Serbian opposition Interview with Catherine Samary • Is the Serbian population aware of the humiliations inflicted on the Kosovo Albanians? Catherine Samary: Not really. There are a few exceptions, in the human rights groups, and there is a tradition of multilingual theatre which brings together artists from across former Yugoslavia. Some opposition parties like Vesna Pesic's Civic Alliance, have denounced Serb violence in Kosovo, but without recognising the Albanian national question. There is a kind of anti-nationalist "civic" consciousness among progressive Serbians. They tend to put equal blame on Serbian and Albanian nationalisms.
The horrors of the Bosnian war have pushed some Serb nationalists into the anti-war camp: intellectuals like Dobrica Cosic and vice-president Vuk Draskovic. They still consider Bosnia or Kosovo to be "Serb lands", , but no longer support ethnic cleansing there.
But the twists and turns of Serbian politics have contused the battle lines. Loran Djindjic's Democratic Party was so determined to oppose Milosevic that, when the Serbian leader broke with the "Great Serbian" plan to annex Bosnia, the 'democrats' formed a block with ultra-nationalist leader Radovan Karadjic against Milosevic.
Things have also been complicated by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) attacks against Serb civilians and more moderate Kosovar Albanians. Many Serbs who had tried to build dialogue with the Kosovo Albanians have now accepted the Serbian regime's discourse on "Albanian terrorism."
Many Serbs have also accepted the regime's claims that the main reason Albanians are fleeing Kosovo is the NATO bombardment. Of course, the fact that Milosevic hides behind the NATO attacks, rather than admitting the ethnic cleansing, suggests that there is little public support for these outrages. Young Serbs are not ready to die in a struggle to expel the Kosovo Albanians.
But nor are most Serbs ready to accept Kosovo's secession, after the "International Community" accepted the expulsion of 200,000 Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia, and refuses any kind of self-determination for the Serb-populated Krajina region of Croatia.
Of course, many Serbs have forgotten the ethnic cleansing which Krajina Serbs imposed against their Croat neighbours. But the main lesson here is that no serious alternative politics in this region can avoid explicit support for the right of self determination for all the peoples of former Yugoslavia. • What is the current state of the democratic opposition inside Serbia?
The "Zajedno" (Unity) coalition against Milosevic has fallen apart. Zajedno won an impressive victory in 1996 elections, and all through the winter there were demonstrations, particularly among young people, demanding that Milosevic respect the election result. Opposition to Milosevic was the cement in this fragile coalition. It included Vesna Pesic's non-nationalist Civic Alliance (which has its origins in Ante Markovic's loits its links to the regime to build clientelist support structures.
The far right is very present in Serbian politics. Vojislav Seselj's Radical Party is the real party of ethnic cleansing, and the bloody construction of a Greater Serbia. Seselj has been the main supporter of Radovan Karadzic's faction among the Bosnian Serbs.
Milosevic allied himself with the far right in 1990-93, but then distanced himself from them. But Serbia's last elections denied him an absolute majority. Milosevic has now positioned his Socialists as the centre-ground, working in coalition with Seselj's extreme right and the more left-wing JUL. At the Yugoslav federal level, Milosevic has formed an alliance with his old enemy Vuk Draskovic (the other ex-Zajedno parties boycotted the elections)
Leaving the purely political sphere to one side, Milosevic has built a strong base of support in the police, special forces and paramilitary groups. He has rather less confidence in the Yugoslav
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• What impact is the war having in army, so as to encircle Milosevic from the neighbouring countries? the north and west. But even Washington knows that Croatian dictator Franjo
Tudjman has only limited control over
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* Yugoslavia
Army, which is more diverse in its thinking. Though the army has provided arms and uniforms for the far-right
The massive arrival of Albaniandi militias which have carried out most of speaking refugees in Macedonia is perthe dirty work in Croatia, Bosnia and ceived as a danger by more conservative his Bosnian-Croat allies, and is willing to Kosovo. The Yugoslav army has pre- currents, which worry that the country's destabilise Bosnia if it suits Great Croat ferred to play a support role in most own 25% Albanian minority will grow in interests. cases, with the militias doing the killing. size, and demand autonomy or even
To understand the Serbian regime, secession. The mistreatment of some Croatia into NATO, if Tudjman will you have to analyse this combination of a refugees reflects the growing climate of control the Croatian separatists of legal face, and a rotten, thugish interior. western Bosnia, and surrender the There is a very similar dynamic in numerous war criminals at the head of Croatia, where the extreme-right HVO the Croatian army to the International militia has been much more integrated Permanent War Crimes Tribunal in The into the regular armed forces.
