BALKAN_MEDIA_&_POLICY_MONITOR

Issue number 45, Vol.3, January 10, 1997
-Serbian demonstrations-


IN THIS ISSUE:

  • "Vreme" gives an overview of the initial period of the demonstrations

  • "Vreme" brings the details of the Belgrade "counter - meeting" as the watershed

  • "NIN" examines the legal aspects of the electoral crisis

  • "NIN" and "Monitor" look at the possible role of the army in the events

  • "Vreme" examines the role of the police force in the demonstrations

  • "Nezavisnost" analyses the involvement of the workers in the civil unrest

  • "Nezavisna Svetlost" looks at the political background of the actions of the regime

  • "Vreme" looks at the possibility of the civil war as consequence of the current events

  • "Monitor" and "Nasa Borba" examine the position of the Montenegro in the crisis

  • "AIM" ("Nezavisnost") gives an overview from Sarajevo, Ljubljana and Zagreb on the media reports there on the Serbian crisis

  • "Arkzin" and "Feral Tribune" (two articles) give the Croatian view in more detail

  • "Vreme" looks at the internal situation in the state media

  • "AIM" ("Vreme") gives a view on the situation from Kosovo

  • "Vreme" brings the commentaries of a university professor and its chief analyst (two articles) on the crisis.


    The chief political commentator of the Belgrade weekly "Vreme", Milan Milosevic, gives an overview in the magazine's issue of December 7, 1996, of the first part of the protests in Serbia.

    The old political rule ``ballot-not bullet'' says, in fact, that elections are the means of resolving conflicts and decreasing strain,but in the country of Serbia the opposite is valid---the elections have been stirring up passions because this government is able to secure its victory, but obviously is not able to organize fair elections.

    Only a month after the first round of elections on November 3, theBelgrade regime created a situation in which it can stuff its federal election victory level up its shirt. Judging by the atmosphere, the degree of dissatisfaction and the array of complications those elections have been practically annulled. The only thing that is lacking is a pen to sign it.

    Slobodan Milosevic, the signatory of the Dayton Agreement about the end of the war in Bosnia, entered the elections as someone to whom the Western world turns a blind eye and whom the local public sees as the embodiment of the state, unscrupulously usurping the state media to his benefit and to the benefit of his wife's party, and threatening the democratic opposition by total recall. Accidentally or not, due to "short notice,'' the OEBS did not delegate its monitors, so the elections were held with a small number of international observers who did not make any crucial remarks, although the partiality in the state media was extremely obvious. Because at that time it had to be so, the state media reported from the spot that everything went smoothly at th polling stations, peacefully as in Sweden, while the opposition observers reported on the engagement of the kick-boxers and arms in Vozdovac and in Nis against the controllers of the coalition Together.

    Meanwhile, a miracle happened and the knocked down opposition kept its supporters gathered in the course of the second round of the elections. While the ruling party rejoiced unscrupulously at the victory over the opponent whose hands were tied, the opposition gained the majority in all key cities of Serbia---exactly in those points which were the basis of the regime's propaganda about the step into the new century.

    The news about the loss of ``the three capitals'' had a frustrating impact on the Socialists who, dejected by the bad news, reached for the nearest means at their disposal: somewhat through the marionette election committees in which the members from the judges circle were delegated, and somewhat through the municipal courts, they ``proved'' that in Belgrade, Kraljevo, Kragujevac and Nis the election rules were not respected, and that they were respected in Batocina, Medvedja and Lebane. This open hypocrisy irritated the citizens, at first only those inclined to the opposition, and the protests overwhelmed numerous cities; dissatisfaction slowly reached the industrial areas and the workers of some factories, for instance IMT and Zastava, announced strikes in support of the demonstrators. The protests have been spreading to the universities and schools. The protests of the students from all Belgrade schools are supported by 1000 professors, 30 members of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts (SANU); among them also the academician Dragoslav Srejovic, and that was his last public message before he recently passed away.

    The conscience of the judges has also been awakened against turning the judges into marionettes. Some of the Supreme Court judges raised their voices and the reply to the charges of the president of Belgrade's City

    Election Committee has a note of disassociation. Many well-known public and culture figures have raised their voice, writers, actors, priests, members of the PEN Club, as well as the Yugoslav basketball player Vlade Divac.

    In the night of the victory celebration (November 17) the opposition was already suspicious that the regime is about to revise the results of the elections and the next day it mobilized its membership in defense of the won over communities. Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Kraljevo,Cacak, Kragujevac, Uzice and other towns became the stages of mass demonstrations that could not be stopped neither by rain, snow, slush, wind, cold weather, nor by the lack of resources and state propaganda.

