"No Money for War"

"If the Federal Government would accept this budget, it would automatically take the responsibility for all the horrors of this war, for all the killings and destruction which the civilized people in Yugoslavia and abroad abominate" The Federal Government should put forth a 1992 budget proposal to the Federal Parliament. It is supposed to do so while the war is still going on in this country. One of the protagonists of this war is the Yugoslav army which gets 86% of the budget funds. I am not familiar with the exact purpose of these funds. A proposal should be put forth to the Parliament, where representatives of several republics are missing, to transfer the financial burden of the budget to all the republics and to, for the first time, finally link the budget to the primary issuing.

As we know, the Yugoslav army is one of the participants in this war. It has also been officially established by the cease-fire agreement signatures of general Veljko Kadijevic on behalf of the Army. Thus the Army took the responsibility for all the consequences of this war. I wonder whether the Federal Government should accept this budget proposal at all.

Wouldn't that mean that the Federal Government is financing a war which has neither been declared nor explained. Despite the numerous appeals no proper explanation concerning the conflicts was given to us so far from the Federal Ministry of Defence. The Federal Government has never had a chance to seriously question the role of the Army in the present crisis...

If the Federal Government would accept this budget, it would automatically take the responsibility for all the horrors of this war, for all the killings and destruction which the civilized people in Yugoslavia and abroad abominate. It would take the responsibility for the most brutal use of arms, condemned by every single legal and legitimate institution in the world. It would thus be responsible for the prolonged bloodshed. If the Federal Government would accept this budget, it would annihilate all its previous efforts to solve the crisis by peaceful means, all its successes in internationalizing the Yugoslav conflict, all its peace oriented actions, all the appeals it has made. It would become a war financier. As the body which has, in spite of all the difficulties, served the interests of all Yugoslav peoples and citizens and represented their government, it must not do that. It must not become the advocate of war.

At the time of economic collapse and widespread poverty the only budget that could be acceptable is the one which would be based on humanitarian and social grounds, as well as on the support of the devastated economy. However, the Budget Draft that we were presented with does not respect the underlying realism. It does not give sufficient consideration to the refugees, the children, the starving, the sick, the invalids and the unemployed. That Draft does not take into account the fact that the economic embargo and all the present and future sanctions which have affected or will affect our country cannot be eliminated before this war is stopped.

The Draft does not respect the economic principles and the principles of the reform on which the entire work of this government is based. I have already said that a significant portion of the budget is based on the primary issuing. We have never had that before. Does the Government has the right to introduce such a measure? Especially in the circumstances where it is impossible to get the consent of all those who are indebted by this budget, since it is financed by the primary issuing and everyone gets an equal share...

I have always been consistently advocating peace and condemning the war. That is why for me it is totally unacceptable to propose a war budget. I firmly and insistently decline to do so. It does not mean, however, that the Army should be left on its own. It only means that the budget should have nothing to do with the financing of the war and the Army's involvement in it must be blocked, and its fate should be shaped through an agreement on the future of this country. At the same time, it gives us the right to demand other war participants to do the same, after the conclusions of the EC Council of Ministers in Brussels and of the UN Security Council concerning the engagement of the blue helmets. After a long time, the Federal Government is given the chance to contribute to the war ending efforts, to establish peace and make the peaceful solution possible. It should be of common interest to all the parties involved, a compromise of each of them and all of them together. As for me, I personally do not wish to miss that opportunity.