Europe, Headlines

POLITICS: Serbia Pays for the Comfort of Accused Leaders

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Apr 13 2004 (IPS) - Fierce debate has erupted over a law adopted by the new Serbian parliament to provide financial aid to leaders accused of war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The debate shows how deeply Serbia remains divided over its recent past.

"This law amounts to silent amnesty for Slobodan Milosevic and exonerates all the wrongdoings of his regime," Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, head of the most prominent human and civil rights non-governmental organisation in Serbia, the Yugoslav Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights (YUCOM) told IPS. "It annihilates everything that was done in this country since October 5, 2000." Former president Milosevic fell from power on October 5, 2000 after a popular uprising. The wars that broke former Yugoslavia in the decade of his rule through the 1990s took the lives of more than 200,000 people, most of them non-Serbs. Milosevic’s regime has been held responsible for much of the killing.

The first reform-oriented government that took over in 2000 extradited Milosevic to the ICTY at The Hague in June 2001. The court was set up by the United Nations (UN) in 1993 to deal with war crimes in former Yugoslavia. Milosevic faces charges of genocide.

Under the new law now the defence of Milosevic, ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj and other accused will be financed by Serbian taxpayers. Their families will get salaries equal to that of a member of parliament. They will be paid to travel to The Hague, and for staying there twice a month.

"The law is a sign that Serbia has changed its stand towards the ICTY and its citizens who are imprisoned there," ultranationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic told journalists in Belgrade. "Many decent men are in The Hague."

The new law was passed because the Serbian political scene has changed dramatically since the first pro-reform and pro-West prime minister Zoran Djindjic was killed a year ago. After orchestrating the downfall of Milosevic, Djindjic and his government handed the former leader over to the ICTY.

But Djindjic’s followers lost the parliamentary elections last December. The Serbian government is now led by moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, well known for his opposition to the ICTY. His minority cabinet was approved in parliament last month with the support of Milosevic’s Socialists.

"Serbia is finally defending itself against the fabricated charges in The Hague," says Zarko Obradovic, a Socialist MP. "We will never forget how Milosevic was kidnapped and illegally sent there."

Some leaders see danger here. "This coalition (of Kostunica’s government and Socialists) has an extremely high price for Serbia," outgoing foreign minister Goran Svilanovic told IPS. "This annihilates all the achievements of the first democratic government, the re-integration of the country into the international organisations, its return into the family of civilised nations."

Under Milosevic, Serbia was excluded from the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and other organisations. For a decade it had no access to any international financial institutions.

Those dangers loom again. Serbia was deprived of 25 million dollars of U.S. aid last week for passing the new law and for failing to cooperate with the ICTY. Its assessment for European Union membership was shelved until the end of the year.

The wars and strict UN sanctions had ruined Serbia’s economy under Milosevic. But the sanctions led to smuggling of gasoline, cigarettes and drugs that made Milosevic’s family and those surrounding him very rich.

The latest report of Transparency International ranks Milosevic fifth in a list of the most corrupt world leaders. He is believed to have stashed away more than 1.5 billion dollars in foreign accounts.

The less educated and nationalist section of the Serbian public that always fell for Milosevic’s propaganda regards the new law as a positive development. Serbia was and remains deeply divided over the wars, because a large part of the public believes they were unlawful and wrong.

"It is outrageous that I should financially support the man that ordered my father killed," says Veljko Stambolic, the son of Milosevic’s predecessor as president, Ivan Stambolic.

Ivan Stambolic was abducted and killed by Milosevic’s secret police in August 2000. The regime feared Stambolic would beat Milosevic in elections set for September that year. The accused in the killing are being tried in Belgrade. Milosevic stands accused in absentia for conspiring in the murder.

Vuk Draskovic, who led the first party that opposed Milosevic in the early1990s, also feels outraged by the law.

Draskovic faced several assassination attempts that took the lives of four of his aides in 1999. Members of Milosevic’s secret police face trial in this case too.

"This is a confusing message," Draskovic told journalists in Belgrade last week. "I don’t know how to explain the law to the families of those who died, let alone to the sympathisers who stood with me and opposed Milosevic for years."