Political Commotion in Serbia

Division into Patriots and Traitors

AIM Podgorica, 21 May, 1999

(By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

Last Wednesday morning, those who happened to be in front of the seat of the Democratic Party in Proleterskih brigada street in Belgrade claim that what was happening that day in this residential street, greatly reminded of the notorious counter-demonstrations in December 1996 when Serbia had dangerously approached the beginning of a Serb-Serb civil war.

A biggish group of young men with closely cropped hair in black leather jackets (in DS they claim - who had just arrived in their Mercedez and BMW's or buses) started about 10.50 a.m. stoning the seat of DS. Stoning, painting of this building and writing slogans dominated by the word "treason" lasted until 12.00 h when about one hundred members of DS gathered, ready to defend the premises of their party. At the moment when the atmosphere got close to the boiling point and when a conflict of the newly arrived Democrats and the short-haired attackers (in DS they claim extremist members of the Yugoslav United Left - JUL) seemed inevitable, the present on-looking policemen finally reacted. The attackers withdrew and the Democrats entered their considerably demolished party seat. A statement was issued later from there in which the regime was accused of the attempt to provoke civil war and "defend its power after withdrawal from Kosovo".

Judging by the manner in which state media in Serbia have for days swooped down on the leader of the Democratic Party Zoran Djindjic, it may very well be expected that apart from stoning and breaking windows, some more concrete methods of "uprooting" traitors may be applied. A day before the siege of the seat of DS, red paint was thrown on this building with the message "this is your blood too", and that evening in the central daily news program of Radio-Television Serbia (RTS), a few citizens kept repeating one and the same sentence: "The traitors have deserved it". A conscientious citizen observed that "this building should be taken away from the traitors".

When one day he returns from Montenegro (where he is staying for a few weeks already) to Belgrade, Djindjic might find someone else in his office. He is also in danger to be arrested and indicted for "treason". The first to mention such a possibility was deputy prime minister of Serbia Vojislav Seselj when he was a guest in a program of RTS, and it should be noted that in such cases he usually does not speak without foundation.

Everything that has happened in the past few days concerning Djindjic and his party leads to the conclusion that political preparations for the time after the war and winning the best possible positions have already started in Serbia in case a compromising solution for Kosovo is soon reached.

The leader of the Democratic Party was tied to the post of shame at the moment when his interviews to leading world agencies and newspapers in which he sharply attacked the Belgrade regime became too frequent. Since then, as key evidence for the allegation on treason it is persistently repeated that Djindjic had "advocated continuation of NATO operations against FRY and against Milosevic", and the journey with Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic to aggressor countries. As long as "travelling to dance attendance on Schroeder in Bonn" cannot be denied, corroboration for Djindjic's alleged advocating continuation of bombing cannot be found in interviews so far available to the domestic public. While NATO bombs are falling on Serbia hardly anyone has the time to check what Djindjic has actually said in his Montenegrin exile or contemplate on the reasons for the latest fierce satanization of the politician about whom until just recently it was claimed in state media that he was not a significant political force any more.

Just as hardly anyone is checking how come and with what has president of the Social Democrats Vuk Obradovic showed that for the sake of "petty political interests" he was ready to betray the state in which not too long ago he was considered to be the most promising and most moral generals. The same day when the seat of Djindjic's party was stoned, the Serbian organization of military officers of the reserve accused Vuk Obradovic of having become one of the greatest national turncoats and traitors.

The first announcements of postwar political commotion in Serbia started some time earlier, actually at the moment Vuk Draskovic appeared as a special guest of a show on Studio B. Because of the stands stated in this show and because he criticised the regime which put an equation mark between resistance to NATO and loyalty to the ruling parties, the leader of the Serb Revival Movement (SPO) was soon sacked from the federal government. At that moment Vuk Draskovic made the impression of a politician who was the first who dared say that it was possible to be a patriot and a good Serb without being hundred per cent loyal to Milosevic. He crossed this important psychological barrier by criticising sharply Seselj's Radicals and avoiding as much as possible to mention Milosevic himself. The effect was nevertheless unexpected and, it seems, unforgivable. Draskovic lost the post in the government, but at the same time considerably re-established a part of his political reputation he had while he was still among the opposition to the regime.

