Democracy in Yugoslavia: Milosevic´s Final Defeat - Page 6
© Peter Weber
Yet it is also possible that the new president of the remainders of Yugoslavia (with less than 50% of its former territory and population) could soon find himself at head of an even smaller entity. Or, similar to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, at head of a state that has already disappeared. To counter this risk and to evidence that a new chapter has been opened, Kostunica has now declared that he is willing to drop the name Yugoslavia in favor of Serbia-Montenegro, since the former has ceased its existence with the departure of Slovenia and Croatia in 1991.
While he was facing these domestic problems, Kostunica has at least found a warm welcome by European and world leaders. The devastating oil-embargo was immediately removed and other steps followed in order to normalize economic relations with the rest of Europe. Most keen on dropping all sanctions were Serbia´s traditional allies Greece and Italy. On their summit in Biarritz on 14th October the EU-leaders promised a new “Marshall-Plan” granting at least 2.3 billion Euro (2 billion $) in order to support the democratic change and economic reconstruction in Serbia.
After ten years of isolation and war economy Yugoslavia´s economic situation is more than desperate. Serbia´s GDP has shrunk to little more than a third of its previous value, inflation is out of control and average wages are at a miserable 38$ a month. The foreign debt has soared to a record amount and the currency reserves are at minimum. While most of the infrastructure is destroyed, there is little hope for getting international investors arriving in numbers.
Kostunica could be the right man to change this. But resentments in Serbia over the NATO-bombing last year are still strong and he must pay attention not to appear as a mere puppet on western strings and dollar bills. Up to now he has done well, winning many hearts, to which helped him especially the touching pictures of the joyful people on the streets of Belgrade. But that does not mean Serbian nationalism is dead. As a moderate nationalist Kostunica appears to be much more reasonable than his predecessor, but nobody should think that he will always do what the West would like.
An open question is still the fate of Milosevic and his assistants, who are wanted by the International Court at the Hague. Reply to the international community´s request to process them as war criminals, Kostunica, a politician with a strong Nationalist ideology, has always declared that he has no intention to extradite Milosevic to the West. Other leaders of the winning coalition, such as Zoran Djindic, were less pleasant and asked that all leading figures of the former regime be at least removed from their positions. In the very weeks of the revolt in Belgrade the Croatian government in Zagreb has finally made up its mind on the issue of war criminals, handing over to the International Court some of their worst butchers of the recent wars.
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