    The state media at first just ignored this "Ghandi movement,'' or were referring to the fact that they were "respecting the election black out,'' or routinely informed that the supporters of the coalition Zajedno "fewer in number every day'' are again demonstrating and insulting the employees of the state television. They were repeating this half-sentence for some ten days, so that finally the spectators were facing the dilemma of how many demonstrators were actually there in the beginning when "less and less in number'' they were succeeding to block all those cities.

    The police have been kept in a state of readiness for three weeks now, the tormented policemen have been sleeping in the sports halls and standing in the streets with no goal and no reason and it is only the question of time when they will pour their anger at the demonstrators or be overwhelmed by apathy. Traffic patrols have been considerably cooperative in the Belgrade streets for two weeks, regulating the traffic by letting through or keeping from passing the lines of vehicles in order to avoid a collision with the demonstrators, but lately, following instructions it seems, or maybe losing enthusiasm, they have started permitting close encounters of the columns of demonstrators and the lines of vehicles. No major incidents occurred, however.

    Then the "machinery'' began the action of indirectly thwarting the demonstrations . The Assembly of Serbia in which the opposition won seats, was closed on Tuesday (December 3), allegedly due to the extermination of rats, insects and disinfection, for the second time this year. A similar "decision'' was brought at the beginning of this year when the opposition created the so-called "parallel parliament.'' And that parliament can also be considered dismissed since it is not operating. The deadline for the beginning of the autumn session has expired two months ago, and even while it was operating without the opposition, the assembly enacted laws as if it was printing them on a printing press.

    As for the media, November's routine winner Milosevic found himself in the miserable role of Dzavid Nimani, the politician from Kosovo from the `80s who, utterly petrified, ordered an information blockade when the demonstrations in this autonomous district broke out in 1980, and when he was informed that Reuter had already published the news on the demonstrations, recklessly exclaimed something that has become a national proverb: "Stop Reuter!.''

    Accompanied by a cynical explanation, on Tuesday, December 3, several radio stations were choked, among them Radio B 92 which has heroically been testifying about the pacifist and liberal Belgrade for six years, and became its one of a kind identification card. The disgrace of this regime has already been spreading worldwide and banning the operation of the free media just fortified the bad reputation of the government. Preventing the operation of these radio stations could, maybe, be justified by a ``special war'' against the demonstrators, but essentially it is just part of the previously started operation of eliminating the independent media. The ``left-left-wing,'' whose open domination in the state media gave very modest election results, is leading in this campaign.

    Just like Nimani and his sentence: ``Stop Reuter!,'' Slobodan Milosevic suffers the same consequences with the banning of the B 92. Minutes and minutes of whistling in discontent echoed in the damp of the streets of Belgrade and the same night news was transferred to all world capitals.The intensity of the exclamations against the regime is well illustrated by the scene of a man standing in front of the Optika shop who in the second third of the salvo of whistling, rattle and shouts, bells, drumsand percussion instruments, sighed, out of breath: ``Oh, Sloba, f... your red mouth!'' The students paraded the next day at his very doorstepat the Andric Venac, and the demonstrations gained in scope.

    The world is beginning to fear that Belgrade's Terazije might turn into Peking's Thien An Menn. Reuter and the France Press, labeled ``urgent,'' transferred on December 1 the warning of the Serbian police that the demonstrations in defense of the electoral rights had ``elements of violence and severe breakage of the law,'' after which more important world newspapers' commentators began to conclude that bloodshed might occur in Belgrade.

    The previous two weeks' demonstrations were disgraceful to the regime, because eggs were flying around as a symbol of loss of respect for the thieves. Some of the demonstrators previously perforated eggs and let them get spoiled on the radiators for two days. In the first phase of concealing information, to some state commentators the broken eggs still had the fragrance of dessert.

    In the course of the protest the mass was mostly self-controlled, except in the two days in the middle of last week when some of the demonstrators threw rocks and broke the windows on the buildings of the state television and the Politika. In those moments in the dusk, the mass cheered recklessly while individual demonstrators were breaking the windows and when some of the demonstrators pushed a garbage container into the big glass store window of the Politika, the horrifying sound of falling glass was heard.

    This was excessive and counter-productive letting off steam, although the exalted support of the masses to such an act obviously results from extreme individual frustrations which usually leads to the loss of self-control. Some eyewitnesses claim that one of the demonstrators even came close to the building of the television and shamelessly peed on its wall. After that, the leaders of the protest tried to restore order among the demonstrators and enforce the watchmen service, but there was also suspicion that provocateurs were present.

