November 1, 1999
It's been more than 4 months since airstrikes ended but "Alliance for Change (Money)" absolutely did nothing to topple Milosevic and his associates. Lame excuses from leader Zoran Djindjic and the rest of them are not bought by Serbs or international community. In the next four days they will report to the "Freedom House" , who invited them BTW, on their achievements. No one from American Government wants even to talk to them right now. Maybe they will convince someone to listen their lame excuses.
This is the first commentary since the end of airstrikes and there was a very good reason for that. I didn't want to be accused for sabotaging their weak efforts and provide them one more lame excuse. In the meantime, Zoran Djindjic (leader of Democratic Party and Alliance for Change) offered his resignation by the end of this year if he doesn't succeed in Milosevic's removal. Well, there are only two months left and except him and couple of his followers, no one doubts that Milosevic will remain in power on January 1st. Why did he fail?
His fall started with the beginning of airstrikes when he decided to go to some hideout in Montenegro and stop his political work. Milosevic knew that Kosovo was lost and the only thing he really wanted badly was to use airstrikes for destroying already weak democratic opposition in Serbia. Milosevic doesn't care about Serbia, all he cares is his villa in Dedinje and Pozarevac. Because they are not located on Kosovo, loss of this part of Serbia had no impact on him. What happened to the opposition?
After couple of days of airstrikes, Slavko Curuvija (owner of Dnevni Telegraf) was assassinated, Djindjic ran to secret hideout in Montenegro, Vuk Draskovic became vicepresident of FRY and defender of Milosevic and genocide against Albanians, Radio B-92 was taken by the government, Opennet.org (B-92, Media Center etc.) taken by the government as well, and all who were not against NATO or were against genocide were declared traitors. After airstrikes, Vesna Pesic (leader of Civic Alliance) was forced to exile in Montenegro, all Montenegro papers were banned, magazine "Reporter" from Republika Srpska was banned too. All who refused to participate in Kosovo massacres were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms. As you see, former coalition "Together" that succeeded in wining local elections in 1996 is completely destroyed and their leaders submitted to Milosevic's iron rule.
NATO certainly have won but the point is whether Milosevic really wanted to defend Kosovo or he just wanted to clean Serbia from opposition. Does anyone know when was the last time Milosevic visited Kosovo? 1989 maybe? Since war in Yugoslavia started in 1991, Milosevic rarely appeared in public not to mention his visits to other parts of Serbia, especially Kosovo. In Milosevic's mind, airrstrikes were tremendous victory for him. Yes I know, you will say that he is a lunatic and I agree 100%. Nevertheless, opposition itself played a big role in helping him achieve that. We don't recall massive arrests of members of opposition parties, their executions or even ban of their work. They got scared, confused and not ready to take a strong stance like FS Net did from the day one. If you want to destroy Milosevic then you have to be prepared for his dirty games, persecutions and name calling. We did receive lots of nasty letters but there were more letters of support which confirmed that people support those who fight and know when to take a stand. Many polls on Democratic Party web site showed similar results. Everyone knows that Milosevic will not go quietly and that we must be prepared for fight not for some idiotic opposition meetings, pointless walks through cities, stupid statements etc.
Do you remember any statement in which Alliance for Change even mentioned genocide in Kosovo? Do you remember any statement where they called people for uprising? Do you remember any statement where they mentioned war crimes in Kosovo and war criminals responsible for them? However, you certainly remember Democratic Party statement in which they call their supporters to join VJ and special police (we all know what they did). We remember their anti-NATO statements as well. It seems that opposition has been assimilated by the Milosevic's clique. It is very hard to distinguish rhetoric of opposition and rhetoric of the government. They are all constantly more concerned for Serbs in Kosovo than Milosevic's removal. It seems that they are unaware that Kosovo will become independent in 2002 if Serbia doesn't change its government. Prime directive is to remove Milosevic as soon as possible and prevent permanent loss of Kosovo rather than trying to accuse KFOR of not protecting Serbs.
