Federation" as potential replacements for Serbian dictator
Slobodan Milosevic.
Inside Serbia, Milosevic has been trying to strengthen his position against the pretenders; on October 20, the Serbian police, loyal to Milosevic, took control of the premises of the Yugoslav interior ministry and secret police.
Christian Pomitzer visited Belgrade recently and reports on the political forces opposing Milosevic.
CHRISTIAN POMITZER*
H
ARDLY a hundred kilometres away from the Serbian capital
Belgrade people are dying in great numbers. I walk down the Kalemegdan, a path to the old fortress that rises up like a cap on the northern side of the Serbian capital, surrounded by water on three sides.
The immediate surroundings are so quiet that it is possible to perceive the background noise from the city centre. Here the war seems to have been hidden away.
The waters of the Save River come from
Slovenia and Croatia. Its sources a few kilometres onwards, the twin towns of
Slavonski Brod and Bosanski Brod, are under siege.
But the war has touched here; a year ago
Belgrade's water supply was threatened by petrol from the Croatian refinery at
Sisak destroyed by the Yugoslav People's
Army.
On the other side of the Save can be seen the high rise blocks of Novi Beograd
[New Belgrade]. There is a helicopter over the river. An ivy-covered wall directs the attention to the north, to the wide plains of
Vojvodina; in this direction lies the Batajnica military airfield from where transport planes continue to take help to the so-called "Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina". A kilometre further eastwards the
Save flows into the Danube. A few cargo ships that have broken through the UN embargo can be seen on the glittering waters. The normality of it all is breathtaking.
Before the First World War, the other bank of the Save was part of the Austro-
Hungarian Monarchy. From here in
August 1914 the imperial cannon began to shell the Serbian capital. And even now war can be found about 40 kilometres
16 away.
A group of young brown-uniformed soldiers walks along the Kalemegdan. On leave? The helicopter continues to circle.
On the park benches sit old men speaking in soft voices — perhaps about politics or the threat of military intervention or perhaps only about daily rising prices. In one place a small crowd has gathered. Two old men are holding a chess match. At the same time the former American chess world champion Bobby Fischer is playing the Russian Boris Spassky in the Montenegrin peninsula of Sveti Stefan.
There have been no holidays this year for the people of Belgrade. Most of the coast is now a part of Croatia and American warships cruise off those beaches remaining to the remnant of Yugoslavia.
### Myth of Yugoslavia
Here the myth of "Yugoslavia" still has some life in it. Unlike in Croatia, where the flag with the star has been everywhere replaced by the Croat flag, here no signs of either the "old" or the "new" regime can be seen. Slobodan Milosevic and his colleagues do not need it. Only the bright blue uniforms of the police awaken memories of Tito's Yugoslavia.
In the pedestrians-only zone that starts at the exit from the park, a young women is selling opposition newspapers. She recognizes my Croat dialect and opens her heart. She herself is from Croatia, a Serb from the Krajina. She has fled with her child to Belgrade and gets by as she can. I am reluctant to ask her why she fled Croatia and I wonder if she sells the papers out of conviction or as a way of making
The city centre is calm. However there are hardly any customers in the shops. It resembles Baghdad in the period between shopping street, there is a store selling nationalist memorabilia. Here you can buy caps with nationalist emblems worn by "weekend Chetniks" who travel for the weekend to the war in Bosnia. On the table lie pictures of the king-in-exile and of Draza Mihajlovic, the leaders of the Chetniks in the Second World War, killed by Tito in 1947, and cassettes of speeches by the opposition leader Vuk Draskovic. the Democratic Movement of Serbs".
This is an opposition association that boycotted the so-called federal elections for a new parliament for the rump Yugoslavia in May. However they are still cautious. They wonder where 1 learnt their language and are suspicious when I ask them questions in Croat. Previously there was one official language, Serbo-Croat, with two variants - Serb and Croat. Now the new regime in Croatia decrees what is Croat and what is not. In Serbia people are more relaxed about the language question. Here no new state has been founded and the "Yugoslav tradition" still has life in it.
