POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Spy Scandal Rocks Serbia

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 25 2002 (IPS) - For the first time since the change of the regime in Serbia 17 months ago, a spy scandal has rocked the country threatening its stability and the course of its reforms.

“What was brewing at the backstage blew up into the open,” analyst Vladimir Goati told IPS. “The inter-party skirmishes turned into the conflict of the institutions, threatening to endanger processes of reforms that began with the fall of the (former leader Slobodan) Milosevic’s regime”.

The affair started on March 14, when Momcilo Perisic, one of the vice prime ministers of Serbia, and an American diplomat were arrested by the military police. Perisic was allegedly giving away computer discs with military secrets to the diplomat.

Both were later released, as much of the details on what was on the discs. They contained minutes of the meetings of the Yugoslav Army General Staff and some material that would aggravate the position of Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial at The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Perisic is waiting for formal charges to be brought against him. The diplomat was protected by the immunity and discreetly left the country.

“This is a clear case of rebellion by the remnants of the old regime who are afraid of the ICTY,” says analyst Srbobran Brankovic. “The conservative forces have upper hand in this battle and the reform-minded Serbian government can be in danger” he added.

DOS, or Democratic Opposition of Serbia, a loose group of 18 parties, swept Milosevic from power during the elections held 17 months ago. One of its leaders, Vojislav Kostunica, became President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro. He is the most popular politician in the country.

Zoran Djindjic, another DOS leader, became the prime minister of Serbia.

Their personal animosities, pushed aside while ousting Milosevic, grew stronger in the months that followed.

The Serbian prime minister started the process of painful economic reforms, after the decade of four wars and total destruction by the international sanctions.

He calmly extradited Milosevic to ICTY last June. Milosevic has been charged with war crimes and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Djindjic controls the powerful Serbian police and other institutions in the republic.

On the other hand, Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, relied heavily on the army and refrained from sacking cadres loyal to Milosevic.

Many among them participated in the wars of 90s, some are wanted by ICTY for war crimes. The untouched army does not hide its sympathies for general Ratko Mladic, one of the ICTY indictees for war crimes against Muslims in Bosnia. An army unit protected Mladic in his Belgrade home until recently.

Photos of Mladic and another Bosnian Serb leader, also the ICTY indictee Radovan Karadzic, are freely on sale in Belgrade streets. Karadzic is in hiding in the bordering areas of Bosnia and Montenegro, but his brother Luka, who lives in Serbia, often visits military barracks and freely sells Radovan’s books of nationalist poetry to the soldiers.

Kostunica is a strong opponent of extraditions to the ICTY, claiming that the other nations committed crimes against Serbs in the bloody wars in the 90s and their leaders should face justice too.

But, analysts say, a serious problem lingers above the heads of the two leaders. It is the economic aid to the ruined country, heavily dependant on foreign donations.

Succumbing to pressure from the United States administration several leading international institutions have threatened to withdraw their financial support to Yugoslavia unless it cooperates with the ICTY.

“This is a matter of sober choice now,” Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in the provincial town of Pirot on Sunday. “Either we cooperate with the ICTY and be relieved from further pressures, or we go back to the isolation we witnessed in the past decade”.

A loan of 850 million U.S. dollars is to be approved by the International Monetary Fund and another 105 million package of U.S. aid is under question because of the country’s reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY. The 105 million dollars should be approved by Congress by the end of this month.

“The spy affair seriously threatens to endanger many things – reforms, our relations with the U.S. and the international institutions after some positive things that were done here,” analyst Ognjen Pribicevic says. “With the promotion of this affair by President Kostunica and the military, the feeble reputation of this country is at stake. And its road to recovery”.