Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------------------------
On August 3, 2001, a retired State Security (SDB) official by the name of Momir Gavrilovic visited the office of Yugoslavia's President Vojislav Kostunica, and talked to his advisors about the links between the Serbian government of Zoran Djindjic and organized crime. We will never know what made the habitually quiet "Gavra" (as his wife called him) talk. He was gunned down the same evening.
When the Belgrade daily, Blic, cited inside sources from Kostunica's office claiming that Gavrilovic discussed government corruption, Djindjic's henchmen Vladan Batic and Zarko Korac immediately unleashed a barrage of vitriol against the paper. Police interrogated the editor and demanded that the editor reveal the name of his source. The editor refused, and on August 9, President Kostunica confirmed the Blic story.
Djindjic -- on a secret lobbying trip to Washington, after selling Serbia's computer market to Microsoft -- took a week to cry foul. By then, the unholy alliance between Djindjic, Montenegro's despot, Milo Djukanovic, and the most powerful criminal clans in Serbia, was out in the open.
Kostunica Strikes Back
On August 17, Kostunica's party struck back, announcing it was quitting the Serbian government and calling for a review of its practices. This threw Djindjic's cabinet into chaos and stoked fears that the entire regime could collapse.
At a press conference on the 21st, Dragan Marsicanin, the Chairman of the Serbian Parliament and one of the leaders in Kostunica's DSS, cited a plethora of issues his party intended to raise. Among them: that the government was deceiving the people, that it had not implemented any of its promised reforms, that it did not function properly, that it has established monopolies and taken over thousands of enterprises, that its Prime Minister maintains connections with mobsters, and that the current economic and political crisis in Serbia is largely a product of the current government, not its Socialist predecessor. This type of thinking in a country that has until recently blamed everything but foul weather on Milosevic is nothing short of revolutionary.
Better Late than Never?
It was not so long ago that Djindjic was riding high on the wave of treacherous accomplishments: he had successfully monopolized the Serbian oil and cigarette trade in the government's hands, delivered Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague Inquisition -- destroying the Serbian and Yugoslav constitution in the process -- and had just about destroyed his only serious rival, Kostunica. Kostunica has only now begun to really fight back. Kostunica's inaction in June and July cost him much in the eyes of the people. How much, exactly -- enough to be defeated in the slugfest with Djindjic? -- only time will tell.
Serbia's Opposite of Democracy
It is nothing short of a miracle that a coalition of no less than 18 parties spanning the entire political spectrum has survived this long. Still incongruously called the "Democratic Opposition," the ruling hydra more resembles the "Opposite of Democracy," with parties and egotistical leaders that can hardly stomach each other, and that disagree on how the country should be organized.
Only two of the 18 parties -- Djindjic's Democrats (DS) and Kostunica's Serbian Democrats (DSS) -- have any chance of victory on their own -- the others barely have a program and a functioning office. If elections were held tomorrow, the DSS would triumph convincingly, and all the freeloaders that jumped on Kostunica's victorious bandwagon last year could be left behind in the dust. Djindjic, whose popularity has steadily run in single digits and who came to power only because his candidacy list ran under Kostunica's name, faces certain defeat. Kostunica's revolt opens up prospects for criminal charges against the wannabe despot, on grounds ranging from embezzlement, smuggling and corruption, to crimes against the Constitution and high treason. Given such prospects, Djindjic is likely to put up a major fight.
A Crook...
Evidence of that came on Tuesday, as Djindjic's allies took aim at the helpless, deceased Gavrilovic. A certain Dragan Karleusa, introduced as "deputy police superintended for organized crime," alleged that Gavrilovic was a mobster involved in smuggling, drug-running, murders and extortion. This is the same Karleusa, then identified as "police captain," who was in charge of the infamous "refrigerator truck" investigation, trotted out to justify president Milosevic's abduction in late June and then forgotten -- except when recycled by some pro-NATO papers, who make it more sinister with each telling. So does Karleusa run war crimes cases or organized crime cases -- or is he just a loyal underling that Minister Mihajlovic uses for dirty work such as character assassination?
Mihajlovic is a shady businessman who made a fortune during Milosevic's "dictatorship," and saved his fortune from Djindjic's Great Looting Tax on "extra profit" by becoming Herr Kanzler's most rabid henchman. His wielding of the police ministry as a baton against all of Djindjic's enemies caused the DSS to demand his resignation even before the Gavrilovic affair.
Djindjic's gambit is transparent. Had Gavrilovic really been a shady figure, that would have been mentioned on the night of his murder, not two weeks later. Belgrade may have over a million residents, but it is still a surprisingly small city. Its rumor mill has worked all too well for over two centuries. Gavrilovic's shady past, if there had been one, would have been known right away. Besides, it is hard to keep a straight face when Djindjic's henchmen accuse the deceased of befriending a mobster, when Djindjic himself has been known to use the very same mobster's private jet to visit his sponsors in the Western world.
What Dreams May Come
There are two possible ways of resolving the present crisis. Either the DSS will cut a deal with the rest of the Djindjic-dominated coalition and lose face (again) by bartering honesty for two or three ministerial posts in a "reconstructed" government, or the coalition will be torn asunder, and new elections called. This would be a good thing, since whoever emerges victorious from the power struggle would have a clear mandate to shape Serbia and Yugoslavia as they wish, as well as the burden of responsibility if that process backfires.
In the final analysis, the days to come will be a crucial test of Kostunica's dubious willingness to hold firm on principle and stand up to foreign interference, Djindjic's ability (or lack thereof) to continue serving foreign masters without being sheltered by Kostunica's reputation, and the Serbian people's will and ability to decide their own fate.
Who runs Serbia and Yugoslavia has wide-ranging implications for the Balkans. A victory for pro-independence Constitutionalists (as opposed to "pragmatic" Westernists) would be a serious blow to Imperial control of the Balkans, one that would -- let us hope -- serve as an example for Serbia's neighbors. The Empire's bullying insistence that all resistance to its domination is futile is an illusion that needs only be successfully shattered once. No amount of tanks, bombs and men would be able to put it together again afterwards.
NEBOJSHA MALIC
Antiwar.com
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/08/24/13229.html
------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down
==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