The conversation ends: "So you see that we Serbs are not how you believe. We are for democracy. Tell that to your [Austrian] foreign minister Alois Mock".
### Round table offered
On the other hand, 51-year old Vladeta Jankovic, a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia, gives no impression of nationalism. He is a professor of comparative literature and also the official spokesperson for DEPOS. "They offered us a round table, but it was a farce". If the opposition did not get equal access to state television and lists of voters for the new elections set for November, these would be undemocratic. This is reminiscent of the unfulfilled demands of the opposition in Croatia - where however the opposition parties took part in the elections.
DEPOS supports Milan Panic the head of the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". But as an extra-Parliamentary group it has little influence.
Jankovic himself is DEPOS' Western face; the strongest force in DEPOS is Vuk *This article first appeared in the October 9, 1992 issue of Die Linke, the paper of the Austrian section of the Fourth International.
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ex-YUGOSLAVIA opposition DIPLOMATIC efforts to end the crisis in the former Yugoslavia are currently centred on building up Milan Panic and Dobrica Cosic, respectively
November 9, 1992
Draskovic's Serb Renewal Movement. Jankovic is a bourgeois politician who wants to introduce a market economy as fast as possible - along with peace in Bosnia and Croatia. The use of the term "bourgeois" here raises the question of what social basis such a policy has. In Serbia, as in the other successor states to Tito's Yugoslavia (or elsewhere in Eastern Europe), a capitalist class only exists in embryo.
Meanwhile the political scene remains dominated by the old nomenklatura which in the case of Serbia and Montenegro retains the label "socialist" unlike in Croatia. The old traditions are also apparent in the methods used.
### Ruling party splits
A section of the political nomenklatura has gone over to the opposition. Two months ago a faction of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia formed its own Social Democratic Party of Serbia. Among them is Momcilo Trajkovic who once supported Milosevic and ruled Kosovo with an iron hand. The Social Democrats have offered president Dobrica Cosic and prime minister Milan Panic places on their lists in the coming elections. The Democratic Party, formed by intellectuals, will also be backing Panic and Cosic.
Both these men, while brought in by the present rulers as jokers in the international games around the former Yugoslavia have since fallen out with Milosevic. Panic because he has accepted Serbia's co-responsibility for the war in front of the TV cameras and failed to stop the expulsion of the ex-Yugoslavia from the United Nations. On the other hand he has succeeded in obtaining the removal of some top people in the state hierarchy, including the secret police chief.
Cosic, meanwhile has fallen out with Milosevic, whose ideological mentor in nationalist matters he once was, because he has expressed support for Panic. On a parliamentary level, Panic also has the support of the ruling Party of Democratic Socialists in Montenegro.The Montenegrin elite, who have for so many years followed Milosevic faithfully, want to break free from the Serbian grip and are preparing their lines of escape in case of an escala-
Panic, who has a pharmaceuticals firm in the USA, is the only authentic capitalist in the ring. He plays a double role. As prime minister he is formal head of the executive, but at the same he has the aura of an oppositionist people's tribune. In opinion polls he has long been ahead of Milosevic.
At the moment there are three opposition groups in Serbia. Close to the Social Democrats, whose only known position is their criticism of Milosevic, we find the Democratic Party, a group of nationalist intellectuals who have supported Milosevic's war against Croatia and Bosnia when even such a former hardliner as Vuk Draskovic has come out in support of peace. Fearful of losing their influence they have not joined the DEPOS coalition. The intellectual public face of the DP is the philosophy teacher and former pupil of Jürgen
You don't need to take up the cudgels for DEPOS (or Draskovic, who wants a return of the monarchy to grasp that this movement may play a central role in any new political constellation. However, Milosevic retains a firm grip on the television and can use it to influence the reservoir of voters in southern Serbia. People there are too poor to buy opposition newspapers. DEPOS stronghold is essentially Belgrade and its surroundings.
