A Rubber Man

When Zoran Lilic was proclaimed President of Yugoslavia a little over a year ago after Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's unsuccessful experiment with Dobrica Cosic as President, most of those in the know foresaw that there would be no more experiments, and that in future, the President would get a salary, a driver and a cabinet, on condition that he didn't take too much interest in his job. (Cosic was dismissed because he meddled in foreign policy a lot, and dabbled a bit in internal policy). For a whole year, Lilic, as the new President, tried to deny malicious forecasts, and succeeded. All those who said that the new President ``would not take too much interest in his job,'' were proved wrong. Having learned from his predecessor's experience, Lilic took absolutely no interest in his job. He hinted as to his course in one of his first interviews as President. Asked why he wasn't a member of the Geneva negotiations delegations, Lilic said: ``On being elected by the Federal Assembly to this post, I stated clearly that my goal was to achieve the greatest cooperation with the Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro, Slobodan Milosevic and Momir Bulatovic respectively, because that was in the country's best interests. The negotiations in Geneva were specific because sanctions had been introduced against Serbia and Montenegro because of conflicts in which these two republics had never been involved.''

Before and after this original discovery that sanctions had not been introduced against Yugoslavia, but only ``against its component parts,'' Lilic spent his Presidential days in much the same way. He sent telegrams to statesmen worldwide, met with unimportant delegations from brotherly and spiritually kindred nations, and as the Supreme Commander visited garrisons throughout the country, until he got tired of mess food. His name was never on the popularity lists of politicians. Many claimed that he didn't have a passport and that this was the reason he never travelled anywhere. When it turned out that he did have a passport, the Swiss government refused to issue him with a visa which would enable him to attend a peace gathering. During all this time Lilic never once departed from the principles which had brought him to such a lofty position---he never expressed his views on delicate matters for as long as they remained such. He gave his views on Serbs in the Bosnian Serb Republic or the Republic of Serb Krajina only after Milosevic had had his say. At least that's the way things were until a month or so back, when Lilic finally put paid to what a journalist wrote of him in August last year: ``It would be inconceivable to switch on the TV in the evening and hear what the President of Yugoslavia has to say.'' The inconceivable, however, has happened.

It used to be said that even Lilic never listened to what he was saying with much interest. Now, however, he is being listened to, and what he says is analyzed with great attention. All those who wish to be well informed now don't miss the TV news, waiting to hear what the President has to say. As of late, it has become impossible to guess when and what he will say, or how quickly he will change his mind, or what new message he will have for the nation the next day. During the Trade Unions Congress (and this time before Milosevic) he said that: ``Millions of citizens in Yugoslavia could not be held hostage by any of the leaders in Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Serb Republic or the Serb Republic in Krajina''; at a meeting in the Chamber of Economy, he told company directors that ``there was no alternative to peace''; while participants of the World Breast Feeding Week were reminded once more of the unjust sanctions.

In the meantime Lilic has had his passport extended. After personally getting to know every single corporal in Yugoslavia, Lilic went off to meet Ghadafi last week. Unofficially, the reasons given for the visit included: an exchange of experiences between two countries isolated by sanctions, the settlement of debts outstanding, the contracting of new deals, the undermining of the new world order, an attempt at ``spreading the truth'' about the Serbian struggle via Ghadafi who wishes to buy one of Berlusconi's TV stations in Italy...

The journalists who reported from Tripoli claimed that Lilic had been met with honors ``such as haven't been seen in the past ten years.'' On leaving his tent, Colonel Ghadafi took every opportunity of visiting Lilic by walking into the latter's residence unannounced, which was assessed by observers as a special sign of esteem. Several times during the visit it was underscored that the friendship between the two countries was of ``strategic importance.'' Judging by reactions on the Yugoslav side, Colonel Ghadafi's words of the great international conspiracy against Yugoslavia had a therapeutic effect on his guests. So much so, that none of the delegation, Lilic included, noticed two interesting conclusions reached by the Colonel. ``If Europe wishes to destroy the Muslims, it is doing so via Yugoslavia. In order to destroy the Muslims, they have destroyed the whole country... We do not deny that the Muslims have been slaughtered, mosques destroyed, and that the Muslims have found themselves in a very difficult position... But all the nations in the territory of the former Yugoslavia have found themselves in a very difficult position.''

The Colonel offered his guests a recipe for resolving internal problems: ``isolate the traitors who are working in favor of a conspiracy by the powerful.''

At the end of the visit President Lilic presented Ghadafi with a Yugoslav-made gun, which of course, is nowhere near the value of the camels Ghadafi presented to the Belgrade Zoo a few years ago.

Before leaving for Libya, Lilic gave an interview to ``Voice of America.'' He said that the ``delusion about Bosnia-Herzegovina being a civic state had led to the bloody ethnic and religious war.'' Two days later in Tunisia, on his way to Tripoli, Lilic gave a different statement: ``Muslims and Serbs are quarreling because of the interests of other powers. They live in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and B-H and it is practically impossible to bring them all together in one ethnically pure state.''

Lilic continued to confuse the public with different statements on the same issue a few days later. In Tripoli he mentioned the plan proposed by the Contact Group for Bosnia, saying that is was incomplete and that it didn't regulate the status of Serbs in Bosnia and their right to self-determination. On returning to Belgrade he mentioned the peace plan when addressing newly-fledged Yugoslav Army officers. ``Yugoslavia considers it right and just that the international community recognize the Serbian people's right to basic and vital national and state interests and treat them as it does other nationally constructive European states. Serbs in B-H do not want war. They want peace, but they are asking for themselves what others have already been given---guarantees. We will persevere in this demand, even though, and this is unjust, we will pay a high price for our rights and consistency.''

The next day, tired and full of impressions after his visit, when he opened the Belgrade daily ``Politika'' and saw Milosevic's statement on the front page which said that Belgrade would not continue paying such a high price, Lilic realized that he wasn't on the right course and quickly gave a different statement to the state news agency ``Tanjug'' saying: ``From the point of view of the national interest of all the Serbian people and the state interests of the Bosnian Serb Republic and Yugoslavia, today, after a long and tragic war, international and domestic conditions have been met for us to conclude jointly, that there is no alternative to peace. There is no alternative because the international community has made it clear that if a positive answer is not returned, it will turn unanimously against the whole of the Serbian people... It is our joint stand that the international community's plan should be adopted...''

If the Yugoslav Army still abides by the rule followed by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) that the TV news must be watched, then the newly promoted Yugoslav officers could form a very bad impression of their Supreme Commander as a man who changes his mind in just 24 hours on issues of vital interest to the nation. They might even believe that there was some truth in the malicious nickname the opposition gave Lilic as ``the rubber man.'' We will soon find out what is was that made Lilic abandon his personal non-aligned policy, and start breaking out on his own.