The Last Phase of Reconstruction

The government has thunderously announced that a new state defence act shall be passed under the excuse of a fight against terrorism. That won't eliminate any kind of terrorism simply because violence in Serbia isn't classified as terrorism. It won't ward off violence either, on the contrary. It will only intensify terror as a mode of rule, fed with fear, which can be regarded as the government's true aim which, apart from intimidation and force, has absolutely nothing else to offer its citizens.

How did a hyper production of terrorist accusations and counter-accusations occur all of a sudden? Let's look back a moment. The government mentioned terrorism for the first time in the context of Kosovo, and that made some sort of sense. Namely, according to FBI's definition (an international definition still hasn't been adopted by the UN), terrorism is "unlawful use of force against a person or property in order to intimidate or force the government, civilian population or a segment of it into realizing certain political or social goals". However, the regime had absolutely no intention of passing an anti-terrorist act in 1998 which would have been applied on the territory of Kosovo.

They failed to think of such a law even when, for example, Slavko Curuvija was murdered.

Accusations of state terrorism were then raised by someone else - the Serbian Renewal Party (SPO). That party labeled the murder of four of its officials and the attempted murder on Vuk Draskovic as state terrorism and they never relented or gave up that claim even though that assassination wasn't a terrorist act. Namely, one of the main characteristics of terrorism is that it is aimed against the government.

The regime obviously wasn't overjoyed upon being accused of terrorism on a daily basis via Studio B and other places. They even found themselves in a defensive position, official denials were issued that state terrorism didn't exist in Serbia. The counter-attacked then ensued: not only the murder of the minister of defence Pavle Bulatovic but also that of the director of JAT Zika Petrovic were momentarily, prior to any investigation, classified as terrorist acts. It doesn't in the least matter that in these two murders the main characteristic of terrorist assassinations was missing - that the person or organization that is responsible immediately calls in and identifies itself? Namely, terrorists choose their targets due to their symbolic significance since the aim of the assassination is to create a certain psychological effect. However, in both of these assassination and especially following Bosko Perosevic's assassination, which was also immediately and hysterically classified as terrorism, all were asking - why him? They simply weren't symbols of anything. No one knows who is murdering whom here and why, which plainly shows that it doesn't have anything to do with terrorism.

However, the government doesn't seem to care about that. The important thing is that they are the ones who are accusing others of terrorism now, probably believing that SPO's claims are becoming marginalized in the process. Not only does the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) know when an act is terroristic even before the police, they also know who the terrorist organizations are - the Otpor (Resistance) movement and SPO. True, conspiracy, i.e. security are the primary concerns of real terrorist organizations, while the above mentioned are speaking at rallies using their full names and are even openly wearing T-shirts and badges which clearly identify them as terrorists to all and sundry, however that isn't really important either.

The important thing to know is that all over the world people are united in their belief that the most acute battle must be waged against terrorism, that in the anti-terrorist laws of countries which have the most pronounced  democratic characteristics, numerous human rights are suspended, therefore a better excuse for a mass and brutal repression simply doesn't exist.

There is another issue: as the federal Penal Law has a chapter on terrorism which offers more than adequate sanctions for such acts, why do we need a separate law - and such an act which could, according to the words of the public prosecutor of the Republic, Dragisa Krsmanovic, be based on "enactments under which we operated during the war"?

According to the assessment of the opposition leaders and most of the experts, the goal is to procure a legal form for the intensified repression and intimidation which the regime obviously has in plan, with the possibility of banning Otpor and all opposition parties, of arresting and sentencing opposition leaders and other personas non-grata. Judging by the announcements, the legal text will serve as intimidation on its own since it will be strict and shall prescribe Draconian measures.

Let's take a look at a couple of statements which announce Yugoslav Left's (JUL) suggested act: "The fight against terrorism is our priority and each citizen should know that the state will not allow itself to become paralyzed and shall react to any form of destabilization" (Ljubisa Ristic, JUL's president); "Terrorism and violence in the country shall be eliminated with the strong support of its people" (Vlajko Stojiljkovic, minister of internal affairs in the government of Serbia); "One part of the opposition and the fascist organization Otpor are openly calling for terrorism and the collapse of the constitutional order with the daily help of their mentors from abroad" (SPS's Commission for Defence and Security).

Why do they want to reintroduce the wartime enactments? "It is known to all what means our enemies are employing. We are at war", stated Ljubisa Ristic a few days ago at the extended session of the City Board of  JUL in Novi Sad.

The state of war was, just as a reminder, revoked by the decision of the FRY parliament on June 25 of last year, but the regime in Serbia wasn't prepared to immediately revoke the restrictions on the freedom and rights which arose from that.

