The Archives

Milosevic's gendarmerie did not seize the building of Panic's police to take what is reportedly Serbian property. They went in there to remove from the archives the compromising material on the involvement of the republican authorities in the war and state crime. Fear of standing trial abroad and at home for war crimes has compelled the guilty to cover their tracks that lead back to organizing the war, national chauvinist propaganda, arming gangs of thieves, liquidating people, ethnic cleansing and the illegal accumulation of wealth by high-ranking police and party figures. Mr. Kertes knows best where such information is kept in the Building. But he is not aware that he knows many things ...

The Socialists do not engage in television duels with opposition party leaders any more. They have buttoned up their illegal secrets in the trench coats of their past, afraid of any kind of public revelation of the history of a fratricidal dance. Their mistake lies in their inability to use the general fear of civil war, and attempt to reach agreement with the opposition on forming a coalition government after the early elections. In this way, they would be protected from revanchism, they would retain some power, and could even negotiate with the opposition on who to sacrifice to justice for the war crimes. It seems that they are bogged down in illegal muck deeper than is presumed, and do not believe that an agreement of any kind with the opposition could save them. The attack on the federal police archives testifies to this.

The time is approaching when perhaps the current regime will ask the opposition to pass an amnesty bill for all persons involved in the organization of the war. It is only now that one sees how greatly the Socialists had erred earlier when they failed to pass their own amnesty bill for all citizens who refused to go to war! It would have cost them nothing, because mobilization as ordered Dr. Jovic was unlawful in any case. Had they done it then, today they could have asked (while still in power) the opposition to grant them amnesty for legal responsibility for the war - because they were the ones who infringed on the law by mobilizing people against the law and conducting a war in which there were far too many victims. Perhaps the opposition erred by demanding amnesty for those who were against the war, even though that would have induced several hundred thousand people to return to the country and reinforce the ranks of the opposition. The Socialists today are getting a taste of their own medicine with their unreasonable refusal to accept the opposition's proposal to pass an amnesty bill, as they are the ones who feel persecuted.

The federal authorities and the opposition cannot resolve the conflict with Mr. Milosevic in their favor without the army's assistance. It alone has the strength to arrest the war criminals and to maintain order in Belgrade for at least 48 hours. This is ample time for the opposition to raise the population to its feet. If Mr. Milosevic is elected president of the Socialist Party of Serbia - or "Yugoslavia" - and remains President of the Republic, then his violation of the Serbian Constitution would have reached its peak. He would only then have to proclaim himself Patriarch and President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts to elevate himself one step higher than a pontifex maximus. In fact, he may easily be included in the list of war criminals to make his arrest legitimate. This would be a clean way to remove him militarily, without a coup. Of course, the best thing for him, for the Socialists and for peace in Serbia would be for him to use the position of president of his party as an excuse to step down from the highest state office and pave the way for democratic elections.

A lot of damage would probably be incurred if he were to be ousted in a coup, and all because of political stubbornness. Without any pathos for the "Serbian nation" - he, the Serbian nation, must not emerge from this war burdened by his own guilt. Many would experience punishment for the President of the Republic as a revenge directed against the entire nation, since he is their official personification. Were Milosevic in this ending a better technician, he would step down immediately - perhaps even be awarded an undeserved medal. A state likes pharisaic decorations, because this makes it easier to get rid of the useless. But, by provoking fresh clashes, this time in Serbia, he is approaching a point where all attacks on his person are possible.

The population in Serbia, especially the Serbs, has already fallen into a diseased state of political apathy, anticipating a denouement in Belgrade. The rest of the country has become immobilized and is shaking from fear. If there are no elections, a solution can be found only by force. Perhaps everything would be over in two days. Nobody can say who would win. The opposition will lift the burden of responsibility for the war from the Serbian people, because they cannot turn their energy to reviving the country paralyzed by German neurosis in the form of guilt for war crimes and the war with the Yugoslav peoples. The very act of revealing war crimes committed by the Serbian side in this war will have an enormous psychological effect on the mythological structure of the Serbs' conscience, since they will realize for the first time that they are not a wholly heroic and just people. And what if the conflict cannot be localized to Belgrade, but spreads to all the Serbian spheres of interest, from Vrsac in the east to Knin in the west, and from Subotica in the north to Budva in the south? The Serbian nation would then carry a double guilt: firstly for cooperating with the other Yugoslav peoples in the bloodshed, and secondly for being incapable of recognizing and ousting an undemocratic regime. They would know that they are a non-historical nation, a damned race, in the end always dependent on the grace of somebody else.

The seizure of the federal police archives is a sign of Milosevic's irreconcilable war stream. It is ready to draw the entire population into the global tragedy of civil war just for the sake of a few extra weeks in power. The moment is drawing near when this will be clear - either elections or the ultimate conflict.