DEPOS also has the support of the leftliberal opposition. There is however talk of some (very mildly) "left-inclined" non-nationalist groupings coming together to form a "citizens' alliance" against the war. In the forefront here is the left liberal Reformist Party - a descendant of the former reform Communist current around Ante Markovic, the last president of the old Yugoslavia. The RP's chairperson, Vesna Pesic is also a founder member of Belgrade"s Centre for Antiwar Action. Her son has put his private apartment at the disposal of the peace movement.
Close to the National Peasant Party is also the Reformist Party of Vojvodina. One of its members, Tibor Varadi is Panic's justice minister. From thence he ex-YUGOSLAVIA has drafted an amnesty bill for deserters, but it is unlikely that it will be passed by the federal parliament which is effectively dominated by the SPS and the Serbian Radical Party of Chetnik leader Vojislav Seselj.
Last but not least is the Serbian Social Democratic Association, a tiny group on the far left of the Serbian political spectrum. Its chairperson is Milan Nikolic a student leader in the late 1960s. He served a long prison sentence for his activities as a leftwing pro-democracy dissident. But the Citizens Alliance does not have big prospects in the coming elections.
Saving Serbia from itself
Back to Vladeta Jankovic. DEPOS does not have any claims on Serb-inhabited regions outside Serbia. "If Serbs are to be saved, then first Serbia must itself be saved". An outside military intervention, they argue, would reunify Serbs around Milosevic. They do not have a clear position as yet on the sanctions, which will only begin to seriously bite in November.
Whatever political direction Serbia takes, a hot autumn seems probable. The situation in Kosovo is becoming increasingly tense - and no Serbian political group supports independence for Kosovo. It is not clear for how long Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Kosovo Albanians, can hold back a violent response from his
Ethnic conflicts in Sanjak, where there have been clashes between Muslims on the one side and Serbs and Montenegrins on the other, may escalate. "Ethnic cleansing" in Vojvodina, directed chiefly at Croats and Hungarians, may lead to armed
Internally, sharply rising unemployment and poverty brought about by the embargo, inflation and isolation could put the trade unions in the forefront. The student movement may also revive. However, the fall or resignation of Milosevic would inspire Seselj's private army to launch armed terror while the "Yugoslav Army" would be released from barracks as the "defender of internal security". It is therefore more likely that Milosevic will postpone the elections or conduct them on his own terms. If Panic were to fall on the other hand, tendencies to separation by Montenegro would become stronger, favouring a military intervention, however unlikely the latter seems at present. There is currently an unstable equilibrium in Serbia that can be 1 7 upset at any moment. * #238 International Viewpoint
International Viewpoint # 238 • November 9, 1992 bia itself, the autonomous province of Kosovo was created with the aim of solving the problem of the ethnic Albanians in the new Yugoslavia, after the idea of uniting with the whole of Albania had been
This includes petroleum, post, energy sector and social security and pensions. The health service is so bankrupt that the new surgical clinic in Vojvodina's capital Novi Sad cannot open because there are no surgical gloves.
The Serb government has monopolized flashpoints?
abandoned.
In those days Yugoslavia was ruled by undemocratic but pragmatic and intelligent food supplies to create an artificial bottleneck in food supplies as a consequence of which hunger is spreading in Bosnia.
Last winter Vojvodina often used maize
THE first moves in the unfolding of the current crisis in the former Yugoslavia were the annexation by Serbia of the two formerly autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo. The consequences of this measure will return to haunt Serbia whatever the twists and turns of the military and diplomatic people and, compared to other Communist countries, was a secure country with open borders. The national problems seemed to have been dispelled and more and more people considered themselves Yugoslavs. Yugoslavia had to walk a tightrope in order to prevent any upset to these delicate balances. However the onefor fuel because coal was no longer coming from Bosnia. It is for such reasons that opposition to the Serb government is so strong; at the last elections more than two thirds voted for opposition parties.
Indeed, Milosevic did not win these elections in Vojvodina, which voted for the democratic candidate Ivan Djuric.
The creation of the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" is simply the final act in developments.