    This protest has something of a carnival in it, with trumpets and folk dances danced at the Terazije. One of the demonstrators orders the trumpet players to play the funeral march in front of the Politika, and they (assumably with the regular: ``Yes, boss!'' and ``G-minor'') start playing ``The March on the Drina!''

    The messages of the students' slogans ``Something Stinks Here!'' and ``Students Against the Machine!'' are the best illustration of the character of this civil protest to which the government apparatus has not found an appropriate answer yet.

    In the moment which coincides with the return of Mirjana Markovic from India, which she visited to promote her books, the president of the Assembly and the member of the ruling party Dragan Tomic, on state television and with all his well known ``you-knows'' and ``isn't-its'' found ``pro-fascist elements'' in the demonstrations of the coalition Zajedno. This was the beginning of the struggle for suppressing demonstrations that had the elements of a crawling coup and special war or, as initially stated by JUL's official Ljubisa Ristic, ``the struggle against the chetniks in Belgrade.'' After that followed the closing of the Assembly building, banning of the electronic media that reported about the demonstrations , stirring up the citizens against the demonstrators, provocation, arrests... The statements of various satellite proto-parties emerged, including the so-called Patriot Front used during the draft period in 1992.

    The police have started arresting demonstrators in their homes, and the magistrates have started issuing sentences overnight and on the spot, even to the demonstrators for whom it was proved that they are accused of the unbecoming deed of ``throwing one i.e. two eggs on the building of the Vecernje Novosti daily.'' Later the number of the accused came to over thirty, but the beginning was really pathetic---the court began by protecting Rade Brajovic from the Vecernje Novosti daily, out of all institutions in this country.

    The event must seem funniest from the view of a plain clothes policeman. While mafia is robbing the state, while the mafia's money is laundered, while everyone is grabbing on all sides, while the transports of heroin and arms are passing, while cars are being stolen, someone has to take off wet boots in the evening and write a report against John Doe who threw eggs at the windows of Rade Brajovic.

    Here and there things are even more serious. At the School of Electrical Engineering someone's armed bodyguards broke in and tore the students' posters while pointing guns. That's intimidation.

    The Minister of Education has ordered that the students' protest must cease, that the buildings of the schools be locked over the holiday and, according to one version of the story, even threatened that he would personally lock and close the School of Electrical Engineering, the highly esteemed and relevant institution worldwide. State media have started objecting that ``the children have been manipulated'' because they are shouting instead of studying.

    In the following days, the ``Choir'' has picked up where Tomic has started, repeating the thesis about ``the fascist elements.'' The Borba daily of Mr. Brcin, in its commentary entitled Terrorism and Violence condemns ``unheard of and inhuman deeds of a frenzied political mob, which could only be compared with the fascist manipulations and misuse of the children by the separatists from Kosovo.''

    The Vecernje Novosti daily on its front page carry the huge caption Terror Over Belgrade, and on its fifth page the newspaper claims that `the dance is led by people who are wishing bloodshed.'' The state television, of course, duly reads the commentaries before the newspaper appear tomorrow, in a coordinated action of confronting the demonstrators with the mostly elderly citizens that complain for not being able to walk through the city freely. This dully patterned rhetorics was literally refreshed on Wednesday by the words that came from the mouth of a communist official Ratko Krsmanovic, who wrote in Brcin's newspaper (which was for that sake overtaken too) that the policy of the coalition Zajedno is led ``by the holy trinity of a pensioned marital couple, a bon viveur who enjoyed grilled oxen in Pale and the new primadonna of the Scala from Terazije.'

    The coalition Zajedno keeps its cool head and every afternoon gathers tens of thousands of demonstrators in the downtown area of Belgrade, repeating that it will celebrate New Year's Eve there if necessary. As it is said in the commentary of the Vecernje Novosti daily, ``there is no price that the leaders of the coalition Zajedno would not pay in order to seize power.'' Vesna Pesic, Zoran Djindjic, Vuk Draskovic keep repeating at the meetings and in the interviews that the only issue now is who can endure longer---Milosevic or the people.

    They have refused to bargain about the mandates in Belgrade, Nis and Kraljevo and extended their aspirations, assuming that Serbian society is ready for changes, and also hinting that if the changes do not happen now, in a year's time Serbia will have a social rebellion. They obviously express their intention to continue with the protests until Milosevic is forced to schedule new elections on all levels under fair terms and until he agrees to a serious reform of the system, with an independent judiciary and media.

