March 9, A Repeat

"We are not a general manager of the Serbian economy", said Radoman Bozovic, Serbian Prime Minister, shortly before he claimed that the petition for Milosevic's resignation "can't be a relevant factor in the struggle for power" and that "we shall do all we can to prevent any form of violence and riots".

Raising a hue and cry against the opposition, the Vice-President of the Parliament Vukasin Jovanovic compared Milosevic to a light at the end of a tunnel. When Petar Skundric, the Vice-President of the Socialist Party, said: "We shall not ban the demonstrations, but the organizers will bear all the consequences", Milenko Radic, the legal adviser of SPO (the Serbian Revival Movement), officially announced the rally directly to the Executive Board of the Socialist Party, "as the competent authority", instead of the police. He first proposed such a programme for March 9 according to which the demonstrators would have to walk 18km, with the security made up of 100.000 policemen, while the ammunition, tear gas, rubber bullets and other would weight 4 tons. Radic then sent a letter to the Belgrade Agricultural Complex asking them to provide a million and a half sandwiches for the demonstrators, as was customary in the past; the authorities were asked to make March 9 a non-working day, while the director of the railways was asked to provide free transport for 200,000 demonstrators.

On Saturday, February 15, the Democratic Party announced that according to estimates the petition in support of Milosevic's resignation had been signed by 110,000 people while on Wednesday February 19 that number exceeded 200,000.

It seems that the democrats have been astounded with such a response. The Democratic Party has made its appearance in the March demonstrations conditional on the consensus with other parties and the arrangement with the security, although it seems that it will take part in the demonstrations anyway. Dragoljub Micunovic has criticized the government for putting the blame for the possible unrest on the opposition in advance.

Reacting to the accusations that the opposition is destabilizing the situation in Serbia, Micunovic said that nothing i stable in Serbia - neither our currency, the dinar, nor our economy. The only stable thing is Milosevic's position in power. He believes that it is the responsibility of the government to provide security for public meetings. In one of his interviews he said: "The government says that the people are in possession of a large quantity of arms. Who gave it to them? Why doesn't the government confiscate them and why doesn't it disarm the paramilitary formations?"

By diversifying their thesis on the destabilization in Serbia, Milosevic's regime is trying to neutralize the fiercest onslaught of the opposition until now.

By defending the position of their chief, the socialists are trying to show that Milosevic "hasn't lost". Academician Mihajlo Markovic said in his interview to the Novi Sad TV that the army and the Serbs "have won the war", while Vukovar is "a good example" showing that "the reconstruction has started, which creates the conditions for the refugees to come back". It turns out that Milosevic's war has been justified even by his opponents.

There is nothing that Socialists like better than to prove that they have "prevented the secession of Kosovo" and that they have created a united Serbia out of three separate parts. The statement of Vuk Draskovic concerning the attitude of the opposition which refers to the right of Hungarians to territorial autonomy has motivated Radoslav Stojanovic, a member of the Democratic Party to state once again that the Democratic Party has opted for sovereign Serbia, so as not to call into question the present Serbian borders. Within the framework of this concept and on the basis of historical facts Vojvodina has the right to territorial autonomy, but that right does not apply to minorities (therefore not to Kosovo, either), who have the same right to their cultural and political autonomy as provided for the minorities in Europe. In its latest announcement, the Serbian Renewal Movement says that Draskovic stated that the Hungarians can have their territorial autonomy only in the cantons where they constitute a majority, and Vojvodina is part of Serbia.

Most opposition parties and national institutions do not criticize the national programme but Milosevic's mistakes and autocracy. Only the reformists have been adamant: "Milosevic's defeat is the defeat of those parties whose national programme has been akin to his." It is unlikely that the enforcement of the law will be any stricter this year than it was last year. It is be difficult to assume that the Serbs in army uniforms who have fled Croatian battlefields will willingly start a war with other Serbs.

The opposition is not interested solely in Milosevic's overthrow. The opposition wants to see a change in the constitutional system, a reduction of the president's competencies and a change in the constitutional law, as well as the creation of an interim government and replacement of the socialist nomenclature.

An unexpected announcement has been published informing that Milosevic will address the Serbian parliament - at an emergency meeting scheduled for February 27, allegedly called for by the Government, to consider certain laws, although the regular meeting was supposed to take place on March 1.