We publish below extracts of speeches by Nenad Canak, leader of the Social Democratic League of Vojvodina and Dr. Skender Gashi of the Democratic Party of Kosovo which were given at a seminar organized by the Austrian Peace after the War coalition in Graz on May 12, 1992. DOCUMENT*
ANAK: People in the West generally know little about the situation in Vojvodina (between Serbia and Hungary).
To understand the present situation, it is necessary to give you some historical reference points. After the Second World War, which completely destroyed the Yugoslavia that had existed previously, it was necessary to create completely new relations for it to be possible for the state to function. Vojvodina emerged from the war with its own state organs and a very strong anti-fascist resistance, but it was quickly annexed to Serbia in order to act as a counterweight to the prevalent royalist feeling there.
This was but one of many such moves. Later the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was formed and the Muslims recognized as a nation, with the aim of creating a multi-ethnic buffer between Serbs and Croats.
The Republic of Macedonia was created to protect Yugoslavia from long-standing territorial claims by Greece and Bulgaria. Slovenia found in the new state a 18 had been proceeding beforehand. In Ser- bulwark against the Germanization that party system lacked any social checks and this facilitated nationalist degeneration.
In the mid-1980s Slobodan
Milosevic came on the scene representing strong nationalist feeling inside the ruling Communist Party. His nationalist model took over the CP's power mechanism and turned it in a direction that resembled that of the Nazis in the 1930s.
His government removed the autonomy of Vojvodina and then Kosovo. These constitutional acts carried out by a legal government were the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia.
There followed today's bloodbath, with war first in Slovenia then in Croatia and now in Bosnia.
Vojvodina was reduced from a constitutive part of the Yugoslav Federation into an anonymous north Serb region.
This means that Vojvodina provided 53% of the Serbian budget in 1992 but only
2% was spent by its own authorities. Up to March 1, 1992 106,824 soldiers had been sent to the front from Vojvodina and about 40,000 more since then. This is one third of those eligible for call up in
Vojvodina. According to Serbian defence minister Negovanovic the ratio for Serbia itself is one in eleven.
Refugees and casualties
Officially, there are 92,000 refugees in
Vojvodina, but in reality more than
200,000. More than half of the soldiers on the eastern front are from Vojvodina, which has suffered over 19.000 casualties. Vojvodina has also been abolished through the centralization -effectively taking under state control - of the core of the economy.
the disappearance of Vojvodina. This state was founded by the parliaments of two of the former Yugoslav states (Serbia and Montenegro) but now has four members.
From this we can see what may happen in Vojvodina. With the new state the fascist regime in Serbia must start to seek enemies within. The scenario which preceded the wars in Croatia and Bosnia will be repeated; the manufacture of a supposed threat to Serbs living in the region and then intervention to "rescue" them.
### Provocation of conflict
The provocation of conflict between Hungarians and Serbs would have five
1. It would consolidate the Serbs around the existing regime;
2. Many citizens would certainly flee Vojvodina and their property would be given to Serb refugees from Croatia.
3. Hungary will be provoked in the hope that it will intervene in Vojvodina, thus providing another enemy.
4. All this will require the suppression of democratic parties in Vojvodina and the expulsion of non-Serbs or even Serbs considered disloyal, as has been seen in Croatian territories currently occupied by
5. the final act would be the creation in the northern part of Vojvodina of a special zone under United Nations protection which would later be given to Hungary.
The only way that peace can be preserved is by a return to a legal and legitimate constitutional framework. By this I mean the 1974 Yugoslav constitution which recognized eight constitutive units *These speeches are translated from Friede nach dem Krieg? no. 4 of the series Dokumentationen Alpe-Adria Alternative, Graz, April to July 1992.
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ex-YUGOSLAVIA Vojvodina and Kosovo: The next
November 9, 1992 of the federation. In fact we have already made a proposal for a solution to the crisis. This was expressed in the Memorandum on Vojvodina sent to all European governments and the USA in December 1991. The essence of this memorandum is that we are for a Vojvodina that could act as buffer zone between Croatia, Serbia and Hungary and whose autonomy would be internationally guaranteed.