ARKAN

Arkan was a powerful man with high-level connections in the state apparatus. He had significant influence over public spheres of Serbian society. For his public image, Arkan presented himself as a defender of Serbs and fighter for freedom and justice. He was known for his multiple personalities, being a strong, often brutal leader in public and more caring and reserved in private. Arkan also organized and financed humanitarian aid for poor families and war orphans. He gave pensions to his crippled and otherwise wounded volunteers and the families of slain soldiers.
Arkan was glorified by part of the Serb population as a war hero, and was the subject of war songs. Others despised him because of his playboy lifestyle and enormous wealth gained through shady means. He owned a voluminous mansion in the elite Belgrade neighborhood of Dedinje where high-ranking politicians and foreign diplomats reside. Despite being raised an atheist in a family of communists, Arkan made a point of showing public respects to the Serbian Orthodox Church, especially its head Patriarch Pavle. Additionally, he observed and celebrated various religious holidays, often publicly. Some questioned the motives behind these public displays of his newfound religious spirituality and saw it as shameless self-promotion ploy in an attempt at ingratiation with the Serbian public.
On November 3, 1993, Arkan and his followers founded the Party of Serbian Unity, and he became its president, but the party lost parliamentary elections and failed to win seats despite an energetic promotional campaign. In the 2000 election, however, the party received 200,000 votes and won 14 seats in the Serbian parliament. In the postwar period after the Dayton agreement was signed, Arkan returned to his interests in sport and private business. The Serb Volunteer Guard was officially disbanded in April 1996 with the threat to be reactivated in case of war emergency. In June of that year he took over a second division soccer team Obilic which he soon turned into a top calibre club, even winning the 1997/98 Yugoslav league championship. According to a book by Franklin Foer, "How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization", Arkan threatened players on opposing teams if they scored against Obilic. This threat was underlined by the thousands of veterans from his army that filled their home ground, chanting threats, and on occasion pointing pistols at opposition players during matches. One player told the British football magazine Four-Four-Two that he was locked in a garage when his team played Obilic. The Union of European Football Associations considered prohibited Obilic from participation in Europe because of its connections to Arkan. In response to this, Arkan stepped away from the position of president and gave his seat to his wife Ceca. Arkan was also a chairman of the Yugoslav Kick-boxing Association.
Arkan has been accused of being involved in protection rackets, money extortion, and the smuggling of oil and luxury items. Later he pursued more legitimate business and had about 400 people working for him. He owned casinos, discos, gas stations, pastry shops, stores, bakeries, restaurants, gyms, as well as a private security agency. Arkan was unofficially allied with Slobodan Miloševic, and moved under his control, although he was fairly independent in his day-to-day actions and decisions. Contacts between the men were usually carried out through a mediator Radovan "Badža" Stojicic, Serbia's police chief and Miloševic's close associate, who was assassinated in April 1997. In August 1998, when tensions over Kosovo had already begun, Arkan tried to get close to the West, writing a letter of support to U.S. president Bill Clinton over the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In the letter he expressed condolences for the victims that died in the attack, and warned Clinton on the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. An excerpt from his letter reads: "Mr President… do not allow that terrorism continues in this part of Balkan in the Serbian state, which is forever a friend of your state." Clinton ignored him and never responded to the letter.