Title: Message
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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KOSTUNICA
WILL MOST LIKELY LEAVE, RATHER THAN BE BLEMISHED
The
trial on Milosevic is delayed due to the illness of the ex-president of
Yugoslavia.
It will resume on April 8. The doctor of historic science, the director of the
Center for the Balkan crisis studies of the
Institute of
Slavonic
Studies Elena Guskova
talks about the situation in the
Hague,
and Yugoslavia.
The major
question is whether an international body can judge a politician, a leader of a
country for correct or incorrect policy. Milosevic should be considered as a
politician. He is a very strong, charismatic, authoritarian personality. He was
in the center of all events, which were happening in the Balkans. But at the
same time, he made a lot of mistakes as a politician. This happened for many
reasons: because of the personal qualities, the difficult situation, in which he
found himself. There was a huge pressure shown on
Milosevic: from different structures of the UN, from the leaders of different
countries. One has to bear in mind that he was not getting any support at that.
He could not elaborate a policy on the ground of
Russia’s sympathy and
support, for example, on the ground of the jointly developed strategy and
tactics.
Speaking about the mistakes, it should be said that he has had
very difficult relations with the Serb people in
Croatia,
Bosnia since 1991. These are
separate territories at present moment that do not have close links with
Yugoslavia. The difficulties of
these relations caused much damage to the cooperation between the different
parts of the Serbian nation, and this is his responsibility in front of his
people. I am not using the verb “to judge,” I say he is “responsible.” It is up
for the country to choose the way of carrying this responsibility.
It is
totally evident today that Milosevic is being judged for justifying the crimes
of the NATO activities in the Balkans. This is not only about the year 1999, not
only about the bombing. This also about 1994 and 1995, when NATO was striking
the Serbs only. It became obvious that the UN took the side of one of the
feuding parties (on behalf of NATO) in the international conflict. The UN is
being condemned now, it hardly survived in this
conflict as an organization. That is why the West has to prove that its actions
had their excuses. Furthermore, the Hague Tribunal will be able to expand its
authorities in the nearest future, since the USA has plans to spread the
activity of the Tribunal on other countries, about which the USA does not feel
good. Americans are talking about the countries of the axis of evil, which pose
a potential threat, and this body is a very comfortable instrument for showing
pressure on those that are not obedient. The Hague Tribunal will most likely
hurry up in order to be through with the Balkan trial and start working on the
expansion.
The present trial is often called “the second Nuernberg. I think there is nothing in common here, because
the use of this notion is the deliberate attempt to compare the events in
Yugoslavia with the fascism of
the World War II. Therefore, the shadow of fascism should be cast on the Serbs,
and the NATO’s actions will be justified in this case too. The Hague Tribunal is
judging presumably the Serbs. Look: the charges have been brought against
Radovan Karadzic – the leader of the Serbian republic in
Bosnia and
Herzegovina, against Milon Martic, the president of the
Serbian Krajina in
Croatia, against all the
generals of the Serbian
Republic in
Bosnia and
Herzegovina, including General
Mladic, and so on and so forth. None of the
belligerent countries have such a long and extensive list.
Croatia also waged war in
Bosnia and
Herzegovina, even its regular army
was there. Croatia stayed on the
territory, took part in the military actions despite the decisions of the UN’s
Security Council. Look at the atrocity of the Muslim people on
Bosnia’s and
Herzegovina’s territories. They
pale in comparison with the brutality of the Turkish people on this territory,
when they impaled people and fried children on fire. Who is responsible for that
today? Only the Serbs are, if you follow the actions of the Tribunal.
The negative attitude to
Yugoslavia, to
Serbia in this case, is
explained with the fact that it was the last bulwark of communism in
Europe, which had to be
removed. Secondly, the Serbs exercised too much of their independence and
resistance to the circumstances that pressed on them. They were trying to
preserve the federation, to resist the NATO’s actions,
they remained standing after the aggression of 1999.
