FISTS AS ARGUMENTS

Party Campaign in the Republic of Srpska

Followers of Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic got into a fight in a village near Teslic. The "Milosevics" got the short end of the stick, but that was not the end of the game.

AIM, Belgrade, April 20, 1996

Early this month the political nervousness characterizing the political campaign in the Republic of Srpska (RS) was marked by the first true scandal. In the village of Blatnica, near Teslic, the followers of the leader of Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and sympathizers of the President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic got into a fight. The incident broke out when the top people of the Socialist Party of the Republic of Srpska (SP RS), which is under the direct influence of Milosevic and his regime, decided to organize a promotive gathering in the mentioned village. The followers of Karadzic and his Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) disapproved of the idea, and determined to forestall this, greeted the guests of Blatnica first with verbal threats, and when these arguments proved insufficiently convincing, resorted to their fists. The socialist got the short end of the stick and returned to their headquarters in Banjaluka empty-handed.

This is the epilogue of the first, most direct possible measuring up of the two Serbian political parties in Bosnia. There are over 20 registered parties in the Republic of Srpska, but these two which took each other's measure with fists, are undoubtedly the strongest. However, the outcome of fist-fighting, even though it happened - literally - in the political ring, cannot be an indicator of political influence, and consequently neither the answer to the most interesting political question in the Republic of Srpska: which one of these two parties stands a greater chance in the Serbian national corps of winning the next elections?

Karadzic's SDS enters the pre-election race from the position of power. For example, when it comes to the Blatnica case, thanks to precisely that position it was able to send a police team on the spot in order to investigate the incident, which later on reported that it was provoked by "drunken socialists" who, as it turned out, fought among themselves. In other words, this is a case of absolute power well known in the literature for its "spoiling of the absolute".

Generally speaking, SDS is capable of many things, but for its priority task it choose to prove how successful it is. The attempt to prove that black is actually white requires enormous effort in manipulating and obliterating memories. For, in order to prove this, the ruling party in the Republic of Srpska must not mention a single programme, political or territorial objective which it declared at the beginning of the war: that it will remain within Yugoslavia, that it will separate itself from Bosnia and Herzegovina, that it will secure the exit to the sea, that the demarcation line will be on the Neretva river, that Sarajevo will be Serbian...Such an act automatically implies putting an end to all criticism on the part of the opposition and strict control of the press and electronic media. That is why it was the Belgrade press that informed the public of the fight in a village near Teslic, while the local papers kept silent about this event which, repeated in milder form in some other places in the Drina river region, is becoming a part of the political practice of the ruling party of Bosnian Serbs.

The neurotic behaviour of the RS authorities Dr.Miodrag Zivanovic, leader of the Socio-Liberal Party of the Republic of Srpska explains as a consequence of the loss of authority and influence. "The less authority, the more repression", says Zivanovic accusing the Pale authorities that for the sake of protecting themselves from the people they have brought back into life a network of informers and black lists, prepared draft legislation on verbal offence... in other words are frantically defending themselves.

Paradoxically, in measuring up its (political) strength with the SP RS as its major opponent, the ruling party can benefit most from the same thing it is frantically trying to suppress - refreshing of memories of the Serbs. The more so as the resignation and wrath spilled out by the fleeing columns of Serbs from Jajce, Drvar, Glamoc, Grahovo...did not cross over the Drina river in those first moments of tragedy. The people laid all the blame for their hopeless position on Karadzic and his ruling team. This was a conclusion reached under stress, when people were aware of only those around them. The time-out provided by the Dayton Agreement made it possible for those who starved in the dirty classrooms, sports halls and under rubble to look back when not so long ago they made embroidery with the figure of the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic or had his pictures on the wall.

Their conclusion as to who is most to blame is further intensified by the refusal of the authorities of the Republic of Serbia to let through some of those refugee columns cross over to its side of the Drina river. Upon his arrival to the RS a chance traveller from Serbia is intensively aware of the open reproach of his hosts: "You have stirred this up. Had you not given us the guns we would not have fought". In such an atmosphere, not even the Blatnica incident, a leitmotif of the political campaign in the RS, can be interpreted only as an act of repression on the part of repressive authorities, but mostly as a reflection of resignation.

The pendulum that threatened to break through the upper limit of negative charge in the SDS political field, is slowly returning towards the rival side. The fact that SP RS openly presented itself as a branch office of the official Belgrade will prove to be a mistake under the present public sentiment towards Serbia. (At one time this party seriously considered the idea of entering the election with a poster showing its candidate together with Slobodan Milosevic.) The task of presenting Dayton as the "maximum of the maximum that could have been achieved", as Zivko Radisic Vice President of the SP RS stated to the AIM reporter, will be hard to achieve. It will be equally hard to explain to the grief stricken, impoverished and miserable people that its sacrifices were commensurate to the achievements: its own parliament, as well as possible statehood. In any case, the RS ruling party also boasts of these achievements, albeit without much enthusiasm.

