Anti-NATO rally in Belgrade
Thousands repudiate arrest of Milosevic
By John
Catalinotto
Even in prison, Slobodan Milosevic remains at the center
of Yugoslav politics. On April 7, thousands of people filled
the plaza before the Serbian republic government building to
denounce "Fascists, NATO murderers" and demand they "Release
Slobodan."
Meanwhile a struggle became more public within the Serbian
government, known as DOS, between those forces around
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and those supporting
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. One issue in the
struggle is whether to extradite Milosevic to face a
NATO-dominated tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Yugoslav population may well be weary after 10 years
of wars provoked by the NATO powers, wars that tore their
nation apart, made a million refugees and impoverished
millions more. Nevertheless, the Socialist Party of Serbia
has refused to surrender to the NATO puppets now in charge in
Belgrade.
The SPS has been calling out its forces to demonstrate to
free its leader, Milosevic, and to attack the government as
NATO's lackeys. On April 5 they held a smaller action before
Belgrade's Central Prison. Then many thousands came out April
7 in answer to the SPS call.
"Slobo come back, we want elections. Save Serbia!'' they
cried. According to a Reuters report April 7, the protesters
disrupted traffic and about 50 riot police formed a cordon in
front of the government building.
"Releasing Milosevic from custody so he can defend himself
as a free man is our basic demand, our basic message,''
former Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic told
reporters.
Some of the protesters held up placards with the slogan
"Arrest me, I am Slobodan'' printed on them.
SPS statement
An SPS proclamation read: "Citizens of Serbia realize that
the DOS regime brought false charges and staged the violent
assault on Milosevic's residence not in order to establish
the alleged guilt of Slobodan Milosevic.
"Rather, these actions were staged to fulfill the orders
of the regime's foreign masters. Charges have been brought
against Slobodan Milosevic in order to conceal the
responsibility of those who ordered the aggression against
and destruction of our country and the killing of its
citizens."
The new government charged Milosevic with "abuse of power"
and "corruption." The Serbian government is also trying to
charge him with having opponents assassinated. But the SPS
rightly recognizes these charges as simply attempts to blame
him for NATO's war crimes.
The proclamation emphasized that, "In the middle of
Belgrade, the DOS officials roll out the red carpet for
[former NATO head Javier] Solana, [British Foreign Minister
Robin] Cook and other war criminals. While they show off
their 'international support,' the separatists in Montenegro,
Vojvodina and Raska organize further attempts to break up
Yugoslavia and Serbia. In everyday life misery and poverty
rule."
Split in DOS coalition?
The DOS coalition members ruling Belgrade fear that this
growing misery among Yugoslav workers and farmers, which has
already caused a wave of low-level strikes, will sooner or
later turn the population against them. They want to crush
the SPS as a potential opposition force before that day
arrives. But they have their own contradictions.
There are 18 parties in the DOS coalition. The speaker of
the Serbian parliament, Dragan Marsicanin, stated April 8 for
the newspaper Vecernje Novosti that his Democratic Party of
Serbia--Kostunica's party--differs on several major issues
with Djindjic's Democratic Party. He said the coalition's
future had been "seriously brought into question."
One difference is that Djindjic's party wanted to
extradite Milosevic to The Hague as soon as possible, while
Kostunica has at least verbally continued to criticize The
Hague Tribunal as biased against Serbs and has said he won't
turn Milosevic over.
The two anti-Milosevic leaders--and the rest of the
parties in the DOS coalition--are united only in their
opposition to the SPS and Milosevic. Though divided on many
principled issues, they maintain this alliance because it's
the only way they can hold onto power.
Djindjic, who has strong ties to Berlin and Washington, is
unpopular within Serbia, especially because he abandoned the
country during NATO's war. He could never have defeated
Milosevic in last September's election. But Djindjic, besides
his imperialist backers, also has a party apparatus within
Serbia and has appointed cronies to run the Serbian police
and other state institutions.
Kostunica had enough of a Serbian nationalist reputation
that a war-weary population was able to vote for him without
feeling like traitors. They had to suspect the truth, though,
that his election victory was financed by the U.S., Germany
and other West European powers in a campaign run by none
other than Djindjic.
Unlike Djindjic, Kostunica has no party apparatus to
support him. There are indications that the imperialist
powers--especially Berlin and Washington--consider him an
unreliable puppet, but not a serious obstacle to their
domination at this time.
The imperialists, through The Hague Tribunal they created
and financed, are keeping pressure on Yugoslavia to turn over
Milosevic. They handed a warrant to the Belgrade court April
6 demanding his extradition. Milosevic's fate will continue
to be the big political issue in the Balkans.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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