Playing with MPs Immunity from Prosecution

People's Socialists Refuse to Let Go of Milosevic

AIM Belgrade, May 20, 2001

After days of haggling, the lower house of Yugoslav Parliament voted in favor of stripping former Socialist Party of Serbia senior officials and MPs Nikola Sainovic and Jovan Zebic of their immunity from prosecution. Thanks to this, judicial bodies could proceed with their investigation of Sainovic's and Zebic's role in a case involving former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. If, however, the need arises to detain these two officials, suspected of abuse of authority, a court will have to wait for the Yugoslav Parliament to authorize such a move. This is how legal and constitutional provisions governing the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by MPs have been interpreted. In other words, Parliament will again have to vote on the issue. This has shown once more that what is otherwise clear and logical, is not necessarily so in politics.

Namely, MPs from the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP) hesitated when asked to abandon their two colleagues from the Socialist Party of Serbia to the mercy of the criminal justice system. Their representative in a parliamentary committee dealing with such matters initially said the case was "an internal matter of Serbia," thus twice preventing the committee from recommending the move to the Parliament. By later refusing to vote in favor of putting the issue of Zebic's and Sainovic's on the agenda, the party added to tensions which many say threatened to provoke a crisis in the federal government, although the Montenegrin politicians say they saw no reason "for raising an issue of this kind to such a level." If the issue was so important for the DOS, said party leader Predrag Bulatovic in front of TV cameras, pretending not to understand what was actually going on, why had no one from the bloc said anything about it at a meeting with SNP representatives that preceded the Parliament session? The issue was eventually settled, and the necessary majority secured, but the unpleasantness related to the issue lingers.

The view that Serbia's courts will once more have to seek the permission of the people's representatives -- whose only criterion for voting for or against is their own political interest -- to do their constitutionally guaranteed duty casts a shadow of doubt on such legal provisions themselves, of course, if it turns out this interpretation was itself beyond doubt. In such an event, those legal provisions will have to be amended urgently, and parliament will have to change its rules and regulations which limit the powers of the judiciary. Otherwise, parliament will assume the role of these bodies and decide who should face justice and who should not, thereby consciously violating the constitution. A way out could be found in obliging MPs not to invoke their immunity, that is, that their immunity would automatically be revoked at the request of a court, except when private lawsuits are in question. This, however, is highly unlikely given that a number of MPs from the ranks of the opposition might end up being prosecuted for what they have done in the past.

The behavior of the Socialist People's Party has raised serious doubt that its MPs are not overly concerned about even the fate of Slobodan Milosevic, as some are inclined to believe given their attitude towards the issue of Sainovic's and Zebic's immunity. The importance of this issue to Serbia and the DOS, many say, has given the SNP a chance to test its strength at the federal level in the wake of recent elections for the Montenegrin Legislature. Or, to clearly demonstrate to its coalition partners that they are powerless without it.

According to some analysts, the SNP was in fact examining its position ahead of a debate on a bill on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, because there is a lack of consensus in the country regarding the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to the international court. Others, however, claim the whole controversy is aimed at securing better position for negotiations on the future of Yugoslavia.

If the test the SNP prepared for the DOS was done so that certain provisions of the bill on cooperation with the Hague court would be abandoned, that brings up the question of why the Montenegrin party is so firmly opposed to extradition when the handing over of war crime suspects is the key provision of the bill. All other related issues are already regulated by national law and the international community has conditioned its future cooperation with Yugoslavia with this particular question.

Their love of Milosevic and concern for his fate, regardless of all ties between the Socialist People's Party and the Socialist Party of Serbia, is hardly a motive. The same is the case with their possible concern that certain citizens of Montenegro could face war crimes charges due to past events in Dubrovnik, given that during the war in Croatia officials from other parties were in senior commanding positions. It seems that the only acceptable reason lies in the still unresolved political situation in Montenegro, where the SNP counts on the support of voters who continue to identify the common state with Milosevic. This is why the party cannot risk losing votes by help to create conditions for the possible extradition of the former Yugoslav president.

If the bill on cooperation with the Hague tribunal is not passed the international community may well close all doors to cooperation, all of which are currently wide open. If donations and investment fail to arrive, Serbia could itself question the survival of the common state, which, after all, it funds on its own.

Everything indicates that the moves made by the SNP have a single goal -- securing for it as a good starting position as possible in future negotiations on the fate of Yugoslavia. After the DOS at the beginning of the year went public with its platform for resolving relations inside the future federation and after the Montenegrin leadership offered an alliance of independent states as a solution, and particularly after Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists insisted that future negotiations be carried out between the governments of the two republics, the SNP saw its agreement with the DOS on the future of the common state as its opportunity. It is not know as yet to what extent it agrees with the DOS platform, which meanwhile has been somewhat modified. All this is for the time being still limited to intimations and interpretations of concrete moves. For now, moves by both sides are related to immunity from prosecution and some other issues, which are not so attractive to the media. Thus, for example, the federal parliament's lower house did not pass a new statute for the National Bank of Yugoslavia, which can also have significant consequences again for Serbia, and not for Yugoslavia, since the bank operates only in the larger federal unit.

Tatjana Stankovic

(AIM)