Editor's note: Reporter Aleksandar Pavic has been in Belgrade
covering Yugoslavia's historic election and its dramatic aftermath for
WorldNetDaily.com.
The patience of Vojislav Kostunica, the new Yugoslav president, seems
to be paying off as, one by one, the pillars of the old system crumble
and former Milosevic allies change sides or advertise their allegiance
to the new political reality that is taking shape.
Last night, the Central Board of the Montenegrin Socialist People's
Party, which was until the elections part of the ruling,
Milosevic-controlled coalition at the federal level, voted to "form a
political alliance with the DOS coalition." The session lasted only 30
minutes and, as Belgrade's Radio B92 reported, the decision was reached
without discussion and by general consensus. Earlier in the week,
Kostunica offered the mandate to form a new government to Zoran Zizic,
vice president of the Socialist People's Party. The current president of
the party is Momir Bulatovic, the outgoing Yugoslav prime minister and a
close political associate of Milosevic.
By joining the old and the new, as well as by adhering to the
principle that if the president comes from Serbia then the prime
minister should come from Montenegro, Kostunica is obviously striving to
minimize the potential for post-election polarization that could do
further damage to an already heavily damaged country.
A similar strategy has developed at the republic level. The
provisional government of the Republic of Serbia, in place until the
elections scheduled for Dec. 23, is headed by Milomir Minic, a
high-ranking member of Milosevic's party, with the ministries being
split between the previous ruling party and the previous opposition.
While animosities abound and new scandals connected to the previous
regime fill the daily papers, this kind of compromise serves to absorb
some of the shocks of the transitional period. Counterrevolution could
slowly be turning into counter-evolution.
Another point of interest is the emergence of many "revelations" that
are making the rounds of the Belgrade press these days. Whether true or
not, they are at least revelatory in the sense of exposing the motives
of their actors.
One such revelation came out yesterday in the Belgrade Weekly
Telegraph newspaper, which carried the story of what was happening in
the Yugoslav army headquarters during the fateful hours of Oct. 5 and 6.
The spotlight of the article rests on the account of how the army
chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, repeatedly refused orders from
then-president Slobodan Milosevic to send the tanks into the streets and
quell the massive demonstrations against the election fraud. The story
is told by three unnamed army officers who "understand that Gen.
Pavkovic, as the chief of staff, cannot retell everything that happened
between 3 p.m. on Oct. 5 and 6 a.m., Oct. 6" because "his officer's
honor prevents him from doing so," according to the code of professional
discretion.
The first request to send the tanks out came a little after 3 p.m.,
when the huge mass of people broke the police line and rushed into the
Parliament building.
"Send the troops in front of the Parliament," said Milosevic, "They
are bringing down the state." Pavkovic's reply was that "one building
does not make a state" and that the army would act only according to the
constitution and the existing laws.
The second, even more dramatic appeal came less than a half-hour
later, when Milosevic demanded that Pavkovic send the tanks in front of
the state television building "where there are tens of dead policemen
and citizens. ..." A similar account reportedly arrived from the
ministry of the police as well. The army's intelligence operatives at
the scene, however, negated these claims and judged that these were just
attempts to draw the army into a non-existing conflict.
Reportedly, Pavkovic told Milosevic, "There are no dead. The people
are unarmed, and there is no conflict between the demonstrators and the
police. On the contrary, the citizens and the police are hugging and
embracing."
In the following hours, Milosevic repeatedly called Pavkovic, asking
him to bomb the newly liberated Studio B television station and the
state TV's backup studio, which had begun emitting an
opposition-controlled program after the takeover. Pavkovic turned all
these requests down. Furthermore, he warned the police not to attempt to
fly their combat helicopters without the permission of the military
flight control, or they would be shot down.
The culmination was reached at around midnight, when a "courier"
arrived to the General Staff Headquarters carrying an envelope
containing a list of 50 people, leaders of the DOS coalition, whom the
army was supposed to hunt down "before dawn" and arrest. Six of the
names on the list were circled, leading to the assumption that they were
slated for liquidation.
Pavkovic reportedly "exploded" and then called together the general
staff and acquainted them with the "hit list." The generals agreed that
the demand was "insane" and refused to carry it out.
Milosevic called just one more time, in the early morning hours, and
simply said, "Pavkovic, you haven't carried out any of my orders," after
which he hung up.
It is difficult to say whether this is yet another valuable
contribution to the story of what happened in Belgrade on Oct. 5, or
whether this is just a piece of marketing manufactured in the workshop
of the army's intelligence, designed to present the "democratic"
credentials of the chief of staff, who had spent much of the time during
the election campaign at the side of former president Milosevic.
In either case, it is indicative of the willingness of the top
military brass to show itself as being on the side of the political
changes that have taken place. Pavkovic had already appeared on state
television himself and repeatedly stated that he wouldn't have allowed
the army to be used for political purposes and that the armed forces
recognized the legitimacy of the DOS election victory. All this provides
added stability to the new government of Yugoslavia.
President Kostunica has resisted repeated calls from within the DOS
coalition to replace Pavkovic. He may now be reaping the dividends of
his restraint.
Related stories:
Yugoslavia's happy counter-revolution
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.