The Secret of a Veto

That the government's proposal met with fierce public opposition need not have been crucial for Milosevic's veto on the bill to transform the newspaper publishing and broadcasting company POLITIKA into a state-owned enterprise, since in such cases he usually "intensifies action". POLITIKA director Zivorad Minovic's threat to reveal the circumstances under which Milosevic came into power could also not have been crucial, because his command of the language of blackmail is certainly better than of English.

Milosevic may have been influenced more by Yugoslavia's Prime Minister Milan Panic than by President Dobrica Cosic. Federal Information Minister Miodrag Perisic imitated, after all, Cosic's "maintaining the balance in favour of the regime" when he said that no-one's motives in the conflict were pure.

Milosevic was elected to the state political council, together with Cosic, Panic, Montenegro's President Momir Bulatovic and others, which could mean that he will, if he can, have to abide by the agreements reached in the coordination body, if it ever begins to function.

The federal government has announced that it will organize round table talks with the regime and the opposition by the end of August, with the task of preparing the conditions for early elections, including in this package possible constitutional changes. DEPOS (an umbrella organization consisting of a number of opposition parties and movements), which is still advocating elections for the constituent assembly, says it will participate in the elections on condition that correct laws are passed and freedom of the media secured.

It did not suit Panic at all that in the midst of the sensitive preparations for the round table talks, the republican government should simply seize parts of the media. The federal prime minister, according to one source, was very pleased with the outcome following Milosevic's veto. Even the illusory confirmation in the eyes of the world that someone in Belgrade will listen to him must be precious to Panic.

The day after the parliament decided not to discuss the controversial bill until September, Bozovic sent a text of amendments to the MPs, making only illusory concessions whilst sticking to his concept - the majority on POLITIKA's board of managers would be from POLITIKA which, according to the new version, would not be a state-owned but a socially-owned public enterprise, but even these POLITIKA representatives would be appointed by the government.

In the debate on the law on the university, Democratic Party leader Dragoljub Micunovic proposed either disbanding parliament or dismissing the government. "The government is either extremely cunning or else it does not know what it is doing. It explained the law as the most modern in the world, and then abandoned it "...

First the government proposed an article of the law giving academic citizens the autonomous right to elect a dean and a rector, then it accepted an amendment whereby the rector and deans are appointed by the state, only to abandon this amendment too and accept a middle-of-the-road solution which, again, betrayed the previous agreement with the university. The final solution: the rector is elected by the university council in which influence is equally divided. Half the council members are elected by the academic councils and the other half by the founder, that is, the government.

Bozovic was probably pleased with such an outcome. Since in the political tradition which he perpetuates laws are adopted because of one man, he has ensured that the rector of the University of Belgrade, Professor Rajko Vracar, who has been "targeted", as well as other rebel deans, may not remain in their posts more than 90 days. In the debate, no answer was given to the question asked by MP Mihajlo Markovic from the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) as to why political activity is banned at the university when Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) President Borisav Jovic recently requested that the responsibility of the Belgrade University rector for not implementing the Socialist Party policy be established.

Vojislav Kostunica of the New Democratic Party of Serbia recalled that the law on the university, which had been in the pipeline for more than a year, had "buried" one government and the second one had a close call. Kostunica believes that the autonomy of the university is in this way being threatened and limited and the concept of political suitability is being ushered in through the back door, since the government can find ways to find those it considers suitable for the section of the university council made up of faculty members. University territory is relatively inviolable, and political activity and religious organization are banned there.

The students, who are symbolically continuing their protest, have, however, rejected the law and requested that a free university be formed.

The debate on the law on the university culminated over a provision regulating the right of use of languages of national minorities in teaching. Pal Sandor of the Union of Hungarians of Vojvodina said it was impossible to exclude language from the university, arguing with those who called for the exclusion of languages of nationalities from teaching. If there is a sufficient number of lecturers and students, such instruction should be made possible, he argued.

The parliament accepted the government's proposal, which was a compromise solution to the effect "may but should not necessarily be." Thus, the hitherto right to higher education in the language of minorities has thus not been fully abolished, but has been substantially limited by the government.

An independent Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) commission is visiting Serbia to investigate the state of human rights of ethnic minorities. In talks with the opposition, members of the commission did not speak of the territorial integrity of Kosovo, but of the actual state of human and political rights. An independent commission of Soros' Human Rights Foundation had talks with two members of the federal government, Tibor Varadi and Momcilo Grubac, about the situation in Kosovo and Vojvodina.

In Belgrade, representatives of political parties began talks on Kosovo. Apart from the fact that the talks have begun, it is difficult to see any tangible result. There is a certain degree of agreement on the need to discuss human rights, but, essentially, one side said it would not give up Kosovo, while the other responded that Serbs could keep Kosovo only by force.

It seems that the Albanian side, repeating that it was striving for Kosovo's independence by peaceful means, was trying to test the Serbian side's readiness to return to the state under the 1974 constitution. President of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo Veton Suroi explained that the Kosovo problem could not be resolved either against the will of ethnic Albanians or against the will of the Serbs, and mentioned that Kosovo's Albanians were concerned about Serbia in this difficult moment, which could again be interpreted more as a wish to emit positive vibrations than as an expression of loyalty to Serbia as a political community...

While one hand was giving, the other was taking. Federal Justice Minister Tibor Varadi said on Monday that a law on amnesty was being prepared which would cover all mobilisation and conscription dodgers and members of para-military formations, with the exception of those who had committed war crimes. Varadi said the amnesty did not mean that something which had been a criminal act now ceased to be one, nor did it mean stripping the honour from those who took part in the war; amnesty means a pardon, the recognition of the fact that tens of thousands of people who at a critical moment assessed the sense of the war differently cannot be considered criminals.

An international commission was asked to work out an idea on independent observers in Kosovo. The arrest of extremists in Hrtkovci looked like a coordinated action with the arrest of "Yellow Wasps" in eastern Bosnia on charges of looting and violence... Right in the middle of Belgrade, the "White Eagles" threatened Milosevic's physical integrity unless these groups are released (placing him in an even more tricky situation in view of his claims that there are no para-military formations in Serbia).

The situation is very unfavourable for the Serbian regimne. Panic's efforts to do something in world and the Balkan capitals have remained in the shadow of the latest tragedy in Sarajevo in which two war orphans were killed. Pressure is mounting in the world media for military intervention in Bosnia. Panic has invited the international community to establish whether concentration camps exist in Bosnia. His federal authorities are trying to prove that they have nothing to do with war crimes there.

In this context, strong support from rebel Serbian leaders in Bosnia can hardly suit Milosevic in view of the grave accusations of "ethnic cleansing" and the existence of concentration camps levied against them, which they denied in Belgrade... Belgrade is obviously becoming hostage to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's policy.

It is no longer clear who listens to whom. The increasingly open arbitration of Serbian leaders in "dispersion" in political conflicts in Serbia itself is more obvious than Belgrade's influence on them.

President of the Serb Republic of Krajina Goran Hadzic, who in wartime was vacationing in Sveti Stefan, claimed that Milosevic has "secured a place in history" and that his fall would make the Serbian people outside Serbia unhappy and upset the plans which he believes are close to being fulfilled...

If the Serbian question is a democratic one (Cosic), then why are individual Serbian leaders trying so hard to obstruct democratic processes in Serbia and to serve as the Belgrade regime's Pretorian guard? Did someone inspire them or are they reacting by inertia of the authoritarianism of provincial armed leaders?

The opposition's minor triumph in Parliament oin July is overshadowed by very grave, dangerous and distressing accusations.