The Purge Goes On

Late last Tuesday, around 10.40 p.m., the Tanjug news agency was given permission to announce that General Momcilo Perisic, the head of the Yugoslav Army General Staff, had been relieved of his duties and appointed as the federal government's counselor for defense matters by virtue of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's special decree. Dragoljub Ojdanic, 58, the hitherto deputy head of the General Staff and the former Commander of the First Army, is the new head of the Yugoslav Army General Staff.
As the Podgorica daily Pobjeda said last Wednesday, the Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic voted against General Perisic's dismissal at the Supreme Defense Council session. Montenegrin officials lodged a protest against Perisic's sacking, but the Serbian authorities offered no comment.

MONEY AND IDEOLOGY: In just over a month, Milosevic dismissed the head of the state security service, Jovica Stanisic, the Yugoslav Army Airforce Commander, Ljubisa Velickovic, and finally the head of the Yugoslav Army General Staff.

Milorad Vucelic, the former SPS vice-president, lost his position and all other posts within the Socialist Party in an obvious reshuffling of cadres within the ruling coalition, rallying the Socialists, the Radicals and the Left Wing Alliance (JUL). Meanwhile, two new laws of importance were passed; the one on universities and the one on media, both repulsively undemocratic. The regime is preparing some more laws, looking for allies in Russia and Belarus, shutting down independent newspapers and other media by imposing incredible fines, parties of loyal Kosovo citizens are being formed overnight, strange incidents are occurring within the Serbian Radical Party, while relations with Montengero have become dangerously tense. The manufacture of "enemies" and "traitors" has reached the 1991 level, and it is the only growing form of production. Vojislav Seselj is a constructive, statesman-like politician supporting peace and stability in the Balkans, while Vuk Draskovic is tearing apart the dresses he is wearing, shedding crocodile tears over Kosovo and promising guerrilla warfare in the province.

It all sounds too familiar; Milosevic is up to something. It is all to easy to figure out why General Perisic, an artillery expert and reportedly a very capable officer, had to go. Quite simply, he doesn't fit in. In 1993, he inherited from General Zivota Panic a very impoverished, frustrated and confused Yugoslav Army. Perisic, however, managed to bring the army back to its feet and squeeze it with acceptable damage through hyperinflation, the lost wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the Dayton Accords and the resultant disarmament, the three month long winter protest in 1996 and 1997 after local elections were rigged, Milo Djukanovic's victory in Montenegro, last summer's war in Kosovo, the Milosevic-Holbrooke treaties and the permanent financial crisis experienced by the army. Having achieved his goal, General Perisic stuck stubbornly to his principled positions regarding significant matters such as the army's role in politics and society in general, which undoubtedly irritated Milosevic and his regime.

Judging by his many public statements, it seems that General Perisic applied the following logic: after traumatic experiences resulting from abuse of the army in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, repeated purges and "differentiation’s" made for political and ethnic reasons, after painful reductions in size of both the state and the army, after heavy sacrifices made along with the nation, this army should become a modern, non-political, professional armed force of a modern democratic state.

That, however, was easier said than done. "We abandoned the ideology, and there isn't enough money to professionalize the army", Perisic said in 1996. The statement is interesting, because it reflects the exchangeability of ideology and money. Perisic's statement could very well have been true if ideology implied personal privileges and social status. In his encounters with the media, Perisic often expressed his dissatisfaction with the army's position and the pressure brought to bear by the army.

"I have plenty to say about that, but I won't because I am one disciplined soldier", he once said. Another time in 1996, he called off a press conference marking Army's Day,  saying that he couldn't speak openly. "Since a professional can't say everything in turbulent times, what I can say is colourless, and that's why we called off the press conference. It is better not to speak than to tell what everybody can see. What should be said and is of interest to you would upset a whole lot of people", Perisic said. The Tanjug news agency never published these statements. It was the time of implementing the Dayton Accord document, demanding a decrease in heavy armament.

 As a disciplined professional, general Perisic weathered all storms, while Milosevic had to put up with him in his desire not to antagonize the army needlessly. Things began to change during the 1996-97 winter protest over the rigged elections. There is no evidence that the army was asked to intervene as it had on 9 March 1991, but General Perisic and the entire army kept a conspicuously low profile during the protest.

The general chief of staff even admitted a student delegation. However, this nervous and tense political regime often qualifies neutrality, professionalism and a non-political approach as acts of hostility. In 1997, Perisic said in an interview to Svetlana Petrusic, for her book called Silence is Also Crime, that "our immediate neighbourhood is prompting us to consider the option of joining the NATO pact for our own greater safety", having foreseen the danger of "Yugoslavia's destabilization" through periods of unrest in Kosovo.

