FEDERATION ON SLIPPERY GROUND

Why Yugoslav Parliament is Inoperative

For quite some time, operation of the federal parliament has been blocked, and for almost a year now it has not been fully constituted, nor has it managed to adopt federal legislature in the past five years. Yugoslav Prime Minister, Radoje Kontic, is authorized by the Constitution to dissolve the parliament if it fails to sit for a long time, but he lacks courage for this step, because along with the already existing parliamentary and presidential crisis in Serbia, with this step he would also open the parliamentary crisis on the federal level

AIM Belgrade, 10 October, 1997

Milo Djukanovic who is experienced by the Serbian regime as the destroyer of Yugoslavia, and his main rival in the Motenegrin presidential elections, Momir Bulatovic, never misses the opportunity to call him that, did not succeed in winning the majority of votes in the first round, but the foundations of the federal state are nevertheless shaking pretty badly. Ever since it was elected almost a year ago, the federal parliament sat only once in regular session, and it has not succeeded even in gathering in all its members, because the by now former Together coalition had split even before it nominated its 22 deputies for the federal assembly.

The rump parliament has not been paralyzed because of the absence of 22 deputies from the opposition, but the interruption of its operation is the result of inaction of federal administration. Its only job was to elect the new president of Yugoslavia, for the sake of which the parliament met not less than five times, on one occasion even twice in a single day.

The Constitution of Yugoslavia includes a provision which enables the federal prime minister to dissolve the assembly if it fails to sit in session for a long time. This condition has been met, but the Yugoslav Prime Minister, who has the power of a chancellor, has no courage to make this logical move. Yugoslavia is badly shaken as it is due to political circumstances in its federal member-republics, because presidential elections in Serbia were unsuccessful, and a parliamentary blockade in it is in view because none of the parliamentary parties are able to ensure majority and elect a government. Political conditions in Montenegro are not any better either, where presidential elections have stirred up passions to such an extent that it is impossible to predict with any amount of certainty in what direction this republic will go.

In such circumstances, it is not easy for Prime Minister Radoje Kontic to refer to the Constitution of the country and open a parliamentary crisis on the federal level, although inactivity of federal deputies has caused serious consequences. The federal assembly is in charge of adopting many laws of interest of the country in general, but also of its citizens individually. Out of the three hundred laws which the federal assembly should have adopted after former SFRY had disappeared, and coordinated the federal legislature with the needs and responsibilities of the new state, so far only about 50 legal regulations covering more or less inconsequential affairs have been adopted.

When the relevant ministry prepared the text of the law on internal river and sea transportation on one thousand pages, the reply arrived from the republics that such a regulation was unnecessary. Serbia which has a lot of rivers, decided to regulate the traffic on them by a republican law, and Montenegro did the same concerning maritime transport. That is how the several-month effort of the federal ministry of transportation went up in smoke.

Similar practice was repeated in other spheres exceptionally important for operation of the federal state. That is how the field of internal security remained unregulated, because both republics show no intention to renounce their own regulations concerning it, although it is exclusively the responsibility of the federation. As a result, at the borders of Yugoslavia, passports of passengers are checked by members of republican police, while federal policemen are entrusted with the job of guarding buildings in which the federal administration resides - the government, the parliament and other federal agencies.

Legal regulations which have been adopted are simply not recognized. Implementation of the Law on Yugoslav Citizenship has not yet begun, although its provisions are in force since January 1996. The implementation was twice postponed, although several hundred thousand citizens are impatiently waiting to regulate their status in Yugoslavia. The Serb refugees from other parts of former Yugoslavia are interested in its implementation the most, but there is also a considerable number of citizens born in Serbia who cannot resolve the issue of their citizenship because it has not yet been decided what stand should be taken towards those who had for some time lived and worked in republics of the dissolved SFRY.

The whole past summer, the federal government tried to leave the impression on the public that it was engaged day and night in making preparations for economic reform. Its high officials were frequently making statements about prepared draft laws of crucial importance for the reform, but not a single code of laws has actually been sent from a ministry to the federal parliament which is competent for their adoption. For instance, thousands of owners of foreign currency savings accounts, whose six billion German marks the state has spent, are impatiently waiting for the respective law which should regulate recovery of their savings.

Assistant prime minister Danko Djunic has given promises on several occasions that elaboration of this draft law has just about been completed, but solutions it contains have not been made public yet. It is not all the same to the owners of savings accounts in what manner the state will return to them its debt which amounts to 10 per cent of the value of property owned by it. The dilemma is whether the outstanding debt to the owners of savings accounts will be transformed into a public debt or whether their savings will be returned to them by selling state property. There is also the idea to enable the citizens to pay for consumed electric power, heating, housing and other dues with their foreign currency savings.

Those well-informed believe that the federation will not be able to escape undisturbed from the political turmoil in Serbia and Montenegro in which election procedures may last during the whole winter. All things considered, presidential elections in Serbia will not take place before January, and if on top of that parliamentary blockade is added, then Serbia will not have a parliament in the foreseeable future.

This will reflect on the operation of the federal assembly which is paralyzed, because unless the assembly of Serbia is constituted, the federal chamber of the republics is blocked because half of the members in it are elected from the republican parliament. Even if Kontic after five years of his "invisible" chairing the federal government mustered the courage to dissolve the federal parliament, the question remains whether elections for the federal assembly could be held, judging by the political circumstances, because the Serbian electorate in the past elections with its low response showed that it was tired of frequent voting. In the past eight years the citizens have voted six times.

The special role in the destiny of the federation is played by presidential elections in Montenegro. Supporters of Yugoslavia fear the possibility of Milo Djukanovic winning the elections, since in public appearances he presents himself as an opponent of Milosevic's isolationist policy in relation to the international community. Montenegrin prime minister does not conceal the intention to pull Montenegro out of this embrace, since he declared himself in favour of cooperativeness with the world, regardless of the price for it to be paid internally, questioning even the very existence of Yugoslavia.

In case these intentions of his are sincere and not just mere pre-election promises lightly given in campaigns and later hardly or not met at all, Yugoslavia is facing the risk of splitting along the seams cut back in 1992 at the Hague Conference when all the republics of former SFRY, except Serbia and Montenegro, agreed to the variant of dissolution of the former joint state. Such possible outcome which optimists do not believe in and pessimists fear, could not pass without raising tensions consequences of which are unpredictable.

Ratomir Petkovic

(AIM)