Ten years later, he won a second competition for words to the anthem, but ethnically motivated politicians refused to approve them. He's still owed 15,000 euros (£11,000) for that effort.
Then in 2009, as if that wasn't enough, someone made a discovery. It turned out that Dusan's anthem was remarkably similar to the music that opens National Lampoon's Animal House - the 1978 film about a debauched university fraternity.
Immediately some called for Dusan's anthem to be dropped and he was accused of plagiarism. A newspaper even apparently tracked down the Animal House composer's family and tried to get them to sue. Dusan had to go on TV to defend himself.
"I was hurt by the headlines," he told me earlier this year in the largely Serb city of Banja Luka.
"I didn't know the name of the movie, but I listened to it and I was really, really surprised. I thought about it, and perhaps as a young man, I'd seen the movie or heard the song and it stuck in my brain somehow, this musical code. It's definitely possible - but I cannot say this is plagiarism."
He pointed out some differences between the two melodies. "Not everyone in this country is a thief or corrupt," he added. "If I was, I would be a politician and be doing far better in life."
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