Is There a Cure for Serbia

Carl Biltd's integral presentation, entitled "Objective - Peace", will be published in the magazine Alexandria, a new special edition of VREME, and here is just one juicy excerpt: "Built considers Milosevic a big hearted host, but he is confused by the fact that the latter appears to have nothing better to do than to negotiate, as if he has unlimited time at his disposal.  That is why meetings with him lasted up to ten hours, because Milosevic gladly talks about completely irrelevant matters.  And only once during the frequent and long negotiations it happened that Milosevic was interrupted.  Mira Markovic had called him to tell him that their son had been injured in a car accident.  Otherwise no one ever interrupted him, asked him for something, called him on the phone... His desk was always empty..."

Judging by all accounts, there won't be "unlimited time available for discussion" on Kosovo, nor will it be possible to discuss "irrelevant matters".  Serbia is facing the ultimatum of big powers.  It would be naive to expect that negotiations on Kosovo thus organized would be accepted by the world as a sincere effort on the part of Serbia to reach a resolution peacefully.  The senselessness of the envisioned round table was seen at that time by the potential coalition partners of the Socialists, SPO and New Democracy, and they refused to participate in Slobodan Milosevic's traveling circus.  Rugova and other Albanians are not even worth mentioning.  Of course, Milosevic is completely aware of what is at issue are high stakes.  If he manages to throw the ball into the Albanian courtyard, he has done more than half of the job - namely, he will strive for the international community to apply pressure on the Albanian leaders, but it should probably be clear to everyone that the fact that they are refusing to talk to Ratko Markovic will not be interpreted by anyone as their final refusal to negotiate.  Rugova is saying that he has no intention of negotiating without international mediation, Ratko Markovic is setting conditions for this happening on Serbian territory - either in Pristina or in Belgrade, with the presence of a third party - and there we have the outlines of serious negotiations. I would not dare predict when that will happen, but am somehow convinced that serious negotiations will not begin before March 25, which is the deadline set for Serbia by the Contact Group.  Whether this swift maneuver by the Milosevic and Markovic negotiating team will convince the Contact Group not to pass final sentence on March 25 remains to be seen.  In the coming weeks we can expect good news about the beginning of serious negotiations.  But, do not hold me to my words.  Our common experience says that rational thinking about rational actions by this regime always take an unexpected turn.  Even meteoric moments of Milosevic's constructiveness always had something irrational about them.  Didn't he give out more in Dayton than was expected of him?  Serbia is a unique country: it has a president, the one from the title page of VREME, who is keeping as quiet as a fish while state propaganda is killing itself just to prove that Kosovo is strictly a Serbian matter; thus, it has a president, but for six months already it is without a government; then it does not have a single ally, and has distanced its most natural and closest ally, Montenegro.  Probably no one can "interrupt" Milosevic in order to tell him this news.  He is sitting at an empty desk, staring into space and waiting for a new Built to kill time.