Another reason for
that was the fact that the Yugoslavian army was one of the strongest in
Europe, it ranked fourth.
NATO could not realize its plans without destroying this army. The Balkan region
is very good for military exercises, there are lot of
fine army bases there, well-developed infrastructure, there is an opportunity to
store the nuke wastes, and Milosevic was against all that. Finally, the Serbs
belonged to the orthodox civilization, which was also a reason for those events
to happen.
There is a different attitude to the former Yugoslavian
president nowadays, as always. Ere are just a few facts, which are never
mentioned about him. For example, there was an opposition press, during
Milosevic’s stay in power, together with the pro-presidential press. The
opposition press was working very actively, preparing the public opinion to the
need of changes in Serbia. I was the witness of
the events, when the people were singing anti-Milosevic’s songs in the center of
Belgrade for many days, from
morning till night. They were signing those songs, and no one was arresting
them, so it was allowed to speak out. But the system was irritating at lot of
businessmen, those, who would like to have freedom of trade, economy, those, who
would like to have another kind of the country's development. But what democracy
there could be, if there were tough sanctions, the total political isolation?
The Serbian students were not allowed to go to the West, no country would hire a Serb specialist. So the
multi-party system was out of the question, the people had to survive. By the
way, this authoritarian organization helped the country to get back to life
rather quickly after the bombing of 1999. The bridges, railways and other
objects of infrastructure were not hard to restore, because the funds were
basically concentrated in one place. All the rest was difficult to achieve. The
new government can not cope even with that now.
There is no opposition
press now, although the government says it is running the democratic policy. All
those mass media outlets, which show the national factor, are closed. One can
not speak about the Serbs as a nation in
Yugoslavia today, like it was
during the period 1945-1991. This is a very unhealthy situation. Delivering
Milosevic was a big shock, but the people coped with that. But today, when
Milosevic raised the questions, which had already gone into the background, when
he started talking about the facts of extremely negative attitude of a lot of
international organizations to the Serbian people, his popularity raised a lot
in the country. Everyone acknowledge it now that they were listening to his
speeches with great interest, the people admit that he was telling them the
truth.
The corruption charges, which have been brought against Milosevic
in his fatherland, are not developing in
Yugoslavia, although it became
the reason of his arrest in Belgrade. The new government
wanted to prove the corruption of the family and punish him for that. There
certainly can be some proofs found. If Milosevic’s guilt is proved, then the
government has to make a decision pursuant to the laws. If not, then he should
be released. Nevertheless, this is not a subject for discussion at the Hague
Tribunal.
Although incumbent President Voislav
Kostunica had the election motto
“Serbia comes first, democracy
comes second,” and specialists referred to him as a moderate nationalist,
Serbia is not a presidential,
but a parliamentary republic. The prime minister plays the most important role
here. Moreover, Kostunica is not the President of Serbia, he is the President of Yugoslavia. That is why
Kostunica is rather limited in his authorities.
This man is very honest.
But he has to face the conditions, in which he must look for a compromise. He
ran out of patience and expressed his opinion about the Hague Tribunal several
days ago. His opinions are different from the ones of the premier in this
respect, which has been happening on other issues too lately. But Kostunica will
most likely leave, rather than being blemished. He is still standing for the
things that he considers the most important for
Serbia: democracy freedom,
parliamentarism, private business. Anyway,
Serbia is now under the total
influence of the West, which proves that Kostunica is very restricted in his
opportunities. Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic plays the main role in
Yugoslavia today, and the
correlation of the political forces is not in Kostunica's favor nowadays.
The intrigues in the administration, very weak legislation, the absence
of money, - this all complicates the gradual development of the country.
Kosovo’s unresolved issue is still on the agenda together with the south of
Serbia, and the relations
with Montenegro. So, unfortunately,
our center for studying the up-to-date Balkan crisis will have a lot of work in
the future.
Elena Guskova
The Doctor of Historic Science, the director of
the Center for the Balkan crisis studies of the Institute of Slavonic Studies
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/03/26/27193.html
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