This could quite exactly be measured by the results of a "war" poll carried out in the beginning of May by Belgrade agency for public opinion investigations called Medium. According to this investigation, president of FRY Slobodan Milosevic in the conditions of war enjoys undoubted support of about 30 per cent of the citizens, exactly as on the eve of the first multiparty elections in Serbia in the end of 1990 (the elections which he easily won).

Leader of the Radicals Vojislav Seselj is supported by 12 per cent of the pollees, the same as leader of SPO Vuk Draskovic. For a long time in such a public opinion poll has Draskovic recorded such a "boost" to be equal with Seselj and at the same time leave Djindjic far behind with almost four times bigger number of supporters. Although one must be very careful with public opinion polls during a war, and keep in mind the specially marked homogenization of the nation in conditions of heavy bombing, some of the figures the pollers of Medium arrived at, especially the ones referring to Slobodan Milosevic, are certainly a very interesting reading-matter.

Some of the local analysts who followed up the effects of Draskovic's interview to Studio B claimed the very next day (somewhat maliciously) that that evening "Zoran Djindjic must have been the saddest man in Belgrade". That is why Vuk allegedly that same night hinted that he was returning to the opposition and at the same time he was the first to create the space for any form of criticism of the regime at strictly censored war time. The same school of thought says that Djindjic's vanity could not stand this: the leader of the Democrats tried just a few days later to significantly move the limits of criticism of the regime further away. In doing this, he seems to have stirred up a hornet's nest, and along with president of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic became the greatest "traitor" of this war.

Djindjic's certainly biggest mistake is the decision to leave Belgrade for reasons of security and temporarily go to Montenegro and the fact that in an interview he admitted that two bodyguards took care of him. Many members of DS, especially former vice-president of this party Miodrag Perisic obviously did not approve of this decision. In an interview of his own to Reporter from Banja Luka he claimed that Djindjic's time has expired and that the president of DS would soon have to answer certain questions of the membership of his own party. Djindjic who had once claimed by using the example of Milan Panic that if one intended to be seriously engaged in politics in Serbia one had to be with the people at all times, has repeated Panic's mistake. He sought refuge from threats he seems to have been exposed to in Djukanovic's "part" of Montenegro which is for quite some time now experienced as some kind of domestic "abroad".

Djindjic who had once been in favour of an oppositionist "shadow cabinet" was immediately compared with the "treacherous government" from the Second World War and marked as the main NATO candidate for the office once the bombs do their bit. Then he was seized by the "emigrants' syndrome", he started unwisely giving numerous interviews, saying what he knows quite well, but nevertheless did not watch every day with his own eyes. Finally he ended up in the unenviable position in which he could not influence even the obvious forgeries of his own statements.

The regime which is aware of Djindjic's old ambition to be the leader of Serbian opposition and perhaps of the renewed plan of the West to make him the Belgrade counterpart to Djukanovic, this time decided to politically finish him off. The regime also knows what most of the public does not - that Djindjic is trying to pursue "active foreign policy" from Podgorica. Except for the journey to Bonn with Djukanovic, the leader of the Democrats spoke on the phone with Carl Bildt and with advisors of Victor Chernomyrdin. All this, according to the opinion of official Belgrade, is not the job of an oppositionist at the time of war, but more in the domain of "national treason".

Whatever of the opposition survives this war will not cry over Djindjic, but will try to extend its influence at his expense if possible. Vuk Draskovic, for example, among the first condemned stoning of the seat of DS, but at the same time appealed on the membership of this party to disassociate itself from public statements of its president who had emigrated. In political battles which will take place after this war, the fact where somebody has spent the war might play an exceptionally important role not only among the oppositionists.

A few days ago, general secretariat of the Serb Radical Party issued an interesting statement in which it was said that all the officials of this party with their families have put themselves at the disposal of the fatherland. At the same time the Radicals condemned all state officials who had sent their families abroad. Removing such politicians from power would contribute to increase of the people's confidence, the Radicals concluded.

Judging by frequent counting of "patriots" and "traitors", the peace agreement on Kosovo is becoming more and more certain. Who is here, is here.

Spomenka Lazic (AIM)