QUARRELS SHAKING SERBIA UP

In the Election Year

AIM Belgrade, 29 April, 1997

Believing that political quarrels are a threat for the survival of the Serbian state, the citizens fear them more than the consequences of the murder of the first policeman in Serbia. That is why political quarrels came in first on a barometre of events which made the biggest impression last week.

First, the Serbs quarrelled with the whole world, and when that "job" was brought to its end, mutual quarrels began, which have reached proportions of an epidemic. There is almost no political party on the Serbian political scene which is not shaken by internal squaring accounts among its individual members. At the last session of the main Board oft he Serb Revival Movement (SPO), Vice-President of this party Ilija Radulovic submitted his resignation, because he was not supported by anyone in his criticism of the Draskovic family which practically holds the entire power in this party in its hands. Radulovic is the hero of Vuk Draskovic's book called "The Judge", which had made its author famous as a writer, but as the leader of the party he got rid of a critic of his political career, because Radulovic denied his candidacy for President of Serbia, certain that writers, due to their imagination useful in writing books, cannot be good statesmen because that post demands that they firmly stand on the ground, and not high up in the clouds.

Disputes are also shaking the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), and much before that Vesna Pesic and Zarko Korac of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS) had split. Montenegrin leadership is seriously divided, and the coalition Together is constantly shaken by public polemics between Zoran Djindjic and Vuk Draskovic. These two men as sharp critics of the regime and President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic were constantly in the focus of interest of Belgrade privately-owned newspapers which continued to follow their mutual controversies with equal pomp. It suited both of them when their statements against the regime were carried on front pages, but when information about their quarrels also appeared in prominent places, they realized that the medal of popularity had its reverse, in other words that the newspapers were not their supporters, but that they were after news which could increase circulation, or rather the profit of their owners.

Although in their genes the Serbs seem to have inclination to polemic, squaring accounts and even vehement conflicts (the uprising of the Serbs in the Second World War began after a Serb had shot another Serb), the current quarrels are mostly explained by the fact that they are taking place in the election year which many believe to be crucial and fatal for Serbia. The victory of the opposition in local elections created the impression among the public that the moment had come when Milosevic's regime could be replaced in a democratic way. Such conviction raised tensions on the political scene on which tumultous events are replacing one another every day which the public experiences very dramatically.

Political quarrels which are shaking the opposition are attributed to the attempts of the regime to weaken it, because quarrelled and disunited the opposition will be a minor threat for the ruling political set. Those who know Serbia's President Milosevic well, but especially his wife Mira Markovic, believe that this couple has at its disposal very refined methods for shedding mistrust among its opponents. The political earthquake in Montenegro is believed to be caused by Milosevic, by his provoking deep disagreements among the until recently inseparable "three war comrades" - Bulatovic, Marovic and Djukanovic. Similar is the split in Republica Srpska between Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic.

Indeed, when such things happen, the answer to the question who profits from it should be sought. Milosevic immediately springs to mind, because in his entire political rule, he is now having the biggest difficulties to keep the title of the unquestioned Serbian leader. But, even if he does manage, as many give him credit, to sew dissension among his political opponents, he himself is not spared similar trouble. It is evident that his close associates and even friends are leaving him. Dusan Mitevic has already done so, having decided to support Bogoljub Karic and Milan Panic. Bogoljub Karic has also split with family Milosevic, which just confirms that the ranks of the regime have also been considerably shaken. Although motives of the murder of the first policeman of Serbia have not been clarified yet, it cannot be observed outside the political framework.

Political quarrels have overshadowed the murder of the first policeman of Serbia. The citizens fear more the possible consequences of political quarrels than those of the murder of the minister of police who was the man with greatest responsibility for public security. What might seem at first sight as an illogical dose of increasing fear because of political quarrels is indeed quite justified. Serbia is in a very difficult economic and political situation. Hundreds thousand of refugees have come to Serbia from other parts of former SFRY, where separate states had been established, the regimes of which these Serbs had fled from. The increasing political tensions are experienced by the citizens as a realistic danger for survival of their state.

Political passions with Serbs have always been out of control and that is the reason why all controversial issues in their history were resolved by scorched earth policy, while other nations more efficiently achieved similar goals by diplomatic means. At the moment Serbia has no defined state objectives, it is deeply ideologically divided, so that the forthcoming elections are experienced by the public not only as the struggle of political parties for power, but also as a clash between ideologies which have no mercy for each other.

Having become aware of that, the citizens must abandon the role of mere voters and become politically more active. Their three month long peaceful but persistent protests in the streets of many cities in Serbia was meant to show that nobody can count on civic obedience, if those in power will not primarily be concerned for settling affairs of the Serbian state which in many aspects does not function, but primarily in the sphere of protection of fundamental civil rights. It seems that the leaders of the coalition Together have become aware of it when they started getting messages from the citizens that they had not protested in order to have one regime replace the other, but in order to have a better regime replace the current one. For how long the coalition leaders will abide by these messages, remains to be seen. It is quite possible that they will often be repeated, just so they are not forgotten.

This answer of the citizens to political quarrels may serve as the best way for reconciliation among themselves, both those who live in Serbia and the several hundred thousand of those who fled abroad in the beginning of the war because they did not want to participate with arms in their hands in achievement of goals of the regime. There is certain misunderstanding between those who have gone and those who have remained. The emigrants resent those who have remained because they believe that the latter have helped the regime preserve its position. The same resentment is addressed to those who have left, because it is believed that resistance to the ruling structure would have been more powerful and efficient had they stayed in Serbia.

Ratomir Petkovic (AIM)