Kostunica appears still to be playing for federal state but on a voluntary, non-coercive basis. >Many of the 900 ethnic Albanians held in Yugoslavian prisons could be >freed under an amnesty for those accused of being involved in the Kosovo >war. New president Vojislav Kostunica is reported to be preparing to >propose the amnesty to the Yugoslav parliament, the Washington Post >reports. Mr Kostunica has already made other gestures of conciliation, >including the admission that Serbian and Yugoslav forces had committed >"crimes" during the conflict. Most of the prisoners are young men arrested >in Kosovo and taken back to prisons in Serbia as government forces >retreated from Kosovo. >Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica said on Tuesday that the >Yugoslav army should return to Kosovo when the situation allows, even as a >symbolic presence. He also told Macedonia's Telma television that Yugoslav >passions would flare if the question was raised of handing his >predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic, to a UN court, which has indicted him >over alleged Kosovo war crimes by his forces. Kostunica said the United >Nations resolution 1244 of 1999 provided for a presence of Serb forces in >Kosovo, but there are none at present. The Yugoslav troops were forced out >of the province by the 1999 NATO bombing campaign. "This is only a >symbolic presence of the army and one day, when the situation allows it, >the issue of the return will come up on the agenda," he said, adding it >would not happen soon. [I hope BTW, no one will suggest they still belong in jail. Or if someone does in the name of marxism, he/she will explain how that helps workers of all countries to unite.] >The new Yugoslav leader reiterated that he believed the future of the >federation formed from Serbia and its reluctant smaller partner Montenegro >should be decided through a referendum. "Yugoslavia does not have to >exist. But, that can not be done by any politician, any government, >because all governments can be changed," he said. "Only the people, >through a democratic referendum, can answer the question whether there >will be a federal state, or not." Although no communist, Kostunica's approach, unlike that of his predecessor, is consistent with Lenin's remark "We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation." Perhaps marxist-influenced subscribers to this list, would consider concretely the relevance of Lenin's approach. The riddle and the contradiction, which, yes, has to be analysed dialectically, is that, yes, Kostunica is an ally of Western finance capital, but the interests of working class unity coincide with those of western finance capital, in wanting to reduce communal violence. In that respect western finance capital is more progressive than small local nationalist finance capital, (like the brother of Thaci, with his chain of petrol stations, or some of Milosevic's associates.) That of course is very far from saying that the interests of working people in the Balkans are identical with those of Western finance capital. Chris Burford London
