Serbia in a Broken Mirror

The Serbian patriarch Paul has, on January 20, a week before the biggest Serbian religious holiday St Sava, sent an epistle to the public, which says: "The borders of a people's state do not go as far as the sword. If a state goes as far as the sword can reach it is not a people's state anymore. It becomes an empire (...) To conquer or to be conquered is equally disastrous for a national state...

An army should never be used until all peaceful solutions have been tried".

There must have been a special reason for Patriarch's message to be announced a week earlier than usual. A day before (January 19) the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church informed the public that its confidence in the present Serbian authorities and the federal presidency, as well as in the top military circles, has been seriously shaken. It also said that neither the Church nor the Serbian people have ever acknowledged the artificial and illegitimate administrative borders in Yugoslavia and that the Serbian authorities have no right to speak on behalf of all Serbs without their consent and without the blessing of the Holy Serbian Church.

It seemed that Milosevic practically lost the support of the top clerical circles after his conflict with Milan Babic (the president of the Serbian Republic of Krajina). The "Interview" weekly writes: "Although he was tired after his visit to Greece, the president had a three hour talk with the patriarch." The same magazine also says that Milosevic visited the patriarch alone, because he did not want to meet with Babic and that he said in front of the church dignitaries that the cooperation with Babic is impossible.

That same morning the patriarch met with Babic, Karadzic (the leader of Serbs in Bosnia) and Ocic (foreign minister of SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem). The contents of their conversation was not revealed, but it is symptomatic that Babic has changed his views concerning the arrival of the "blue helmets".

The general conclusion was that the Synod definitely took Babic's side.

It must be that Milosevic and his collocutor have silently concluded that their respective notions of a future Serbian state are very different. While Milosevic is trying to make some kind of Yugoslavia, the Church is obviously more inclined towards a national state. In patriarch's epistle the state is described as "the land of our fathers". This may suggest that the Church does not approve of territorial conquests after all, but it is not clear enough where the borders of that national state should be.

It seems that the leadership of Serbian krajinas in Croatia is distancing itself from the incomplete federal presidency and getting closer to the Church. At a meeting of Serbs from Western Slavonia a message from the Holy Synod was greeted with approval, the Church was proclaimed the only protector after a few speakers launched heavy accusations to Serbian authorities and the krajinas leadership.

Milosevic did not lose this war because of being a (former) communist, or because the army was not efficient enough, or because it used artillery since it did not have enough infantry batallions (as general Marko Negovanovic, Serbian defence minister, said in his answer to a question of a certain MP), but because he decided to solve "the Serbian problem" by waging a war and drawing new borders, which only contributed to the defeat, caused great casualties and made worse the relations with the proteges.

The last Synod session represents more than just a simple political arbitrage and marks the appearance of the Church on the political scene. The announcement made by the Synod after the emergency session (Belgrade, January 18) was addressed to the Serbian people and to the international community. It is said clearly that "the Serbian church and the majority of the Serbian people have never sympathized with any form of blasphemous communism".

The contentment of the opposition with the fact that Milosevic came out of the Patriarchy alone is not likely to last. The Church has so far never showed any sign of confidence in the opposition or sympathy for the multi-party system. The political steps it has been taking in the past twelve months have revealed the closeness it shares with the right wing nationalist parties. The Synod is once again calling for "unity, peace and concordance of all Serbs". Milosevic has not yet expressed his views concerning the Synod's initiative for making a national salvation government.

Distancing itself from Milosevic, the top clerical circles have publicly expressed their discontentment with the results of his politics, but, in strategic terms, they are still working together, since it is quite unlikely that the Church is powerful enough to act on its own.