Politician out of hobby

Journalists also never forget to mention how General Stevanovic is one of the rare commanders who flies and who frequently sits at the commands of our "plane above all planes," the Mig-29. What is as a rule not mentioned in these interviews is that General Stevanovic is one of the rare commanders of the army (which describes itself as professional and non-ideological) who likes to arbitrate in matters of a political nature. So much so that, even though he is commander of the airforce, he can easily be considered the Yugoslav army's unofficial spokesman.

General Stevanovic very clearly showed that he has ambitions to deal in political judgements, which otherwise does not fall in the sphere of his duties, during the period of silence before the elections. In an interview to the daily Vecernje Novosti, General Stevanovic's response to the question of how he had reacted to the then Prime Minister Milan Panic's flattering offer that he become defence minister in the federal government was: "I did not accept the offer for several reasons. Firstly, moral and political ones. I believe that no honorable and patriotically oriented general would, under the present circumstances, agree to be minister in Panic's government..." After this statement, made two days before the elections, there was not much doubt among most analysts as to how the "de-politicized" army of Yugoslavia, or at least certain parts of it, would have acted in the event that Panic and opposition parties had really won the December elections and whether the handing over of power in Serbia would have been carried out normally. Even if there had been some dilemmas about this, they were cleared up by General Stevanovic himself some ten days ago in talks with retired army officers and civilians in Zemun.

"The external factor nurtured great hopes in the past elections, expecting that forces loyal to it would win and enable it to impose without any problems its own solutions to the Yugoslav crisis," General Stevanovic said on the occasion. "To that end, certain leading figures in the west openly came out and told people who to vote for, and making threats if the outcome of the elections was different. Our people have never accepted threats. That happened this time again and patriotic forces triumphed in the elections, that is, forces which the people were convinced were patriotic, truly of the people, which are not exponents of anyone and which will defend to the end the right of the people to freedom, survival and bare life. With that, our people have remained faithful to their tradition and preserved the genesis and essence of their national being." At another meeting with reserve officers in Belgrade, General Stevanovic referred to the recent statement by Federal Foreign Minister Ilija Djukic that Yugoslavia would not act in the event that U.S. transport planes begin the action of delivering humanitarian aid to the Moslem population in Bosnia from the air. "Why is Ilija Djukic rushing to say how we in Yugoslavia will not act. Why doesn't he say that we will act, or at least be silent..."

It is also interesting to notice that General Stevanovic, who obviously likes excursions into politics, has so far never in his public addresses dealt with criticism of the army, in whose leadership he sits, even though criticism has for months been directed at it from the ranks of the "patriotic forces". Quite some time ago Serbian Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic, while underscoring how Serbia never was at war, laid the responsibility for the wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia on the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Last week in New York, former warehouse keeper and current president of the Republic of Serb Krajina Goran Hadzic in talks with the press revived this favourite theory of "patriotic forces". Asked what he thought of war crimes, Hadzic responded that Serbia has never been at war, and that war crimes, if there were any at the time of the war in Croatia and the Krajinas, could have been committed only by the JNA which had waged that war. It is impossible that the well-informed general could have missed hearing Hadzic's statement,which with its unscrupulousness surpasses everything he has ever said.

What is nevertheless encouraging in most public addresses by General Stevanovic is his championing for the adoption of a new constitution that would finally be respected by all, instead of the existing one which is "disputed by half the parties." Under the new constitution, which "everyone will respect," the commanders of our airforce would be obligated to care only about the skies and would not be permitted, in their free time, to divide members of the "heavenly people" into "patriots" and "traitors." The General Staff would, after all, always react to such a violation of the Constitution.