Genocidal Democrats

Do you think that Serbian Radical Party (SPS) leader Vojislav Seselj was joking when he said that he would drink up the Drina River? It seems to me that this greatest of Serbs has been carrying through his fiendish threat secretly for years and as a result has spread in all directions. He was always aware of the fact that bridges can be blocked and demolished, and that Serbs do not like to tread water, and that they won't be happy for as long as the Drina River separates them.

This idea points to the strengthening of that component of the national being which was invented and described in detail by the writer Milorad Pavic. Even earlier, there had been an occasional follower of Pavic's literary approach, in which fantasy replaces everything else. There were flights up into the clouds whenever things got tough on earth, oil was discovered, roots were devoured, Russia was saved, war was waged against the seven-headed dragon of the New World Order.

Now that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's imagination has run a bit dry and he has started discerning the outlines of reality through the thick curtains of historical fantasy which can no longer cover up nakedness, it has been realized that he never was a true follower of Pavic's poetic imagery. If he had been, he never would have given up. He would not have been discouraged by the magnitude of the disaster, but would have been encouraged to greater flights of the imagination like Seselj, painter and patriot Milic of Macva, writer and patriot Momo Kapor and many others.

Their problem lies in the fact that Milosevic is the sole arbiter of literary and artistic tastes in these parts, and he has had enough of fantasy. Seselj is not giving up, but I have an idea that he himself feels that he is slowly becoming passe, and is trying to get himself into jail somehow, so that he'll stay in the game. But the times have changed and it wouldn't help him much. His cries against terrorism and the violation of human rights would be in vain. All would do their best to take his party apart, and the world would perhaps stand up for him only to have him delivered to the international war crimes tribunal.

If Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) leader Vojislav Kostunica makes a more serious and realistic impressionthan Seselj, then it is only because he doesn't purport to drink the Drina. But he does wish to rally parties throughout the Serb lands into a national-democratic bloc opposed to Milosevic, the peace plan and the international community. He says that Milosevic has capitulated, that sanctions are not being lifted and that the time has come to see who is in opposition and who isn't. Seselj is not being invited to the party because he is not a democrat. But Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is. He belongs to a new type of genocidal democrat, who has managed to expel 800,000 people from their houses in record time. But then they were just Muslims and Croats, weren't they, gentlemen democrats?

Kostunica is not counting on Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) leader Vuk Draskovic because he doesn't think of him as being in opposition any more. Draskovic has been consistently opposed to Karadzic's war and should really rush off toPale (Bosnian Serb political center) and apologize, because Milosevic doesn't want the war any longer either. Or rather, if Milosevic wants to become Draskovic, then Draskovic must become like Milosevic used to be, because he must be in opposition, even if just to himself. If Milosevic sees reason, we must not ask him why it took him so long, but must jointly run amok.

And since the question of duration in the opposition is being raised, it remains to be asked what kind of an opposition have Kostunica and the other Greater Serb democrats been until now, while Milosevic upheld Karadzic's war? I know, they'll say they were resisting communism in Serbia, convinced that the war should have been waged democratically and in the name of democracy, and that the world would have understood and accepted it then.Just as it has understoodand accepted the anti-Communist Karadzic. I would say that in this whole matter the world only saw a difference between war and peace, and that a communist peace would have passed unpunished, compared to this democratic war. But, national-democrats have never considered crimes and genocide a problem, and still don't. They failed to see that the country they wished to unite with has, in the meantime, turned into a sea of blood and tears. They believe that the Orthodox Church has a sufficient number of bishops and priests who will bless all the atrocities and crimes and turn them into God-pleasing acts.

That the matter concerns a policy of malice can be seen by the national democrats` weakly camouflaged hope that sanctions won't be eased. It is as if they wish to tell the world that we still need sanctions because we have no intention of improving. They fear that the people will fall for cheaper petrol, or that Serbia will forget its Bosnian Serb brethren if "Red Star" Belgrade football team plays in the European Championship. That would be the beginning of the end of all paranoid constructions about an international conspiracy, without which it would be very difficult to explain the war for a Greater Serbia and its continuance.

When all this was topped by an appeal signed by so-called distinguished persons rejecting the peace plan in the interests of peace, which coincided nicely with Kostunica's initiative, I thought that I discerned the shaky hand of a Belgrade pensioner by the name of Dobrica Cosic (writer and former Yugoslav president, ed. note) in the background. He always liked to collect the autographs of distinguished persons and once these lists were longer and more impressive. Had he signed his name this time, then many of the signatories would not have added theirs. I'm prepared to bet that he is waiting for the national-democratic bloc to call him to take his place at the helm.

Of course, the whole thing will end like all earlier ideas on Serb unification, i.e. it will fall apart before it starts. But Cosic is persistent, confident and has a future. If need be, he'll think of something else. One thing is sure - his time is coming. Surely he won't leave without revenging himself on Seselj and Milosevic? I just don't know why he should have more reason than others for revenge.

What shall we do if Milosevic really recognizes the former republican borders, something that Kostunica is accusing him of? The members of the Contact Group for Bosnia thinkthat he should recognize Bosnia and Croatia; they don't seem torealize that the matter concerns those notorious post-WW2 borders which are responsible for the whole mess in the first place. But as far asthe world is concerned, it is the recognition of precisely these borders that they will consider the only proof that Milosevic has really abandoned the idea of expanding his state by force. I think that they'll give him some time, but until he finally agrees, we'll always begoing back to the beginning. Those borders were created for a joint state, with the idea of contributing to its stability and internal balance. In the event of a disintegration, the Serbs really had good reason to challenge them and would certainly have fared better if they hadn't taken on a large part of the responsibility for the disintegration and had not voiced their arguments through Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). But where were the national-democrats when tanks rumbled through Belgrade on their way to the front lines? Have they forgotten how the victory was celebrated? And how happy they were that Milosevic would carry out the dirty, but necessary, part of the national cause?

It now remains for Serbs to understand that after this war Serb arguments have not become stronger, but much weaker. But whoever claimed this at the beginning was proclaimed a traitor. That is why the only possible thing is to recognize the post-WW2 borders and negotiate over autonomy and confederal links with Serbs in Bosnia, because we can still get that. Those who think that this is not much and that it is capitulation should continue to demand more, because we perhaps don't deserve the little we are getting.

It is not at all unusual to try and seek an alliance with someone you are linked to through a controversy with a third party. The problem lies in the fact that you are not the only one doing so. And since a lot of small states are in conflict here, friendships and enmities tend to be set up according to a loose chessboard model. Those closest to you are your enemies and those second closest are friends because they are the enemies of those in between. It is possible to achieve stability in such a case only if a balance of forces is accidently set up, and in the Balkans this will not be the result of someone's brilliant strategy, but God's will.