Ivica Dacic, an ex-protege of Slobodan Milosevic, is now spearheading Serbia's bid to join the European Union, reports Colin Freeman
IF IVICA Dacic ever needs reminding of the challenges of dragging his country into the 21st century, he need only check his mobile phone for text messages. Ever since a group of hardline Serb nationalists got hold of the prime minister’s private phone number a few years ago, it has bleeped almost daily with threatening missives - some angry at him for handing over Serb war crimes suspects to the Hague and seeking Europe Union membership, others resenting his crackdown on Serbia’s flourishing organised crime rackets.
“I get this latest one last night,” said Mr Dacic, holding up his mobile handset. “It says: ’Dacic, the Serbs will kill you one day or another’. Others curse my family, or say that there will be a black funeral flag above my house soon. But I’ve had this mobile number for 15 years now, and I’m not about to change it.
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