"I accepted because that's how everyone voted and to prevent someone else from claiming the post," says Antonijevic, a general practitioner and a clinical transfusion specialist, adding that "elections should be held no later than St. Vitus Day [June 28]. In the near future a session or meeting will be held at which three men each should be elected from the municipal boards in Leposavic, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Kosovska Mitrovica. Once the assembly committee is formed, I'll be able to resign from both functions."
"Quite simply, he promoted himself as the man who would solve all problems and he conducted most negotiations on his own," says Jaksic, adding that the dismissal of Ivanovic was the result "of a political option which is exceptionally flexible in relation to foreigners, first and foremost, representatives of UNMIK, especially with regard to the issues of weapons, Bosnjacka Mahala, customs..." says Jaksic, although he does not contest the achievements of the man who is perhaps his greatest political rival with respect to organizing the defense of Kosovska Mitrovica.
"Unlike the majority of our leaders in Kosovo, Mr. Ivanovic speaks excellent English and that is an important thing because he had no need for translators who, in Kosovo and Metohija, are frequently Albanians. During the first attacks he organized, that is, he was one of the organizers, of those tough guys from the bridge," says Milan Secerovic, a dramatist, reporter, a member of the executive board of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and, as he told us, "the newly appointed coordinator for Kosovo and the district of Raska which stretches from Presevo all the way to Tutin".
"That wasn't the case. The reasons for his dismissal were political," says Antonijevic and adds: "No institution officially financed the guardians, it was all on a volunteer basis. It was an unwritten rule that when salaries were paid, whoever wanted to could put aside however much he wanted for the guardians. If only we had been so lucky to function like the Albanians and have everyone respect something like this. It wasn't a big sum of money; it wasn't enough for the guardians to buy the cigarettes they smoked every day, let alone to get something to eat."
It cannot be denied, even by those who dismissed Oliver Ivanovic, that he is a man who never hid his leadership capability and ambitions, and that the other members of the Serb National Council knew this the entire time. They waited almost two years to reduce the influence of Oliver Ivanovic, whom international representatives (primarily Bernard Kouchner, the first head of the UN Mission in Kosovo and Metohija and Brigadier Cabigiosu, the former commander in chief of KFOR) frequently called a "Serb nationalist". The failure of the SNC to "settle accounts" with Oliver Ivanovic at an earlier point in time was justified by the fact that the Serbs were in such a difficult position that they dared not argue among themselves because this would lead to catastrophic consequences because the fall of Kosovska Mitrovica would have led to the departure of all the remaining Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.