17.12.1996.
THE WASHINGTON POST (front page) December 16, 1996 Serbia's Communism Shows Staying Power By John Pomfret BELGRADE, Dec. 15 -- Seven years ago this winter, the capitals of Eastern Europe were filled with people tossing out Communist rulers and rushing headlong toward the West. Thousands massed to knock down the Berlin Wall, the symbol of a divided Europe. In Prague, hundreds of thousands packed Wenceslaus Square and ousted the Communist Party. Now protesters are again jamming the streets of an East European capital. For the past four weeks, students and middle-class Serbs have marched through Belgrade's boulevards, in the most serious challenge to the last remaining Communist leader in Europe: Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Waves of protesting students tooting whistles and kazoos, and opposition leaders calling for democracy and the rule of law, recall the heady days of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, Solidarity's victory in Poland and historic changes elsewhere. But the differences between the political crisis in Yugoslavia and the one that ended communism among its neighbors are numerous and vast. They lead Serb analysts and diplomats from the former Communist Bloc to conclude that the protests here have little chance of toppling Milosevic. "These demonstrations open the door to democracy for Serbia," said one Eastern European diplomat who participated in a revolution in his country. "But the Serbs have a long way to go. Perhaps one year, perhaps five." The Communist systems of other East European countries were imposed by Moscow, not home-grown as was Yugoslavia's. Established churches played a critical role in hastening democratic change in several other countries while in Yugoslavia the Orthodox Church has supported the regime. Massive industrial enterprises like the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk became lightning rods for political change in Poland, but Yugoslavia's economy is largely rural. Perhaps most importantly, the people and economy of Yugoslavia have been damaged by five years of war. Milosevic is widely blamed for starting the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia, dispatching Yugoslav forces to bombard the Croatian city of Vukovar, and grabbing 25 percent of Croatia and half of Bosnia. A broad spectrum of Yugoslav society supported the war, which Milosevic has used as a way to co-opt, compromise and corrupt almost every segment of society. At one time or another, all of the opposition leaders have supported the war, or at least Serbian nationalist aims. "This is a country where almost everyone has been compromised by the war except the people who left," said Jelena Volic, who represents a German foundation here. "When people marched in Eastern Europe in 1989 they had dignity. Here we have none." Serbs from Serbia -- not just Croatia and Bosnia -- volunteered or were conscripted and sent to the front. Serbian paramilitary units, backed by Milosevic, pillaged and killed in Bosnia until the end of the war last year. The conflict, Milosevic's role in bringing it about and Yugoslavia's guilt in supporting it are not spoken of in the marches. But like an amputated leg that continues to twitch, the war still exerts an enormous influence on the people in Belgrade's streets. "Serbia was an aggressor in this war and we must start with that if we want to really embrace democracy," said Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, a former judge on the Serbian supreme court and a representative of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. "This protest is a first step, but for real changes we must confront the issue of our responsibility for the war." The war has had an enormously detrimental effect on Yugoslavia. Psychologically, the Serbs appear to be a damaged people. Ultranationalism and blatant racism, used by Milosevic's state-run media during the conflict to whip up passions and encourage young men to volunteer, are now accepted coins of political discourse. Because of the war effort and U.N. economic sanctions imposed on Milosevic's regime for his role in fomenting Bosnia's conflict, Yugoslavia tumbled from being the richest country in Eastern Europe to the third-poorest -- after Albania and its victim Bosnia. An estimated 300,000 people have emigrated from Yugoslavia since the war began, many of them students, going to Canada and the United States. Other factors have added to the difficulties of Yugoslavia's people in toppling their Communist rulers. First, Yugoslavia, alone among East European countries, had its own Communist revolution, led by dictator Josip Broz, known as Tito. Communism was not imposed on this country from Moscow, it was home-grown. Yugoslavia never belonged to Moscow's Warsaw Pact and Moscow's influence on Belgrade was much less than elsewhere in Eastern Europe. So when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signaled unwillingness to suppress democratic changes in Eastern Europe in 1989, Yugoslavia's rulers were partially insulated from this shift. There was also widespread support for Yugoslavia's version of communism among many people here. Backed by loans on favorable terms from Western financial institutions -- a present for keeping Moscow at arm's length -- Tito