Cobra, Grasshopper and the Hague

He, as the symbol of the former government for which arrogance was as natural as breathing, seemed to have had to personally inquire whether Kostunica will keep his previously given word with regards to The Hague and whether he will be capable of preventing the formation of a new SRS (Serbian Revenge Party) which many want to join.

The editor on duty of a local news agency slipped and made an error last Tuesday for which only a few months ago he would have been answerable by the old Information Law, and that on the basis of propagating lies and upsetting the citizens. While announcing the headline news and meetings for that day, the agency informed its users that: “At 11:15 p.m. on Belgrade´s airport, an announcement of the FRY president Slobodan Milosevic following the return from his official visit to Greece.” On that day, naturally, the current FRY President Vojislav Kostunica was returning from Greece and giving the statement and not the retired Slobodan Milosevic who, even when he does leave the suburb of Dedinje, never ventures further than New Belgrade.

Reacting to this mistake, psycho-analysts would probably immediately ascertain that this wasn´t journalistic “political sabotage” (as it was once called), but a simple subconscious reaction – unlimited power and Milosevic were synonymous here and determined our lives for too long, and we will obviously need a lot more time to start slowly forgetting and erasing the name of the former FRY president from everyday use. That spirit, by all accounts, will continue to plague the new government, or will be wound around its neck, choking it from time to time.

EXCITEMENT: To those who don´t view the policies of the new government too kindly, this wrong announcement of the news agency could conveniently “fit in” as a brilliant illustration for the story that nothing has really changed in Belgrade. The thesis that Milosevic and Kostunica are actually the “same” is consistently being repeated in Montenegrin media, and it is gladly (albeit, with totally different motives) mentioned by many of those in Belgrade itself for whom general Wesley Clark is probably the most important army commander in the last century. A similar question – “does Yugoslavia have a new president and old policies” – was raised these days by American state radio. The reason for such a question was Kostunica´s meeting with Slobodan Milosevic last week and the first official announcement that the current and the former presidents, amongst other things, had spoken about Kosovo and the unfortunate relations in the federation. American state radio asked how is it that Kostunica is talking about the future relations with Montenegro with Milosevic first and only afterwards with his comrades in arms from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS).

The Kostunica-Milosevic meeting has truly upset many in DOS, especially those who claim that there is nothing to talk about with the former FRY president because his place is in jail. DOS reactions were actually extremely diverse – Zarko Korac and Vladan Batic sounded fairly mad; Dusan Mihajlovic claimed that he trusted Kostunica but that he doesn´t know what one can talk about with Milosevic; Covic noted that the meeting came at a wrong moment; Canak´s party inquired whether that meeting means a “revival of a political corpse”; Jozef Kasa was first angry, and later said that the feeling had passed after the president of FRY explained and that he absolutely agrees with him; Slobodan Vuksanovic claimed that the issue was overly dramatized for no reason; while Zoran Djindjic on the one hand ascertained how Kostunica, by his decision to meet Milosevic, made a “decent gesture”, while on the other he voiced doubts whether the former FRY president is a decent interlocutor for any serious political topics. Even though many claimed that the meeting between Kostunica and Milosevic in the Palace of the Federation will serve as a gentle blow to Djukanovic in accordance with the thesis that the new rulers in Belgrade are permanently connected to their predecessor, the Montenegrin president, in a newspaper interview, expressed his understanding for Kostunica´s efforts to meet with politicians from the opposition, as well as for his attempts to “stop a certain radicalism in the demands for a quick and efficient break with the past”.

As to what the topic of the conversation really was between the former and current presidents of FRY one can only guess, and especially after the second (“corrected”) announcement from the cabinet of Vojislav Kostunica which states that they also spoke about the implementation of the republic law on the Rights of Former State Officials. According to some information, certain Socialist Party of Serbia´s (SPS) politicians were trying to set up this meeting for days following a demand by their party chief. Therefore, the stories about arrests and legal charges had most probably forced Slobodan Milosevic to cross the Sava River, head towards the Palace of the Federation and inquire what he can count on in future. He, as the symbol of the former government for which arrogance was as natural as breathing, seemed to have had to personally inquire whether Kostunica will keep his previously given word with regards to The Hague and whether he will be capable of preventing the formation of a new SRS (Serbian Revenge Party) which many want to join.

