Voivodina in Serbia

Barrier Builders

The government of Serbia in which the Socialists and the Radicals have equal shares of ministerial posts causes uneasiness in Voivodina - the Radicals, even while they were just Milosevic's "favourite oppositionists", have always left a specific trace in multi-ethnic Voivodina

AIM Novi Sad, 6 April, 1998

It is no accident, like nothing is in history, that the session of the assembly of Serbia which will discuss Slobodan Milosevic's proposal to schedule a referendum on foreign mediation in Kosovo will be held on 6 April, on the anniversary of destruction of Belgrade (in 1941) and the beginning of the war in Sarajevo.

With this comment, deputy in the assembly of Serbia, president of the opposition League of Social Democrats of Voivodina (LSV), Nenad Canak, summarizes for AIM a few assessments: that the explanation given by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic about the need to schedule the referendum was a fake, but that this regime has a great need to lay the blame for what is happening in the country on somebody else ("on that which is for 10 years already called the people"); that ten years have passed since the people have always suffered whenever it was "protected" by Slobodan Milosevic and that pledging allegiance to the will of the people this time is the sentence to death of that same people; that the referendum is intended to be, post festum, of the election of Milosevic for the chief of the Balkan tribe who will then be able to be whatever he pleases - "the judge and the arbiter, the ideologist and the disc-jockey".

Canak believes that it is very interesting why the question of international mediation in Kosovo is considered to be a political move worthy of a referendum which usually implies a question of the status of a state or its joining a greater community. He does not fail to warn that, although apparently most democratic, this manner of decision-making is always organized so that the result is favourable ("at least in this part of the world and in political situations such as this") and that it should not be forgotten that the largest number of referendums was organized - and always won massive people's support - by the regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany in the thirties.

The people in Voivodina have learnt from experience what "the truth about suffering" meant, which was in summer and autumn 1988 spread far and wide by Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins in the streets of Voivodina cities, so that a sharpened sense for distinguishing the cause from the result is a logical product of the "yoghurt" revolution against the former provincial communist leadership as part of the faction struggle among the Yugoslav leadership when Slobodan Milosevic was raising to power in Serbia. The epilogue is nowadays financially expressed by the sum of 75 million dinars allocated to the province by the republican parliament which is less than one per cent (0.47) of the budget of Serbia and by the warning that this sum should not be below six billion dinars in compliance with what Voivodina produces.

The proposal that Serbia vote in a referendum and directly authorise Milosevic to continue to pursue "popular policy" was launched before Serbia got used to its new government in which the Radicals and the Socialists have equal shares of ministerial posts. Its composition causes uneasiness in Voivodina. Even while they were just the president's favourite oppositionists, the Radicals left their specific trace on multi-ethnic Voivodina, participating undisturbed in classification of the citizens into the desirable and undesirable ones (the case of Hrtkovci), and in summer 1995 when they tried to clear away space for the just arrived refugees from Krajina at the expense of autochtonous Voivodina Croats.

The idea about the "referendum on foreign mediation" has come after unsuccessful insisting of the civic opposition from Voivodina to open a discussion in both the federal and the republican parliament about causes and results of the problem in Kosovo and after partly successful joining of the League of Voivodina Hungarians (SVM) in the arrangement for the picture the regime wishes to present about itself. The assembly of Serbia has not accepted the proposal of Voivodina autonomy lovers to establish a committee for investigation of suffering of the civilians in the region of Drenica, and there has not been a sufficient number of those interested in convening a session of the assembly committee for defence and security either.

A representative of SVM found himself in Pristina on the very first day together with the so-called parliamentary delegation of Serbia to play the role of a negotiator on the undefined topic, which was one of the phases of behavior of the party of the mayor of Subotica, Jzsef Kasza. If the excursion to Pristina (the Hungarians abandoned it after two days spent in Pristina) and negotiations with Milosevic concerning practising of some of the abolished rights of Voivodina Hungarians was motivated by the interest of the regime to show that it "has a way with the minorities", it is not clear what motivated SVM to make such political moves, nor how did Jozef Kasza reach the conclusion that he was the right to person who can promise parents of soldiers of the Hungarian ethnic origin that he would demand that "citizens of Voivodina do military service in Voivodina". It is always highly sensitive to strike the ethnic string on the folklore fiddle in Voivodina, however pleasant it may sound.

It is not sure that Kasza had evaluated all the consequences of the agreement of SVM to be the always invited and present Voivodina opposition deputy group in the Serbian parliament. When consultations for the formation of the government of Serbia was concerned, it was stubbornly insisted that all deputy groups participated in them, although it turned out that nobody has negotiated about this topic with deputies of the civic Voivodina Coalition (LSV and RDSV) and the List for Sandzak. On the occasion of the recent inauguration of the Serbian government, the mentioned parties were the only ones who had complaints against its composition. The leader of Voivodina autonomy-seekers Nenad Canak warned that the coalition of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Serb Radical Party marked the end of this country, in the economic, cultural and every other sense:

"You refused an inquiring committee when it was necessary to find out whether Milutinovic was elected or not. You refused an inquiring committee concerning killing of civilians in Drenica. By doing it you have rejected the possibility to complain when somebody breaks into your house and kills your children. With this decision you will cause problems in Kosovo, you will cause problems in Sandzak, so do not be surprised when you wake up and see a barrier built on the Gazelle bridge (in Belgrade)".

Voivodina autnomy supporters insist that a line be finally drawn and a difference made between Kosovo and Voivodina - Kosovo is the question of the unresolved status of both this territory and its inhabitants; the autonomy of Voivodina is not a step towards independence, but a guarantor of a decentralized and democratic system of the country.

To agree that, within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo is an internal matter of Serbia, is understood by Canak as putting a noose around the neck of Montenegro which will because of it either leave or be destroyed: "We can expect nothing else of this referendum but not only transfer of the power of the assembly of Serbia, not only reduction of power of the government of the Republic of Serbia, but direct concentration of power in the hands of Slobodan Milosevic. Because, under the pretext of preventing mediation from without in the internal matters of Serbia, he can strike at anybody who allegedly contributes to mediation, and this is - from Milo Djukanovic to practically anybody".

Milena Putnik

(AIM)