An Assembly of Sinking Serbian Hopes

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was cunning and remembered that the Sava Conference Center was the place where Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had experienced his moments of glory not so long ago. Sava Center is the place where he forced the unfaithful members of the then League of Communists of Yugoslavia into unity. Three years ago Milosevic spent the night there as a Communist and with the sunrise emerged as a Socialist. Finally, Sava Center is the place where he announced that all those "who are not with us" could leave Yugoslavia, something he later wholeheartedly helped them do.

"To spend the night in Sava Center with Milosevic" in Belgrade's political jargon means that one will agree to what one does not wish to, or be outvoted. That is why Karadzic decided to stay away and count on Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj's presence. Seselj attended the session of the pan-Serbian Assembly of "all five Serbian parliaments" only to walk out and make something akin to a theatrical performance and political demonstration. Perhaps he misses the cameras which until recently, at the order of the authorities promoted him and other true patriots, but have forgotten him practically over night.

When the Radicals walked out of the Sava Center, just as the Slovenians had walked out once, Milosevic did not show any signs of nervousness. He has resolved to go to the end, in the manner of a man who has always followed the principle that "all ideas are easily realized once reality is discounted". The pan-Serbian Assembly session was attended to the end by barely 100 of the announced 800 deputies. It closed with the adoption of a declaration which once again recommended that Bosnian Serbs sign the Vance-Owen peace plan and stop the war in Bosnia. Official Belgrade will probably proclaim the declaration a great success, the state media will do their best to uphold this illusion and perhaps even Lord Owen will say a word or two of praise commending the good will to put pressure on the Bosnian Serbs. They, however, seem to have decided to resolve the entire matter concerning the peace plan with the referendum, and will not change their minds because of the declaration.

All that took place in the Sava Center on Friday, points however, to a fiasco. The pan-Serbian Assembly had been announced as the historical rallying of all Serbs, but resembled more a gathering of sinking Serb hopes. Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic looked concerned, as usual. Milosevic tried to keep a poker face. Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic kept crossing his fingers and burying his head in his hands. Seselj revelled once again in the role of a man who thinks that Serbia is blind if he shuts one eye and held lessons in democracy. Zeljko Raznjatovic Arkan (Serb paramilitary leader and MP) urged "give peace a chance" or "we need a break (peace)". Only Bosnian Serb Vice-President Biljana Plavsic smiled often. (Journalists later recorded her statement that it was a pity that the pan-Serbian Assembly had not been convened earlier, when the Bosnian Serbs had wished, because it had allegedly still been possible to persuade them to accept the Vance-Owen plan). The one-time goals of an unrealistic policy have been pared down and the enthusiasm and euphoria are slowly disappearing. There is increasing talk of survival, of saving one's head rather than of not bowing down. In the end, only the Socialists remained in the conference hall. Even their former closest allies from the so-called "patriotic bloc", the Radicals, had left. Opposition parties avoided appearing at the pan-Serbian Assembly which did not have an institutional cover, and whose only aim was to help Milosevic, albeit subsequently, find accessaries for his policy so far.

The first pan-Serbian Assembly will go down in history as a rump assembly which divided the Serbs more than it united them. All those who had for years imagined this rally as a pan-Serbian assembly which would determine the borders of all the Serbian lands and proclaim their unification, were greatly disappointed. Their belief that this is the only correct road for the future of "all Serbian lands" is increasingly further from the one urged by Milosevic who has fallen back on the proverb "that it is better to turn back half way, than follow the wrong road to the end", and that the sooner one abandons long-held false beliefs, the better. Regardless of the pain.