Serbia: Crisis of the Government

AIM Belgrade, November 7, 2000

In the situation when everything is falling apart in Serbia, when it is sinking into thick darkness, not only figuratively but literally because of electric power shortage, the position of a single man has become more significant than the destiny of eight million citizens. The man at issue is Radomir Markovic, head of the department of state security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, whose removal from office is demanded by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) and the Serb Revival Movement (SPO) as the condition for the beginning of operation of the government of Serbia. According to the statements of the heads of DOS and SPO, in negotiations on the establishment of the transitional government of Serbia, the Socialists agreed that along with the head of state security service, Balsa Govedarica, judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia, and Dragisa Krsmanovic, Republican prosecutor also be removed from their posts.

Why this demand has not been resolutely stated in the agreement between Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), DOS and SPO, one can do nothing but guess. According to ones, the reason should be sought in the time scrape the negotiators were in. In order to meet the requirement of the deadline for scheduling early parliamentary elections and with the Socialists who were not willing to accept these demands of the opposition, it was decided to act according to the principle “take whatever you can, and later we will see what we will do about the rest”. According to others, at the time in DOS they did not consider any personnel resignations as a condition for the formation of the government, because they assumed that “the higher interest – scheduling of early elections” was the most important thing to achieve, and that everything else would be resolved after the elections.

However, since in some of the key departments of the Republican government a tripartite principle was adopted as a compromising solution, DOS supported the demands of SPO that three officials of SPS be relieved of duty, in order not to create “bitter opponents instead of partners in the future decision-making”. But DOS believed that this did not need be introduced in the agreement if the Socialists did not wish to do it, but that verbal guarantees were sufficient that immediately after establishment of the provisional government the three officials would submit their resignations. Even the deadline of seven days was mentioned for the job to be done. Many tend to assess such behavior of DOS as evidence of either their great naivete or poor judgement, while others think that this is nothing but “a plot against SPO”.

In any case, the just established government of Serbia had only one, constituting session. According to the words of the ministers from DOS, all the ministries have continued with work, but there will be no session of the government for as long as the demand that the head of state security service be relieved of duty is not met, since the other two conditions have been fulfilled by submitted resignations of the president of the Supreme Court of Serbia and the Republican prosecutor. It should be noted, however, that their resignations are not valid either, because there was no session of the government at which they would be accepted.

When speaking of the resignation of Radomir Markovic, it caused great confusion. The first piece of news that he had written and offered his resignation to the newly elected president of FRY was neither denied nor confirmed by anyone relevant. In his appearance on state TV Markovic calmly tried to explain that “it is not good for any state if someone who is holding his post submits resignation at request of a single party”, and he never even mentioned his enveloped resignation. His TV appearance caused an avalanche of angry reactions. “If it would not be good if he submitted resignation at demand of a single party, how come it's good if a single party forbids him to submit that resignation”, wonders co-minister of police in the new Republican government, Bozo Prelevic. Zoran Djindjic, one of the leaders of DOS, expressed his surprise that “Rade Markovic does not know who he should submit his resignation to”. This reaction of Djindjic's followed the statement issued from the office of president Kostunica in which it is said that “he (Kostunica) has not demanded replacement of either head of state security service or head of the General Staff of the Army of Yugoslavia”. “He did not demand it because according to the Constitution, it is not his task to do it”, explains Vladan Batic, head of the group of DOS deputies in the Chamber of Citizens of the Assembly of FRY. “But this does not mean that he agrees that Markovic remain at this post”, Djindjic clarifies, denying at the same time that the first visible conflict within DOS has occurred due to “Markovic case”. However, vice-president of Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and minister of transportation in the federal government Zoran Sami, claiming that he did not “know that DOS had originally demanded replacement of Markovic, because if he had it would have been in the agreement”, but links this demand to “subsequent demand of Draskovic's”, believes that it adds oil to the fire and by doing it gives the pretext to the Socialists to claim that “DOS is not acting according to the agreement, that it keeps imposing subsequent conditions, and blocks the work of the government just in order to avoid early elections”. This was said at the platform of the federal parliament by new prime minister of the government of Serbia Milomir Minic, and it was corroborated by his party colleague Ivica Dacic, who added that “now it very clear who means well for Serbia”. While leaders of DOS claim that “a network of who knows what is concealed behind such a high level of protection of Markovic”, Socialist Minic claims that “SPS is not protecting Markovic, but the service” he is at the head of.

