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Democracy in Yugoslavia: Milosevic´s Final Defeat

© Peter Weber

After four bloody conflicts Slobodan Milosevic, the “terror of the Balkans”, has met his final defeat. Sixteen months after his last war in Kosovo his criminal regime was finally swept away by a people´s revolt. Beaten in presidential elections by opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica, Milosevic has tried every trick to stay on, but when he ordered to annul the elections, the Serbian people marched upon Belgrade and stormed the Parliament. Yugoslavia´s new president Vojislav Kostunica was warmly welcomed by the European democratic leaders, who have quickly removed most sanctions against the country. But after the forthcoming elections in December the new democratic governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia have the difficult task to reconstruct the economy as well as the democratic institutions and a good neighborhood in the Balkans. First of all the new president must renegotiate the status of Montenegro and Kosovo, two regions trying to pull out of the Federation. Another critical question is the fate of the war criminals, first among them Milosevic, who would not like it to be processed at the Hague.

Clinging power

Despite the international embargo, Slobodan Milosevic, 59, has been clinging to power for more than a year after his defeat in Kosovo. His permanence in power was an insurmountable obstacle to any international aid, but the Yugoslav president did not mind for his people starving. It seemed indeed as if he was trying to imitate the miracle of Saddam Hussein, who, ten years after the Gulf War, is still keeping his atrocious command on the Iraqi nation. Methods were quite similar in Serbia and in Iraq: in both countries opposition leaders as well as disgraced supporters had to fear for their lives. With the state security service ready to carry out the vindictiveness of its master, last year in Serbia several former supporters of Milosevic´s got killed and his historical opponent Vuk Draskovic only luckily escaped two “accidents”.

Different from the dictator in Baghdad, however, the president in Belgrade had never completely removed the Yugoslav Constitution and its appearance of democratic institutions and this fact has now paved the way to his political end.

A window of democracy

In fact, after ten years as president of Serbia, in 1996 Slobodan Milosevic had been democratically elected by his people to a five-year term at the Yugoslav presidency, which meant little change about who was really in command of the country. Due to the nearing end of his mandate, however, Milosevic now had to face new presidential elections in order to win a new term. With the opposition split in twenty different parties, he felt quite sure to get what he asked for, especially since he was still keeping his iron grip on all media networks and papers.

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