For a certain while the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) remained in effect according to which the minister of internal affairs could restrict movement and hold in custody over 24 hours "people who are disrupting public order and peace" i.e. those who "are threatening the security of the citizens or the defense and security of the Republic". The minister was even authorized to "refer" a person who "presented a threat to the security of the Republic" to "a stay at a certain place" up to 60 days. The police could search a person without a warrant as well as their belongings, vehicles and premises with the goal of checking whether those people illegally carried arms, munition, explosives or other items such as goods which were under special regime in times of war as well as propaganda material of an enemy content. Further, "authorized personnel of the ministry" were allowed to "use firearms if they couldn't prevent the escape of a person caught in a criminal act in any other way while being pursued in the course of duty". Public gatherings were allowed only after they were approved by the authorities.

Political parties weren't banned during NATO's intervention but that doesn't mean that in the present circumstances that couldn't happen. It was to be expected that the government wouldn't silently accept the chants of "revolution" and "revenge" along with calls aimed at the army and police to turn against the government. It is a fact that the act of wearing a T-shirt with a drawn fist, of handing out opposition flyers or taking part in the authorized rallies would be difficult to label as any kind of criminal, let alone terrorist act, yet that need not overly trouble the regime. The exception was set a couple of days ago at the time when the sentence to the so-called Djakovica group of Albanians was being passed. Namely, the judge announced that in terrorism individual responsibility doesn't exist, therefore the sentences weren't handed down in accordance with the severity of the committed act but rather in accordance with the age and number of family members: those with more children were handed lesser sentences, those with one child harsher ones.

At the end of last week, JUL representatives had self-complacently announced that their anti-terrorist act would be passed in the parliament of Serbia on Monday or Tuesday (May 22nd or 23rd). Until today (Wednesday) the speaker of the parliament still hasn't scheduled a parliamentary session. Are we to surmise that JUL's decisions are strangely not being respected now?

What did happen was that even Vojislav Seselj in TV Palma's program said that he personally doesn't support the passing of the anti-terrorist act, that punishment for such acts can be sufficiently meted out by the enactments of the Penal Law. At the same time he appealed that the death sentence be employed more often, for example for Arkan's assassins and Jenki's kidnappers.

It seems as though all boils down to the following: terrorism is a criminal act which is sanctioned under that name in the federal Penal Law. However, under that Penal Law the death sentence has been abolished. In the Penal Law of the Republic of Serbia, the death sentence still stands since the republic law has never been correlated with the federal one. Since the initial intention seems to have been to threaten all with the death sentence under the new anti-terrorist act, it was most convenient to adopt it on the republican level, however the federal Penal Law which determines the criminal act of terrorism but does not foresee firing squads is now in the way. It is possible that the whole issue has been postponed until the moment when government lawyers find a way around it.

Definitely, with or without the law, the regime has continued to terrorize its political rivals. It was published that, for example, the police in Backa Palanka barged in and searched the apartment of Otpor's activist Nemanja Lazic, and that they interrogated his mother in the process. Apparently, a neighbor reported his mother for distributing Otpor and Democratic Party flyers. Vladimir Gosic from Smederevo was taken into custody, he was photographed and his fingerprints were taken because he was wearing a T-shirt bearing the message "Otpor all the way to victory", with which he had "threatened public order and peace". Word has it that in the course of the last rally, 500 people were taken into custody. According to attorney Gradimir Nalic, 24 demonstrators from Belgrade were sent to "slave camps, working the soya plant fields" in Padinska Skela. On Tuesday, May 23rd in the evening, a dozen or so thugs wearing surgical masks and white bandages on their heads barged into the Schools of Architecture and Electrical Engineering and threw out some hundred or so students, two professors and several students who, in reaction to the repression of the regime, decided not to leave their buildings until Friday. No one has been beating up the demonstrators in the last couple of days - maybe on account of their numbers which are diminishing primarily owing to the huge mistakes of the opposition parties.

Finally, what is the aim of such terror? According to certain announcements - it is a preparation for the upcoming elections, as the regime sees it. The aforementioned Ljubisa Ristic stated: "We are awaiting our enemies on the spot where they will receive a clear answer - at the elections." Vladimir Goati assesses that elections will most likely be held in September or October, and the minister of foreign affairs Zivadin Jovanovic, during his recent visit to Moscow, stated that the elections will be held in their legally prescribed term - and that they will be fair and democratic just like they always were.

The government has a few other things to finish prior to the elections - to shut down the remaining independent media in this or that way, to eliminate the opposition parties and especially Otpor whose moral strength and diffuse organization are especially frightening them, to call the elections under their conditions on which only they will run (along with those who will join them in the meantime) - and all is set for a paradise of patriotism and reconstruction. It is totally unclear what the opposition will undertake which is once again divided and, just like always, disorientated. The current situation could be described as a balance of fear between the regime and its opponents, bearing in mind that the advantage of the latter could be condensed in the definition: freedom is when you have nothing to lose.