YUGOSLAVIA • DOCUMENTS sion of the eleventh party congress in 1978, when it had already become clear that the crisis was there to stay.
Committees are formed at all enterprises, and at all levels of the state administration. They are composed of party and trade-union leaders, representatives of the state administration, army and police commanders. Thus they concentrate political and state power at the different levels of society, though it is not at all clear to whom they are responsible.
Last September, Nenad Bucin, a member of the Federal conference of the Socialist Alliance, called for outright abolition of the Committees on the grounds that they not only act outside the norms of the system, but are also deeply unconstitutional. "Not a self-managing and socio-political mechanism, but their members also feel themselves to be free, under no obligation to integrate themselves into or act within that system.
"With the exception of the highest party bodies, socio-political organizations [party and state organs] have practically ceased to follow and analyze in depth the political situation, not to speak of what should follow from such an analysis — for example, action, influence, leadership....It is open to dispute whether these committees have assumed non-transferable rights and obligations; I personally believe that they have. The important thing is that state, enterprise, political and other social bodies are no longer concerned with this delicate and important work."6
Bureaucracy presents two faces
The editor of Danas commented
"The essential truth contained in this proposal [of Bucin's] begins to shine forth once one understands that a whole series of the "black spots' in Yugoslavia's current reality are due not to any nefarious activities by some internal enemy, but to the suspension of the system's legitimate institutions and to the exercise of political way of silent prohibitions, through which an increasing number of political decisions are being taken with ever-
The bureaucracy is increasingly engaged in a kind of double-talk: what individual state and party leaders cannot do in public, because it may be unpopular or open to question, they do under a different hat through the Committees, which are not susceptible to outside control.
This question, together with others, is likely to be discussed at the forthcoming party conference, scheduled for 1988. Whether this conference will be productive remains to be seen. * 18 6. Danas, October 6, 1987. International Viewpoint • December 7, 1987
Dragisa
Pavlovic's address to the editors of the Politika publishing house IN implementing our policy of intranational relations and equality among nations and nationalities, communists and all progressive people in the Socialist Republic of Serbia today find themselves confronted by probably the most difficult, most complex and most demanding set of tasks in our post-war history. The situation in Kosovo, which is not improving with the necessary, the desirable or the seemingly lightly promised speed, is creating a dangerous atmosphere in which every word spoken against Serb nationalism is taken as surrender to Albanian
In this atmosphere, with signs of growing political tensions in evidence, it is easy to lose one's orientation. Positions become confused and the line which one should not cross grows indistinct. Resignation on the one side and passion or hysteria on the other have entrenched themselves in some circles and in some of our press organs. Resignation weakens our struggle, while passion and hysteria turn it against
But communists are communists precisely because they do not yield to such moods; rather, they try to alter them. The question before us is not just "Are we united in the struggle against Albanian nationalism and separatism?", but also, "Are we united in the conviction that this struggle should be waged only with a policy based on the programme and statutes of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY), through existing institutions, on the basis of self-managing, democratic socialism?
Anything which seeks to divert our struggle against Albanian nationalism along other paths is deeply anti-Serb, antiYugoslav and anti-democratic. Recently, in relation to Kosovo, in certain public organs and proclamations, we find people of openly anti-communist orientation hiding behind a supposed popular contribution to implementing the conclusions of the ninth session of the LCY's central committee.
The Serb nation has its historic obligation to solve the problem of Kosovo together with other nations and nationalities. It cannot and should not allow itself, by choosing wrong methods of struggle, to be pushed along a wild path, which would alter its historic character and freedomloving tradition.
In the sharp struggle against Albanian separatism, which is yet to acquire an agreed and finalized programme, and is being replaced by intemperate and inflammable words, our essential task is to safeguard the dignity of the Serb nation and its historic character....The space for solving the Kosovo problem is now so narrow that the least mistake in our tactics, however wellintentioned it may be, can only lead to a tragic outcome for the Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo, for the Serb people and for the stability of Yugoslavia.
