The Chronology of Disintegration

Until now, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by Bogic Bogicevic, a Serbian national. Bogicevic, however, is not the member of SDS or any other political party and is not the exponent of the politics which is tearing Bosnia apart. Therefore, he will probably very soon be put in the same brackets with an ever-increasing contingent of traitors. The collective head of state has thus, since the beginning of this year, been downgraded from being an incompetent but legal organ, where all the Yugoslav republics had their representatives, to a quasi organ of authority (it is well known who has the power) which represents the SAO Yugoslavia (SAO - Serbian Autonomous Region, analogous to SAO Krajina) in the making. The achievements of both legal and quasi Presidency in the past ten months were such that its members could at least be held responsible for "disturbing the public". Let us remember that in the beginning of January they reached a decision concerning the disarmament of all paramilitary formations within ten days. At that time it could still have been done, but not in the way the Presidency conceived it. Namely, they never specified whom the decision may concern ("...all the armed formation which are not within the Yugoslav Armed Forces or the police are to be dismissed"). The decision was meant to have political impact on the paramilitary formations in Slovenia and Croatia, but not on the armed Serbs in Croatia. Of course, it has never been implemented, since the disarmament was understood as the act of good will ("arms and equipment are to be immediately surrendered to the nearest military authorities"). Following the disarmament campaign, the citizens were shown a shocking film made by the Federal Defence Ministry Secret Service, where the former Croatian Minister of Interior Spegelj threatened that neither women nor children will be spared. Nothing happened. At that time the Presidency declined to discuss the inclusion of Serbia into the federal monetary system. The notorious series of YU-summits began, in which all the members of the Presidency, as well as the presidents of all YU republics, initially took part. At the beginning of March, on the orders of the Presidency (on the request of the Ministry of Defence) the tanks were brought to the streets of Pakrac (Slavonia). Their presence still had an appeasing effect, even on the Croatian side. The real scandal broke out a week later, when, on the request of Slobodan Milosevic and with the Presidency's blessing, the Army took to the streets of Belgrade to deal with the demonstrators. All the necessary consultations between the Presidency members were made by phone. Mesic (Presidency member from Croatia) and Drnovsek (Presidency member from Slovenia) were the only ones who opposed the use of tanks and Bogicevic and Tupurkovski (Presidency member from Macedonia) went through a lot of trouble explaining to their citizens why they backed it. The history will record the official statement of the Presidency on March 10, which mentions the "ransacking demonstrations" in Belgrade and the "brutal attack of the militant groups of demonstrators". A few days later, however, when the first massacre in Borovo Selo (Slavonia) took place, not only was there no Presidency session held, but there was also no one answering the phone. The spirits were not yet appeased when the then President Borisav Jovic (now the Presidency member from Serbia and the President of Socialists), on the request of the Federal Minister of Defence, called the session while acting as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The session lasted a few days and it was concluded that there was no need for proclaiming the imminent war danger. What followed had comic elements: in front of the TV spectators Mr. Jovic offered his resignation, explaining that "the prevailing forces within the Presidency are supporting the disintegration of Yugoslavia by unconstitutional means". He withdrew his resignation during the farcical session of the Serbian Parliament, where he was bagged not to abandon the ship in such a crucial moment. Shortly after that, Jugoslav Kostic and Nenad Bucin (Presidency members from Serbia) also resigned. Kostic followed Jovic's example and withdrew his resignation. Instead of Mr. Bucin the Presidency was honored by the presence of dr. Branko Kostic (now the Vice-President). Riza Sapundziu (the Presidency member from Kosovo) was replaced by Sejdo Bajramovic, as the only true representative of the interests of Kosovo. The outburst of panic erupted in May over the election of Stipe Mesic (then the Presidency member from Croatia) for President. The Serbian side would have none of it. It took days of "principled" debating and even the intervention of the E.C. emissaries for this matter to be settled. When the war erupted in Slovenia, by the end of July, there was no Presidency, i.e. it was "blocked" by the still undefined status of Mr. Mesic. The Prime Minister Markovic had to order the Army to enter Slovenia. Mr. Mesic was elected shortly afterwords, but it did not matter any more, since the war erupted in Croatia as well. The European Community tried to help, but it soon found out that this bunch cannot be helped, since everyone is doing what they like, regardless of any agreement. The collective head of state in mid-August reached the first decision upon "the immediate and total cease-fire in Croatia" and even managed to form a supervising commission. The commission was headed by dr. Branko Kostic. The war was getting out of control. At the beginning of September the Hague Commission took it upon itself to resolve the Yugoslav crisis. The Presidency members took part in the procedures, with the same success they had in Belgrade. The Army did its job: in mid -September the Supreme Command Headquarters, without the order of the Presidency deemed necessary by the constitution, decided to proclaim partial mobilization "due to the siege of the Army barracks in Croatia". Since the legitimacy of this act was called into question, the four Presidency members from Serbia have of their own accord proclaimed an incomplete presidency, even having the cheek to claim that such an act was constitutional. They proclaimed the immediate war danger and brought to Belgrade "the legitimate representatives of the republics and the peoples who expressed their wish to live in the common state of Yugoslavia". They held "consultations" and decided that dr. Radovan Karadzic will become the permanent club member. We should not be surprised if, by some strange manoeuvre, he should be given the right to vote in this organ which, in the seventies when it was created, served primarily for coordinating the interests of various republics. The first moves of this illegal political body, which might be legalized soon, concerned the support to Veljko Kadijevic (Federal Minister of Defence) and the decision to walk out from the Hague meeting, because dr. Kostic was dissatisfied with Lord Carrington's behaviour.