The War which is Tearing Us Apart

The war can only contribute to the deepening of the misunderstanding between the nations. It is destroying the reputation of our country abroad. Our democratic and economic growth has been thwarted, the war has initiated a hostile political response within the neighbouring nations and this will affect us all. Although the war aims are not totally clear, its consequences are becoming increasingly so. The war achievements of Serbia are clear enough: the devastated economy; the victims of violence and injustice being proclaimed bolsheviks and warmongers in the civilized world; for the first time in its history Serbia is left without a single ally; the sudden promotion of the aggressive individuals into national tribunes and war heroes and the most horrible of them all - the hundreds and thousands of the dead and maimed, the majority of which do not know what they were dying for and why they were maimed. We do not believe this war to be justified. We do not trust the ones who are behind it. Even less the ones who are, wittingly or unwittingly supporting it. We do not believe in the victories which lead into new wars. We consider that the peaceful solution to the crisis should be reached as soon as possible and the peace established, whereby the national, political and religious groups will have their rights guaranteed, where the end will be put to the death propaganda and which will support the ideals and the wishes of the young". The signatories of this appeal is a group of members of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science. This protest of conscience has come in the week when the militant section of the Belgrade University has come out with the request that the University be closed and the general mobilization proclaimed, in the month when the Writers' Association refused to condemn the war and when the leadership of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science stated that the attitude towards the war should be the personal matter of every individual member. The protest of the Serbian academics against the war certainly represents another sign of change in the political climate in Serbia, which is shocked by the extent of the atrocities in Vukovar. The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science, which was issued five years ago and which was considered to be the epitome of "Serbianhood", neither clearly defined the Yugoslav and the Serbian problems nor did it sense the changes in the East. It is this very document which has turned out to be the outline of the crucial political concept in Serbia. The Memorandum criticized the feudalization of Yugoslavia at that time and argued for the formation of the democratic federation, although many thought the document to be the end to the Serbian quest for Yugoslavia. The crucial parts of this document are inspired by the enthusiasm for the state-owned mixed economy and for the protection of state property, or rather, for the system which was in force before 1965, when some of the now influential academics were in power. In the part of the Memorandum referring to the economy, it says that in that same period the highest growth rates were recorded, which was the way to neutralize the Yugoslav "profiteer" school of economic thought. The academics were hoping that Milosevic will dismiss his closest associates who were ideological inquisitors. In autumn 1987, when he came to power, Cosic (Serbian nationalist writer) criticized "the ones who want to turn Serbia into a Stalinist caldron and wanting to withdraw the already negligible freedom of speech from the journalists". Elected with the help of the "military junk", Milosevic could relax in his new post only when the academics started to praise him. Two years ago, Dobrica Cosic called Milosevic "the most popular Serb of this century". At the time of the discussion concerning the constitutional amendments in October 1988, Mihajlo Markovic (an Academy member and the Vice-President of Milosevic's party)) stated that in Serbia "a new wave of young political leaders who were intelligent enough to realize that they could not survive in politics without the support of the masses has emerged" and that "the people have once again become the subject of historical concern".

All of this, however, does not diminish the gesture of conscience of the group of academics. That, however, is hardly enough, since Serbia needs a new political platform. It is a big question whether the Serbian cultural elite, which is predominantly nationalist, is intellectually or psychologically prepared for the big task of spelling out the Serbian political concept in view of the overall Yugoslav catastrophe. This would be very difficult to achieve while the war is still in progress, while Serbia is in isolation and the fate of its people is in the hands of the irresponsible individuals.