Stop the Terror - Free Elections

On Friday, April 14th at the Republic Square (since March 9th, 1991 the Square of Liberty) in Belgrade, the Serbian opposition will finally get to know its status. The meeting in Belgrade under the slogan 'Stop the Terror - Free Elections' should give a clear sign whether the Serbian public wishes any changes at all and whether the citizens believe that those changes can be brought about by the existing opposition structure.

The public opinion polls have for a long time been based around the result 4:3 in favour of the opposition, yet having in mind that a half of the electoral body is still indecisive or will not vote at all.

THE FURY OF THE FRAIL: Since October last year the opposition obtained numerous signals that the regime is not ready for political negotiation about regular election terms and conditions, that it continues the verbal civil war, that it constantly endangers all forms of freedoms, that it makes impossible the political agreement on the regular conditions and finally that it simply plays an ambiguous game. The winter break and the fact that the post-war crisis is somehow superseded encouraged the regime to behave arrogantly, even to begin with imposing the idea of the 'non-existent' opposition. The maneuver is pretty transparent and is supposed to conceal the urgent necessity of the Socialists and Left-wing members to cement the embrace with the Radicals ('the tripartite alliance', Dragan Veselinov). Language often reveals the weak spots of political actors in a strange way - the regime which hates and curses that much cannot be considered stable or powerful. It seems rather as the fury of the frail.

It is clear that the coalition in power knows the same thing as the opposition - that the regime has not the adequate support in the attempt to restore the power. Isolated as their are, some of them wanted by the Hague Tribunal, in demand of some kind of allies (before the elections in Russia, they welcome the outsider Zhirinovsky), they are actually struggling in a prolonged agony. The regime in agony is a very dangerous one, of course, and now even the bigger steps are being made.

Some of the opposition leaders, and in particular Vuk Draskovic (who survived the attempt of assassination on the Lazarevac road), points out publicly that their lives are being exposed to all kinds of risk, that is no more a question of doubt. Last week Draskovic said in an interview to TV Studio B that during the last year's NATO aggression, since he was 'dismissed' from the Federal Government, 'some people from the State Security Service (SDB) discreetly notified SPO (the Serbian Renewal Movement) that something was being prepared against him and that he 'was put under certain measures', estimating that as the 'first announcements of crime'. Draskovic claims that he is being threatened even today.

As the post-war spring, summer, autumn, and winter passed, it could clearly be seen how the arrogance of the regime was full of holes. A number of unsolved murders - among which the murder of one of the officials of JUL (the Yugoslav Left), one military minister, one police minister, four SPO officials, one newspaper editor - do not give a very encouraging picture about the power and efficacy of the regime, nor do they testify that the regime was the one who secures peace and stability in the country.
HEART AND STOMACH: By the end of last winter, the opposition had two tasks - to defend what has left to be defended (the towns and the media) and to prepare for conquering a new space. The regime systematically make unfeasible the work of city administrations (in cities where opposition is in power), besieges towns and sends its high officials to the spot. After the incidents about the media in Nis, Kraljevo, Pirot and Pozega, the opposition can draw a conclusion that the energy is still present among people, though everybody should admit that the defense of the media cannot be a sufficient reason for stirring the national energy towards an uprising. The reason has to be much bigger and it has to concern both the heart and the stomach.

The opposition has been co-ordinating its activities for five months. At first, a demand for correct election conditions was formulated as a means of a peaceful solution. An attempt to reach an agreement in the Parliament of Serbia about the election terms and conditions failed after the maneuver of the Socialists, who agreed to discuss the details but not to decide when to call the elections. The bearer of that business, the representative group of SPO, left the Parliament which now houses only the uncontrolled majority, which takes advantage of the insignificant number of those opposition members who still remained in the Parliament. The unrestrained majority in the Parliament is actually leading to the present state in which the government happens to be irresponsible. Who can stop the irresponsible government? As Prince Milos would say, only the tear of the nation can stop it.

Why does the opposition delay the moment of opting for its traditional means - the public protest? The opposition members have postponed the beginning of their campaign due to the internal incongruities and due to the events, such as NATO maneuvers in Kosovo, but most of all due to their own doubt - whether the citizens are ready to rise up again or not. President of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic stated on April 9th, in Sabac that Serbia is a specific country in which there is a critical mass for changes, but not the proper atmosphere. That is his own experience from last year's failed SZP - the Alliance for Changes - crusade. During the summer and autumn of 1999, in many towns of Serbia the demonstration of SZP ended without significant results. According to Djindjic's opinion, the fight for changes has to be in the manner of Gandhi - peaceful and massive, and it has to include, along with political parties, various movements and expert groups, like Resistance and G17.

In the last nine years, there have been six massive and tens of less imposing waves of opposition demonstrations... The results of all those numerous protests were partial, and even if something had been won in the streets, it was later lost. The winter protests of 1996/7 enabled the opposition to realise the strategically important victory at the local level, and now it is the question whether it can, after all those tumbles, make a final leap towards success. That failure has two causes - the first is the wrong estimation that the end of war was the right moment for calling people to go out to the streets, and the second is the prolonged war for precedence between the Democrats (now SZP) and Draskovic, which still lasts ever since the breakdown of the coalition 'Zajedno'; there are also the wrongly picked boycott for which one group of the opposition parties opted at the elections of 1998, and an open conflict at the meeting in August 1999, the consequences of which are visible until nowadays.

It can still be ascertained that, having in mind the program activities, the opposition is, with all its weaknesses, readier to react than ever before. They synchronised and announced their political declaration, which stipulates that after the replacement of the authoritarian regime, they will take necessary steps towards a democratic restitution of the state without political rivalry. They achieved useful and promising contacts both with the countries of the West and with Russia.

The opposition, however, did not orchestrate the most delicate matter of all - the election strategy and election lists. In that sphere, the question arises 'why don't they unite'? It should be stressed that the task of the opposition is not to unite but to overthrow the actual government. When these three things lack - ideas, organisation and masses - it is usually long debated 'about the method'. Will those things seem clearer after April 14th? The co-ordinator of SZP and president of the Demo-Christian Party of Serbia, Vladan Batic said at the meeting in Lazarevac last week that the struggle for changes in Serbia is a 'struggle for mere survival'. Such a struggle has to be long and determined, and when it commences it is unlikely that it can be obstructed by the state propaganda of the 'TV Bastille' (Radio Television Serbia) and by those provocations such as the 'burning of Reichstag' in Vracar (bomb explosion outside local SPS offices at this Belgrade municipality). The key message begins with 'Stop the Terror!'.