Revival of the Proposal for Amnesty for War Deserters

What is surprising, however, is that the Belgrade University Rector, Rajko Vracar, was on the side of those who were for amnesty. Considering that two months ago a pro-regime students' organization asked that students be mobilized and sent to the front, and having in mind the fear that reigns amongst the students that they will be carried off, this news could be witness to a positive change in the atmosphere, and maybe to the intentions of Milosevic's government to publicly show how it is drawing out of the war.

Only a month and a half ago SPS MPs Ljubomir Novakovic and Ratko Ristic recommended that a Decision be passed by the Serbian Parliament banning the return of Serbian citizens who had left the country because of the war. And in spite of the restraint of the government, 80 MPs voted in favor. At the same meeting the proposal of the DZVM MP, Andras Agoston, to publicly invite those who had fled to return, was rejected.

One of the most widely supported proposals in the March youth protest in Belgrade was for the proclamation of general amnesty to those who left the country because of the war, and to ensure their safe return home. The Serbian Renewal Movement made a very strong announcement in October against the persecution of these people: "Refusing to go to war is not desertion, but a kind of referendum on those who are conducting the war." At the beginning of May 1992, one of the Serbian Renewal Movement's conditions for taking part in the elections was to do with amnesty and the reprieve from persecution of those who fled. Amongst other things, criminal charges were brought against the MP of this party, Radomir Urosevic, but they were not pressed, probably because of the very debatable question of whether MPs could be mobilized and sent to the front.

A letter to Aleksandar Bakocevic, the Chairman of the Parliament, from the Farmers' Party says that amnesty for Serbian citizens who have fled and military reservists, has not been publicly proclaimed, neither has the Constitutional Court proclaimed war mobilization unconstitutional, which means that the hundreds of thousands of refugee voters cannot return to the country, neither can they vote. In December the Democratic Party sought amnesty for all those who didn't comply to military law, not counting war criminals.

The Center for Anti-War Action has for months organized protests against the war, as well as the signing of a petition which demands that the citizens of Serbia be asked by referendum whether they agree to young men being sent to war zones outside Serbia, which anticipated the present decision of the Yugoslav Presidency on pulling out citizens of the FRY from Bosnia.

The act of mobilization itself, from a legal point of view, is extremely problematic, because it was not published in the Official Gazette, but in the newspapers, and it doesn't have a legal form. War has not been declared, neither its aims. In the beginning many of the mobilized reservists had written in their military ID that they were volunteers, and this caused a revolt.

All the political demands for amnesty and a cessation of the persecution of those who oppose the war, were preceded by massive rebellion on the part of those who did not want to fight in a war they thought senseless. Revolt against the war was a matter of choice by individuals who, to date, are unprotected. The declarative promises of various parties and movements that they would be offered legal aid has been watered down to private advice: "Hide out a little, wait till its over, and then we'll see". These people have risked serious penalties. Their revolt was, and still is, a matter of individual choice. They were alone and practically without any support then when they risked being put before a firing squad, and now when they live like outsiders, at home and abroad.

Resistance against the war came from the spiritual depths of the people, from ordinary people, and the disintegrating nomenclature has not been able to overcome it.

The Rule on Military Discipline and the Criminal Code of the SFRY provides drastic punishment for desertion - in times of peace, eight years' imprisonment, and in war, from three years' to the death penalty. Every revolt has been met by proposals from MPs that court-martial be introduced and death by fire squad begun immediately. One such proposal was given by the SPS MP, Dragoslav Aleksic. The reporter on the happenings in the Cabinet of the War Minister, Dobrila Gajic-Glisic, witnesses to the fact that Slobodan Milosevic rejected the demand of Minister Simic to introduce general mobilization, because "Serbia is not at war", but that he demanded that deserters be punished.

Protests broke out in Kragujevac, Pozarevac, Pancevo, Smederevo.... They were followed by protests in Vojvodina - Zabalj, Curug, Kac, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Kikinda, Subotica and Backa Topola, then in Ada and Senta, mostly inhabited by Hungarians.

Powerless to oppose the war collectively, people found their own personal escape, closing themselves up in their houses, living behind locked doors, sleeping with relatives, or fleeing the country, mainly to stay with guest-worker relations. Some fled immediately and some in time to avoid the first call-up.

The upper classes found less drastic moves abroad or connections so that they were not called up. The lower classes relied on the abnormal collective self-protection of the type "they can't shoot us all". The psychological and moral pressure of the war lobby hasn't borne results. When the right to a passport was limited, one could find false military certificates, paid for in hard currency. The channels of escape from Serbia were at one time via Skopje and Athens, and in the north, via Subotica by winding roads through Bosnia. Escape was not only the specialty of the Serbs - they say that for a while Ljubljana was full of Croatian refugees.

Some SPO (Serbian Renewal Movement) MPs estimate that at least 200,000 people have fled from Serbia to avoid going to war, but there are no official figures. At the end of October, Andras Agoston (Democratic Union of Hungarians from Vojvodina leader) told VREME that at least 20,000 Hungarians had left Yugoslavia fearing mobilization. Dossiers on all these people have been opened somewhere and they are still threatened by court prosecution. The figures are being kept as a military secret and the public is presented with the figure of a few tens of thousands facing criminal charges for avoidance of military service.

Milan Milosevic