form being epic poetry . The epic poems were mainly written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to the 1950s, a few centuries or even a millennium longer than by most other "epic folks". Goethe and Jacob Grimm learned Serbian in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. By the end of the 18th century, the written literature had become estranged from
1598-415: The noun they modify, but must agree in number, gender and case with the modified noun. Serbian verbs are conjugated in four past forms— perfect , aorist , imperfect , and pluperfect —of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but the majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic), one future tense (also known as the first future tense, as opposed to
1645-517: The noun's grammatical case , of which Serbian has seven: Nouns are further inflected to represent the noun's number , singular or plural. Pronouns, when used, are inflected along the same case and number morphology as nouns. Serbian is a pro-drop language , meaning that pronouns may be omitted from a sentence when their meaning is easily inferred from the text. In cases where pronouns may be dropped, they may also be used to add emphasis. For example: Adjectives in Serbian may be placed before or after
1692-677: The only completed etymological dictionary of Serbian is the " Skok ", written by the Croatian linguist Petar Skok : Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika ("Etymological Dictionary of Croatian or Serbian"). I-IV. Zagreb 1971–1974. There is also a new monumental Etimološki rečnik srpskog jezika (Etymological Dictionary of Serbian). So far, two volumes have been published: I (with words on A-), and II (Ba-Bd). There are specialized etymological dictionaries for German, Italian, Croatian, Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, English and other loanwords (cf. chapter word origin ). Article 1 of
1739-601: The organized groups from Zemun and surrounding areas once again increased their activities. In November 2009, Argentine Police arrested 5 Serbian drug couriers and seized their 492 kilograms of cocaine in Buenos Aires . On 31 October 2009, Serbian police arrested over 500 people in the biggest ever anti-drug operation carried out in Serbia. The routes of the drugs were from Uruguay and Argentina to South Africa to Northern Italy , Turkey and Montenegro . Serbian organized crime experts estimated that 10,000 foot soldiers form
1786-400: The other. In general, the alphabets are used interchangeably; except in the legal sphere, where Cyrillic is required, there is no context where one alphabet or another predominates. Although Serbian language authorities have recognized the official status of both scripts in contemporary Standard Serbian for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, the Cyrillic script was made
1833-472: The police, led by experienced officer Mile Novaković, with the sole task of bringing down the perpetrators. During their trip to Paris , Spasojević and Luković have been arrested by the French police on the account of having fake passports. They were extradited to Serbia and have spent several months in custody, but were ultimately released, despite protests by several high ranking police officers. The Clan formed
1880-413: The second conditional (without use in the spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian has active and passive voice . As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive , two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past). Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to
1927-433: The second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense . These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood . The conditional mood has two more tenses: the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses) and
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1974-481: The so-called "crowbar brigade" ( "pajser brigada" ), consisting of around 50 underage or young delinquents from different areas of Belgrade, whose primary job was to harass, extort and torture the drug addicts who owed the Clan money. Although crowbar was their primary weapon, they used all sorts of blunt weapons. The "brigade" was controlled by Spasojević's associates, Dušan Krsmanović and Milan Jurišić. Spasojević had built
2021-466: The spoken language. In the second half of the 18th century, the new language appeared, called Slavonic-Serbian . This artificial idiom superseded the works of poets and historians like Gavrilo Stefanović Venclović , who wrote in essentially modern Serbian in the 1720s. These vernacular compositions have remained cloistered from the general public and received due attention only with the advent of modern literary historians and writers like Milorad Pavić . In
2068-499: The unit's commander, Milorad Ulemek . These were people who had military training, wartime experience and connections with elements of the Serbian state secret service UDBA (after 2001, renamed to BIA ). In September 2001, 700 kilos of heroin were found in a bank vault rented by Beobanka to the BIA , in central Belgrade. The illegal safekeeping was never explained nor brought up. In 2001, the Zemun clan organized "special training courses" with
2115-646: The way to the Serbian embassy in Ankara and offer to testify. He was transferred to a secure location where gave his testimony in the presence of the Serbian state prosecutor and the police unit led by Novaković. During the period that started with the Yugoslav Wars and ended with the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in March 2003, connections between the Serbian Mafia and the government were obvious and corruption
2162-561: Was designed by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s based on the Czech system with a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin orthographies, resulting in a parallel system. Serbian is a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian , a Slavic language ( Indo-European ), of the South Slavic subgroup. Other standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian are Bosnian , Croatian , and Montenegrin . "An examination of all
2209-449: Was rampant in most branches of the state, from border patrols to law-enforcement agencies. On 12 March 2003, Đinđić was assassinated by former Special Operations Unit member Zvezdan Jovanović. The government then set in motion a major operation against organized crime codenamed Operation Sabre , which led to more than 10,000 arrests. The revenue of New Belgrade malls, locations frequented by gangsters, plummeted by more than 20+% after
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