There are many small liberal and social democratic parties, particularly Tudjman's HDZ party to dissolve the outside Belgrade, and in Vojvodina, the Bosnian Croat statelet of Herceg-Bosna most multi-cultural and multi-ethnic into the current Croato-Muslim federaregion of Yugoslavia. Most of these have tion. But Bosnian Croat leaders are again formed a Coalition signs of weakness in Macedonia are demanding a "Croat entity" in the Mostar Democratic Parties (SP), which region, which reinforces the dynamic proposes regionalism and decentralisa- towards the partition of Bosnia. tion, anti-war and anti-nationalist demands, and a "fast and fair privatisa- language as more than a dialect of their the Radical Party of Seselj is promoting a tion process." own, and would like to dominate or very similar dynamic. In the most recent elections across Bosnia, "international"
In Montenegro, local ex-Communist leaders want their little republic to keep (ie multi-ethnic and anti-nationalist) most of its tourism earnings, and greater candidates were physically attacked by both Croatian and Serbian nationalists. control of Yugoslavia's only sea port. Growing separatist sympathies (until the NATO air strikes) reflected a similar Bosnia recently was the reunification of dynamic as in Croatia and Slovenia, the the various social democratic organisarichest republics of former Yugoslavia. tions. Though their programme offers
Serbia also has a multitude of NGOs little to comfort progressive voters. and civic associations, including the • So what are the solutions to this Women in Black and other peace groups, SOS Battered Women, independent trade crisis? unions, and a range of sympathetic and coherent and progressive "solution" at leftist intellectuals. These groups are small and weak. But given the weakness the moment. Every day brings fresh eviof similar groups in "democratic" dence of an uncontrolled dynamic which tries like Germany and the United States, is degrading the conditions for progwe should recognise the real difficulties ressive struggles. that progressive Serbians face. Internatiourgent solidarity tasks, and maintain our nal contacts and support for these initiatives is very important. critical spirit in the face of all proposals for "action" which actually make the
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Macedonia was the poorest republic of the old Yugoslav federation (though richer than Kosovo), and suffers economic discrimination from its southern Hague. neighbour, Greece. Macedonian leaders have struggled to retain good relations with Serbia, and are reluctant to allow NATO troops to use their country as a base for anti-Yugoslav interventions. All seized and exploited by nationalist currents in neighbouring Bulgaria, which have never recognised the Macedonian annex the 1.5 million Slav Macedonians
Albania itself is fast-becoming a key NATO base. Humanitarian organisations are already protesting that troops are using them as camouflage, thus reducing their capacity to aid the civilian and refugee populations. Extreme poverty and the influx of huge numbers of deportees from Kosovo has encouraged Mafiastyle behaviour of all kinds
Corruption and power struggles since the collapse of the Stalinist regime have repeatedly provoked violence and insurrection in Albania. The Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) has profited from this confusion to build a number of bases in northern Albania (and in the Albaniandominated north-west of Macedonia).
Bosnia-Herzegovina is again on the edge of an explosion. The United States are trying to strengthen the Croatian
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Progressive Serbs call for peace disaster worse. And, at the back of our minds, we should continue working on a number of long-term questions which are essential to a solution to the whole
The Berlin wall has been replaced by new walls of capital and wealth. The peoples of Eastern Europe deserve an alternative to NATO's realpolitik of balancing the various nationalist regimes in the illusive search for stability.
The European Union has used its
Schengen border agreement to keep
Balkan refugees and conscientous objectors out. In the long term, we need another Europe, with a different economic logic. With individual and collective democracy. Recognising the right of all the peoples of the continent to decide about their future.
But we should admit that we have had only limited success in building the progressive alternative even in the "democratic" conditions of Western Europe. We shouldn't underestimate the difficulties facing the emerging progressive currents in the Balkans.
