Slobodan Milosevic on the Memorandum

The Serbian public has been led to believe that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic never attacked the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences. The most recent example of this is the last week's statement of academic Antonije Isakovic in the Belgrade daily 'Borba'. He said that the forces which were defeated at 8th session of the Central Committee of the Serbian Communist League (i.e., Ivan Stambolic and Zoran Pjanic) had waged a campaign against this document and that the spirit of the memorandum was blamed for Yugoslavia's disintegration after the war broke out in 1991, which according to Isakovic is ``a brazen lie.'' However, the assessment that the break-up of Yugoslavia is suggested in the Memorandum actually comes from Slobodan Milosevic. At the closed meeting with the communists of the Federal Secretariat of Interior Affairs and the Institute for Security held on Banjica (Belgrade) on June 4, 1987, the then communist leader Slobodan Milosevic made a following statement (presented here word for word):

``The appearance of the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences represents nothing else but the darkest nationalism. It means the liquidation of the current socialist system of our country, that is, the disintegration after which there is no survival to any nation or nationality. Therefore, when we speak of the activities of the communists, we must be aware that any kind of flirting with nationalism or yielding to it, cannot contribute, but, on the contrary, can only halt, impede, slow down and ruin a successful political development which the Communist League has taken to be its goal. That is Tito's policy of brotherhood and unity which is the only basis which can secure Yugoslavia's survival. That is why we energetically react to all attacks on Tito and the revolution. Here at issue is not only a sentimental relationship which every our citizen justifiably and rightfully fosters towards the figure of Josip Broz Tito, the relationship towards the historical figure who created this country, but also the fact that at this point this country can survive as a socialist and federal state only on the principles of Tito's policy.''