The message that, given the situation in Kosovo, one must do everything and that even if mistakes are made they can be corrected later, is a classic example of pragmatic and bureaucratic logic, which may collect applause today but which breeds only trouble for tomorrow. The hands of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo are turning from applause into clenched fists, and this is the point beyond which only tragedy can follow. Who today needs blood — for what imagined solutions? This frightening word is being publicly spoken with increasing frequency, without political or legal response or even human concern at its
What has to happen for us to understand that the trigger on the gun is pulled by intemperate and hysterical words spoken in public, sometimes just by a line in a newspaper? How many Albanian shop windows must be broken before we become convinced that anti-Albanian sentiment is to be found not just in the warnings of the highest organs of the LCY, but also on our streets?
The struggle against Albanian nationalism is a task in the execution of which we cannot show the least hesitation or indulgence. Every such hesitation or indulgence carries a high price. However, if the struggle against Albanian nationalism is accompanied by intolerance and hatred towards the Albanian nationality, which is what we find in some of our press, then the struggle departs from socialist principles and comes close to nationalism itself. All those who today are ready to give up democratic and socialist principles, the road of self-management, in the name of some more effective solution to national problems and conflicts, is close to nationalism or deep within it — whatever protection he may
International relations can be ruined by force, but force cannot improve them or build them. Serb nationalism is no longer being fed just by what is happening in Kosovo, but also by the lack of balance over Kosovo present in some journals, certain public utterances and some institutions. It appears that in certain of these cases we have crossed the danger-line, in that Serb nationalists find encouragement in our behaviour and activity, in texts written by communist journalists.
History has known instances of struggle for national interest that have culminated in national betrayal. This happens when national interests are interpreted in a certain
DOCUMENTS • YUGOSLAVIA and security of the state.
The officials of the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (YPA) have made their own contribution. Although the investigation into the Paracin tragedy has not yet been completed, organs of the Ministry of Peoples' Defence have proclaimed it to be a crime motivated by nationalist and separatist intent. Behind Kelmendi's bullets, indeed, there apparently stood organized enemy forces.
The consequence of this campaign followed promptly. "In accordance with ancient Albanian tradition", Kelmendi's funeral was boycotted, his family was isolated and its expulsion from Dusanovo prepared, his relatives were interrogated by the
Yugoslavia's army is concerned about the increasing instability (DR) way; when the national struggle is waged in certain ways and in certain company. The Serb nation too has had experiences of this kind. The position of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo can be solved successfully only in a strong, stable, self-managing and within a strong, selfmanaging and socialist Yugoslavia....
As of today we must criticize Serb nationalism on a daily basis. For the Serb nationalists are presenting themselves as the saviours of the Serb cause in Kosovo, when in fact they cannot solve a single social problem and are unable to offer any resolution of intra-national relations that would be socially acceptable. * Mladina editorial JUST one year ago, certain organs of the press, most of them Serbian, launched a campaign for the political rehabilitation of Milos Zanko, a one-time prominent Croatian political figure who at the start of the seventies warned against the growth of national chauvinism in Croatia and against the Croatian party's passive attitude to manifestations of national intolerance. This warning cost Zanko dearly: he was forced to resign from all his official functions and not until sixteen years later, well after time had proved him right, did he receive public recognition for his act.
In the middle of September, at a meeting with Serbian newspaper editors, Dragisa Pavlovic, president of the city committee of the Belgrade party, said that unrestrained and hysterical public pronouncements were legitimizing revanchism, often a single word in a newspaper being enough.
"How many Albanian shop windows must be broken", he asked, "for us to be convinced that anti-Albanian sentiment does not exist only in the warnings of the highest party organs, but lives on the streets too."
These events signalled the beginning of a merciless political struggle in Serbia, which soon moved from behind the scenes into full public view. Slobodan Milosevic, president of the central committee of the Serbian party, who had already shown himself to be an advocate of the use of repression against political "ideological" opponents, here too was not choosy about his methods. Breaking all the statutory rules, at a central committee meeting chaired by himself he secured the removal of Dragisa Pavlovic from the party presidency, "since his act was an expression of disunity, obstructing the implementation of resolutions adopted with a view to overcoming the most difficult social problems, especially in the resolute execution of our political tasks in
The platform of "unity" formulated in this manner is simply a call for a settling of accounts, and for the application of all the methods to be found in the arsenal of Yugoslavia's neo-Stalinists. It is evidently a platform of open Serb nationalism. If this platform is acted upon and emotions overcome reason, this would undoubtedly lead to a return to the nineteenth century on Serbia's part. Yugoslavia would then enter upon its greatest political crisis since the war.