Perisic was very accurate in his predictions. "The West will use Kosovo to make Yugoslavia meet the following demands; grant political and other forms of autonomy to Kosovo. However, this destabilization won't come about if Yugoslavia becomes involved in current world trends. If, on the other hand, Yugoslavia keeps defying them, Kosovo will be destabilized even more through Albania, by methods of smuggling arms, terrorist acts and so on". General Perisic's 1997 analysis sheds new light on today’s speculations on the genuine reasons for his dismissal. Apart from all that, he noted that "strengthening the police at the army's expense is common practice in weak states". "The weaker the state is, the stronger the police force gets. A stable state has a strong army", Perisic said. He described the 1996-97 events in the following manner: "Social tension and power struggles prompted Yugoslavia's citizens to protest. These protests could have very easily led to civil war. The more impoverished the country becomes, the greater the danger of fighting is. Therefore, last year's unrest in Belgrade triggered by the students didn't actually generate the crisis". General Perisic confirmed that the USA supported the Yugoslav Army's neutral position during the three-month long protest. "I have gathered reliable information that the US supported our position. The USA commended our position as highly professional with the goal of distancing ourselves from the then political problems, which represents a stability factor in Yugoslavia and the entire region. In fact, the truth is that the army merely distanced itself from a conflict between the country's two political factions. Had the army taken either side, it would have made a mistake. It is an army of all the citizens, regardless of their national, religion and political beliefs".

In his effort to explain political pressure brought to bear by the army, Gen. Perisic said that parties apply all means available to grab power in new, undeveloped multi-party states. "Individuals in the army who demanded that the army protect the people did not understand its role or position. Most of them did not realize that the army was capable of doing many things silently, seemingly invisibly, not by force, to protect the people and the state. The most difficult time for me was when the Serbs were about to start fighting each other because of the politician's struggle for power. This conflict was very close and very realistic". Perisic maintained at that time that the "destabilization of this area would cause a large-scale conflict, contrary to the West's interests".

"They don't want a war in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", Perisic said.

EXPECTATIONS: Perisic's stand on this matter determined his subsequent position in the Milosevic-Djukanovic conflict during the January 1998 crisis. Perisic congratulated Djukanovic for winning the presidential elections in Montenegro, which was resented by Milosevic's team and qualified as lack of loyalty. It was believed that General Perisic was the one who prevented the army from taking part in Podgorica on the bloody night between January 14 and 15. It all triggered rumours that he wouldn't last as head of the General Staff. Back on last May 18, the Belgrade daily Danas brought seemingly premature news that General Perisic would be sacked and replaced by General Ojdanic. Svetozar Marovic, the Montenegrin parliament president, told Danas that Milo Djukanovic "certainly won't approve such a decision". The Montenegrin Montena fax news agency also came forward with news. Meanwhile, General Perisic opposed the army's involvement in Kosovo without the Supreme Defense Council's consent, which Milosevic also reportedly resented.

It seems that Perisic went a step too far with a speech he delivered in Gornji Milanovac on October 19, when he explained that the Yugoslav Army advised the authorities to avoid confrontation with NATO. "The initial strike would certainly inflict losses on the army, the police, the economy, the infrastructure and the population, but NATO wouldn't stop there. They would go on until the demands were met. The question is, why should we be made to bear the consequences of the initial strike, to have casualties, if we can meet these demands before the strike", Perisic said. He criticized sharply all those "who express their courage with words and pretend to know it all".

"Amateurs have ruined everything, even prostitution. Many leaders have made everything subject to their personal well-being and privileges, as they don't care one bit for the state and its institutions", Perisic said. It appears that someone was struck by these words and saw himself as the subject.

General Perisic reportedly refused to be Momir Bulatovic's counselor. Some newspapers say that general Ljubisa Velickovic also refused the post of defense minister and asked for early retirement.

Bearing in mind all the preceding events, General Perisic's dismissal was expected, although it was expected later than it actually happened. For some reason, he was made to go early, perhaps because the pace of Milosevic's staff policy has stepped up. Colonel-General Dragoljub Ojdanic is being described as a man close to the JUL. His predecessor, General Perisic, even scorned him for turning up in a uniform at a JUL party some time ago. If it is true that Rade Markovic, the new head of the state security service, succeeded Jovica Stanisic under similar circumstances, Milosevic's fresh reshuffling policy is acquiring all the prerequisites of a system. Montenegrin politicians have protested against the unilateral dismissal of the head of the General Staff and expressed their fear that the events of last January 14 might reoccur. They are talking about the collapse of the Serb-Montenegrin federation and the threat of civil war looming large.