What Was Stolen is Damned

Long before the coalition Zajedno, joined by all the Serbian "fifth columnists", had begun to "bring shame" and "inform" on their own country with stories of alleged thefts at the elections in Serbia and non-recognition of the will of the citizens, this phenomenon had bravely first been pointed out by the president of the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) Board, Dr. Mirjana Markovic. She accomplished this a few years ago, at the time when JUL didn't exist, and while she was president of a political organization which was then called the United Left. Namely, shortly after the elections for the republican parliament held in December of 1993, Dr. Markovic very openly claimed that there had been thefts at the elections in Serbia, shameless ones. During that election, the United Left won a total of 34,366 ballots at the elections, which was an insufficient number to win a single seat in the Serbian Assembly. Shortly after these elections, Dr. Markovic, in an interview to Vecernje Novosti daily, claimed that the United Left had actually won a sufficient number of ballots to enable them to enter the Assembly. At the same time she hurled an accusation that someone had deprived this political organization of their won ballots and MP seats "while the ballots were being counted or in some other way." "I am convinced that we had won a sufficient number of votes to enable us to enter the Assembly", said Dr. Markovic in this interview. "I would rather not comment on all participants individually nor joined together. Yet when word is of the electoral unit in which I ran, or rather a large part of that electoral unit, there is no way that we had failed to win a sufficient number of votes for us to enter the Assembly. I don't know how things stood in Kraljevo or Vrbas, but where I ran, I deem myself as fairly competent to assess the mood of the people towards the ideas which I had stood for and towards myself personally as well."

That December of 1993 at the elections in Serbia, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) walked away with a land-slide victory, headed then as well as now by Slobodan Milosevic (the husband of Dr. Mirjana Markovic both then and now). Since all pointed towards the conclusion that Dr. Markovic and the United Left was deprived of votes and a few MP seats ("when the ballots were being counted or in some other way") by SPS which was the only party capable of such a thing, the journalist rather timidly asked who could that "someone" be who is stealing at the elections.

"Whoever it is shall meet with punishment", answered Dr. Mirjana Markovic. "The political party which shall have the greatest amount of problems this year, shall meet with all kinds of misfortune... I rely on justice which finds consolation in proverbial wisdom: stolen-damned".

Even though she obviously found it very difficult to deal with that electoral theft, Dr. Markovic failed to call the people to take to the streets, and from what is known she didn't seek justice in the institutions of the system, nor did she call upon international monitors to ascertain the truth. Whether she had unofficially complained of the electoral theft to the highest Serbian institution, the President of Serbia and her husband, naturally remains unknown. All in all, it could be said that the left had in a peaceful and dignified manner endured the fact that "someone" was stealing from them and possibly laid out tactics even then for the following elections: if you cannot ascertain who is stealing from you, join those who seem most suspicious. Which is exactly what happened.

The opposition and students who claim that there were thefts in practically all the larger cities throughout Serbia on November 17, are left with the option to try to get to the bottom of the truth and find justice in the manner prescribed by the sociologist Dr. Mirjana Markovic: "whoever it is shall meet with justice". Following the elections of December 1993 Dr. Markovic, in her sociological curse, said that the forgers of the citizens shall be recognized by the following criterion - "the political party which shall have the greatest amount of problems this year, shall meet with all kinds of misfortune..." Accidentally or not, at the beginning of this year (also shortly after the elections), socialists met with the worst misfortunes. Nebojsa Covic has been kicked out of the party and is being supported and defended with petitions by one part of the membership; the head of Belgrade socialists Branislav Ivkovic has been ousted; the complete party organization in Nis has been dissolved and the renown power-wielder Mile Ilic has been kicked out of the party, while his party companions from Nis now claim that top SPS officials, the SPS general secretary Gorica Gajevic and Nikola Sainovic had directly talked them into forging the elections... "Stolen-damned" as Dr. Mira Markovic would say.