SUPPORT TO DEMOCRACY OR RETURN OF A DEBT

Bosnian Serbs and Belgrade Demonstrations

Condemnation of the state and political leadership of Serbia uttered by the President of Republic of Srpska, Dr Biljana Plavsic, could not be considered as support to democracy. In the context of the global developments and distribution of ideological forces, it is primarily support to the opposition which is expected to get rid of the civic option and return Serbia into the embrace of nationalism.

AIM Banja Luka, 27 December, 1996

The rally "For Serbia" which the Socialist Party of Serbia organized on 24 December in Belgrade as a response to protest gatherings of coalition Together had a specific echo to the west of the Drina. The very next day after these events in Belgrade, President of Republic of Srpska (RS), Dr Biljana Plavsic, convened a press conference in Banja Luka at which she condemned the policy of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic by saying: "Democracy is threatened in Serbia and the Serbs cannot stand that. For the people who have a feeling for democracy in its primeval being it became unbearable to live under a regime which has nothing in common with democracy".

The lady President did not fail to repeat what she has already said on the occasion of an earlier public support to the students' protest: "As a university professor, had I happened to be in Belgrade, I would have been among the students. Not only because of solidarity, but because they are intellectuals who do not wish Serbia and the Serbian people who are in favour of democracy, bear the label of the totalitarian regime". Underlining that "each regime should be aware that people are not going out into the streets for fun or ideology", the lady President presented herself as a democrat who the people in this territory should be happy to have.

In condemnation of the Serbian leadership, Biljana Plavsic stated arguments which also concern the Serbs in RS, claiming that the Assembly of Serbia had repeatedly refused to discuss the situation in RS, when the Serb people were threatened. Dangerous indifference of the Serbian leadership to its people which is also manifested by the fact that it is completely ignoring what is happening in the streets of Belgrade, according to the words of Biljana Plavsic, forecasts continuation of distressing events in Serbia.

The statement of the President of Bosnian Serbs did not surprise connoisseurs of her personality and actions in the Republic of Srpska, but it did confuse the membership of the ruling Serb Democratic Party (SDS) used to listening to condemnations of Milosevic, but not support of the opposition which it links solely to Uk Draskovic and Vesna Pesic. Apart from that, it sounds cynical to the public that support to the Serbian opposition is given by those who dispersed their own opposition during the election campaign with bombs, rubber batons and physical abuse of its membership and that Milosevic is condemned by those who called their own opposition fifth columnists and traitors. Mrs Plavsic has never supported the opposition in the Republic of Srpska and recognized its right to democratic organizing and freedom of activity. Never has the lady President thought it necessary to even talk to representatives of the opposition, least of all to offer them to participate in the authorities. On the contrary, everything that the leaders of the Serbian Socialists have said in disparagement of their opposition, calling them mercenaries, fifth columnists and traitors, was repeated not so long ago, by Biljana Plavsic for the opposition coalition block of parties of left orientation in the Republic of Srpska. Completely the same rhetoric of the two regimes which present themselves differently confirms their readiness, depending on needs, to use all, even dishonourable means for the achievement of their political objectives. Condemnation of the state and political leadership of Serbia should not be understood as support to democracy. In the context of global developments and distribution of ideological forces, it is quite certainly just support to the opposition which is expected to abandon the civic option and shove Serbia back into the embrace of nationalism.

There is a special reason which obliged Biljana Plavsic to hurry with the support to unofficial Belgrade. It was the obligation to return Zoran Djindjic the favour for understanding which he had shown for the struggle of the Serb people in Bosnia by coming to Pale during the war and for open support to the policy of the SDS he had given by his presence at the main promotive gathering of the SDS in Banja Luka on the eve of the elections, remaining the only leader from the current coalition Together who supported the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs. This political brinkmanship transformed into a credit, not clear to many at the time, is now being returned to Djindjic, but it is not quite certain that he still needs this credit and that he will have any use of the investment. One could rather say that support of the regime from Pale with numerous mortgages which compromised it for a long term, could only inflict damage on him.

Nevertheless, the impression is that Lady President was not in a hurry to support the opposition in Serbia just in order to pay back to Djindjic, but also to use the opportunity and once again challenge her ideological opponent from Dedinje and make it clear to him that the time when he made decisions about the Serbs west of the Drina has passed. She has openly and publicly several times before stated her opinion about his unnecessary mediator's role in resolving the Bosnian war conflict and ignoring attitude to RS. The developments in Serbia have served her as an argument to show that Milosevioc was an arrogant dictator with whom it was impossible to talk.

The support to the opposition in Serbia caused confusion and doubt among the domestic public. Even political dilettantes wonder how come the President of their state is nowadays supporting Uk Draskovic who was until recently presented as the greatest traitor and enemy of the Bosnian Serbs. Draskovic's statements about genocidal and criminal policy of Pale leadership, due to which he would come to Sarajevo to kneel in front of the eternal flame and beg for indulgence of sins, until yesterday were repeated here as an example of Serb treachery. To the majority of nationalistic Serbs in the SDS Milosevic was much closer than Draskovic and Vesna Pesic, so it will not be clear to them what is this new course that their leadership is taking.

Confusion of membership will not cause much political damage to the ruling party. The political public, especially the one inclined towards the SDS does not take statements of the political and state leadership too seriously. They are still not obligatory for it and just a function of national interests interpreted and protected solely by the SDS.

The opposition in the Republic of Srpska may benefit the most from the statement of Biljana Plavsic. Condemnation of Milosevic and support of the opposition might soon imply condemnation of non-democratic methods of the authorities and support to the opposition in RS, if it got in the position to fight for its rights in the streets. Perhaps Biljana Plavsic was not even aware of the significance of her words, but they might become a dangerous boomerang very soon.

No matter how much he may believe that he deserves merit for what the Bosnian Serbs have got by the Dayton accords, Slobodan Milosevic is slowly losing popularity among followers in the ranks of the Socialist Party of RS. They are nowadays accusing solely Slobodan Milosevic for their catastrophic defeat in the elections, believing that he had used them as a democratic decor and made a personal political international profit for himself by sacrificing them. As the last in a series of evidence, they mention the presence of Nikola Sainovic, influential member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, at the festive occasion of laying the foundations of Serb Sarajevo. Perfidious tightrope dancing and double-dealing got back at Milosevic. The Socialists in the Republic of Srpska do not trust him any more and he buried their hopes for success in local elections, and then received another blow in the back from the leadership in Pale.

In any case, demonstrations in Belgrade have pushed away the corner stone from the foundations of the building on which a charisma was built. Its fall could cause an earthquake on both sides of the Drina.

Branko Peric