Comrade "Goran"

A few important events have accompanied the election of Gorica Gajevic, a thirty-eight year old attorney from Raska, to the position of the president of the delegation of the Socialist Party in the Assembly of Serbia:

First - ever since she has replaced Vucelic on that important function, the Socialists are having serious problems with quorum in the Assembly. Milorad Vucelic no longer puts in an appearance, while Mihalj Kertes, Radovan Pankov, Nebojsa Covic... are there only sporadically.

Second: On the third day of her mandate, the Socialists argued for the first time in the Assembly. Gorica Gajevic was inaugurated on Monday, and already on Thursday Oskar Kovac and Nebojsa Covic attacked the government's proposal on a Law on Building Plots which anticipates to change public property into state-owned property in this field.

Third: Gorica Gajevic belongs to a group of Socialists which are known for their close links to the Yugoslav Left. She herself being close to the top official of the left - Mirjana Markovic, the president of the head office of the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) and the wife of Slobodan Milosevic.

Keeping all this in mind, we should not doubt for an instant that Slobodan Milosevic personally appointed the new leader of his delegation in the Serbian Assembly and that by doing so, he skipped a few "players" who were, until today, much more significant than Gorica Gajevic.

Despite all expectations, he elected Gorica Gajevic, who is referred to by her party and non-party colleagues as "comrade Goran" (Goran being the masculine name of Gorica). Milosevic therefore made another step towards "the left", continued clearing out his own party, but also, for the first time, came upon a certain silent boycott by at least a fraction of his, until today, completely obedient personnel. Naturally, despite this, no one neither on the session of the Executive Council of SPS on Monday, nor on Tuesday on the session of the members of this party, voted against "comrade Goran", however this time, as later events showed, it did not mean that they agreed with the whole scenario.

Discontent has, indirectly, already been manifested, which will probably spur ahead another action by Milosevic and the acceleration of long ago hinted at personnel changes. Amongst the first to leave, the well-informed see Milomir Minic, the general secretary of SPS, who, as in the "Vucelic case" did not know what was going on in his party, that is, who shall be the new delegation's leader.

In order to predict further personnel shifts in Serbia, we need to keep in mind the fact that Gorica Gajevic since recently is on the company pay-roll of Srbija Sume, which well-informed again link with JUL. As it is practically inconceivable, at least in our society, that such a high official, as Gorica Gajevic now is, has any position other than general manager in such an important company as Srbija Sume is, we are to expect that the current general manager Milan Rodic shall have to be removed.

Gorica was president of the Municipal Committee of the Communist League of Raska in 1989, and before that, as follows: Born in Valjevo in 1958, father Arsenije, agronomy engineer, and mother Elvira (maiden last name Svikart); Her residence has been in Raska since her fifth year; she graduated from the secondary school 25 May in Raska in 1977; graduated from the University of Law in Belgrade in 1981; she was appointed a judge of the Municipal Court in Raska in 1984... president of the Municipal Committee of SPS in Raska in 1990.

People from the opposition claim that "comrade Goran" is more important in the Serbian Judiciary system than the Minister of Justice, and that in the Legislative Committee of the Assembly, whose member she is, her word carries much more weight than the words of Zoran Nikolic, socialist and president of this Committee.

The new SPS party leader in the first days of her mandate seemed totally confused. During that time, the members of SPS appeared not to take her seriously. In other words, she seems as if she doesn't know what has befallen her, they (SPS members), as if they don't know what will befall them. A member of the opposition party commented the whole thing by saying: "Never mind, somebody knows".