    The coalition Zajedno has announced the goals of its internal policy: respect for the electoral will of the citizens, returning dignity to the government and the assembly, forming a capable government without the ministers---profiteers, an independent judiciary, privatization, a special district attorney who will initiate an investigation against the corruption in the state...

    The motto of this policy is concisely described by Zoran Djindjic's request ``that our history, our dignity and our money be returned to us.'' This statement is also the common denominator of the three Coalition leaders---Vuk Draskovic has recently spoken most frequently about the lost two hundred years of Serbian history, Vesna Pesic about the dignity of the citizens and Djindjic asked where the money was during the process against Marjanovic.

    The coalition Zajedno forms the Alliance of the Free Cities and Municipalities of Serbia who, in its Statement of Intentions, says that the victory of the opposition in the major cities has returned the belief of the citizens in crucial changes and gave a chance to the current government to peacefully accept the electoral switch of power. ``On November 17 Serbia has stepped over the threshold of parliamentarism, expressing the decisiveness not to be the only one-party state in Europe, but to become a civilized society and democratic state. This is our essential intention and we'll achieve it using all our strength,'' is stated in the Statement of Intentions, drawn up in Nis on November 28, 1996. This is now much more than the cheer: ``Come On! Let's go! All charge!.''

    The happening of the people is not a good way to formulate any policy, and that is why now, in the background of the protest, political work on defining a policy and establishing a network of the far-reaching importance is developing. The government is hoping that things will get hushed up, if not through the exhaustion of the protest then through the radicalization of the demonstrators, then by breaking them up, since the President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic does not hesitate to draw guns to defend power, just like in March 1991, but warnings have reached him not to try that. Out of all the buildings that are along the path of the demonstrators, he posted visible police protection in front of the American Embassy,probably counting that the aspirator for the position of mayor of Belgrade Djindjic will not have a reputation of cooperativness that he, Slobodan Milosevic, has gained after Dayton. The leaders of the coalition Zajedno have succeeded in shaking up the belief of the Western governments that Milosevic is a stability factor. The coalition Zajedno issued a statement that it would respect the Dayton Agreement, and Milosevic is for the time being defended from condemnation only by the Russians, and even by them only in the context of opposing the extension of NATO to the East. Active participation in the demonstrative ``walk'' was taken on Thuesday (December, 5) by five American congressmen who visited Yugoslavia.

    However, discrediting Milosevic in the West to a greater extent was a substantial task accomplished by his marionette servants, who are destroying the credibility of the judiciary and demonstrating the ugly face of obsolete propaganda.

    What will happen next? The organizers of the protest express their determination to endure, those that protest return every night from the protest somehow relaxed, just like in Orwell's 1984 when the telescreen is turned off for five minutes and everyone scream their brains out. That outlet has a somewhat therapeutic effect, just like when Lisa Minelli in Cabaret screams under the bridge while the train is passing over. (On Monday, during the blizzard, the students have arranged such a sound spectacle under the Brankov Most in Belgrade.) Totalitarian regimes are at a loss when expressing weakness in exerting control. It is about to happen in Serbia, judging by the fact that the regime was the first to show signs of losing nerves.

    There are losses on both sides. On the side of the rebelled public, there is the banning of an excellent media, B 92, but we have to hope that this station will find a way to continue its operation because ofthe noble mission it has been accomplishing for six years already, and not because their work was allegedly crucial to keep the protest going. Everyone knows where to come and where to go; as one demonstrator said on Tuesday evening: ``They might as well tear down the signposts and we shall still know where Dedinje is!.'' On the side of the regime, it is breaking in its very nomenclature and now it seems certain that for a long while the Socialists will not be able to establish a stable government that will not have to face a wall of the citizens' disobedience.

    In the atmosphere of the livened up opposition bets are being made on who is to win the parliamentary elections next year.

    Source: Belgrade weekly "Vreme",
    December 7, 1996

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    The same author, duscusses the situation after the Milosevic "counter-meeting" of December 24, and explains its watershed importance in the December 30, 1996 issue of the same magazine.

    In 1986, when a group of Kosovo Serbs came to Belgrade they met with the tears of Belgrade residents and compassion for their suffering which later culminated into events we all know too well. Now things have changed. Sloba's men who managed to get all the way to Slovenia once and whose shouts expressed a populist protest and the leader's will, now met with a completely different mood in Belgrade which didn't show any understanding for its ``liberators'' or any will to show respect for people carrying pictures of the man who draws up to 30 minutes of whistling and booing. Groups of young and old people surrounded the counter-rally participants wherever they went, whistling, booing and shouting abuse, asking them who they're here to defend and why the came.

