2001-2002: Serbs Consign Milosevic to Oblivion

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Dec 26 2001 (IPS) - If the year 2000 marked the end of the decade-long rule of former leader Slobodan Milosevic, the year 2001 can be dubbed “the year when Milosevic was forgotten by the Serbs”, analysts and many ordinary people say.

“This became clear on December 11, when Milosevic appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY),” analyst Vladimir Goati told IPS.

“All the TV channels were linked to the Tribunal’s TV and aired his first and second appearances before the court in July and October. On December 11, only one did it,” Goati adds.

On December 11, ICTY presented Milosevic with the charges for alleged war crimes in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. He already faces another two indictments for war crimes in Croatia and southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

The charges include genocide, the most serious crime the court can prosecute. More than 250,000 people are believed to have been killed in the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 90s.

Milosevic was arrested under dramatic circumstances on April 1 and transferred to The Hague-based ICTY on June 28.

In all his appearances before the court, where the first trial on Kosovo charges is to start on February 12, he dubbed the indictments as “an absurdity”. He considers the ICTY “a false tribunal”, as it was not appointed by the United Nations General Assembly. For this reason, Milosevic has refused to appoint a legal counsel.

But it is doubtful that Serbs will be interested into the trial once it starts.

“It’s natural that Milosevic has stepped out of the spotlight here” Goati says. “Once you are not present in politics, you are forgotten. For many people he is someone who belongs to the past.”

“After a decade of wars and sanctions, the attention of the people has been turned to their everyday lives,” says analyst Srbobran Brankovic. ” Serbs left the cellar where Milosevic put them in the 90s and have no intention of being his hostages again.”

According to Brankovic, Milosevic is still present in the opinion polls where his rating and the rating of his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) do not exceed 14 percent.

“Milosevic’s or SPS’s chances of coming back to power are equal to Tito’s,” says Brankovic. Tito was the leader of former Yugoslavia from 1945 until his death in 1980.

Serbia is going through a tough transition phase, trying to mend fences with the international community and neighbouring countries.

Its economy, that shrunk by two thirds in the decade of Milosevic’s rule, saw a rise of four percent in the 2001. Average monthly salaries have grown from 40 U.S. dollars at Milosevic’s time to 110 dollars in November. Before Milosevic came into power, average salaries were 750 dollars, the highest in Eastern Europe.

Prices of food have fell by 16 percent in 2001, enabling many ordinary people to have decent living after years of poverty.

“It comes to ‘Milosevic – never again’ when one thinks about him” says Mirjana Stojanovic, a Belgrade teacher in her mid-40s. “People have sobered up.”

Like many Serbs, Stojanovic thinks that Milosevic should never be pardoned for among the ordinary people is the fact that his defiant politics culminated with the three months of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing because of Kosovo in 1999.

“He dared put us all in danger and allowed the destruction of what generations before us built,” she said. “That is unforgivable.”

SPS officials disagree with what analysts and many people say.

“The period of the 90s will influence generations,” SPS official Zoran Nikolic told IPS.

“There’s no reason for this nation to forget its leaders. We should all see what was wrong in the 90s and what was right and learn the lessons. It’s too early for that.”

Ivica Dacic, believed by many to become the heir of Milosevic as the head of SPS has different views. Milosevic still holds the title of SPS leader, although he is in The Hague, but the changed circumstances in Serbia are forcing the party to think about the future-

“We are learning how to function now that Milosevic is away,” Dacic said in a recent interview. “The party needs modernisation and reforms that will enable it to function in a modern manner. Never again should this be an old-fashioned communist style party, as it would mean that we have learnt nothing from October 5, 2000 (the day Milosevic fell from power),” he added.

Aleksandar Tijanic, a former journalist and now an adviser to the new president Vojislav Kostunica, says that “only the next elections or the elections thereafter will give the real picture of this country and define the new face of Serbia and Milosevic’s heritage”.

For the time being, Tijanic says, “Milosevic is politically dead. He disappeared from the political life twice – in October 2000 as a politician, in June 2001 (when transferred to The Hague) as a person. He got what he deserved from Serbs.”