Instead of all this, Alliance for Change, tries to lift sanctions(!?) against Milosevic's government, they want some elections in which accused war criminals would be able to participate and where fairness of those elections would be questionable at least. Several days ago in Novi Sad, Djindjic accused US and the West for their "stupid bombardments" and "stupid politics". It seems that Djindjic never did give a damn about atrocities in Kosovo against Albanians or that he accepts any responsibility for not making any stand. Lifting sanctions will not help in removing Milosevic at all. If people do get heating, eat a lot, their teams are winning international competitions than we have to ask Mr. Djindjic why the hell would they want to remove Milosevic then? Romanians didn't get rid of Ceausescu because of hunger for democracy but because their bones were freezing, their stomachs were empty and their lives worth nothing. Their only choice was to remove Ceausescu and save their lives. This is harsh but freedom was never given on the silver plate. Millions died for it during history of mankind. We just have to wonder if Serbs would have ever get rid of Turks with peaceful walks. I don't think so.
Some people will mention CSSR now and point to their Velvet Revolution. I'm really sorry, but that is simply not applicable to Serbia. Why? First, Hungarian uprising against Russian imperialism ended bloody in 1956. Hungarians never got any support from the West and Russian military force was overwhelming. Czechs and Slovaks did more peaceful version of uprising in 1968 to avoid bloodbath but the result was the same. Russian tanks were too big and well armed. What caused fall of Russian imperialism in the late '80s was not Vaclav Havel or Lech Walesa but Ronald Reagan, military power of US, star wars and the most of it, super powerful US economy. Russians went broke and they filed for bankruptcy. That's how Eastern Europe was liberated, not because of some charismatic leaders a la Vuk Draskovic. The only thing Vaclav Havel had to do was to wait for Gorbatchev's order from Moscow for pullout of Russian troops from CSSR. If USSR didn't collapsed economically, Vaclav Havel would be still a dissident in the West telling stories about 1968.
There are no Russian troops in Serbia, USSR doesn't exist, Serbia is surrounded by NATO countries or soon to be NATO countries. The only thing that holds Milosevic's power in Serbia is his police that surely can't compete with Russian army, not to mention that members of that police are Serbs not Russians. Cowardice of Draskovic in 1991 and Djindjic in 1999 helped Milosevic to build his Stalinist fortress on Balkan. It seems that Serbs need one good psychiatrist rather than 1000 charismatic leaders. Serbs look like they are hypnotized and there is no one to snap fingers and wake them up. You don't need money from the West, you don't need sanctions to be lifted, you don't need to remove Milosevic peacefully. Stop wasting time and get some heat in the streets. In Serbia today, there are less than 5,000 protesters in the streets. People want action, they want clashes with the police, they want to torch offices of SPS and JUL. If you are not willing to give them what they want Zoran than take a hike! What you are doing now is prolonging life of a dictator that will cause Serbia to be even more ruined.
But let's get real! What do you expect from someone who has luxury offices, huge leather chair, cellular phone, black limo, travels to the West every week, owns several factories in Germany. Josip Broz Tito never had all that luxury. He was never supported by Allies but he still declared uprising in 1941 against fascist terror in Yugoslavia. Four years later he was the winner. Why would Djindjic give a damn about risking all that? It is better to wait for call from Moscow and then to enter streets, light some candles and tell hunter's stories about some phony resistance. Too bad for Zoran that call from Moscow will never arrive. Ever since USSR collapsed, Kremlin gang never showed any intention of losing any "friendly" dictator. Saddam is still in power, Castro, Milosevic, cannibal Sung in Korea. It will not happen any time soon. You want power then why don't you take it, if you can.
Conclusion:
1. Sanctions should not be lifted until Milosevic holds power in Serbia
2. Alliance for Change should collapse
3. Djindjic has to leave politics permanently
4. All peaceful and meaningful walks and demonstrations should be abandoned
5. There are plenty of weapons in Serbia
6. There are plenty of people who would rather risk their lives for freedom than wait for Godot
End of transmission
FS Net Editor