    A group of Kosovo Serbs arrived at the monument to Prince Mihajlo, the cult gathering place of the Belgrade opposition between 11:00 and noon and were surrounded. Fighting broke out after the whistling and booing and a Belgrade lady tried to prevent further fighting by shouting: ``Turn your backs on them.'' Just after noon, the Belgraders pushed the group towards Terazije square with shouts of Shiptars (derogatory term for ethnic Albanians) and You Stink. The posters of Slobodan Milosevic and banners with slogans supporting him were trampled and the poles they were on were used for fighting.

    Between noon and 2:30 On Terazije, the site of what the president would later describe as ``a glorious rally dedicated to the ideals of peace, freedom and the independence of our country,'' the two impoverished and miserable Serbias met face to face to shout Red Gang, Thieves, Thieve and Traitors Out at each other.

    The Counter-rally participants were surrounded by a large number of Belgraders who cursed them, booed and whistled and showed clear signs o surprise and confusion. They stood close together in the rain on the square.

    One man of about 40 climbed onto a platform erected so the state TV (RTS) could broadcast the rally live and try to raise morale, waved a framed picture of Milosevic up to the moment the artillery saw him. He tried to hide behind the portrait when a rain of eggs was hurled at him. The angry people, with no security guards and no coordination, showed a dangerous mix of anger and pity which usually leads to tragedy.

    All across Terazije square Belgraders tried to push the counter-rally people away from the speakers' platform while the people bussed in for the rally used the poles they were given to beat them back. The fighting went on for two hours. The crowd was on the verge of a stampede twice.

    The day was getting very gray when a rumor broke through the crowd on Terazije: ``They killed a boy in Knez Mihajlova.'' The rumor came after a someone in a group of SPS supporters from Vrbas and Novi Sad shot Ivica Lazovic in the head. Lazovic was taken to hospital where doctors are fighting for his life. Several young men who had witnessed the shooting described it for the people at Terazije. The crowd got restless and there were shouts of Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Attack. the catastrophe loomed very, very close. Someone asked: ``Is it worth it going on as Ghandi.'' Others said: ``those miserable people are our brothers,'' ``they were brought in and tricked,'' ``The regime wants just that.''

    At that moment the PA system on the Democratic Party windows was turned on with a call for people to move back to Freedom (Republic) square, to ignore provocation, that the tyrant wants a civil war. Vuk Draskovic and Zoran Djindjic appeared at the window and pointed the crowd towards Knez Mihajlova. Djindjic came down into the crowd and got the people moving away. At that moment all the 40,000 Milosevic supporters were on Terazije while the crowd moving back towards Knez Mihajlova was five times that size. The crowd was still restless but the pressure on the head of the column dropped and the police, using batons, waded into the opposition supporters and created a buffer zone between the two groups. The crowd was still thick at the entrance to Knez Mihajlova and there was pushing with some people falling and getting trampled.

    The crowd moved back to Republic Square with some displeasure because the police advanced a little more to get another cordon in place. The last very risky and unnecessary conflict came during Vesna Pesic's speech in which she called the police to disobey the orders of the man who would start a civil war.

    That day, 58 people were injured in clashes of all kind. Who knows what might have happened if the opposition leaders hadn't shown self-control and hadn't taken the angry crowd away for their daily walk away from Terazije. The huge stage, lights, and sound system would have been the place where the two groups would meet and we can only imagine the number of casualties. The police cordon between the two groups would have been no protection. An escalation of the conflict was prevented by the opposition leaders.

    There are several details that indicate the SPS and JUL wanted to cause riots in Belgrade. As usual, they consciously underestimated the danger of the gathering. They obviously used their logistical machine commandeered public transport to get their supporters to Belgrade. They even interrupted a parliament session to bring their officials to the rally. They took workers out of factories as if they were party property just because they worked in state-owned companies.

    At one point there was fighting everywhere.

    Counter-rally participants clashed with protesting students, who hadn't clashed with anyone up to that point, in front of the French embassy. There was fighting from Terazije to the Belgrade University Law School.

