International Tensions Rise Over Bar Fight

Recently there has been a story in our local news about an incident that started out as a bar fight and now has escalated into an international tensions between the United States and Serbia. While this story has yet to reach a conclusion, I find it fascinating just how far some politicians will go for justice and just how far a foreign government will go to protect one of its citizens.

This all started on May 4^th of this year when 3 men assaulted a Binghamton University student at the Rathskeller bar in Downtown Binghamton. 22 year old Bryan Steinhauer, a 5' 9", 135 lb young man was beaten so bad that he remains in a coma as this article is being written He suffered a fractured skull and his cheek bones were crushed. According to witnesses, Steinhauer had been accused of "groping" a female at the bar and that's when things got out of hand. The main assailant is a 6' 9", 260lb Serbian basketball player by the name of Miladin Kovacevic. He is also a BU student. The other two men are Sanel Softic, age 21, and Edin Dzubur, 24.

Softic and Dzubur were arrested by Police and charged with 2^nd degree assault and Kovacevic was arrested and charged with 1^st degree assault. Softic and Dzubur posted $10,000 bail in late May and Kovacevic posted $100,000 bail on June 6. As part of their bail agreement, both Kovacevic and Dzubur were ordered to surrender their passports. Softic holds dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Bosnia. The Broome County District Attorney's office was worried the Kovacevic might flee into Canada where a passport is not required. Custom agents were alerted by the DA's office but it was too late. On June 9^th Kovacevic didn't flee to Canada, he stepped onto a Lufthansa 747 and flew to Frankfort, Germany and then onto Bosnia. You may ask yourself "how could he fly out of the country with no passport"? The answer is simple; his native country helped him escape.

Now before I get into this too deep, let me tell you what is happening with the other two men. On July 2^nd a grand jury upped the charges for Dzubur and Softic to 1 count each of 1^st degree assault and 1 count of gang assault. These charges carry the same penalty as attempted murder. Both men were ordered back into court and jailed in lieu of $100,000 cash bail. Kovacevic has also been charged with gang assault and being a fugitive from justice. All of these charges could be raised to murder or manslaughter of Steinhauer dies.

What the FBI and the State Department think is that a Bosnian consulate member provided Kovacevic's mother with the bail money and an emergency passport to get her son out of the country. Kovacevic's mother had shown up in court with $20,000 cash and $80,000 money order to get him out on bail. She has also, since, left the country. If this is the case than the Serbian government has a lot of explaining to do. The United States and Serbia do have an extradition treaty; however, under Serbian law they don't have to extradite one of their own citizens. The Federal Government has issued a warrant for Kovacevic which gives the FBI the power to look for him outside the country. So far the Serbian Government has refused to hand Kovacevic over for the fact that we have not filled out the right paper work. I find this to be complete bullshit plain and simple.

There is one hero, in my book, to this story and that is New York Senator Charles E. Schumer. This man is like a pit bull with bone and will not let it go. He has put a lot of pressure on Serbia to get this thug back into our country where he can face justice. There has been talk of taking this to the United Nations Security Council to get sanctions against Serbia if they do not comply and return Kovacevic to the United States. Whether this is true or not I do not know but I hope it is. But Sen. Schumer will not stop until Kovacevic is back in the U.S. and in custody. He is not doing this for votes or to win any popularity contest. Charles Schumer really does care about the people of New York and the people of our country. It's my opinion anyway.

On a side note: I hope President Bush doesn't hear about this case because that trigger happy asshole will bomb any country just for shits and giggles. I don't think we need to go to war over a bar fight that got out of control. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the victim in this case nor do I want to devalue his life. It's just not worth going to war over.

The questions I do have are; How far we, as a nation, should push this issue with Serbia? Should we ask that sanctions be imposed if our demands are not met? We have a young man who may lose his life while the man who beat him into a coma walks free. Oh, did I mention that Kovacevic signed a contract to play professional basketball in Serbia? I want to know what you think so please leave a comment good, bad or indifferent and let me know what you think this country should do about this.