We shouldn't reduce all the competing claims in the Balkans to the same level. There are dominant nations here, and dominated ones. But they are possibly more intermingled in this part of the world, where each minority contains pockets of other groups, which are exploited in turn.
Taking the perspective underdog means looking through Kosovo Albanian eyes in Serbia, through Serbian eyes in Croatia, through Bosnian Muslim eyes in Bosnia, and in all parts of former Yugoslavia to look through the eyes of those 'cosmopolitans' who claim an identity of mixture and intermingling.
We should encourage the existing, painful process of building small links between civic, anti-nationalist, trade union and feminist groups across the new borders. Because no "political solution" can be imposed from outside or from
And the most urgent task are clear: the Kosovars have the right to defend themselves, and we should organise material and political support for the refugees and the deserters. It is already obvious that NATO bombing is not assuring the defence of the lives and liberties of the Kosovo Albanians, and that the Serbian people, rather than the Milosevic regime, are suffering the effects of NATO aggression. bombing must be stopped. The way to save lives and reopen a political space where Milosevic can be challenged, and the crimes of Kosovo exposed will come through a process of return of the deportees, with a multi-national presence that excludes NATO. * A longer version of this article will appear in the next sue of the French theoretical magazine Critique muniste
Inside Yugoslavia
/ Deeply disturbed by NATO destruction and the ordeal of Kosovo Albanians, we, the representatives of nongovernmental organisations and the Nezavisnost
('Independence') trade union strongly demand that those responsible for this tragedy should immediately create ground for the renewal of the peace process.
The most powerful military, political and economic powers of the world are killing people and destroying not only military but also civilian objects, blowing up bridges and rail tracks, factories and heating plants, warehouses and water supplies.
At the same time, in fear of the bombing campaign and military actions by the regime and the KLA, hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians are, in an unprecedented exodus, forced to leave their devastated homes and look for salvation in the tragedy and uncertainty of fleeing.
It is obvious that this is a road to catastrophe, and the peaceful and fair solution to the Kosovo problem through international mediation, something we have supported for years, today seems more distant
The past activities of our orgademocratisation, development of a civil society and acceptance of Yugoslavia into all international institutions have been under constant pressure and intimidation by the Serbian regime.
We, as members of civil society associations have courageously and rationally fought against war and nationalistic propaganda and in support of human rights.
We have always raised our voices against the repression against Kosovo Albanians and demanded the respect of their liberties and guarantees for their rights. We have also requested the return of the autonomy of Kosovo.
In fact, the only connection and cooperation of Serbs and Albanians during all these years has been preserved among civil society
NATO military intervention has undermined all the results we have achieved, and endangered the very survival of the civil sector in Serbia.
Faced with this tragic situation, and in the name of humanist ideals and values, as well as in accordance with all our past activities, we are demanding:
• an immediate stop to the bombing armed movements;
• resumption of the peace process with international mediation at the regional Balkan and European level, as well as in the framework of the United
• the European Union and Russia should share responsibility for implementing solution of the crisis;
• an end to the ethnic cleansing process and the immediate return of all refugees;
• support for the citizens of
Montenegro, to preserve peace and stability there, solve the serious consequences of the refugee catastrophe, and resume the democratic processes that were underway there;
• we demand that the Serbian and international media inform the public in a professional manner and not spur media war, incite interethnic hatred, create irrational public opinion and glorify force as the ultimate accomplishment of the human
We cannot meet these demands by ourselves. Support our demands and take initiatives and actions to help their implementation! * This "Appeal of Serbian non-governmental organisations" began to circulate on April 6. Supporters include: Association of Citizens for Democracy, Social Justice and Support to Trade Unions • Belgrade Circle • Centre for Democracy and Free Elections • Centre for Transition to Democracy-ToD • Civic Initiatives • European Movement in Serbia • Forum for Ethnic Relations, and Foundation tor Peace and Crisis Management • Group 484 • Helsink Committee for Human Rights in Serbia • Student Unio of Serbia • Union for Truth about Antifascist Resistance • Nezavisnost (" Independence") United Branch Trade Unions • VIN-Weekly Video News • Women in Black • Yu Lawyers Committee for Human Rights • EKO Centar • ARGUMENT Agency
International Viewpoint #312 June 1999 7
Opposition in crisis