    Even though they had seen that their counter-rallies in Kragujevac, Valjevo and other places caused conflicts, the SPS rally organizers seemed to want people with sticks and poles in their hands in Belgrade to ``deal with the Belgrade (protest) walkers.'' They purposely spread their columns through central Belgrade to frighten their opponents and show their presence. They never told their supporters not to carry weapons and several of them were seen drawing guns. They had security men but they were only interested in keeping the groups together. One middle aged man was seen charging at opposition supporters with a butcher's knife in his hand. The column that included the gunman was walking in front of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) offices which had to draw suspicion that they wanted to demolish those offices. Earlier that morning a group of young men demolished the SPO's Srpska Rec cafe and bookstore. The counter-rally participants showed that they had been indoctrinated to ``fight the fascists'' who one JUL official said ``aren't even capable of throwing bombs, only eggs.''

    An elderly man who got a heart attack when he saw the true size of the student protest is a victim of RTS propaganda. Symbolically, in terms of propaganda and verbally, the ruling party actually did start a real civil war, living up its role of ``defender against the fifth column'' and against a foreign enemy who wants to weaken Serbia. Ordinary folk, deep in poverty, were pushed into buses and special trains and taken to Belgrade where no one would even say hello to them, where they met with curses and abuse all across the city. That evening, miserable after the day's events, they found a moment of happiness at the ``glorious'' rally when they saw the ruling couple and shouted: ``Slobo We Love You.'' ``I love you too,'' he replied unwillingly.

    ``Sloba's counter-rally'' was basically the sad fiasco of Stalinesque iconography. Surrounded by cordons of police, the ruling couple and their entourage waved at the poor while, just a short distance away a different crowd shouted ``Go Away'' and ``Red Gang.'' After that the police stood guard around the RTS equipment while the two crowds chased each other down the streets of Belgrade.

    The late Nicolae Ceausescu lost his power and his life on one December 24 in the same kind of badly directed performance. Events in Belgrade didn't take that course. Milosevic came out among his supporters when he was sure that the site was well protected by the police and when he heard that his opponents had taken their supporters away.

    He told his crowd that he had promised the students he would help right some wrongs but added that ``the fifth column can't destabilize Serbia.'' He poured a little more poison about the strong who want to make us weak and small into the heads of ordinary people, waved and left. he said someone is endangering Serbia's sovereignty but didn't say who. He didn't say that the loss of sovereignty only means he has to recognize the will of the people at the elections.

    The world quickly assessed that the organizers of the pro-regime demonstrations are to blame for the violence after 34 days of peaceful protests in Belgrade and sent messages of disagreement and concern and reminders of promises that force would not be used. Official propaganda blamed everything, even the shooting of the SPO member, on the regime's political opponents. The democratic governments the regime intends to rely on advised it to recognize their opponent's election victory, give them a slice of power, start a dialogue with the opposition, started democratizing the country and make the media available to all political parties on equal terms. He, his wife and his prime minister responded with a spectacular charge at the windmills of an international conspiracy in defense of ``the sovereignty of Serbia'' from the will of a majority of its population. Amid a scenography that is toppling, he launched the slogan that Serbia won't be ruled by a foreign hand in an effort to show that only his hand can rule. Wherever he is forced to hand over the local authorities he takes the media under his control. He arranges political life around the rhetoric of a civil war with the ``fifth column'' and foreign agents and, as usual, he uses the people who are naive enough to love him most, who probably have nothing in life but that irrational love for the ruler.

    The December 24 show that ended as a farce but could have turned into a tragedy, the ruling couple clearly showed they had no sense of reality and were consciously poisoning the situation in Serbia. The next day, Draskovic had every reason to accuse him of reaching for the tools of terrorism, Vesna Pesic said the regime would not heed the OSCE recommendations, Kostunica voiced suspicion that Milosevic could use repression and make his position even worse. Zoran Djindjic was the most specific of the opposition leaders when he said he has information that Milosevic is preparing special measures, including a ban on gatherings but added that the opposition will continue its peaceful protest. If that is right, then December 24 was the formal start of a coup d'etat.

    A day later, a response in the spirit of Belgrade was formulated by the students. They disinfected the place on Terazije square where the ruling couple and their entourage stood on their stage.

    Source: Belgrade weekly "Vreme",
    December 30, 1996

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    Slobodan Vucetic, a well known member of the Constitutional court (and one time high official of the ruling SPS party) writes in tghe December 31, 1996 issue of the Belgrade weekly "NIN" about the serious breaches of the law and the Constitution in the conduct of recent federal and local elections in FRY.

