YUGOSLAVIA: Milosevic Takes The Crown

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jul 24 1997 (IPS) - Almost thirty years ago a young woman stood in front of a photo shop in the Dalmatian town of Zadar looking at a picture of the then leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito.

“Someday my husband’s photo will replace this one,” she told her cousin, the story goes, as tears gleamed in her eyes. Her husband was a young law graduate called Slobodan Milosevic, then doing his national service in the army in Zadar. She, Mirjana Ma rkovic, was visiting him.

The story forms the opening of a highly popular book about the couple published here called ‘Him, Her And Us’ by Belgrade journalist Slava Djukic. At the time it must have seemed a far fetched ambition; but this week Mirjana Markovic saw her dream come t rue.

It took just fifteen minutes on Wednesday to swear Milosevic, 55, in as president of the Yugoslav federation. The Federation is today a lingering alliance between Serbia and Montenegro, the only other of the six former Yugoslav republics Tito ruled not t o secede from the grouping in 1991.

But the switch was essential. Denied by the constitution from standing a third time as president of Serbia, he stepped up instead to secure the presidency of the federation instead.

“I swear that I will carry out my duties conscientiously and responsibly, according to the Constitution and the law and that I will fight to safeguard the sovereignty, independence and integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” he said, taking t he oath of office in dark suit and red tie, Wednesday.

Milosevic ‘resigned’ as Serbian president earlier in the day, though the world resignation was never used in the requisite letter sent to speaker of the Serbian parliament, Dragan Tomic.

Tomic takes over as acting president of Serbia until new elections. Milorad Vucelic, one of Milosevic’s closest associates says presidential elections in Serbia are to be held on Sep. 21.

The state media was suitably enthusiastic. Belgrade TV and Politika TV, both sternly pro-Milosevic, ran documentaries that pressed Milosevic’s almost dynastic right to rule, even making a link between his family and the old Karadjordjevic royal family th at ruled the country until 1945.

Milosevic had closed down six independent radio stations and two television channels last weekend in apparent preparation for Wednesday’s event.

Making a rare public speech, “addressing all the citizens of Yugoslavia” Milosevic denounced widespread corruption and promised a rebirth for the country. He also vowed to protect the country’s multi-ethnic character.

“A time of responsibility lies ahead of us, to safeguard peace, freedom and independence, to enable a speedy, economic and cultural development, to organise a modern state, to establish a humane society,” he told the parliament Wednesday.

Milosevic, who is held responsible by many in the West for precipitating the breakup of Yugoslavia and the bloodshed that followed, swore to work towards “achieving human and citizens’ rights and freedoms and safeguarding peace and prosperity of all cit izens of Yugoslavia”.

A Western diplomat commented on Wednesday: “It’s ironic, but he (Milosevic) is the one we have to rely on”.

Riot police surrounded the parliament building to keep supporters and opponents of the new president apart. Thousands of anti- Milosevic opponents had rallied under the motto ‘A Pair Of Shoes For Each Of The Missing’.

They each carried a pair of old shoes to dump outside the parliament — symbolising the 450,000 young and educated people who have left the country since Milosevic came into power ten years ago. Barred from parliament square, the protesters dumped the sh oes on streets nearby. Municipal cleaners swept them away in a few hours.

He has ridden out popular oposition before, notably last winter, when crowds of up to 150,000 pro-democracy demonstrators jammed central Belgrade daily demanding his resignation.

And although he faces major problems, not least the disastrous state of the economy, many analysts expect that Milosevic will remain master of his game. Relying on his total support from the police and the powerful state media, he has always successfully played off his rivals against each other.

“He will use all his previous tactics and brinkmanship to stay in power” says Belgrade analyst Dejan Djordjevic. “That’s the only game he knows and likes”.

Nationalists who supported Milosevic’s ambition to unite Serb- held areas in neigbouring Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina under a ‘Greater Serbia’ blame him for losing the wars that followed; though Milosevic never once said Serbia was ever at war with anyo ne, despite the destruction the conflicts wrought.

The wars ended with the Bosnian Serbs blasted by NATO tanks and jets and the Krajina Serbs of Croatia driven out from their historic homes by Croatian armoured units. They also brought United Nations-imposed sanctions, international exclusion, record hyp erinflation, and saw per capita gross domestic product fall to 59 percent of its 1989 level.

Those who played no part in the wars thus blame Milosevic for the total destruction of the national economy, the isolation of the country and its turn to a primitive self-sufficiency.

“He has turned Serbia into a colossal ruin” says Stojan Cerovic, columnist for the independent Vreme weekly.

“During the last ten years this man (Milosevic) has travelled a uniquely disastrous road. He has stuck to one motto only — everything can be destroyed, except himself. And he destroyed everything he touched.

“The only victory of Milosevic is his victory over Serbia,” Cerovic says. “He turned the country into a nightmarish conglomerate of poverty, chaos and robbery”.

The new president of rump Yugoslavia is to move into Tito’s old presidential residence; when he left the parliament Wednesday he even arranged to drive off in the old dictator’s luxurious Mercedes limousine.

The Zadar dream of the young woman had come true.