Famous yellow bulldozer
from Serbia's 2000 revolution goes on sale
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 9:23 AM
BELGRADE, Serbia-A yellow bulldozer that helped angry demonstrators
storm key government buildings during Serbia's 2000 popular uprising against
former strongman Slobodan Milosevic has gone on sale.
Advertised as "the historical excavator that collapsed communism in
Serbia," the bulldozer is being auctioned online with a starting price
of €90,000 ($128,088), although it is "not in working condition."
The owner, known as Joe, drove the bulldozer during the Oct. 5 uprising
against Milosevic's attempt to maintain his decade-long rule by preventing
Serbia's pro-Western opposition from taking power after an election victory.
The bulldozer led columns of protesters in clearing the way to Belgrade's
national assembly building where protesters broke in and clashed with Milosevic's
special police.
The bulldozer also smashed through the glass walls of the offices of
state-run television, allowing opposition supporters to stream in and occupy
the building.
Hundreds of thousands stormed the government buildings during the uprising,
forcing Milosevic to resign.
"The owner wanted to sell and we are helping him," Nenad Nikolic, who
runs Limundo online auctioning told the Associated Press. "He determined
the price."
The auction description for the bulldozer notes that "traces of these
attacks are visible very clearly on the excavator itself, on the front,
back and side" glass.
The bulldozer owner was not immediately available for comment. He has
complained in past years of being forgotten by the post-Milosevic authorities
and of living in poverty.
Milosevic was handed to a U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands,
in 2001, to face a genocide trial. He died in detention in 2006. |