Of course, the sharpest critic of Kostunica's statement and behavior of SPS is SPO, whose leader Vuk Draskovic is personally interested in departure of Rade Markovic since he accuses the latter of being involved in the attempts on his life on the Ibar main road and in Budva. Public presentation of the documents which link Rade Markovic to the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija is also attributed to “impatient” SPO which wishes to prove the guilt of the head of secret police as soon as possible. However the orders to the prosecutor's office to investigate these accusations that were given by the newly appointed ministers a few days ago certainly will not yield results quickly.

That is why it is justified to wonder how the government of Serbia will operate and what the results of such operation of its will be like. This, of course, refers among other to organisation of early elections in view of the obligation of the government to reach relevant decisions in connection with the election procedure within precisely determined time limits. If that is not done, and it will not be done if the government does not meet, which again depends on whether Rade Markovic will resign or not, it is highly probably that there will be no early elections. It is true that there is plenty of activity in the ministries headed by ministers from the ranks of DOS. In just twenty odd days measures have been prepared to tackle numerous problems in all the spheres these ministries are in charge of. The current financial standing was also determined and it was established, as claimed by Nebojsa Covic, deputy prime minister of the Republic, that the deficit of Republican budget for this year is 1.5 billion marks”.

The ministries headed by cadre from the ranks of the Socialists are also working. How they are working is testified by Radovan Pavlovic, president of the Union of teachers' trade unions of Serbia. “When we recently talked to minister Mihajlo Jokic who was assistant minister of education in the former government, he told us that he had asked the cabinet for a 100-per-cent raise of salaries for the teachers. To our question how come he is asking for such a large raise now while he was not in favour of such a raise until a month ago, he explained that he did not have such authority at the time. Our demand is not even near doubling of salaries, so it has turned out that minister Jokic is a more ardent trade unionist than we are, although he does not deny that such a raise depends on donations expected from abroad, and when the donations are exhausted, since the government has no money in the budget for such salaries of the teachers, they will be booked as the debt of the state”, explains Pavlovic and adds that “now is not the right moment for a strike, although in some parts of Serbia strikes have already begun primarily because there is no clearly defined other party for negotiations, although it is clear that with an average salary of 2000 dinars it is impossible to survive until the new government is constituted after the elections on December 23”.

And while ones are trying to alleviate the effects of the work of the former government, others seem to have been entrusted with the task to undermine its work in all possible ways in the next month and a half until the elections. The electric company of Serbia is giving its contribution by creating chaos with its power reduction and unacceptable explanations for it, as well as the banks which have already attempted a new monetary strike, and so are public enterprises and manufacturers who are competing in who will demand bigger increase of prices or which are increasing the prices of their merchandise and services on their own, wishing immediately to make up for what the “former authorities have not given them for years”. The police, financial police, prosecutors and courts are acting as if nothing at all is happening in the society, occasionally explaining that they are waiting for changes. That is how it turned out that the only problem is whether Radomir Markovic will remain at the post of the head of state security service or not. “If a single man, in this case Rade Markovic, is the key for operation of the government and resolving enormous problems we are facing, this price is too high”, says co-minister of police Bozo Prelevic adding that replacement of the head of secret police is not in the jurisdiction of his ministry, but of the government or president of Serbia Milan Milutinovic who can relieve him of duty by simply signing a paper.

As the president of Serbia is not doing it, it is not hard to conclude whose is the interest to cause the crisis of the government. If they rely on wearing out the wrath of the citizens by causing chaos and on thus reducing the chances of DOS to win a decisive victory in the forthcoming December elections, it is obviously reckoning without one's host. All public opinion polls in Serbia show that DOS in fact has no serious rival in the forthcoming elections. It is therefore frivolous to claim that it is convenient for DOS when the government does not function in order to postpone the elections. But, as Nebojsa Covic stresses, “if we had wanted the government to be inactive we would not have entered it; it would have been more comfortable for us to criticise what Mirko Marjanovic's cabinet was doing until the elections and then form the government on our own”. It is more likely as the analysts say that the Socialists are the ones who are afraid of a debacle in the elections and see their only “chance” in assuring the people that “those who succeeded them” cannot achieve anything from the list of promises given during the election campaign. But it seems that they are forgetting one detail. Since October 5, the media in Serbia are not what they used to be before that date. The truth about the ten-year long rule of the former regime are slowly coming up on the surface. The figures mentioned in these stories are unthinkable for majority of the citizens. No destruction of documents which is often mentioned even when state security service is concerned, no buying time at the price of additional deepening of the catastrophe which this land is in, will save of responsibility those whole will have to render accounts in court. It is therefore justified to ask the question the public is raising in the past few days with increasing intensity: who has the right to toy with the destiny of the people for the sake of preserving somebody's post, even if that may be the post of the head of secret police of Serbia?

Tatjana Stankovic

(AIM)