Brandenburg Gate

Vreme, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, December 25 1999

On December 17 1999, representatives of the Serbian opposition met in Berlin with high officials of the EU and the USA - the ministerial trio from the EU, high representative Javier Solana, US secretary of state Madeleine Albright were all present.(...)

DIFICULT TASK: Apart from a few politically marginal individuals from Belgrade who like to imagine themselves in the role of a commissar for denazification, the majority will agree that such, otherwise necessary journeys, do not bring direct political profit for the Serbian opposition politicians. Last week that could clearly be seen in the TV sequence, which showed the meeting participants taking seats before a press conference. Madeleine Albright was looking for a piece of paper with her name, while the Serbian representatives were passing by, somehow stiffly. Obviously, it was an important task, but it could not have been pleasant for them.

President of the League of Vojvodina Social Democrats (LSV) Nenad Canak after his return from Berlin told the journalists that "it was not pleasant to share a table with the people considered to be odious in Serbia, from Ms. Albright on... I told Solana that his name is a synonym for devil in Serbia. If there are no obvious results, those meetings can only be harmful for us."

Whether because of technology, custom, or political needs in various countries, or even because of an attempt to neutralize war and interventionist roles from 1999 ("we have nothing against the Serb people. Our fight is only with Milosevic") our opposition has been so far invited to many meetings. So far, the guests have benefited far less from these meetings than their hosts. A new, not yet patented rule states that Ministries of Foreign Affairs are after all not convenient for making of domestic policy.

"SATANIZATION": A story has it that Nikola Pasic [Serbian prime minister in the early twentieth century; considered by some to be the greatest Serb politician ever], in spite of opposition from his advisors gave a passport to Dimitrije Tucovic [a Serbian Socialist politician, died in WWI] with a following remark: "He will speak badly of Serbia, but he will speak about Serbia..." At the time when the ruling structures of this country have been ostracized by the world, and the opposition de facto taken over the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the rigid and apparently increasingly panicky regime does not share Pasic's vision. The regime propaganda machinery simply goes nuts whenever someone gets a visa to visit the EU. Tanjug [the official Yugoslav news agency], in its commentary tells us that the meeting in Berlin was "a test of obedience and persistence of the chosen vassals from Serbia and Yugoslavia"; a commentary of the Serrbian Television RTS called the representatives of the Serbian opposition "traitors". Politika Ekspres says in its commentary that the opposition will be "offered a carrot, garnished with condemnations and threats to the bombed country..." The New Democracy (ND) [a small opposition party] condemned in its statement "silly, malicious and envious comments from the pro-regime media", and many have stopped paying attention to that "satanization". However, recent public opinion polls indicate that a significant part, actually a majority of the public uses the same terms as the pro-regime media when describing European and American politicians and is even not reluctant to spice them up with various terms of sexual origin. An illustration of that built up intolerance can be seen in the graffiti on the American cultural center in Belgrade.(...)

President of the Democratic Party (DS) Zoran Djindjic was somewhat optimistic when he said that the Serbian opposition received at the meeting in Berlin support from the EU and the USA and a "package of promises". It was promised that representatives of our country will be present in all organizations discussing the future of the region and that, as guests, they will have the right to participate in the work of these bodies; their ideas will be considered and they will be "keeping a place for Serbia in that manner". Representatives of the Serbian opposition went to Berlin with four concrete projects, documentation and very specific demands: the first demand was the expansion of the project "energy for democracy", the second was the request for assistance for Serb refugees from Kosmet who are currently in central Serbia; for independent media in Serbia, above all small TV and radio stations, as well as for the establishment of a network of experts in Serbia, who would develop plans for reconstruction of the economy of the country after the formation of a democratic government. The EU and USA, according to Djindjic, gave their support to these projects and provided guarantees that on January 17 a working group for direct aid to Serbia will be formed. This group will have its own budget and will begin to implement the proposed programs.(...)

According to agency reports, actually all present representatives of the Serb democratic forces (Vuk Draskovic, Zoran Djindjic, Dragoslav Avramovic, Zarko Korac, Dragoljub Micunovic, Dusan Mihajlovic, president of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic and others) demanded from Albright and representatives of the European Union to abolish sanctions as the key precondition to get the people out of poverty and give impetus to democratization. At the press conference Micunovic emphasized that that was a meeting of the united Serbian opposition, "the only channel of Serbia towards the democratic world". Djindjic stressed that Serb democratic forces "must abolish isolation, since Milosevic hopes that isolation will continue and that, after a change in power in Russia, he will be able to reestablish Communism in Serbia".(...)

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated that the United States are prepared to abolish sanctions for air transport and oil deliveries after fair and democratic elections in Serbia. Albright said that after the meeting of the trilateral commission whose members are American and European leaders and leaders of democratic forces in FRY. The European Union and the US stated that they will "offer direct assistance" to democratic forces in Serbia and Montenegro, as well as support the preparation of "a program for economic recovery and reforms for the period after Milosevic". America and Europe are prepared to "include FRY into the free Balkans, after democratic elections," said Albright, and added that the government in Washington has decided to increase its assistance to Serb democratic forces, including the independent media from already approved $12 million to $25 million. According to Djindjic, the next trilateral meeting of Yugoslav democratic forces and leaders of the European Union and the USA will probably be held in mid January.(...)

In other words, Western misers with a snake in their pockets, sticking to the doctrine that ten years of sanctions, isolation and delay in opening of a country can only be a "cure", tried to say that they are already giving with both hands. Moreover the media have recorded several statements with a whiff of anger with the opposition and independent media (check that out!) for their insufficient efforts to inform the public about the assistance that had in the meantime arrived to Serbia...

All in all, no big news from Berlin, but all together, it was much better than Rembouillet. That is not a sign of a new chapter in relations, but it may presage a gradual thaw. Furthermore, there is no happyend in sight. Apart from a single statement by Zoran Lilic, whose status within the Socialist Party of Serbia is uncertain, that in spite of bombardment relations with Western countries should be normalized, the regime, which did not receive the expected news from the Russian elections, is working with all its might on fortification of its internal verbal rampart towards the West.

On the other hand, Predrag Simic, advisor to the president of the Serb Renewal Movement (SPO), Vuk Draskovic, in a statement for Blic News magazine says that he fears, unless the changes in Serbia occur quickly, that soon "our friends in the Council of Europe or the European Union, or our partners in Moscow, will not be the ones making decisions; instead my old acquaintance Morton Abramowitz will tell his story about humanitarian intervention and Noel Malcolm, after writing short histories of Bosnia and Kosovo, will write a short history of Serbia and prove that Serbia has never been a state and does not deserve statehood. Whenever democracy lost its battle with hard-liners, in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1999, every time hard-liners in the US and Europe took things into their hands and finished everything by cutting another piece of territory. This time also, the question is whether, finally, we shall be able to save our state. And we can save it only if it is a democratic state".