Jovanovic In, Jovanovic Out

Early this month when Belgrade was involved in steppedup diplomatic activity concerning the Bosnian crisis, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic was away on a futile tour of Africa for over two weeks. During that time Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic held a series of meetings, including those with Andrei Kozyrev, Douglas Hurd and Alain Juppe. Although Vladislav Jovanovic always attended similar meetings in the Serbian President's cabinet, now it was Zeljko Simic, the Federal Government Deputy Prime Minister, who sat next to Slobodan Milosevic.

In the meantime the Foreign Ministry adopted several decisions on diplomatic appointments which is not usually done during the Minister's absence unless there is a big hurry. One of these decisions revived an old story about a possible successor of the Foreign Minister. Namely, Milan Grubic, the head of the press department, was dispatched to ``help out'' the Yugoslav Embassy in Athens. The mandate of Milutin Milanovic, the Yugoslav ambassador to Athens, is about to expire. Milanovic was mentioned as a contender for the post of Federal Foreign Minister in some earlier speculation.

Those who know Milanovic tend to take this version for granted. Since his youth Milanovic was obsessed with making a diplomatic career. As a trusted cadre of the Communist Party he had to come a long way from being a member of the Secretariat of the Belgrade Committee of the Comunist League, Education Minister in two Serbian Governments (those of PMs Dusan Ckrebic and Ivan Stambolic), Director of the National Library, to be eventually appointed ambassador to Athens during the last days of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

This post gained in importance after the breakup of former Yugoslavia because of special relations between Belgrade and Athens. On several occasions he welcomed Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the members of his family in his Athens residence both officially and privately. Milosevic and Milutinovic who knew each other as students have meanwhile developed a friendship with trust on both sides.

That is why bets were laid on Milan Milutinovic becoming the Federal Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Yugoslav PM Radoje Kontic.

However, some sources of VREME tend to believe that the top of the Yugoslav diplomatic pyramid will be occupied by Zeljko Simic who is also close to Slobodan Milosevic. Simic belongs to the youngest generation of Serbian politicians even including the time when he was the advisor to the Serbian President.

He was given his first independent post only a year and a half ago, but he was considerably high up even thenthe Federal Government Deputy Prime Mininster. In that capacity he was appointed to head the Yugoslav delegation at the Geneva Conference on former Yugoslavia. He is in charge of delicate negotiations concerning the normalisation of relations with Croatia (he also attended a recent twohour meeting between Slobodan Milosevic and Zvonimir Markovic, the Head of the Croatian Bureau in Belgrade). All of the above could be considered groundwork for Simic to take up the highest diplomatic position.

Vladislav Jovanovic's almost fortyyear diplomatic career has taken several unexpected turns: in the span of three years he was the Serbian Foreign Minister twice, and the Federal Foreign Minister also twice. Vladislav Jovanovic, a poet by inner vocation and a diplomat by profession, entered the building of the then Federal Secretariat for Foreign Affairs for the first time 37 years ago. Over the last three years he was the epitomy of endless loyalty to his boss Slobodan Milosevic. Back in September 1992, before the London Conference on former Yugoslavia, he publicly expressed doubts in then Federal Prime Minister Milan Panic and quit the post of Federal Foreign Minister (to which he returned after Milan Panic left).

The reasons for Jovanovic's departure from the post before the end of his mandate should be sought elsewhere.