DEMAND WRITTEN BY DRASKOVIC

Nis SPO Demands Mayor's Resignation

For the reason he failed to oppose the campaign of his party, mayor of Nis and high official of the Democratic Party (DS), Zoran Zivkovic, should submit his resignation for moral reasons. This demand of councilmen of the Serb Revival Movement (SPO) followed soon after results of the first round of the presidential elections in Serbia had been made public

AIM Belgrade, 9 October, 1997

Regardless of whether he participated in the campaign in which citizens of Nis were "insulted and despised", Zivkovic has to go. Councilmen of the party whose leader wishes to be "one for all" declared that if Zivkovic failed to submit his resignation himself, they would have to relieve him of duty at the session of the city assembly.

The great turmoil in the media which started after this demand, died down in the past few days. The impression is that the officials of Nis SPO are trying to forget or at least to hush up what they demanded.

"I would like to understand the absence of activities of the Nis SPO which would mark continuation of the initiative for relieving me of duty as their abandoning the idea. I would like to believe that this abandoning the idea was the result of awareness and knowledge that such an initiative would be harmful for the local authorities in Serbia in municipalities controlled by the Together coalition, and SPO itself. Damage has already been done to this party after relieving of duty the Belgrade mayor and the heads of Studio B", says mayor of Nis Zivkovic.

Explaining the origin of the demand of the coalition partner, he says that the biggest problem of Serb policy is that all initiatives originate from the leadership of the parties. "Knowing how SPO works as well as almost all political parties in Serbia, it is logical that all initiatives derive from the leadership of the party. In the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) no decision can be reached without the leadership of this party. In the Serb Radical Party (SRS) nobody dares even take a bath before the president of the party permits it. This is the normal way SPO operates", says Zivkovic and explains that reasons why Vuk Draskovic would demand his resignation were unknown to him, since due to a heap of jobs he has no time to waste on analyzing thoughts of certain politicians.

Instead of him, president of Nis Democrats Aleksandar Krstic says that the demand to have the mayor relieved of duty is not the result of the will of coalition partners of Nis SPO: "Draskovic wishes to relieve the mayor of Nis of duty in retaliation for his election results in presidential elections against those whom he believes to be responsible for it. I believe that our coalition partners, who are honourable and honest people, with more than seven years of personal struggle for changes behind them, will choose survival of the local coalition Together. Nis has been capable of manifesting political maturity for several times already by having refused to follow orders from Belgrade, and by acting in the interest of the city and its citizens which is above party interests", says Krstic.

The allegation that the demand for departure of Nis mayor was not initiated by councilmen of SPO in Nis is also confirmed by a reliable source from that party who claims that the author of the demand is the leader of SPO, Vuk Draskovic, himself. His demand was at first rejected at the meeting of SPO councilmen, but party discipline prevailed after the call from the leader of SPO who threatened that he would throw them out of the party accompanied with a number of banalities and insults.

A slight confirmation for such allegations can also be found in the manner in which Nis officials of SPO tried to explain the origin of this initiative in the coalition about which they themselves had claimed could be a model to all the others and that foundation of unity in it was primarily in friendiship. Nervousness and confusion accompanied by evident perspiration are the main characteristics of the appearance of local SPO officials who were explaining reasons for relieving Zivkovic of duty in front of cameras or at press conferences. By reapeating the reasons for relieving Zivkovic of duty which irresistably reminded of the reasons uttered by the head of the SPO on the occasion of relieving mayor of Belgrade Zoran Djindjic, Nis SPO officials have not succeeded in conviincing anybody that they had been the ones who had decided on their own to remove Zivkovic.

"This demand is not a directive from Belgrade, because there is no such thing as directives in democratic parties, and even if there were, they would not be discussed for six hours", says president of the city board of SPO Ninoslav Stojadinovic, while his party colleague and president of the city government Branislav Jovanovic simply shouted at the journalists at a press conference: "Please, stop it", after several questions referring to removal of Zivkovic.

After the initiative of SPO, Nis administration continued normal operation, and the mayor of Nis scheduled a session of the city assembly (10 October) but without the item on the agenda about his resignation.

"I have not received a demand for my resignation prepared according to the rules of procedure. Councilmen from the SPO may put it on the agenda as an urgent manner at the session itself", says Zivkovic and adds that chances are big that the situation from the Belgrade assembly when councilmen of the SPS, SRS and SPO all voted in favour of removing the mayor will not be repated in Nis. Zivkovic finds reasons for this belief in the "surplus of reason" those who bore the burden of last winter's protests in Nis manifested in relation to their party colleagues from Belgrade.

By constantly repeating that Nis councilmen in the city assembly will not vote in favour of relieving Zivkovic of duty, local Democrats are appealing on the conscience of SPO councilmen: "We do not believe that SPO councilmen will raise their hands together with the Socialists against those they walked Nis streets with and frozen together for a few months", they claim at the Nis board of DS.

Squeezed between party directive and local friendship, but also "aware of responsibility", SPO councilmen in Nis should decide whether they will remove the mayor because he failed to oppose the policy of his party and in that way obey the policy of his Belgrade party headquarters or whether, as they have already started to do, push everything under the carpet believing that everything will soon be forgotten, like so many things in the land of Serbia.

Zoran Kosanovic

(AIM)