President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, the Balkans’ wiliest political escape artist, appears once again to have defied the expectations of his opponents and reasserted his grip on power.
Milosevic, who was knocked off stride by months of protests by the political opposition, is moving to limit criticism of him by the independent news media. He has sidelined those who were disloyal to him in his moment of weakness and appointed a longtime loyalist as chairman of the electoral commission.
He has capitalized on disarray in the ranks of the opposition, which began squabbling almost immediately after they took power in many of Serbia’s largest cities.
And, to the consternation of his critics, he is preparing to run for the Yugoslav presidency. The post is now largely ceremonial. But many in Serbia believe that Milosevic will maintain his sweeping powers if he is elected by the Federal Parliament, which is dominated by members of his Socialist Party.
Yugoslavia is made up of Montenegro and Serbia, and Serbia’s Constitution bars Milosevic from serving a third term in Serbia.
The heady excitement of the daily street marches, called after Milosevic nullified opposition victories in November in several large cities, including Belgrade, has dissipated in the smoggy, slate-colored skies that hover over the capital.
“We failed as a people, as a country,” said Miomir Brkic, the editor-in-chief of the independent daily Nasa Borba. “We should have formed a movement during the street protests to build a united, nonpartisan front to fight for a democratic, parliamentary system. Instead we followed politicians who lacked vision, who cared only for power and who now spend their time bickering among themselves like street vendors. We have a terrible deficit of leaders.”
To be sure, Milosevic is weaker than he was a year ago. He lost his top security chief, Radovan Stojicic, who was assassinated last week in a gangland-style shooting while sitting with his son in a Belgrade restaurant.
Milosevic is also locked in a bitter battle to remove the Montenegran prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, who has openly called on him to step down. And with salaries and pensions often paid months’ late, if at all, and state-run industry at a standstill, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have failed to renew Yugoslavia’s memberships or grant the country a special concession to attract foreign investment.
“Milosevic has capitalized on the disarray within the coalition,” said Stojan Cerovic, a columnist for Vreme, an independent magazine. “But he has not recovered his power completely. The assassination of Radovan Stojicic, the leader of Milosevic’s Praetorian Guard, was an assault on Milosevic and his inner circle. It sent an ominous message to Milosevic, that no one is safe anymore, and it signaled to those around Milosevic that they could not count on being protected. Things are still falling apart.”
Milosevic, a former Communist, has been one of the leading voices of Serb nationalism in the region and his government supported Serb rebels in Croatia and Bosnia through years of brutal warfare.
His artfully-timed concessions have allowed him to survive two significant rounds of public protest. The first, in 1992, arose after security forces violently repressed the opposition’s march on state-controlled television. Earlier this year, after months of demonstrations and concerted international pressure, Milosevic allowed the opposition to move into the city hall in Belgrade and other cities.
But that was not the end of the story. Milosevic then dismissed the head of state television, reshuffled the Cabinet and proposed legislation on the news media that would make it possible for the government to impose hefty fines on its critics. The bill is now before Parliament.
Milosevic’s best ally has turned out to be the fractious coalition, Zajedno, which led the street protests this winter. The two principal leaders in the three-party coalition, Zoran Djindjic and Vuk Draskovic, have been feuding over who will run for the presidency of Serbia. Elections are expected later this year.
The daily barbs fly through the press, with Djindjic, now the mayor of Belgrade, dismissing Draskovic’s candidacy for the presidency by saying the coalition cannot afford to “run a frog in a horse race.”
Draskovic has angrily attacked Djindjic for holding at least one secret meeting with Milosevic during the protests and denying at the time that it took place.
In this disarray, Milosevic has proposed the law making it illegal to criticize the president and other senior officials. He has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Bosnian Serb leadership.
