Voivodina in Serbia

REMOVING SMUDGED MAKEUP OFF THE FACE OF THE REGIME

The call of the autonomy-loving Voivodina Coalition, sent to Serbian authorities to start negotiations about the status of Voivodina is more than a bitter stinger for the regime, because it sounds like a parody of the screenplay the regime is performing in Kosovo, because an amount of irony and provocation can also be found in the everyday noon waiting of its repersentatives for negotiators.

AIM Novi Sad, 14 April, 1998

It started on Monday, the second week of April. Representatives of Voivodina Coalition, consisting of the Social-Democratic League of Voivodina (LSV) and Reform Democratic Party of Voivodina (RDSV), two civil parties with a strong autonomous charge, started awaiting for representatives of the Republic Serbia to start negotiations and/or talks about the status of Voivodina. The invitation was sent publicly, at a press conference on Saturday. On Tuesday, when it was established that nobody had arrived it was announced that a written invitation would be sent to Milan Milutinovic, the president of Serbia to authorise someone to negotiate with Voivodina. If nobody comes to Novi Sad, by the end of the week, Voivodina Coalition will declare the structure of its shadow cabinet which will offer a concept for a better Voivodina and a wealthier although virtual budget.

At the same time, a similar invitation was sent to the republican authorities by a political coalition from central Serbia ("Sumadija", Kargujevac) and a civil party gathered around the Sandzak Coalition in Novi Pazar. All the three political groups, together with the Social Democratic Union (Belgrade) and Union of Voivodina Hungarians (Subotica) form the Union of Democratic Parties founded last autumn.

The explanation of this gesture can be summarised as follows: representatives of the Serbian Government are stubbornly waiting in Pristina for some representatives of Kosovo Albanians to come and negotiate about the status of Kosovo; "Voivodina" Coalition is offering to the representatives of the Serbian Republic unconditioned and open talks about the problems of Voivodina and its status in Serbia. It was declared that the "attendance of foreign mediators" was "not necessary" at the negotiations about general decentralisation of power and regionalisation of the Republic.

COORDINATION BETWEEN MONEY AND NECESSITIES

The call of the Voivodina Coalition sent to the Serbian authorities to start negotiations about the status of Voivodina is more than a bitter stinger for the regime because it sounds like a parody of the screenplay the regime is performing in Kosovo, because an amount of irony and provocation can be found in everyday noon waiting of its representatives for negotiators. It is removing very efficiently the smudged makeup from the face of the Government. Not only by demystifying the act of good will for negotiations it is putting up in Pristina while launching propaganda among its beloved nation via television, for one more cheeky "no" to the whole world without explaining what is the cost of this "no".

In answer to the question about his expectations from the negotiations with the Republican representatives, Nenad Canak, leader of LSV replies: "We have ceased to expect anything a long time ago, the freedom could never be achieved by begging".

"We do not want to beg, we are serious people. That is why we offered dialogue and talks. If Voivodina were the same as Kosovo it would be enough to delegate Ibrahim Rugova to negotiate. Since Voivodina has nothing in common with Kosovo except for being a historical shelter for all those who left Kosovo for no matter what reasons, our talks were planned within completely different co-ordinates. First of all, we want to win for ourselves the right to live according to our necessities, our way of life, our civilisation tradition and our economic demands."

Economic demands can be expressed by figures. The region where 23 per cent of the population live, which produces 32 per cent of the national income of Serbia and which is expected to supply 42 per cent of the Serbian budget, only 5.8 per cent of the tax money collected in Novi Sad, capital of Voivodina, remain at its disposal. Nenad Canak adds to this: Voivodina is feeding three quarters of refugees produced by Milosevic in his wars and "it is providing the army for his follies" which is a reminder that 72 per cent of soldiers who took part in the war in Croatia came from Voivodina.

Why is the demand to be able to decide at least about what percentage of the income produced here should remain here, proclaimed to be separatism; what kind of selfishness is this? With these questions, Canak replies to the critics, whose customary arguments against autonomy-loving ideas in Voivodina can be brought down to the words "separatism" and "selfishness". The talk that nobody can be poor if he owns oil and food as Voivodina does, he considers to be a simple lie, because Voivodina does not own oil and food, it only produces oil and food, which are owned by the red and black coalition in power.

"Milosevic behaves as if he had occupied a country in which he does not believe that he will remain, so he is doing his best to steal everything possible before the circumstances are settled".

CONTROL OF RULING

Mile Isakov, member of the federal Parliament who is heading the Voivodina "negotiating team", is warning that Kosovo is not the only province in Serbia, and not only Kosovo is dissatisfied with its status in Serbia. His claim that the majority in Voivodina is not satisfied with the status of their province is based on data obtained by public opinion polls which show that only one fifth of the population had no complaint concerning the level of autonomy last autumn, and there are indications that this percent is decreasing; during previous years about two thirds of the polled population in similar research considered that Voivodina deserved a higher level of autonomy. He said: "We expect the Serbian Government who insists so much on negotiations about Kosovo, to show the same readiness for negotiations about the autonomy of Voivodina."

About ten days ago, Mile Isakov was given the mandate to form the shadow cabinet of Voivodina, which should offer a detailed concept for functioning of the province but in conditions of real instead of present fictititous autonomy in Serbia. He promised a cabinet of experts, respectable personages from political, scientific, cultural and public life of Voivodina. The budget it would create would be the prospect of what Voivodina could have but does not have. The reason for poverty the supporters of greater autonomy for Voivodina believe lies in the unnatural centralisation of the Republic.

A fashion show performed by the Belgrade fashion designer Verica Rakocevic was the most spectacular event that occurred in the building of the formal Government of the Autonomous Province of Voivodina, headed by the Socialist Bosko Perosevic. It was meant as a humanitarian gesture of collecting money for building maternity hospital in Novi Sad. Perfume "VR" was promised, as soon as it appears, as a gift for Novi Sad babies, this being the only state contribution in fighting against severe population decrease which exists in 38 among 45 municipalities in Voivodina.

Everything that happened in the meanwhile - escalation of violence in Kosovo, demand from abroad to start replying to numerous questions hidden in the syntagm the "problem of Kosovo", signals about the need of essential fulfilment of the autonomies for Kosovo and Voivodina, insisting of the OSCE to enable return of its missions to both provinces, legalisation of the joint rule of the Socialists and the Radicals in the Government of Serbia - was passed without any doing of the authorities of Voivodina. The following may serve as a paradigm. One of the Novi Sad leaders of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), replying to the question concerning the events in Kosovo, said something like "Do not ask me, the Main Board of my party will tell you about it".

This is the essence of the autonomy status in the existing constitution of Serbia: do not ask here, all the answers together with the money are in Belgrade.

Milena Putnik

(AIM)