Time of Apartheid Past

Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) president Aleksandar Despic caused a stir at the SANU assembly when he said "the most important strategic problem in regard to the future of the Serb people and today's Serbia and Yugoslavia, which is pressuring us from inside and out, is certainly the problem of Kosovo".

"We are at a historic crossroads with two paths leading into the future: one is insisting on Serbia's territorial integrity, the other is agreeing to the tendency of the ethnic Albanians to create an independent country by secession from Serbia," Despic said.

"In 20-30 years, Serbia will become a country with two peoples of similar size - a bilingual country with two languages that do not have the same roots. When the Albanians grab the majority in the Kosovo parliament and a dominant place in the Serbian and Yugoslav parliaments we won't care what category they're in. The term minority or nation will be only academic then.

We can live with them in principle and share the management of the state. What should fool no one is delusions that this won't happen in a free democratic country, that the population can be kept out of social trends. The time of apartheid, which the Albanian leaders imposed on their own people and Serbian leaders accepted, is past even in Africa and can't be sustained in Europe.

If Serbia becomes a civic state in the future and if the Albanians accept it, the survival of Kosovo in Serbia's borders will have an indubitable value. Not only would the roots of our culture remain in Serbia but a huge energy and resources potential as well.

If the assessment is that it would not be good for the Serbian people, that the ethnic duplicity is burdened with the insurmountable problems that caused the breakup of former Yugoslavia then we should start talks with the people who insist on the secession of Kosovo to discuss a peaceful, civilized separation and avoid repeating the tragic experience of the recent past. It is quite realistic to expect that option to disappoint some circles in the world who want to achieve a kind of conquest of Serbia from within.

We face perhaps a whole decade in which we can choose either solution. After that the choice will no longer be there."

 

Reactions to Despic's Speech:

Kosta Mihajlovic: "It's not the most favorable idea, due to tactical reasons, to raise this issue in SANU although it should be discussed there. That's because the unprepared public could react in ways which might surprise us." (Reply at the assembly)

Vladan Batic, DSS: "I agree completely with Momcilo Trajkovic that Milosevic spoke through Despic. The authorities need SANU only when it serves their purposes."

Slobodan Vuksanovic, DS: "The best formula to solve the Kosovo problem is bringing the Albanians into Serbia's political life under democratic standards."

Ivan Kovacevic, SPO: "The fact is that, officially or not, Despic is a ranking SPS official and his speech might have been made to feel out the mood."

Desimir Tosic, DC: "The idea on dividing Kosovo has been present among a few SANU members for a long time, including Dobrica Cosic. Academy members who see the resolving of Kosovo realistically never had the courage to voice that idea. Despic's speech showed that courage is coming probably after a signal from someone on the side."

Fehmi Agani, LDK: "The most important thought is the possible separation. Although all the implications can't be seen, the Albanians see it as proof of the failure of the initial nationalist aggressiveness."

Azem Vllasi, lawyer from Kosovo, Communist official: "Despic is one of those who want Kosovo in Serbia but without Albanians if possible. But, I like his realistic approach that the Albanians can't always be treated as a minority."

Mahmut Bakali, former Kosovo official: "I understood that SANU spoke of a peaceful overcoming of the status quo, I didn't feel this was about a separation with the Albanians or a division of territory. If that is the case then it is unacceptable."

Reactions carried from Dnevni Telegraf and BETA

VREME Documentation Center

 

Patriot Convicts

The Great Escape

by Jovan Dulovic & Filip Svarm

Before the reintegration of Sector East into Croatia, the first to come to the FRY were not refugees but convicts. Fourteen of the nineteen who escaped from the jail in Beli Manastir are already on the eastern shores of the Danube

A statement after a session of the Eastern Slavonia executive council on June 11 said that two days earlier "19 inmates of the Beli Manastir jail rebelled and escaped". Two were caught in the meantime and one came back on his own.

Someone passed a gun to the convicts and they allegedly disarmed four guards and locked them up. Then they took four cars towards the FRY. They were reported to have six pistols and an automatic rifle.

The posse which included UNTAES helicopters found the cars "hidden on Baranja territory" and some of their prison clothing on the banks of the Danube. They arrested two of the convicts in the forest near Batin bridge. The chase was ended then because the Baranja police concluded that they had escaped to the FRY. They passed on information to the FRY police stressing that the group included several murderers. Unofficial reports said one of the convicts was a young man who murdered several people in front of a disco in Dalj in May 1994.

Two days after the escape saw no excitement in Baranja or neighboring parts of the FRY.

"They ran off every which way," a policeman said in Bogojevo, "maybe they're in Osijek by now."

Another policeman in Sombor was more specific. He had a list of the prisoners but was skeptical about whether he would need it. He said he didn't have all the facts but added that this could be a trick. "I think they let them go. The Croats are coming and people don't want to live under them."

Baranja policeman are aloof and mysterious. Asked how so many convicts could have escaped they bragged that two had been caught and that the rest would be back where they belong soon.

A police patrol in Odzak stopped every vehicle on June 11 for an identity check.

"Do we look like we escaped from the Beli Manastir jail?" VREME reporters asked.

"They all crossed into Serbia and surrendered. There's five more missing," a policeman said. "The ones that came here turned in themselves in Sombor. They're in jail there. They won't be in prison under the Croats and they're right."

Obviously he wasn't impressed by Baranja police reports that the men were armed and dangerous. He added that the same thing happened in Knin and the convicts turned themselves in when they got here.

Just before the fall of the Krajina, the authorities opened up their jails and convicts shared the fate of other refugees. Informal reports said that was covered by paperwork. The Beli Manastir convicts were reported to have turned themselves in to the Sombor police which some sources said means they were promised something - shorter sentences for example. The Beli Manastir warden and guards said they're not important; if someone wants a scapegoat they'll be blamed.

The Beli Manastir local council met on June 12, three days after the escape. Local police chief Petar Jovanovic was there but the only thing discussed that is under his jurisdiction was traffic.

 

Promotions and Retirements

Zoran Lilic, president of the supreme defence council, issued a June 6 decree on appointments, promotions and retirements for a number of VJ generals.

General Dragoljub Ojdanic, commander of the 1st army, was appointed deputy chief of staff which means he could take the top army post, since well informed sources claim chief of staff General Momcilo Persisic is slowly fading out. Several generals were appointed to various posts which is just routine in personnel affairs.

Interestingly, General Gradimir Zivanovic was appointed head of the VJ information service from commander of the nuclear and biological defenses, and that caused some confusion because care was taken earlier to put people from the same branch in that post.

General staff information service chief General Slavko Krivosija was promoted to lt. colonel-general and retired, as were other prominent generals: Boro Ivanovic, former commander of the Novi Sad corps (compromised over scandals last year; abolished by Lilic), Dobrasin Prascevic, Dr. Jovan Bijelic, head of the army medical academy and Djuro Dzepina among others.

After army personnel policies became a sad series of purges in 1991, this decree is just the continuation of that policy. Analysts and observers noticed that some delicate posts in the army top remain unchanged: the most often mentioned names are Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, head of the security department, and Ljubisa Velickovic, air force commander (who is rumored to be a favorite for chief of staff).

R.V.