Now What? Dayton 10 Years Later. In Serbia today, 'extremism means promoting the ideals of a normal life,' says Jovanovic.

Byline: Zoran Cirjakovic and Rod Nordland

Anniversaries torment Cedomir Jovanovic. For a young man in a big hurry, there was little solace in celebrations last week marking 10 years since the Dayton peace accords ended the Bosnian war. Jovanovic was on the streets in Belgrade during the big 1996 student demonstrations and he was on the streets again in October 2000 as Serbs, angry at rigged elections, forced strongman Slobodan Milosevic from power. And when the new leaders arrested Milosevic, Jovanovic was a key aide to Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, making sure the arrest happened despite widespread opposition in police and intelligence circles. Not surprisingly, when Djindjic was assassinated in 2003, allegedly by secret police, they had plotted to finish off Jovanovic too.

They may yet. Older politicians forced him out of Djindjic's Democratic Party, and from his job as deputy prime minister. Now he may well be the most heavily guarded private citizen in Belgrade, with two carloads of bodyguards following him at all times. A sniper opened fire on his car last March, which fortunately was armored. Even his young son Mihajlo has received death threats, beginning at the age of 6 months.

Late last month, to media acclaim, Jovanovic announced the formation of a new party, the Liberal Democrats, which immediately registered 3.4 percent in the polls--before any campaign. Popular among young people, the telegenic 34-year-old has an almost fanatically devoted band of followers. (During his student days, adoring women supporters sported buttons reading CEDO, MARRY ME.) A substantial part of that attraction is the fact that, almost alone among Serbian politicians, Jovanovic has little patience for the bloody mythologies of the country's past. Instead, he looks to the future--and speaks of unpleasant realities as he sees them.

That outspoken message infuriates Serbia's powers that be. It's as simple as it is provocative: Serbs in Bosnia should stop looking to Belgrade as their capital, says Jovanovic. Kosovo is already de facto independent, and Serbs should let it go. Serbia should take responsibility for its war crimes, and he attacks the Orthodox Church as complicit in Milosevic's excesses. "It is all black and white here. There is no space for gray," he says, quaffing a Red Bull energy drink, which he describes as "my only vice." Friends sometimes tell him that he's too blunt. ...