All Karadzic's Opponents

Karadzic's Serb Democratic Party (SDS) for the Serb lands is facing a drop in popularity at home and a revival of the opposition. Not surprising when you know that the Bosnian Serbs have been surviving only thanks to some miracle for so long with minimum wages standing at 45 dinars, maximum at three times that amount and prices higher than in Belgrade. Average pensions are just 30 dinars if it ever gets there (a recent article in Banja Luka's Glas Srpski newspaper speculated on coming payments of last October's pensions).

At the same time, there is grumbling in Banja Luka about the hard currency bills coming from Geneva and the rumor is that the Serb delegation there spent enough money to pay all of the city's bank and financial services salaries during just one round of futile talks.

"Pale has imposed a specific type of communism; they do what they want and take as much as they want," one Banja Luka resident said, alluding to the lifestyle of the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) leaders.

Some expenses might be justified (the Bosnian Serbs want their own state at any cost and that costs money) but scandals over the smuggling of fuel, cars and aluminum are irritating the ordinary people. Recently, a working group was set up to investigate the scandals but a lot of people believe it's just a screen.

Financial abuse and embezzlement, war profiteering and corruption have drawn reactions even from the ruling party and some important figures have spoken out recently.

The authorities have also been shaken by the forming of an independent parliament deputies' club. The rebel deputies, headed by Milorad Dodik, feel the authorities should show more flexibility in peace talks.

"It's natural that the most serious criticism of the RS authorities come from the left; it's hard to attack them from the right since they are the greatest rightists," said Mico Carevic, law professor in Banja Luka and president of the League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia branch in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"An ethnic and religious war cannot achieve national interests or create a modern state. Even sports clubs are single nationality here. Islamic fundamentalism should be opposed by a liberation struggle and a large number of Moslems would have turned against Izetbegovic. This way, the danger is a complete strategic failure in terms of war goals, tactics, morals. Everyone loses in an ethnic, religious war and time is not on the Serb side. So we are advocating an honorable way out of the war," he said.

It's interesting that Carevic includes the socialists and Liberal party in the opposition against the SDS. Banja Luka's liberals opposed ethnic cleansing and nationalist orgies from the start, unlike the socialists and communists who kept quiet until it was all over. But that opposition carries a price: Liberal party leader Miodrag Zivkovic is the only party leader in the RS who has spent almost all the past three years on the front along with many party members and sympathizers who spoke up. The Liberals are also accused of treason and threatened with elimination but they are still part of the Banja Luka city assembly and are trying to use cracks in the media wall erected to keep them out.

A recent letter published in Bijeljina's Ekstra Magazin by liberal councilor Rade Dujakovic said: "We are not the (Moslem) SDA or (Croat) HDZ, nor the SPO or SPS, we do not work for the CIA or for the great leader in Belgrade. We want this parliament and government to finally take care of morals and ethics not ethnic cleansing in the town where we want to live if false patriot Serbs don't force us out."

Carevic seems to be right when he says the RS authorities have no cause to fear the right. On the contrary, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) supports Pale, especially in its rejection of the Contact Group peace plan and clash with Belgrade. Vojislav Seselj recently held a rally in Banja Luka but his criticism of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic seems to have been counterproductive. Banja Luka's residents simply aren't used to his language and even political sympathizers were shocked by his speech. Opinions are divided on why Seselj came to Banja Luka: some say Karadzic brought him in as an ally, others see it as part of a plot from Belgrade and are not prepared to believe in the Milosevic-Seselj rift.

One of the things that drew vast attention on the RS political scene recently is the Brdjanin affair. Radoslav Brdjanin was a housing and construction minister, government coordinator for the economy and a parliament member, a man analysts include among the hard-line nationalist. He spoke out recently and sharply attacked war profiteering and financial abuse and threatened to form a new party "on the original SDS principles" after the war. He resigned as minister and coordinator and the SDS head office took away his parliament membership.

Brdjanin took some convincing to speak for VREME but only after he decided an explanation is necessary.

"I resigned but did not leave the SDS and my parliament mandate was taken away unjustly. I said I would leave the party but only if individuals who embarrassed us don't leave. Someone conveyed the wrong words to the state leadership which can't control all information and I was thrown out of the SDS and parliament. I asked the party main board and parliament to revise the decision but that's secondary now; the most important thing i winning the war and saving Serb territories in the former Bosnia-Herzegovina. I don't want to give our enemies an opportunity to enjoy Serb quarrels. As for the Contact Group maps, they can't be accepted no matter what the pressure from the world."

At the moment it's hard to assess the power of some political parties but presumably the SDS and socialists would win future elections. The ruling party isn't talking about elections although Karadzic's and parliament's mandates expired last autumn. The opposition is increasingly loud in demanding election but keep getting the same reply: there's a war on and it's impossible to organize elections.

But the war wasn't an obstacle to a referendum on the Contact Group plan.