Amnesty as Litmus

The Reform Democratic Party of Vojvodina (RDSV) on October 17 presented a draft law on amnesty for the citizens of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) who refused to report to military service. The draft will be proposed to the parliament on behalf of RDSV and the Civil Alliance of Serbia (GSS) by Blasko Kopilovic, a deputy in the Federal Parliament. Accordingly, the citizens of SFRJ and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ) who refused to report to military service should be pardoned, and so should those who helped deserters. The ones who should not be pardoned are those who, after desertion, participated in military operations of armed formations opposed to the Yugoslav army and those who perpetrated a crime against humanity. The proposers say that this law would not pardon future behavior, but would only put an end to the current state.

PROTESTS OF THE MOBILIZED: Both the domestic and international public have forgotten and completely neglected the fact that at the beginning of the war those mobilized protested in Kragujevac, Pozarevac, Pancevo, Smederevo, Valjevo, Topola, Svilajnac, that military camps were deserted by reserve soldiers from Smederevo Arandjelovac, Velika Plana, Topola and Svilajnac and that protests against mobilization broke out in Zabalj, Curug, Kac, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Kikinda, Pancevo, Subotica, Backa Topola, Ada and Senta. Formally, it was a violation of military discipline regulations and the SFRJ Criminal Law which foresaw strict punishment for desertion - up to eight years during peace and between three years and the death sentence during war.

The authorities of the time (and they are the same ones now, aren't they, only dressed differently) did not proclaim mobilization in the Yugoslav Official Register but in daily newspapers instead, and the announcement did not have the form of a legal act but was some kind of information from the SFRJ Presidency. Besides, the war was never declared either. The mobilized reserve soldiers on the front were considered volunteers.

After the signing of the Vance-Owen plan, in the spring and summer of 1992 when the war in Bosnia was breaking out, the protest of the "third Serbia" was all about the amnesty of deserters and the resistance to a possible new mobilization. During the March 1992 demonstrations in Belgrade (anniversary of March 9, 1991), it was demanded that general amnesty be announced for all those who fled the country because of the war and to ensure their return home. The Academic Council of the Belgrade University at that time proposed to the Serbian Government to allow all those who had left the country ahead and during the war to return without consequences. The initiative was supported first of all by Milan Bozic, then the Dean of the Mathematical Faculty and Milan Radovanovic, then the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Rajko Vracar, then the Rector of Belgrade University, supported those who advocated amnesty. University professors almost unanimously supported the rebelled students who opposed mobilization and the present Rector Velickovic, then the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, was among the few who approved of the mobilization of students.

REGIME'S FACE: In the summer of 1992, Milan Panic's government was talking about the Amnesty Law. The members of the Serbian Radical Party and Lt. Milan Milivojevic on behalf of the Association of Veterans of the 1991-92 war rudely criticized the law. The Parliament of the FR Yugoslavia refused to urgently consider the draft and demanded that the Amnesty Law be passed in the regular procedure, in the package with other acts concerning the army. The General Staff assessed the draft as negative and Minister of Justice, Tibor Varadi, then said the Defence Ministry had approved of the project and that the General Staff and the Defence Ministry had to bring their stands in accord. Rioters outside the Parliament building cried: 'Tibor-master!" In the autumn of 1992, Panic lost the elections and "Serbia which shall not bend" won, Serbia which would spend another two years chasing "national traitors" and fight against "abstract peace" (M.Markovic) in order to eventually start claiming that it had always opted for peace which had no alternative.

Chronicler of events in the Defence Minister's cabinet, Dobrila Gajic-Glisic, has testified that Slobodan Milosevic in 1991 rejected Minister Simovic's demand to carry out general mobilization, because "Serbia is not at war," but that he demanded punishment of the deserters. The regime did not dare to start a mass persecution of military rebels, but did retain the possibility to do it, in order to increase uncertainty and to cover up its policies. This is why it will be interesting to see how the new initiative will be recieved now.

If the regime now formally freed of guilt the people who refused to take part in a war which they, long before their superiors, assessed as senseless, it would admit its incapability, guilt and a lack of sense for strategic evaluation. By doing so, it would not be showing mercy but would practically apologize to its citizens. And then it would no longer be this regime.