provided his people with the highest living standards in Eastern Europe. The Yugoslav passport was one of the best travel documents around. "Throughout Eastern Europe and in other parts of the world, people treated us like kings," recalled Ilija Djukic, a former foreign minister of Yugoslavia and longtime diplomat. "It wasn't so easy for us to get rid of a collapsed system because it was our system," he added. "Communism for us wasn't an import. That wasn't the case in Hungary, Poland and the others." Milosevic came to power in Yugoslavia in 1987 during the Gorbachev era. Calling his movement "the anti-bureaucratic revolution," Milosevic carefully packaged himself as both crusading reformer and nationalist. Soon he turned toward war. "With him, we missed the democracy train in 1990," Djukic said. "Milosevic used the war as a pretext to stop further changes and to gradually re-create something we all thought of as the past: an autocratic system." In Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the Catholic and Protestant churches played a critical role in pushing political change, but here the dominant Orthodox Church only bolstered Milosevic. Patriarch Pavle, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, refused to meet with protesting students last week and issued statements dissociating himself from politics. During the war, the Serbian church routinely blessed Serb soldiers and paramilitary gunmen before they left for the front. Protests in Belgrade are further hampered by the unwillingness or failure of Together, an opposition coalition of five parties, to widen its appeal. Since the protests started, the number of marchers has reached 100,000 only a few times. The marchers remain largely middle-class, well-educated and urban. Few workers participate in the movement. And students, who undertake parallel demonstrations each day, have refused to merge their marches into the coalition's. ------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATED PRESS December 17, 1996 MILOSEVIC FOES CLAIM VICTORY By JULIJANA MOJSILOVIC .c The Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Dec. 17) - A month into their massive daily protests against Serbia's president, opposition activists are starting to get what they asked for - one town at a time. President Slobodan Milosevic has conceded a second municipal election to his political opponents, who are demanding more. Heartened by U.S. support, they have vowed to keep on demonstrating until Milosevic hands over all major cities won by the opposition in Nov. 17 elections. Pressured by the marches and the United States, Milosevic apparently is ready to surrender some cities, while hoping to keep control of the capital, Belgrade. In separate demonstrations Monday, a total of about 130,000 opposition supporters and students flooded Belgrade streets, chanting ''Victory!'' and ''Resignation!'' They cheered a Sunday court ruling that restored victory to the opposition coalition Zajedno, or Together, in Serbia's second largest city, Nis. On Monday, an appeals court in the community of Smederevska Palanka reinstated Zajedno's victory there. Western pressure on Milosevic increased Sunday, with former U.S. negotiator Richard Holbrooke saying Milosevic has failed to promote democracy in the Balkans and may not deserve further American support. Speaking in Washington, Holbrooke credited the Serbian leader with playing a critical role in the Dayton peace accords a year ago that ended the 3 1/2-year war in Bosnia. But Holbrooke said the United States ''does not and should not have a special reason to support him.'' International officials have warned that the standoff between Milosevic and protesters could lead to a crisis in the region. The United States has said new economic sanctions are possible. The opposition claims Milosevic stole their victories in Nov. 17 elections in over a dozen cities in Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. Milosevic seemed to focus on keeping Belgrade, opting to hand over control of some other cities, but the opposition has been unwilling to accept such a compromise. ''There will be no dialogue with Milosevic until he recognizes all our election victories,'' opposition leader Vuk Draskovic has said. Draskovic said the opposition would boycott a session of Serbia's parliament scheduled for today. The parliament is dominated by the Socialists and an allied neo-Communist party headed by Milosevic's wife. Zoran Zivkovic, an opposition official in Nis, said that Milosevic's governing Socialists - the former Communists - have begun a campaign in the government-backed media and other steps against the court decision. AP-NY-12-17-96 0522EST ----------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATED PRESS December 16, 1996 PROFILE OF BELGRADE PROTESTERS By JOVANA GEC .c The Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Dec. 16) - They fly the flags of the United States and the European Union. They carry posters promoting reggae singer Bob Marley and Italian car maker Ferrari. These are Serbia's elite - intellectuals, students and middle-class urbanites. Before war started in 1991, they lived well and traveled widely. Today, they are the backbone of the opposition movement to oust authoritarian President Slobodan Milosevic. Their daily