Recently the Belgrade "Politika" appeared at the news-stands with the statement of Dr.Dragutin Ilic, Socialist President, that his party could support the SDS but such as it was according to its 1990 programme. "That is how things stand", adds Radisic. "However, they have become too big for their boots and have subjected the entire party and national programme to the interest of individuals and groups which have amassed huge capital in the war, hiding behind the power which they held in their hands. We therefore formed a party so as to strike a political balance".

Programme orientation of the SDS and SP RS are similar in many respects. The only difference being that, due to their Belgrade connections, which is involved in the international political game, the socialists are more refined, while SDS more resolute. Expressed with political phrases this is how it sounds: "We are in favour of the most urgent possible integration with Serbia and FR Yugoslavia" (SDS), and: "The RS has no future without closer ties with Serbia and FR Yugoslavia" (SP RS). The latter show greater respect for opportunism as a political technique, and as such they are more consistent champions of the Dayton Agreement which, again, is the result of close links with Belgrade.

At this moment both SDS and SP RS are working hard on strengthening the party infrastructure: they have communal committees in all communes, they are preparing to establish committees in local communities. SP has enlisted as much as 40,000 new members (figure according to Radisic), but Belgrade will strike the final balance of powers with its activity or inactivity. Simply, socialists see themselves as an inseparable part of the official Belgrade and if the reputation of the Belgrade regime continues to deteriorate among the Bosnian Serbs, the chances of the SDS will grow. And vice versa. SDS and SP are immobilized, caught in a clinch, when delivered blows can only be weak and below the belt. And again, the decisive one can come from Belgrade, for example, in the form of a document corroborating allegations of war profiteering.

Close links between large parties leaves more breathing space for smaller ones. Among them the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNS) of Milorad Dodik stands out. This is the only opposition party which has delegates in the RS Parliament. Let us recall that this party evolved from an independent deputy group, the first organized opposition to Karadzic. Today this party has 24 communal boards, and its officials attracted 300 to 400 people at party rallies in Laktasi, Bijeljina, Gradiska, Srbac..."People like to hear us", says Dodik. "We do not tell them anything special, nor do we promise them prosperity overnight. We want them to know us as people who work for the preservation of peace and who have deserved to relieve of office those who brought them ruin".

Realizing that Dodik and his party are serious rivals, the Serbian paper "Liberation" (Oslobodjenje) published a pamphlet describing this sturdy two-meter tall man as a collaborator of several intelligence services as well as the leader of a disintegrating party, illustrating it with a photo showing the Dodik family boarding the first plane that took off from Banjaluka for Belgrade just before the war broke out in Bosnia. "O.K., such is politics and such are the rules of the game here - they can write that I am a collaborator of CIA, KGB, Mosad, but they have no right to use my family, wife and children for political purposes", says Milorad Dodik. The citizens of Banjaluka joke that the main character of this story, the author of the pamphlet hides in some corner every time the SNS President appears in this town.

There is a joke going around about this politician, not totally unfounded, which says that he allegedly went to the SP RS headquarters in Banjaluka and asked its President Dr.Drago Ilic to give him the post of vice-president. The time has come for this half-truth to be clarified. From sources close to both parties AIM found out the authentic story: At the time of the fiercest campaign of the authorities against the Independent Deputy Club, Miodrag Dodik asked to be admitted to the membership of SP SR so as to provide an institutional shield for himself and his colleagues. He demanded that all eight deputies of the Club be appointed to the SP Main Board, two members to the Executive Board and one a vice-president. The outcome is well known.

Dodik, as his statements show, understood and accepted the rules of the political game. Head of the Socio-Liberal Party (SLS), doctor of philosophy Miodrag Zivanovic, also wants to understand them, but procrastinated for too long the launching of a more decisive political action under such rules. A moralist by character, the SLS leader once, when that carried political weight, refused to capitalize his participation in the war, same as he never used to his advantage the interviews he gave and letters he wrote openly condemning the war during his days of rare leaves. A party which before the war rallied intellectuals and urban population of all nationalities under the name Liberal, by changing it to SLS announced a more decisive political campaign and, finally, an inflow of funds into the empty cash box. The popularity he enjoys in Tuzla, Sarajevo and the world at large is finally scoring results in local surroundings for Zivanovic, one of the most outspoken champions of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as agreed in Dayton.

Together with the mentioned parties, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS, with its Belgrade headquarters) ranks high in the first political division of the Republic of Srpska. With a sudden change of leadership last September, at the initiative of Belgrade headquarters, the radicals were practically left without a recognizable profile. Today "ordinary" voters in the RS cannot distinguish between SRS and SDS. Realizing that he has ruined the party with unwise moves, Seselj reinstated Dr.Nikola Poplasen as the first man of SRS RS, which should bring back radicals their lost identity.

The number of parties in the Republic of Srpska is increasing. None of the party leaders believe that any single one will succeed in winning the absolute majority at the elections. Coalitions will be considered only after the elections, and instead of predicting who has the greatest chances of winning, the SP SR Vice-President Zivko Radisic says: "Who ever wins, woe betide him. But, without changes, woe betide all of us".

(AIM) Perica Vucinic