A Man of Chops and Changes

Who is the canniest Serb politician of them all? Not Vojislav Kostunica, the new Yugoslav President, who is known for his plain-speaking ways. Not even his hardnosed campaign manager, Zoran Djindjic. The most likely candidate after deposed President Slobodan Milosevic is a 47-year-old former karate instructor called Oliver Ivanovic. Six months ago Ivanovic, who is head of the self-proclaimed Serbian National Council in the divided Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica, was the international community's public enemy No. 1. His walkie-talkie-toting "bridge watchers" on the Ibar River in northern Kosovo were blamed for stoking division and cleansing northern Mitrovica of its remaining Albanians. A refusal to cooperate with American peacekeepers won him the label "Milosevic stooge." He regularly castigated the United Nations for its miserable failures.

Now Ivanovic is a changed man. In place of a shabby wool sweater and 1970s plastic-rimmed glasses he sports a beige blazer and contact lenses, not to mention a snappy new haircut. The rhetoric of confrontation has segued into a new readiness, as he said last week in flawless English, "to play any constructive role" as a liaison between Belgrade and Pristina. Belgrade has yet to choose its envoy to the renegade province, but Ivanovic is already unofficially filling that role. He has become the Kosovo Serb everyone wants and needs to talk to. U.N. officials can barely contain their praise: "He's clever, he's articulate and he's perceptive. He has leadership potential matched by few," said one last week. "He is the Serb that Albanians will have to arm-wrestle over a final Kosovo settlement," explained another.

"Change is good," says a smiling Ivanovic in his office near the Ibar. Of course, not everything has changed. His retinue of "bridge watchers," many of whom are veterans of the Balkan wars, remains an important asset. The ability to protect Serbs against militant Albanians has won him intense loyalty. "Ogi is God," explained one guardsman, using a familiar nickname. Adds Miroslav Milosevic, a coffee shop employee: "His resilience kept us alive." U.N. officials commend Ivanovic for his tough bargaining skills. Ivanovic refused to join U.N. interim institutions and as a result was able to obtain significant concessions on the prospective return to Kosovo of 13,000 Serbs. "It's a game," he says. "You have to learn how to maneuver to survive."

The maneuvering began 16 months ago when he and several of his karate students organized a security force to protect Serbs. Now a supermarket chain owner, Ivanovic says he never worked for Milosevic and four months ago he openly embraced Kostunica. "I knew I had to make a choice," he recalls. "I saw [Milosevic's party] was harassing people so I supported change." Today he insists that his metamorphosis is not so hard to understand. "I never was a Milosevic monster, just a Serb patriot," he says. He certainly knows all the moves.

Reported by Anthee Carassava/Mitrovica