protests, in their fifth week, express their frustrations with postwar Yugoslavia and their longings for their old, prewar life. For most, the goal is to end the isolation of the Serb republic of Yugoslavia and make it a democratic, cosmopolitan citizen of the world. Doing that, they say, means getting rid of Milosevic - his Communist economy, his corrupt cronies and the legacy of the wars he started. ''It all goes in a package,'' said 53-year-old elementary school teacher Vlasta Nedeljkovic. ''He created enemies for Serbia, but they are his enemies - not ours.'' Like other Eastern Europeans, these protesters repeat the mantra of ''Europe,'' the continent whose space they shared even while communism kept them far from the stability and riches of a France or Germany. Above all in this region, ''Europe'' means building a parliamentary democracy and privatizing the economy. ''Of course, Serbia is part of Europe,'' said Ljiljana Kolundzija, in her 20s. ''It's obvious, and it will really be so once we kick out the 'Red Gang.''' Belgrade's intellectuals and youth have rebelled against Milosevic before. Police and soldiers crushed March 1991 demonstrations. Subsequent student protests had no effect. Supported by rural and blue-collar workers, Milosevic and his Socialist Party - formerly Communists - instigated wars in Croatia and Bosnia in support of their minority Serbs. Economic sanctions imposed because of those wars and Milosevic's refusal to reform the state-run economy have destroyed Belgrade's middle class. For that reason, the middle class supports the opposition as never before. The opposition, too, has changed. Opposition leaders like Vuk Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement once were touched by the same nationalism as Milosevic - the jingoistic patriotism and isolationism that led to war. Now, they deny any association with the nationalist cause. ''Being a patriot is not the same as being a nationalist,'' Draskovic said. ''Our goals are purely social, existential and political, and have nothing to do with nationalism.'' On Friday, he and the protesters proved their point by observing a minute of silence in support of Albanian activists fighting for independence in the southern Serb province of Kosovo, where Albanians make up 90 percent of the population. Most Serbs regard the province as the heart of their medieval kingdom, and the issue has been a Milosevic rallying cry. In an unprecedented gesture, about 200,000 protesters held a minute of silence Friday in honor of an Albanian activist said to have been tortured to death in Serb police custody. Draskovic also has urged protesters to stop carrying Serbian flags, to carry U.S. and German banners instead to show where their sympathies lie. Still, the symbols of Serbia have not been suppressed. Aleksandar Sakic, a 29-year-old technician and protester, held a Serbian flag as he listened quietly to the anthem of the old Serbian kingdom, which is played every evening at the rally. To him, such symbols have nothing to do with nationalism. ''This is Serbia,'' he said, ''but not Milosevic's Serbia.'' AP-NY-12-16-96 1734EST -------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATED PRESS December 17, 1996 YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS CONTINUE By DUSAN STOJANOVIC .c The Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Dec. 17) - Their feet bloodied, 17 students who marched for 48 hours arrived in Belgrade Tuesday in hopes of presenting their demands for democracy to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The students walked 150 miles from Nis, the second-largest Serbian city, in a symbolic protest against the overturning of victories by Milosevic's opponents in Nov. 17 local elections. More than 1,000 workers joined the protests Tuesday, the first large organized group of laborers to take to the streets. Serbia's workers have so far stood on sidelines, and large-scale participation would be crucial in shaking Milosevic's nine-year grip on power. Carrying banners declaring, ''Slobo Demon'' and chanting ''We Are Hungry! We Want Bread,'' the workers from various factories marched past parliament. ''Milosevic should know that it is hard to get workers out of their factories, but it is even harder to get them back in,'' said one of the workers, Dragan Matic. The Nis students were greeted overnight by about 1,000 Belgrade students on the highway between the two cities. The Nis students said they hoped Milosevic, who has been in power since 1987, will meet them Tuesday so they can show him documents proving the opposition was robbed of victory. There was no indication Milosevic, who has not met or directly addressed any of the protesters or opposition leaders, would make an exception. ''We marched for 48 hours, and I hope he can spare 15 minutes of his precious time to talk to us,'' said one of the marchers, Predrag Cveticanin. A month after beginning their daily protests, opposition activists are starting to get what they asked for - one town at a time. Milosevic returned their victory in Nis on Sunday and in Smederevska Palanka, 30 miles from Belgrade, on Monday. But Milosevic's foes are demanding more, and the Nis marchers said their protest was intended to help all 15 Serb cities where the opposition won, including Belgrade, get