EITHER A JOINT GOVERNMENT OR ELSE ROMANIA

Interview with Zoran Djindjic

• If an agreement is not reached on the constitution of a Government, complete chaos will ensue. First the dissolution of the Parliament, then extraordinary elections, and perhaps even the repetition of Romania - Zoran Djindjic, the young leader of the Democratic Party, points out.

AIM, BELGRADE, December 26

During the last election campaign, with Dr. Zoran Djindjic as the holder of its election lists, the first Serbian opposition party - the Democratic Party, shed its image of a drawing-room, academic and high brow grouping.Djindjic led a flashing, forceful and non-ideological campaign. His messages to the voters addressed issues such as inflation, monetary policy, crime which is gripping Serbia by the throat, the future government which in his view must openly communicate with the people. He accused the ruling Socialists for failure in the sphere of economic policy. He did not citicize president Slobodan Milosevic. Contrary to other opposition parties, the promotional rallies of the Democratic Party had decent coverage on state television.

With the slogan "Honestly", his moderate attitude towards the Socialists, economic programme that promised the clearing up of the dregs and a national policy which hardly differs from that of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), this ambitious forty-year old won for his Party more than thirty seats in the future Parliament.

He began his long standing experience as a oppositionary in the seventies. As a high-school student he lodged a protest with the Constitutional Court because the name of Josip Broz was mentioned in the Constitution. Something quite surprising considering that he was the son of an army officer. In 1974, as a student opposition leader he was sentenced to a one-year prison term following a trial held in Ljubljana - and as he likes to point out - would have gotten three had the trial taken place in Belgrade - for an "attempt to overthrow the Constitutional order". The Pen Club, and public figures such as Gunter Grass and Heinrich Bell appeal for his release. He was freed after spending a month in prison. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

He took his doctoral degree in 1979 in the then West Germany, where he lived for ten years. He returned to Belgrade and in 1989 participated in the constitution of the first opposition party, the Democratic Party. Since then he has been professionally engaged in politics. At present he is the president of the Executive Board of the Party. He is on a fair way to become its President. Perhaps even the prime minister of the future republican government.

* How do you account for the success of the Democratic Party at these elections: to the campaign you yourself led, the boredom of the voters with the old leaders or by not being antagonistic towards president Milosevic?

• We have given up professor type analyses, syntheses and cabinet statements. We set out in the campaign as enterpreneurs with the slogan "Honestly", explaining along the way why the state was not functioning, why crime and inflation were on the rise, why there was no food. The change of tactics and pace has proved successfull.

* And the fact that you never mentioned Milosevic?

• These were not presidential elections, but elections for the government and delegates to the republican parliament.

* During the campaign you spoke to voters of economic problems and crime. Your did not mention the war: What are your views on the war policy of the SPS which has reduced Serbia to poverty?

• The rapid disintegration of Yugoslavia, which resulted in war was not brought about by the Serbs, but rather by the Slovenians. After that the Croats were forced to act very quickly. I believe, Serbian politicians, and before all Milosevic, had no actual plan to create Greater Serbia. They wanted to preserve socialist Yugoslavia without Slovenia, to create Milosevic's Yugoslavia with the aid of the army and the Serbs, to await for the generals in Russia to remove Gorbachev from office and thus have everything to their advantage. The promised the Army socialism, telling it not to be angry because of the Serbian nationalist zeal, as only the Serbs wanted socialist. And then the Slovenian generals began shooting Slovenians. They told the Serbs not to be angry because they were keeping the Yugoslav People's Army since they needed it for creating a Serbian state. All in all a very crafty scheme, which was not realistic. Both the Serbs and the Army fell short. Instead, it should have been clearly stated right away that the state was breaking up along ethnic seams. Everyone did as they pleased, and Milosevic and the SPS attributed to themselves those results of the war which seemed suitable for integration into the framework of solving the Serbian national issue. All that did not suit them was attributed to treason on the part of the Army, international conspiracy, the USA, the Vatican and what not.

* In your opinion, where will the status of the Serbs outside of Serbia be solved - on the international negotiating table or in Serbia?

• On the spot. I believe the Bosnian Serbs are only a step away from their own state, while in Krajina the existing state of affairs will last for quite some time. Not one of the sides is prepared for concessions. Both are armed and no chances for a compromise exist. The only present solution is the normalization of relations in the fields of transportation and the economy.The condition is that they begin to lead a normal life, while we hope to join an expanded community in the process of intergration which is necessary in the Balkans. Thereby all the divisions would become relative, the borders would not be new Berlin walls. In other words, I see no chance of things changing in Krajina at present without the possiblity of a new war which would even more brutal.

The responsibility of the politicians on this soil lies in the fact that they did not succeed in channelling intra-ethnic tensions into some sorts of political trends and not in inciting a conflict. What I mean is that you cannot force someone to wage war who does not wish to do so. Milosevic was not the one to cause the existing state, just as Tudjman was not in Croatia. It is something that has been present on this soil for quite some time. In Lika, people began preparing for the war from the time mass- scale Croatian nationalist movement.Politicians only used that situation.

* You recently stated that you would negotiate with the Albanians in Kosovo on everything, except territorial autonomy.

• Yes, since territorial autonomy is not compatible with national minorities.

* Owing to the election results, according to which no party has a parliamentary majority, and the opposition parties get along like cats and dogs, is the future parliament threatened with a blockade?

• The President of the Republic must unblock the Parliament by rallying the parties so as to reach some sort of agreement. If he does not do that, he will be to blame. We have to reach an agreement on the mimimum of the programme for addressing the existing problems.There can be no favourable results if the SPS wishes to continue ruling by itself, just as no good can come if the opposition's intention is to eliminate the SPS, since the votes it received in the elections cannot be ignored. The opposition is the side that must show how keen it is on finding a solution.

* With a state president who has enormous competences and a parliament in a stalemate, will it be possible at all to form a government that will function?

• No. The chanches are slight, although that would be the only reasonable solution. Everything will be known by January 15, 1994. If up to that time, when the Serbian Parliament is to sit in session, some model of cooperation is not found, the Socialists will attempt to form a minority government with three votes more in the Assembly which will be found somewhere. We will have a month of confrontations, numerous votings, theft of votes. We have seen all that already. the dissolution of the Parliament will follow and possibly the proclamation of a state of emergency, followed once again by elections in which one side will be knocked out. The alternative is the repetition of Romania, and that means pressing until the point of explosion.

* You are often mentioned as the possible prime minister. Under what conditions would you accept that office?

• It would have to be a decisive, competent, uncompromising and honest government that would not be made up of politicians, but rather of enterpreneuers, experts in the fields of finance and the economic system, namely in all those fields in which at present crime reigns, and that is one of our major problems.

* The leader of the Radicals, Mr. Seselj, was the first to brand your successful election campaign as alledged plotting with the Socialists. What do you think, has Seselj won or lost in these elections?

• The Socialists let Seselj go. In the last five or six days of the election campaign he was an instrument of the SPS. They allowed him to be radical against the SPS, and against Arkan too, whom he criminalized and diverted the followers of the SPS from voting for Arkan. By criticizing Milosevic he drew a clear line between the socialists and radadicals, which the SPS needed. Arkan's followers, who were actually SPS sympathizers,remained where they belong. Therefore he did a great service to the SPS. In return, Seselj got the promotion which enabled the Radicals to remain a powerful party. Had the SPS wanted,Seselj would have gotten 5 percent of the votes, Arkan 10%. Since SPS needed Arkan's votes in Kosovo, it let him go, and the job was done for them by Seselj. In other words, the Radicals did not loose much.

Interviewer: Branka Kaljevic