Serbia Alone

by Dimitrije Boarov

The Serbian leadership which has fought so hard to make its decisions independently, to become the leading force in Yugoslavia (since the Serbs are in majority) and which has "heroically" defied Europe, is showing the first signs of the dread of total isolation, and the desperate struggle to preserve "the incomplete Yugoslavia" at least, looks less like a hypocritical strategy and more as a signal that Serbia can not go it entirely alone.

However, it would be too simplistic to presume that the delay over the dismissal of the Prime Minister Ante Markovic is cause only by the fear that such a move would call for some unwelcome action from the United Nations (and postpone the sending of the "blue helmets" to legalize the Serbian territories in Croatia) and would give the final proof that "Yugoslavia is no more". The fact that the delegates who gave their consent for dismissing Ante Markovic and his ministers were careful enough to avoid the economic argumentation is proof of the horrendous responsibility they will have to face, after the economic inferno which is awaiting us. Many in Serbia secretly believe that Prime Minister Markovic is , despite his numerous errors and narcissistic ways, incomparably more competent in the issues concerning the economy than the Serbian officials. There is also an unpleasant "coincidence", which has been avoided at the eleventh hour concerning the overlapping of the European (and world) economic blockade with the Markovic's departure. Because of this, the Serbs in the Parliament have had to accept the theoretical and practical "blockade" within what has been left of federation, consenting to the qualified majority voting on serious issues, which, at present, gives a lot of weight to the votes coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All this, however, did not stop Mr. Milan Paroski (the People's Party MP) who was one of the very few delegates who was desperately advocating that the federal institutions become Serbian. Sensing that even Vojislav Seselj (the National Radical Party MP, and a Serbian extremist) has discarded with the idea of the Great Serbia, Paroski is trying to occupy the newly vacated political room, so he accused the Serbian Bank Governor, who has done nothing in the past year but protect the interests of the Army and Serbia, of participating in the "robbery" of the Serbian foreign exchange reserves, and the Central Accounting Bureau for the fact that dinars are still in circulation in Yugoslavia, which has made Serbia an endorser of the Croatian emission which it is using to finance the war against Serbia.

Milorad Unkovic ( the Belgrade Lord-Mayor) has said that "the announced restructuring of the economy should not be hastily undertaken, since I am convinced that these are only temporary measures".

Slobodan Vuckovic (an MP from the Democratic Party) said that Serbia is much more dependent on the internal trade than on the foreign trade, since the foreign trade makes 18% of the Serbian GNP, whereas the orders to Slovenia and Croatia amount to 21 percent. He added: "If we are negotiating with Tudjman about halting of war, why don't we negotiate with the Croatian and Slovene businessmen the possible business cooperation". He then went on to say that it is possible for all the republics to raise their voice in protest of the blockade.

It was also said that the economic blockade puts to the test the resilience of the Serbian state and its economic system which is described as "undisciplined". The opinion was also heard concerning the possible engagement of government which could, in its laws provide for a different firm management , which would give them the full freedom of action.

Almost all the participants in this discussion on the economic sanctions complemented the government on its highly confidential material, with precise data concerning the actual problems which the European sanctions will bring, where Serbia has in the past few years been exporting the goods amounting to 2 billion dollars (40 percent of the overall export) and from which it annually imported around 2,5 billion dollars of various goods.

Since all those who witnessed the session knew that these measures were poppycock and that only foreign currency holders will profit from them, another vice-president Budimir Kosutic had to add that "we should be prepared for worse times, since that way it would be easier to get to grips with the lesser evil".