For sale: The digger that helped oust Milosevic

By Ljilja Cvekic

BELGRAD (Reuters Life!) - A rusty, bullet-riddled digger which helped overthrow Slobodan Milosevic went on sale this week for a starting price of 90,000 euros ($127,000).

Seven years after the uprising that ended the Serb autocrat's decade in power, the blurb for the Internet auction describes the digger as "the historic excavator that brought down communism in Serbia."

For its owner, it is also a symbol of broken dreams.

"This day should remind us all of the failed hopes of all those who honestly believed change and justice will come," said Ljubisav Djokic, known in Serbia as "Digger Joe".

"Let this day be a warning for the next elections, to make us understand that our fate is still in our hands," reads a pamphlet he made for Friday's anniversary of Milosevic's fall.

On 5 Oct 2000, Djokic -- then owner of a gravel pit -- brought his digger to the mass rally gathering strength in downtown Belgrade.

In scenes televised around the world, he led protesters to parliament, then drove down the road to the state television building, bursting through the huge front window of Milosevic's last stronghold.

"I fought for a better life for the people, for justice," Djokic said.