Editor’s note: Will Sunday’s national election in Yugoslavia bring
further turmoil to the war-torn nation? This story by Aleksandar Pavic,
reporting from Yugoslavia for WND, will be followed by post-election
coverage next week — whether the balloting brings an end to Milosevic’s
reign or extends it indefinitely.
By Aleksandar Pavic
© 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Hemmed in by the Hague Tribunal’s indictment
for alleged war crimes, as well as NATO’s election-day maneuvers in
neighboring Croatia and a stronger-than-ever opposition breathing down
his neck, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is looking for a way to
continue his undisputed rule.
The largest opposition coalition, the 19-member Democratic Opposition
of Serbia, is already pointing to signs of fraud in this Sunday’s
election:
- The Yugoslav Federal Elections Commission has barred a major
domestic non-governmental organization — the Center for Free Elections
and Democracy, which has set up a training program for domestic election
observers — from sending observers to the voting places; in addition,
police have entered the organization’s offices throughout Serbia,
repeatedly detaining some of its staff for questioning. - Opposition delegates have been barred from accompanying the
ballot boxes from the voting places to the regional centers and from
monitoring the entering of voting results into the central computers. - The Federal Commission has drastically reduced the number of
controllers allowed during the election process, as well as the number
of voter-registration roles at the places of voting. - As in all previous elections since 1990, the regime firmly
controls the state television and radio, which have been turned into
propaganda machines and are expected to announce the appropriate
“winners” regardless of the actual results. - 600,000 Albanian-language ballots have been printed, which,
considering that the majority of the Albanians have boycotted all past
elections, leads to the conclusion that they will be cast by the
regime’s operatives at phantom polling stations.
So, in a preemptive strike of its own, opposition leaders have
called on voters throughout Serbia to massively turn out in the streets
on election night and await the results. Having already led a successful
revolt against election fraud back in the winter of 1996-97 — when
hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Belgrade’s city
streets for more than three months, forcing Milosevic to back down and
accept the results in the end — the opposition is preparing for a
repeat performance. This time, however, the stakes are even higher for
all involved.
Back in 1996, Milosevic still enjoyed the support of Western Europe
and especially the U.S., as one of the co-signers of the Dayton Peace
Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N.,
Richard Holbrooke, was a frequent guest at lavish dinners organized by
Milosevic. Richard Miles, the U.S. envoy to Belgrade at that time, even
gave his tacit support to Milosevic’s campaign by touring several
state-owned factories in the company of the regime’s functionaries —
all of which was all duly reported by the state-controlled media.
Naturally, there was no question of a War Tribunal “indictment” against
the Yugoslav president at the time.
In the meantime came the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, followed by
a massive Serb exodus from the Kosovo province under the eyes of NATO’s
30,000+ force and, most importantly, Milosevic’s indictment for alleged
war crimes, along with five of his closest associates.
Faced with the prospect of a “one-way ticket to The Hague,” as many
Western officials have put it, Milosevic and his associates have little
choice but to hang on to power by all means available. Just as the
U.S.-imposed international sanctions have allowed him to consolidate his
power internally, the latest threats coming from the Western capitals
are giving his regime a pretext to crack down. Countering the
opposition’s accusations, Milosevic’s wife, Professor Mira Markovic, a
candidate for the federal parliament, is launching advance accusations
that “NATO is preparing to steal the elections” with the help of
“domestic traitors,” “quislings” and “foreign agents,” which is just a
part of the regime’s verbal arsenal used in defining the opposition.
The regime has good reasons to be nervous, despite all the repressive
resources at its disposal. The most serious challenge in the 13 years
that Milosevic has effectively been in power comes in the form of the
coalition unified behind presidential candidate Dr. Vojislav Kostunica.
Numerous independent polls taken during the campaign have put the
Kostunica-led coalition at 10-25 points ahead of the Milosevic list, and
Kostunica’s popularity is growing. It has been more difficult for the
regime to paste the “NATO-collaboration” label on Kostunica personally
because of his own brisk criticism of the NATO bombing and of Western
and, especially, U.S. policy in the region.
Two other actors complete the pre-election picture: Vuk Draskovic’s
opposition Serbian Renewal Movement and Vojislav Seselj’s far-right
Serbian Radical Party, which, despite its purported orientation, has
been the ruling coalition’s partner for the last three years. Each will
seek his own chances in the expected post-election turmoil.
The mood in favor of change hangs in the air, typified by the members
of the officially vilified OTPOR (meaning “resistance”) movement. Its
numerous high-school and student-age members wear black T-shirts with a
symbolic sign of the fist and defy the police throughout the Serbian
cities and towns by spraying graffiti with the same sign — actions for
which they have been arrested and beaten on an almost daily basis.
The stakes are high for most of the Yugoslav population. The European
Union has formally announced that it will end its sanctions if the
opposition wins, with similar messages coming from the U.S. State
Department. Many think this is Yugoslavia’s last chance to return to the
international scene and open up to the rest of the world. That is
perhaps the biggest reason why the voter turnout is expected to top 80
percent.
The Western European states are especially eager to end Yugoslavia’s
status of being the black hole in the Balkans, since its central
position on the peninsula dictates the development and stability
potential of the entire region. They will need to do a great deal to
soothe the wounds from last year’s bombing and restore the Yugoslav
population’s confidence in the benefits of Western democracy.
So, as U.S. and British carriers once again steam for the Adriatic;
as the prospects of a more normal life mix with the probability of
renewed street protests and police intervention; and as Milo Djukanovic,
president of the smaller Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro, boycotts the
elections and intensifies efforts to secede from the rest of the country
while his main political opponent, Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir
Bulatovic, organizes voting in that republic under his nose, voters in
Serbia and parts of Montenegro prepare to cast a ballot for their future
on Sunday.
Watch WorldNetDaily for a comprehensive analysis of Sunday’s
election.
Aleksandar Pavic served as chief political adviser to the president of Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as an adviser to the late Prince Tomislav Karageorgevitch of Yugoslavia. Pavic is currently translating Prince Tomislav’s memoirs into English.
