Issue 106 - October 4, 1993

One of the possible reasons for the conflict lies in Seselj's increasing strength in Serbia. According to as yet unpublished public opinion polls, since December last year, Seselj has managed to ``steal'' a third of the voters who have decided in the meantime, that they will not vote for the SPS. On the other hand, it seems that Seselj also believes that he is suffering because of his strength and links with the other Serb states. He accuses the SPS of having sold out on Knin, Lika and Western Slavonija (``in return they are getting Eastern Slavonija and Baranja''), and claims that he is in the way of such transactions

When the conflict between the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) had only been a speck on the horizon (in April this year, over the accepting of the Vance-Owen plan for Bosnia), some opposition leaders claimed that it was up to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to decide how long SRS leader Vojislav Seselj's political life would last

The break with Seselj and the campaign following in its aftermath, could lead to the conclusion that the Socialists are getting out of the war, that they are washing their hands of everything and that they are laying the blame on their former first ally

So far, Serbia has been ruled by a many-headed monster, one with Socialist and Radical heads, and many arms, all of which were armed. Now the citizens queuing up for bread and milk are watching to see which hand will cut another one off and how this mutilated monster will continue to live

The Muslims have rejected the plan because they are still discreetly flirting with the Americans, and not because they want to get something out of the Serbs with hard negotiating tactics

Fear of a repetition of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian pattern, i.e., the drawing up of borders by force and internal political turmoil, have forced Zagreb to adopt a neck or nothing stand

``We do not want war with Serbia because we are brotherly peoples but we want Serbia to respect Montenegro as a state and the Montenegrins as a people,'' said a demonstrator in Cetinje where an international symposium on 19th century Montenegrin ruler and writer Petar Petrovic Njegos was interrupted.

It's been more than a week since the abduction of Dusan Reljic, and all we heard was just whistling in the dark. Serbian Minister of Information Milivoje Pavlovic is the only official who actually said something about the case, but it would have been better for all if he kept his opinion to himself