Operation Podgorica

The loudly announced high-level SPS delegation did not go to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica which raised the key question: will the Democratic Socialist Party (DPS), the leading party in Montenegro, support Slobodan Milosevic in the election for FRY president?

There will now be an even greater rush to meet the deadline because June 25 (when Zoran Lilic’s term expires) is near and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) must wait for the DPS' approval of their candidate. This forces the further postponement of the official campaign of the SPS candidate for President. The question is whether someone else’s name will appear instead of Milosevic’s. The key to the dilemma is in the hands of the feuding Montenegrin leaders.

Operation Podgorica is a frantic attempt by the Socialist Party of Serbia to get a clear answer as to whether Montenegro's Democratic Socialist Party will support Milosevic or whether an alternative will have to be found.

Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic, a DPS deputy leader, told this reporter that the SPS delegation was due in Podgorica on June 3. "The meeting was supposed to be held at the initiative of the SPS at the level of party vice-presidents", she said. A day earlier the DPS leadership held consultations and concluded that the SPS should be informed that as the initiator it must submit a precise platform for those talks in writing before the DPS executive board can discuss it and schedule a meeting.

Why those consultations were held the day before the announced meeting is not clear. Pejanovic-Djurisic confirmed that support for Milosevic’s candidacy was one of the topics for the talks mentioned informally but added that the DPS replied that it has to have a list of topics submitted to it.

Sources close to the party leadership said this is how the whole thing happened. Support for Milosevic was the only topic of the talks and his candidacy was supposed to have been promoted in Podgorica. The delegation was due in Podgorica only after it got verbal guarantees which no one could promise except Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic, who gave his support to the idea long ago.

On the other hand, the SPS had no intention of talking to President Bulatovic but wanted instead to launch an offensive against DPS deputy leaders Marovic, Djukanovic and Pejanovic-Djurisic, who had been publicly critical of Milosevic. Marovic and Djukanovic have already said publicly what they think of the idea, adding that they won’t offer their support to any candidate who won't guarantee progress in the functioning of the federation of equal republics and remove all barriers for the country’s return to the international community. Djukanovic even said that the DPS will decide whether to vote for the future FRY President only after it gets Serbia’s official proposal and added that the principle that anyone the SPS proposes has to be acceptable to Montenegro is a classic confederal principle advocated by Bulatovic and Milosevic.

The SPS is obviously trying to insure itself on all sides before stating that Milosevic will replace Lilic. Some informed sources in Podgorica said that stories of a possible third term as Serbian President are just a maneuver because Bulatovic was expected to deal with Djukanovic once and for all. The SPS could say that the clashes are an internal DPS affair although it’s clear that Bulatovic was an instrument in Milosevic’s hands.

That knowledge didn’t worry Milorad Vucelic who has kept in touch with Marovic and Djukanovic and went to Montenegro without contacting Bulatovic. Regardless of his assessment of Bulatovic, Vucelic couldn’t even get more out of Djukanovic and Marovic than Marovic’s polite reference to the SPS deputy leader as "a good old friend" and that is not enough to close the deal on Milosevic’s candidacy.

Even Bulatovic has softened his unreserved support for Milosevic and he said that the DPS main board has to decide on support for the future FRY President but added that "the SPS is a serious political party and it is realistic to suppose that it won’t propose just anyone for the post". Bulatovic said the DPS reached a preliminary agreement on the issue but he didn’t mention Milosevic. Given the current situation in Montenegro, he would say that Milosevic should be FRY President only if he were convinced that his main party boards would approve that step.

Marovic and Djukanovic face a huge challenge because it’s obvious that what Milosevic will do depends on them. For now there are no indications that they will agree to a trade since Djukanovic clearly stated last week that Milosevic’s and Bulatovic’s policies are destructive to Yugoslavia. Djukanovic and Marovic won a lot of support with stands like those and it’s hard to believe that they will abandon their course for any daily political reasons.

Marovic and Djukanovic are formally leaving the decision up to party bodies which means they’re gaining time and causing anxiety in Belgrade.

At the moment that this article is being written, a letter arrived in Podgorica saying the meeting will be held.