The settlement of accounts with Dragisa Pavlovic will undoubtedly lead to a settlement of accounts with all democratically and internationally minded intellectuals. Milos Zanko is past. Dragisa Pavlovic, however, is our today. It is important that we do not remain silent. *
(October 2, 1987.) Letter from 70 Slovene intellectuals published in
Mladina THE PARACIN tragedy has been described in a whole series of Yugoslav newspapers as a "blow against Yugoslavia". The innuendo was clear: Albanians are a constant danger and threat to the integrity police, his 16-year-old sister was expelled from her youth organization and is now also threatened with expulsion from school. At the same time, the number of attacks on Albanians and their property in Serbia, Vojvodina, Montenegro and Macedonia grows by the day.
This atmosphere of pogrom and lynch has acquired such dreadful proportions in the past few days that voices are being raised from many quarters calling for reason and tolerance. The subsequent dousing of the flames by the press, which ignited them in the first place, does not however deal with the real causes of this pogrom.
Inevitably, the first question must be addressed to the army. Despite a whole series of reasoned demands that the YPA should open itself to society, it shows no intention of informing the public about the figures for suicides, accidents, homicides or mental disturbances among its recruits. The public is given a short statement only when some border guard kills a foreigner trying to cross the frontier (though the penalty for illegal entry is only three months in prison!); or when a guard takes a shot at a civilian (the child riding his motorbike on his family field in Strumica, near Postojna); or when a civilian is actually shot (as happened to an old man who strayed onto a parade ground at Radovica); or when armed YPA personnel frighten the local population (as happened recently at Glinica). On no such occasion has there been an investigation.
This suppression of information, fostering the notion of the army's immaculate condition, does not contribute to the democratization of our society. Is the Paracin tragedy not further proof of the need to conduct a rational and dispassionate discussion about the introduction of civilian service in the YPA? Would this option not help to lessen frustrations and to prevent traumas, mental tensions, suicides and so on?
Indignation at the lynch atmosphere against Albanians sounds unconvincing, and is above all ineffective, when we see the Federal Secretariat for Defence blowing up this tragedy to an intolerable degree, underlining the national origin of the perpetrator, even though the available information provides not a shred of proof that one is deal. 19 ng here with any deliberate or pre-planned December 7, 1987 • International Viewpoint
/LCR
YUGOSLAVIA • F I NEWS action, that it was carried out for nationalist reasons, or that there was anybody behind it.
By adopting this attitude, the YPA has joined the anti-Albanian campaign that has been going on for many years in Yugoslavia. One example of this was (among thousands) the petition of 2,016 inhabitants of Kosovo Polje, written less than two years ago, supported by the flower of the Serb intelligentsia and signed by as many as 60,000 people. The reaction to this petition in the highest political circles was lukewarm, despite the fact that the petition called for the expulsion of 260,000 Albanians and their families from Kosovo and Yugoslavia and demanded that all land transactions between Serbs and Albanians concluded since the war be annulled, that Serbo-Croat be introduced as the sole official language in Kosovo and so on.
The systematic inflaming of national hatred could not but bring forth its poisoned fruit. We therefore call once more for reason and tolerance. The division of Albani-
"good" and "bad", when in practice only the "bad" are then spoken about, does not lead anywhere. As the national situation in Kosovo and elsewhere is made to appear hopeless and intractable, political, economic and democratic problems grow worse. Unfounded and irresponsible talk of counter-revolution, or of genocide of Serb and Montenegrin inhabitants of Kosovo, merely encourage the atmosphere of pogrom and do not offer any concrete solutions.
Our humanity should make us strenuously resist all attempts to make political capital out of the personal tragedy of the five soldiers and their families. *
(September 25, 1987.) bourgeosie; for a policy that breaks with