From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Nikola V. Malenovic )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Serbia in a Cracked Mirror (VREME NDA 6.Apr 1992)
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:02:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.16480
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
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    Serbia in a Cracked Mirror
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                                  XENOPHOBIA


           If   at  the   beginning  the   Serbo-Croatian  war  was
           characterized   by  fervent   chauvinism,  its   end  is
           characterized  by xenophobia,  devastated public opinion
                        and a complete lack of criteria

    A real public scandal erupted at the session of the Parliament last week
    during  a debate  about the   new law  on refugees,  intended primarily,
    according to Minister  Stanko Cvijan, "to ensure the  return of Serbs to
    their homes in Croatia". One of the MPs skeptically remarked that around
    50% of  the refugees have no  intention of going back.  It was suggested
    that  "buying  apartments  and  staying  in  Serbia  for  good should be
    temporarily forbidden for refugees", since "it is in the interest of the
    Serbian people to make them return to where they came from". It was said
    that  this  rule  should  also  refer  to  Serbs  coming  from Kosovo. A
    Socialist MP from Gornji Milanovac  advised that no army conscripts from
    Krajina should  not be given even  temporary jobs in Serbia.  Mr. Seselj
    (leader of the  extreme right wing party) demanded  that the refugees be
    given permission to move into  Croatian houses in Vukovar, Ilok, Baranja
    and along the Dubrovnik coast, and advocated a mass retaliation.

    This favorite of the Serbian President on April 1 threatened Croats from
    Vojvodina with retaliation.  ("We won't kill you, we'll  just put you in
    trucks...") because  of what has being  going on with Serbs  in Croatia.
    After  Mr. Skenderovic,  an MP  of the  Union of  Croats from Vojvodina,
    vigorously protested against Seselj's statement that "Croats should move
    outside the  frontiers of this  state", the Socialists  shouted "So they
    should!". Skenderovic just answered: "Thank  you, gentlemen, at least we
    know now where we stand".

    A request  made by  Mahmut Memic  that the  Parliament should dissociate
    itself from "eye for an eye"  principle fell on deaf ears. The chairman,
    Vukasin  Jokanovic, briefly  said that   "there is  no need  for further
    discussion  on  this  matter"  and   the  Socialist  MPs  chuckled  with
    satisfaction,  forgetting  that  in  the  future  state  of  Serbia  and
    Montenegro around 40% of citizens will be of non-Serbian nationality.

    According to certain analysts,  Milosevic has ruined Seselj's reputation
    as a member of the opposition and compromised the "leftist" image of his
    own party.  He has justified  his obvious alliance  with the nationalist
    right wing, which  is the least he can do  to thank Seselj for defending
    his politics so competently. Some interpret this as an announcement of a
    future coalition government.

    A few  smaller   opposition  parties  reacted  on   the  next  day.  New
    Democracy-Movement  for  Serbia  said  that  the  fact  no  one  in  the
    Parliament  dissociated himself  from Seselj's  statements casts  a blot
    upon this institution; the Reformist Party  said that we must not remain
    indifferent when Serbian citizens  of non-Serbian nationality are openly
    threatened, since this is a crime against humanity. The lack of reaction
    is  undermining the  already  weak  parliamentarism. The  Farmer's Party
    requested that  Milosevic publicly dissociate himself  from his favorite
    and protested because Branko Kostic,  the Vice-President of the Yugoslav
    Presidency, mentioned Seselj as a candidate  for one of the posts in the
    future  federal government.  The  Serbian  Democratic Forum  from Zagreb
    appealed to  the Serbian public  to raise its  voice in protest  against
    Seselj's attacks on Croats: "We repudiate  the idea of using the victims
    of this war for denigrating those who had nothing to do with it".

    If at the beginning the  Serbo-Croatian war was characterized by fervent
    chauvinism, its  end is characterized  by xenophobia, devastated  public
    opinion and a complete lack of criteria.
                                                             Milan Milosevic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------


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