    The constitutional principles (Constitutions of FRY and Serbia) guarantee in a satisfactory manner the political pluralism, general and equal electoral right and freedom of press as the basic preconditions of a democratic society. But their legal implementation is in many key elements in discrepancy with them or it is incomplete or inadequate, so it leaves the possibility for improvisational interpretation and implementation which is not in accordance with the Constitution. But the key problem of our state is not that it has incomplete and contradictory, bad laws, but that they are, as the Constitution itself, too often and crudely broken by the highest institutions of the authorities, whose key role is to respect and implement them.

    The first drastic breach of the Serbian constitution was made by the Serbian parliament itself, when the Law on the election of federal members of parliament in the Republican chamber of 28.1.1993. Until then, a law was being enacted by which members of this Federal chamber were being elected on the proportional party basis from the members of the Serbian parliament. On that day, contrary to the Constitutional procedure for calling an extraordinary session f the National parliament, the mentioned change of this law was entered as the point of order, by which the proportional representation is being changed into a majority one.

    The biggest breach of the Constitution was in the fact this law was enacted, in front of the eyes of the public (direct TV footage) , contrary to the Constitution (Article 120). That is, it was enacted immediately after being accepted, that is, whitohut the signature of the Serbian president on its proclamation, and before it was published, which is a crude breach of the Constitution.Still, the Serbian constituional court (with one vote "against") "voted in" the Constitutionality of that law. Based on it, of the 20 seats which Serbia has in the Republican chamber, 12 members of the ruling SPS party were elected, along with 8 members of Seselj's Radical party.

    In that manner, the oppositionary parties, which at that time had 76 members in the Serbian parliament , were disapled to have representation in the REpublican chamber of theederal parliament. So, the REpublican chamber, in its part comprised of the members from Serbia, not only was elected contrary to legal norms, but does not even have the elementary democratic legitimacy, since it does not reflect the will of around the third of the Serbian electorate.

    The second form of the crude breach of the Constitution, which practically cancels the legitimacy of the elections is the complete monopoly of the ruling party (and since 1995 of the JUL party too) over the state TV - RTS, as well as other TV stations and high circulation newspaper publishing houses - "Politika" and "Vecernje novosti", which like the "conscience industry", cover whole of Serbia. It is in vain written in the Constitution (Article 46) that the means of public information, which are financed from public revenues (RTS) "are obliged to, timely and non-prejudiced informing of the public", and the same is written in the Law on RAdio and TV (Article 13), with the addition of the clause that the programmes of the RTS and other stations are to be non-partisan. The rulling regime completely ignores these provisions and obligations, or more precisely, as much as it suits its daily political interests. Due to this, the oppositionary parties, contrary to the Constitution and the law, do not have any approach to these media, except when they represent an object of propaganda and spiteful campaigning.

    While during the pre-electoral campaign for the November federal and local elections the leaders of the oppositionary parties went around Serbia on foot, presenting their positions on open squares to a limited number of people, the ruling coalition used the State television, other TV stations, "Politika", "Vecernje Novosti" on a daily basis, during regular and special programs to propagate only its positions and to compromise the opposition and its leaders without giving them any right to a response.

    Due to this, the elections for the Citizens chamber of the Federal parliament, as well as all other elections since 1992, althought they are in a formal sence legal, are not democratically legitimate. Such undemocratic and destructive influence of the regime media was not able to be achieves in the elections for local institutions. This was due to the fact that, in spite of the aggressive propaganda of SPS and JUL through the TV, the citizens know the local situation all too well, and there they could not be fooled.

    The third proof of the lack of democratic legitimacy, but also legality of the recently held federal elections is the manner of the change of the federal law on electoral units for the election of federal members of parliament of the Citizens chamber. With that law, right ahead of the November elections, the number of electoral units in Serbia was changed from 9 to 29 in Serbia and from one to eight in Montenegro. Of coures, the right of the Federal parliament to change this law cannot be brought into question, but what can be brought into question is the manner in which this was done - and that is with a simple and not a two thirds majority, as is provisioned by the Yugoslav constitution in the Article 90, paragraph 2.

    The legal explanation of the federal institutions, that is the ruling parties was, that here the question concerns the law on electoral units and not the election of the members of the parliament, which, supposedly, is a completely different question, about which it is not neccesary to decide with a two thirds majority. Unfortunately, the Federal constitutional court took the same legal position and did not accept the proposal of the oppositionary parties to proclaim this law as unconstitutional. Such a position though, is neither by the spirit or the letter of the law in accordance with the Constitution, since the legal determination of the electoral units is an important element of the electoral law, and of equal importance as the electoral lists, balloting lists and balloting bodies. So by this, neither the Citizens chamber (in its entirety) nor the Republican chamber (the Serbian part of the chamber) do not have the democratic legitimacy or the full legality.

