Younger Are Better

The assembly was in many ways different from routine party gatherings. It rallied a coalition of democratic forces from Serbia and Montenegro.

Some may think that the assembly resembled the Titanic orchestra's everlasting enthusiasm, but it will actually be remembered for Vesna Pesic's decision to step down as the Alliance president early next year. One of the toughest personalities of Serbia's political scene has decided to let someone else be in charge of the GSS. Is she fed up with politics, exhausted or is something else the matter? Or is it just the plain fact that she feels she is wasting her time being a politician in Serbia?

"It is none of the above", Vesna Pesic told Vreme. "We in the GSS believe that efforts to bring about reforms must bear fruit. We are very happy with the fact that we did the best we could and that we are just about the only party that didn't try to court anyone. As we now want to go beyond that and become a relevant political force rather than remain a conscience in hard times, we have to reorganize the party. We elected a team of young vice-presidents at our last assembly. Apart from Dr. Hiber, everyone else is between 30 and 40 years of age. We want to push forward a generation of young politicians and show everyone that things have gone stale among the regime and the opposition alike.

VREME: What about leadership? You, of all people, said the other day a party is as good as dead here if something happens to its leader. What will happen to the GSS?

PESIC: What I want is to run a test and see how true it is. People here genuinely believe that everything will fall apart if one person is gone. No Tito, no Yugoslavia. Or the ever present question, who will rule if not Milosevic. This instability of mind and character is compensated with a personality cult, which is entirely bad. If the GSS should fall apart only because I will no longer be its president, then let it fall apart. It shouldn't exist any longer if that happens. If it happens, it will mean that something is very wrong. We need to get rid of these frustrations once and for all, we need to demonstrate that good things last and bad don't. It is partly the reason why I decided to step down. If the GSS can't survive without me, then let's go down together. I believe the GSS will survive.

VREME: New opposition coalitions were mentioned. Is there anything new about them?

PESIC: The opposition has never been weaker. On the other hand, the regime has never been weaker either. Both the opposition and the regime are speaking in an incomprehensible tone. Whenever "patriots" and "traitors" are mentioned, whenever blood and land are the issues, politics goes out of the window.
These humming, incomprehensible voices should really gather in one place. There is, however, fear of making new coalitions because of bad experiences in the past. I am convinced that the opposition parties want to give it another try, but they first want someone to make the supreme sacrifice of coming forward with a program that makes the whole thing look genuine.

VREME: Does that imply the new coalition will be different from the former Zajedno?

PESIC: The new coalition would have to rally a group of people operating within one set of coordinates. The Zajedno coalition rallied a group of lonesome individuals and that should not happen again. A coalition needs a clearly defined concept before it is formed. Zoran Djindjic has gone a step further and proposed an alliance with opposition parties in Montenegro. In my opinion, that is unlikely at the moment because the elections are coming up in Montenegro. However, the idea could come to life if Djukanovic's reformists win the Montenegrin elections

VREME: You are the champion of a compromise on the Kosovo issue, which would give Serbia a break. What exactly do you have in mind?

PESIC: Both sides to the conflict need to open up for a compromise to be reached. They need to open up not only on basic issues such as restraining from violence or the existence of a legal state. It is necessary to speak in a different language, so that both sides pursue their interests and make sure that they understand each other. When it comes to territorial and ethnic clashes, both sides should come forward with what they want the most. We must take into account that Kosovo is populated mainly by ethnic Albanians at present and that repression is a part of daily life in the province. The Serbs and the ethnic Albanians have rifted away from each other in the past decade. On the other hand, we must never ignore the way Serbs feel about Kosovo and what it means to them. If both sides tried to understand each other's interests, perhaps they would realize that such a difficult problem can't be resolved overnight. It is necessary to determine what is troubling both sides of the conflict and to seek a solution which would produce no winners or losers. The GSS therefore suggests some kind of autonomy for Kosovo, which would once and for all prevent the ethnic Albanians from complaining that they are being oppressed. Every civilized country treats its minorities in such a way that it has representatives in the government and the police. It is unthinkable that it shouldn't have a doctor in an area where it is the dominant population.

VREME: How long do you thing this kind of compromise could last?

PESIC: It is necessary to reach some sort of an agreement on joint values for a start. We all want democracy, we all want to be a part of Europe and we all want peace in the Balkans. It may take ten years to make headway. In the meantime, we will see whether things that come up will bring us closer together or separate us even more. It is very important that we all get enough time to catch some breath. After all, Albania is in a very difficult position too. Albania needs to develop just as much as we do. Give Serbia a break, give it a chance to catch some breath. Let's see how the integration process in the Balkans develops and hope that lasting peace prevails. Let's see how things will look in about ten years. The present situation doesn't give much room for hope because the people are being kept in the dark all the time. They don't know what it's all about, they are just being deceived with stories about "patriots" and "traitors". That puts us in an inferior position over and over again.

VREME: The GSS opposed the idea of "all Serbs in one state". What is the party's position on the idea that all ethnic Albanians should live in one state?

PESIC: The GSS was always very unambiguous about territorial integrity. We always maintained that the territorial integrity of the former Yugoslav republics should not be violated. We always said that Serbs in Croatia should have been given some kind of autonomy, a special status, a national council as well as human and minority rights. It turned out that we were right and that the war option gave the Croatian Serbs a lot less than what they would have gotten had our option been chosen. We stuck to this principle when the former Yugoslavia fell apart and we are therefore entitled more than anyone else to say that territorial integrity is something we can defend and represent in Serbia at this time.

Finally, that was the principle of the other Yugoslav republics and the international community. That principle, however, can't be defended by a referendum which won't explain anything to anyone. Once again, we are tearing down all the bridges to Europe and our neighbors, who need to and could understand our position regarding territorial integrity.