Premeditated News

Ratko Markovic, Vice-President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, submitted his resignation, at the same time withdrawing from his position as Chief of the Negotiating Team in Kosovo.  He gave the following explanation: “My political and personal credibility has been called into question by Slobodan Milosevic’s sudden decision to meet with Ibrahim Rugova in Belgrade.  While I’ve spent weeks in Pristina with Egyptians and other minorities, defending the policies of the Serbian parliament and government, and of the people who expressed themselves through the referendum the way they did, the President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, with Gellbard’s and Holbrook’s mediation, has degraded all our efforts and mandates.”

Of course news of this resignation, including this explanation, are only imagined by the author of this text.  The time for highly moral gestures in politics has not come yet.  If there were any of that here, Kontic should have submitted his resignation when he accidently kissed Dafina Milanovic... and let me not list other examples, even though, in the interest of a balanced approach, my conscience demands that I mention two MP’s of the Democratic Party in the Yugoslav Parliament who initially supported the decision for Kontic’s replacement with their signatures, only to withdraw them soon after.  The naive and the crooked can be equally dangerous in politics, while I fear that the third kind of politician, the kind that is neither naive nor crooked, is all too rare on our political scene.

The question that must be asked in light of the previous claim should read thus: is it an accident that within the space of twenty hours, two important news items which are the subject of this article were released?  Milosevic and Rugova will begin negotiations, and on Monday, May 18, Radoje Kontic will be placed on the scales of parliamentary justice which will supposedly measure the guilt of the federal government for the delay in reforms and for its not doing its job well enough, while in fact they will be sacrificed in the interests of the upcoming Montenegrin elections.  The fact that the scales are slightly off can be seen by every seller at the market, except those two from the Democratic Party, but here every excuse is good, because politics here has turned into hoodwinking and stupefying of the people, so that the masters of this craft are not jogging their minds for superfluous excuses, regardless of whether it concerns the consent to Gellbard’s and Holbrook’s mediation, or Kontic’s replacement.

Several months ago I wrote in VREME that Bulatovic will replace Kontic, and I would not change one iota of what I wrote back then, except for maybe one first name.  Namely, today I am not certain that it will be Momir Bulatovic who will replace Kontic, but I would place a high bet on one of the Bulatovics being appointed, and would bet whatever you like that, at very least, someone close to them will certainly be chosen.  And the point is not just that such an appointment could influence the result of the elections in Montenegro, but that the calculation mostly concerns influence in the post-election period.

I spent ten days in Montenegro and heard many stories, while a high official of the federal government told me in confidence, before the news of Kontic’s replacement became public, that the latter had played a more-or-less decisive role in the peaceful transfer of power in Cetinje.  Namely, Kontic had refused to sign a request for instituting martial law at the time when unrest began in Podgorica.  Because here you can be held accountable for policies of “equal distance”, it was decided that Kontic should be driven out, with someone more ready to be signatory to replace him.  It is very clear that the results of the election in Montenegro will be very close, while, in the pre-election campaign of Bulatovic’s Party, the impression is being created that the elections will be rigged, so that if revolts do occur, and judging by all accounts they will, someone should begin sharpening their pencils on time.

The passion with which state media are commenting on events in Montenegro and, lo and behold, the absence of passion with which they are describing the situation in Kosovo — the comparison is based on assumed Serbian interests and the significance of events — appears to indicate the stringing together of conditions for an excuse by Slobodan Milosevic, which would read thus: O.K., Serbia did lose Kosovo, but Serbia got a coastline.

Of course, I do not think that granting a greater degree of autonomy to Kosovo, not even the sort of autonomy from old constitutional decrees which stops direct political control over the region’s arm of the law (police as well as any type of territorial defense), would mean that Serbia would lose Kosovo.  But truth be told, I was not the one to shout “O Serbia, thrice divided, you will be again united”, so that my opinion should not be taken as representative, especially as I have no intention of running for political office.  However, I do not think that this should worry even those who rose as high as they did on the basis of the above-mentioned slogan; didn’t the same people promise that Zadar would be in Serbia, and they still won the elections.  Or rather, let me recount an anecdote I heard: Novak Kilibarda and Vojislav Seselj met, the first asking the second — “O.K. Vojo, you couldn’t have possibly believed the story about Serbian lands?” “Of course I didn’t,” the other answers, “but one and a half million people did.”

On the other hand, I see no reason why Serbia should lose a coastline even if the Coalition headed by Djukanovic wins in the Montenegrin elections.  Politics is an art when it is capable of controlling differences, balancing them in accordance with national interests and well-being.  The present government appears more of the strict, military sort, while Milosevic himself has been going for years now to the coastline of Greece for his vacations.