    After a convincingly won elections for the Citizens chamber of the parliament (64 of 108 mandates), the leadership of the SPS party expected a similar victory at the local level, for which the elections were being held at the same time.But, since these were held through a different, majority electoral system, the decisive face off was held in the second round (November 17,1996). At that point, the "Zajedno" coalition won in all the major cities in Serbia. It is to be said though, that also in the elections for the Citizens chamber the opposition won in Belgrade in a ratio 9:8, in Nis 3:2, as well as in Novi Sad and Kragujevac.

    It also has to be reminded that the opposition, in the elections for the Serbian parliament in December of 1993, catastrophically beat the Socialists in Belgrade, who won only 16 0f 45 mandates. That is why the Socialists could not "allow" the victory of the opposition in the Belgrade city parliament, since the ruling political "duo" of the Serbian state-party top could not bear the thought of living the next four years in "its" capital directly ruled by the opposition. That is why after the initial shock, when on November 19, through the state TV they publicly recognized the loss in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Kragujevac (the official SPS spkesman Dacic), and then Milosevic to the montenegrin president Bulatovic that the victory of the opposition in Belgrade and Nis is unquestionable, they suddenly decided to "win" the elections through the falsification of their results.

    First an avalanche of complaints fell on the City electoral commission by the SPS party, which inevitably provoked massive demonstrations of the opposition in Belgrade, Nis and other cities. Ruling on the 461 complaints of the SPS (which were practically identical), the Commision anulled 10 of the "Zajedno" coalition mandates, but, due to the lack of any evidence for other complaints confirmed its other 60 mandates (making this public on November 19, at 20,00). With this, the absolute majority of the "Zajedno" coalition was guaranteed in the Belgrade parliament (60 of 110 members). At the same time, the opposition won at the elections for all 10 city municipalities in Belgrade and in 2 of six suburban ones.

    Than came a key political and fatal mistake of the top of the SPS and JUL to "topple the elections through the courts". Now, they forwarded all of the complaints that the City electoral commission rejected, now in a form of a legal complaint, to the First municipal court in Belgrade.

    And what did the judicial councils do ? They brought judgements by which, based on the SPS complaints, 33 (of the recognized 60) mandates of the "Zajedno" coalition were anulled, and new elections called, even though the new elections can be called only by the city electoral commisssion. They even further made a breac of the Law on administrative procedure (Article 15 and 51), based on which they passed their judgements, since they did not enable the "Zajedno" coalition to respond to the SPS complaints, nor did they forward it their judgements, enabling them to use extraordinary legal measures and complain to the Supreme Court of Serbia.

    The main explanation of these judgements was that the City electoral commission did not decide upon all complaints. It became clear very quickly that this was not true, since the Electoral commision proved, not only that it timely decided upon all the SPS complaints, but also that it forwarded a written minutes of that even before the Court started deliberating on the matter. When the "Zajedno" coalition finally somehow got its hands on these judicial decisions, it submitted a request for the renewal of the procedure, due to the fact that it had no chance to participate in it, as well as due to the incorrect statement that the Electoral commission did not deliberate on all of the complaints of the SPS. Then the municipal judicial councils formally accept that the Minutes on the deliberation of the SPS complaints (November 19) represent new proof, but that it is not "legally relevant", since it is not signed by all of the members of the Electoral commission, but only by the President and notetaker. In this manner they intentionally, or through ignorance, breached the provision of the Law on administrative procedure of the decision taking od the collegiate institutions, by which the Minutes are "signed by the presiding person and the notetaker". Unfortunately the council of the Supreme court of Serbia judged in the same manner as the councils of the municipal courts.

    What happened was that the courts, instead of establishing the factual state, judged in favor of the SPS, based on the non-legal implementation of procedural provisions and not recognizing the formal legality of the key evidence. For the courts, the only proof could have been in the concrete case the minutes of the electoral boards annd electoral commissions and the complaints submitted to them by the members of the electoral bodies.

    Since the council of the Supreme court did not recognize the evidentiary value to the key proof, there is still possibility that based on it, as well as due to the serious breaches of the procedure, a complaint is lodged again with the Supreme court, and that the complaint is sovled there, wher it only could be solved. With this, the face of the judiciary could be saved, which cannot bear the responsibility for the illegal judgements of a number of judicial councils.

    Source: Belgrade weekly "NIN",
    December 31, 1996

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