MATIC´S STYLE: Many of those from the new government have been persistently repeating in the last couple of days that guarding Milosevic is a way too expensive task and that special and additional security which were previously given him by Vlajko Stojiljkovic must be immediately revoked. Such statements coincide with the writings of certain foreign newspapers (who once again call upon sources from Belgrade) that allegedly in the vicinity of Dedinje “bounty hunters for the five million dollar prize” have already appeared which, as of the summer of 1999, the US will offer to all those with reliable information on Milosevic´s whereabouts. Budapest´s Nepsabadsag claimed last week that two detailed plans for Slobodan Milosevic´s arrest already exist in Belgrade. According to the plan under code name “Grasshopper”, Milosevic would be picked up at a public meeting. The second plan, under code name “Cobra”, expects commandos to catch him asleep in his house in a quick raid before Senta has a chance to react. The deadline for both of these actions is the end of April of this year. Otherwise, the ease with which the Hungarian reporters uncovered “Grasshopper” and “Cobra” irresistibly reminds us of the style of a former federal minister known for his unrestraint in recognizing and uncovering similar conspiracies.

Regardless of the credibility of these stories by which “Cobra” would be faster than Carla del Ponte and would “put” Milosevic “away” in a certain prison instead of the one at The Hague, the former FRY president obviously never was in a more pitiable position. The republic law on the Rights of Former State Officials has been abolished, and the one on the Special Rights of the President of the Republic, according to all counts, pertains exclusively to Milan Milutinovic (which is why it was previously referred to as “Milutinovic´s law”). According to that law every president of Serbia would in future have a special pension in the amount of 85 percent of his presidential salary, the right to lifelong personal security and security for his family, an official car, driver and administrative personnel. Surmises appeared in certain newspapers these days that Milosevic, who obviously never even dreamed that he could lose the elections one day, had to go to the Palace of the Federation to inquire what he, as the former president, is entitled to, especially with regards to personal security. Relying on unidentified sources from DOS, Glas Javnosti daily claims that during the conversation Milosevic also announced the intention of his son Marko to return to the country soon from his voluntary exile and inquired about the security of his own family. If that story is true, Marko would first be faced with compulsory military service (the one served under a private party during the war doesn´t count), followed by the risk of having to spend certain time in socially-useful work in case, naturally, it is true that he left the country with a false passport and under a false name.

WHO IS ACTUALLY CONFUSED: Unlike the first meeting between Kostunica and Milosevic on Oct. 6, which significantly contributed to the calming of tensions after the tumultuous street events, this second meeting was described by certain politicians and the media primarily as a “confusing event”. Partially due to all the possible connotations of Milosevic´s public appearance as the man from “The Hague list”, partially due to the slight confusion in the initial “handling” of such a delicate topic, and most due to the closeness of Kostunica finding time for his predecessor and his stubborn unavailability in the case of Carla del Ponte, many forgot that meetings of the president of the state with politicians from the opposition is something that is listed in the description of his job. Whatever the reason for this meeting, it is only human that Milosevic is concerned about his future and is asking for a meeting, and it is also human for Kostunica to hear him out as long as what many are now claiming is proven true – that the previous government had left behind too many inhuman and dishonorable trails.

Kostunica himself could, apart from the necessity of differing in his work mode from his predecessor, call upon another incomparably stronger argument: he is one of the rare former opposition politicians who had consistently avoided meeting Milosevic, at the height of his power as well as at the time when such meetings could have been interpreted as giving support to a bankrupt regime with various public or secret deals. As to why the entire country today is facing bankruptcy, why we are the most corrupt country in Europe, why we had quarreled with the entire world for years, is the court in The Hague controversial and for what reason, or why was Milosevic ousted by a revolution instead of by a regular and normal change of government – needs yet to be determined by an honest investigation, even if it seems as though some things are obvious even when viewed from space. Without all of this, it could soon once again resemble those times when Milosevic invited Azem Vlasi for talks and then immediately arrested and convicted him because “everyone” demanded it of him.

The confusing implications of this meeting originate, in a large measure, also from the fact that hardly anyone trusts the system here. What remains from the lengthy period of Milosevic´s rule is first of all the unusualness of talking to anyone from the opposition. From those times the habit has also remained that (even if such a thing occurs) it is immediately followed by some kind of deal, some private lex specialis, or at least a conviction that every government has a right to its own lesser or greater dirty laundry and secrets which don´t have to cost much.