their election annulments reversed. The opposition, meanwhile, boycotted a session of Serbia's parliament Tuesday. The parliament is dominated by Milosevic's Socialists, who have so far opted to ignore the protests, including Tuesday's. Pressured by Western countries and swayed by the biggest demonstrations in nine years, Milosevic seemed to be focused on keeping Belgrade, opting to hand over control of some other cities. But the opposition was in no mood to concede anything. On Monday, in separate demonstrations, about 130,000 opposition supporters and students flooded Belgrade streets, chanting ''Victory!'' and ''Resignation!'' ''There will be no dialogue with Milosevic until he recognizes all our election victories,'' opposition leader Vuk Draskovic said. Another opposition leader, Zoran Djindjic, said ''the protests will continue till the thieves are punished.'' Draskovic, who met Sunday with U.S. envoy John Kornblum, said the Americans were ''very supportive of our peaceful and democratic way of fighting for the recognition of the election will of the Serbian people.'' Apparently angered by tough U.S. criticism of Milosevic, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov on Monday warned against foreign interference. Russia is a traditional Serb ally. Primakov said that concern about human rights and democracy ''should not grow into intervention into the internal affairs of another state.'' In Washington, former U.S. negotiator Richard Holbrooke said Milosevic may not deserve further U.S. support. Holbrooke credited the Serbian leader with playing a critical role in the Dayton accords a year ago that ended the 3 1/2-year war but said the United States ''does not, and should not, have a special reason to support him.'' AP-NY-12-17-96 0834EST ------------------------------------------------------------- REUTER December 17, 1996 By Donald Forbes Reuter BELGRADE (Dec. 17) - The United States no longer needs Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to make peace work in Bosnia and is ready to see him out of power, opposition leader Miroljub Labus said on Tuesday. Labus, a vice president of the Democratic Party which is part of the Zajedno (Together) opposition coalition, told Reuters after talks in Washington with State Department officials and congressmen: ''The U.S. government has decided Milosevic is not necessary for the implementation of the (Bosnian) peace agreement. My feeling is they have reached a decision he has got to go.'' Milosevic has been assailed by a month of street protests demanding his ouster since Zajedno accused his ruling socialists of cheating it of victories in local elections on November 17. The United States has led strong Western criticism of effective one-party rule in Serbia and demanded that Milosevic accept defeat in Belgrade and other towns where Zajedno claimed it won. But it has not said publicly that he should quit. He has until now been seen as crucial to the success of the year-old peace agreement in Bosnia which he helped to craft and forced the Bosnian Serbs to sign. Labus said State Department officials had promised Zajedno full support if it ''introduced democracy into Serbia in a democratic way.'' Serbia is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by the end of 1997. Until the crisis over the local elections, Western diplomats assumed that Milosevic, who cannot run a third time for the Serbian presidency, would keep power by taking over as president of Yugoslavia. Political sources said the United States' apparent readiness to see him toppled significantly weakened his position. Milosevic has suffered new setbacks this week with the socialists seemingly unable to forge a response to the daily demonstrations which are growing in size and impact in Belgrade and show no sign of slackening. The government on Monday evening hastily scrapped a plan to end paid ''compulsory leave'' in state industries from January 1 in a move which could have made 800,000 workers unemployed. The decision was taken as a trade union alliance which normally supports the government gave backing to the demonstrations and to the independent trade union Nezaviznost whose members have joined the protests. Western diplomats said the government feared that ending compulsory leave as a way to reduce state spending would have caused an explosion of anger among workers and spurred them on to the streets in their turn. Compulsory leave, under which workers were paid up to 60 per cent of their wages, was introduced during 3 1/2 years of U.N. economic sanctions against Yugoslavia which mothballed most of its industry. Courts in Nis and Smedervska Palanka have ordered the local election commissions to reinstate Zajedno as the winners of the elections in a virtual admission that fraud took place. There was no sign Milosevic was ready to surrender the capital where the socialists at first admitted defeat but a Western diplomat said: ''The logic must be, if Nis, why not Belgrade. He'll have to give it back if he wants to clear the streets.'' Milosevic under threat of reprisals from the West if he used force to quell the dissent, has remained silent throughout the crisis and has given no sign how he plans eventually to defuse it. Reut07:50 12-17-96
Events on 15.12.1996.
Article from Georgiatown Voice