POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: President Kostunica Fights His First Battles

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Oct 13 2000 (IPS) - In all his addresses to the public, be it before the September 24 elections or later, Vojislav Kostunica named two key goals for his future work.

These were the re-introduction of the country into the international community and economic development as a precondition for the normal life of people in Yugoslavia.

Despite the deep turbulence here, following the refusal by Slobodan Milosevic to accept defeat which culminated in huge street protests in Belgrade on October 5, Kostunica, the newly elected president of Yugoslavia, and his umbrella group Democratic Opposition Serbia (DOS), have pledged to fulfill their electoral promises.

The international community has stuck to its promises too.

On October 9, the European Union (EU) lifted its strict sanctions against Serbia, while the United States (US) president Bill Clinton partially lifted the US sanctions on October 12 in the field of air traffic and oil imports.

Most of the analysts agree that the moves had deep political impact on public here, as the long isolation, due to Milosevic’s politics, had pushed the once prosperous country into the poverty.

“The lifting of sanctions is an important symbol of change,” Jovan Teokarevic of the Institute for European Studies told IPS.

“The immediate effects of lifting of sanctions are more of a political nature. By their extremely quick reaction to Milosevic’s fall, the EU has – in accordance with earlier promises – opened the doors wide for the abundant aid and all kinds of cooperation with the new government as well”.

According to the statistics of G 17 economic experts, EU punitive measures, in force since 1998, have caused 1,6 billion US dollars loss for gross domestic product (GDP) of Yugoslavia.

At the same time, the strict UN sanctions, since 1992, have caused a seven billion US dollar loss in GDP.

“For years on, our economy is working at about 30 percent of the capacity in 1989,” said Stojan Stamenkovic of the Institute for Economic Sciences.

According to Zoran Djindjic, campaign manager of DOS, the EU has promised 2,3 billion Euros (2,3 billion US dollars) financial aid to Serbia in the next three years.

“The money will be project-related to the reconstruction of the economy” he told IPS. But firm agreements on when money will start flowing in are still expected, Djindjic added.

According to Mladjan Dinkic, head of the prominent G17 think tank, talks are under way on “immediately directing parts of the aid to the budget in order to surmount the current problems with a large part of the population”.

An agreement was reached with major financial institutions abroad, Dinkic said, to re-integrate Yugoslavia into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on December 14.

It was expelled from both in December 1992.

Due to the death of its economy, Serbia was in no position to cover normal spending from its budget. Health care system, education, judiciary and other civil servants barely survived with the meagre salaries that were below 50 US dollars a month.

Unlike so many years in the past, Belgrade was a centre of vivid diplomatic activities of Vojislav Kostunica since his formal inauguration on October 7.

Foreign ministers from Norway, Greece, Italy and France visited Belgrade and held talks with Kostunica and one of the important guests was Bodo Hombach, co-coordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe.

High ranking American diplomats visited Belgrade too and their talks with Kostunica dealt with the re-establishment of diplomatic relations.

Former Yugoslav strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, broke diplomatic relations with the US, Great Britain, France and Germany in March 1999 after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, air strikes against Serbia started.

One of the major problems that Kostunica faced in his relations with the US and EU, seems to have been surmounted. The new Yugoslav president remains firm in his decision that he will not extradite Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

“ICTY is a biased propaganda tool and Milosevic has first to face justice here,” Kostunica has repeatedly said.

This week, ICTY officials refrained from their calls to Kostunica to extradite Milosevic.

“We are ready to wait and to give President Kostunica some time,” deputy prosecutor of ICTY Graham Blewitt said on Wednesday. According to him, the stabilisation of democracy in Serbia is of utmost importance now.

He previsioned the first contacts of ICTY head prosecutor Carla del Ponte and Kostunica at the beginning of the next year.

On the home front, Kostunica faces a major event, the creation of new Yugoslav government. In the 138 seats federal parliament, for which the elections were also held on December 24, DOS has 59 MPs, Milosevic’s Socialists 44, Radical Party four and Serbian Renewal Movement one MP.

The remaining 30 seats went to Socialist People’s Party (SNS) of Montenegro, sister republic of Serbia in Yugoslavia. SNS is a sister party of Milosevic’s Socialists and seems ready to jump ships and stop its cooperation with Milosevic’s Socialists.

“We’ll seriously think of forming a government with DOS,” Predrag Bulatovic of SNS said in Podgorica. “Anyway, we’ll do what’s best for Yugoslavia,” he added.

The new government should be formed next week, but many prevision a specific combination of politicians and experts.

“The federal government should not be purely political, or neutrally expert, but a combination of politicians and experts” Bosko Mijatovic of the Centre for Liberal and Democratic Studies told IPS.

“The participation of politicians would give the new government the legitimacy and political clout that a government of experts never has, while the participation of experts would give it a competence that politicians usually lack. Such a government should be acceptable to the Montenegrins as well,” he adds.