From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Malenovic Nikola V.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Behind Closed Doors: Socialists On Milan Panic ( VREME NDA 8 Sep 1992 )
Date: 9 Sep 92 00:35:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20224
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     "Vreme" News Digest No. 50                           September 7, 1992
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Behind Closed Doors: Socialists On Milan Panic
    ----------------------------------------------


                    EMPEROR, PLANTATION OWNER AND MIDDLEMAN


    Fragments from a  closed meeting of the Socialist  Party of Serbia (SPS)
    group of  deputies held on  August 31, 1992  at which an  initiative was
    launched for a vote of confidence in Milan Panic.

    The  meeting  of  the  group  of  SPS  deputies  lasted over two hours .
    President  of the  Chamber of  Citizens and  SPS member Jugoslav Kostic,
    suddenly  told  the  deputies  in  the  great  hall  that a group of SPS
    deputies wished  to meet and  discuss certain issues  in order that  the
    session might be more efficient.

    Kostic asked  the other deputies to  allow the Socialists to  hold their
    meeting in  that hall because of  their number. Asked how  long it would
    take, he answered -- about twenty minutes. As soon as the non-Socialists
    had  left and  the doors  of the  hall closed,  leader of  the group  of
    deputies Zarija  Martinovic said that  the debate would  not be limited,
    and that the Chamber of Citizens could continue work later on.

    Zarija Martinovic said  that the group had been  called because a number
    of deputies believed  that after the London Conference  it was necessary
    to assess  if the government of  the Federal Republic of  Yugoslavia had
    taken  stands  on  matters  in  accordance  with  the conclusions of the
    Chamber of  Citizens. Other deputies  and other groups  of deputies were
    also asking these questions, said Martinovic.

    Recalling  that  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  group for drawing up
    conclusions on  the London Conference,  President of the  Association of
    Emigrants Brana Crncevic underscored that Prime Minister Milan Panic had
    made serious  departures, that he  had had seperate  talks with Croatian
    President  Franjo Tudjman  and had  agreed to  recognize Croatia  within
    Tito's borders, while they would  recognize us soon as the international
    community did so.

    "Considering that Panic is following a  policy of his own, one whose end
    we do not know,  I fear that Panic will do exactly  what he intends to,"
    said Crncevic.

    "It  is necessary  to take  a vote  of confidence  in the government and
    Panic,"  added Crncevic  and proposed  a debate  on confidence. The vote
    would be taken in three days' time, according to the Constitution.

    "A vote  of no-confidence would mean  an occasional slap in  the face by
    the international community, while a  vote of confidence would mean that
    we would be  putting the fate of the country  and people into his hands,
    that we  are backing a  man whose moves  we cannot anticipate,"  claimed
    Crncevic.

    Crncevic  criticized Panic  for asking  President Cosic  not to read his
    speech at the London Conference, and offering to give him ten minutes of
    his alloted time.  This was insulting to the  delegation, said Crncevic,
    adding that Cosic had only been one of its members and Panic's MC.

    Panic had  also met with leader  of the Kosovo Albanians  Ibrahim Rugova
    and promised the  opening of the University, which in  itself is not too
    bad, but, what will follow, asked Crncevic.

    Crncevic warned  that the deputies  carried a great  responsibility. "We
    have a  majority in Parliament, and  I could sign a  list of 20 deputies
    who demand  Panic's resignation," said  Crncevic, adding, "instead  of a
    national hero we have got a plantation owner who is prepared to sell off
    everything he considers to be his property."

    Mentioning Panic's possible dream of becoming the kind of President such
    as we  have already had, Crncevic  said that, with or  without Panic, we
    would not be in a worse position than we already were.

    Speaking as a writer, Crncevic said Panic was undescribable. "He himself
    does not know what he is going to do, with him it is a matter of impulse
    or commission."

    "I cannot be a deputy in Parliament  which has been so humiliated by one
    man," said Crncevic.

    According to one deputy, a large number of Socialists did not agree with
    Panic's programme. We were dejected during that interval (when Panic was
    being chosen), but  it had been agreed that we  should vote so, and that
    we should see what would be done later.

    SPS  leader  Borisav  Jovic  underscored  that  it  was in the country's
    interest for the government to have a stable base, and that this was the
    government  we had  voted for.  The  results  of the  work of  the whole
    delegation and the London Conference need not be negative, they may even
    be positive (this, according to Jovic needs to be assessed.)

    The matter  here pertains to  a another  issue  -- to the  fact that the
    Prime Minister  we chose and  gave a platform  to, has made  departures,
    said  Jovic.  It  is  an  irrefutable  fact  that Panic offered Croatian
    President Franjo Tudjman recognition of Croatia within existing borders,
    which is a betrayal of the Serbian people. Panic asked the delegation to
    sign a paper  to that effect, but this  was not done thanks to  the fact
    that the other members of the delegation objected energetically.

    "The political issue is important,"  underscored Jovic, "to destroy with
    one movement of the pen all that the Serbian people have won".

    "I  believe that  Crncevic is  right; I  support a  debate on  a vote of
    confidence.  He  must  be  responsible  to  Parliament otherwise he will
    become  an Emperor  who can  do as  he pleases  here, or  we are not the
    ruling party," said Jovic.

    Deputy Oskar Kovac gave additional information on the work of the London
    Conference and underlined  that he would accept every  conclusion of the
    group of deputies.  Kovac said that the Conference had  been a big show,
    and that  the documents were  important -- but  that few had  seen them.
    "Only Vlatko Jovanovic and I read them all," said Kovac.

    The  Conference had  been a  Conference on  Yugoslavia to  a very  small
    degree, said Kovac. Yugoslavia was not accepted at the Conference. Cosic
    and Panic were invited as guests and the others as presidents.

    It was a  conference devoted to the conflict  in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and
    its  positive   result  was  that   Bosnia-Herzegovina  President  Alija
    Izetbegovic was forced to accept negotiations with the others.

    "My  impression is,"  said Kovac   "that all  the participants  from the
    Yugoslav  states  have  their  sponsors  who  do  not believe in leaving
    negotiations to us, and we could come to an agreement easily, because of
    economic interests." The Conference tried  to be a Conference on Serbia,
    and this  is where President Cosic  was really at his  best, he insisted
    that  the delegation  leave the  Conference while  that document  was in
    circulation.

    The deputy who asked to speak after Kovac urged for Panic's resignation,
    but  asked how  that would  be interpreted  by the  world. He criticized
    Panic  for  mentioning  the  incident  when  a  glass  was thrown at the
    previous  Parliamentary  session,  and  underscored:  "We  do  not throw
    glasses at  each other in the  streets, let alone in  Parliament! We are
    not  vandals!"  The  deputy  expressed  concern  for  all  that had been
    achieved in blood so far, at least in the Krajinas.

    The  next speaker  said that  all which  had been  feared before Panic's
    election had come true: "In 100 days'  time he can do even greater harm,
    unless this evil is stopped. That is why I urge for a vote of confidence
    and the enumeration of reasons --  beginning with London and ending with
    the fact that  he (Panic) has started finding us  guilty of various sins
    (the plan on ethnic cleansing, whereas there is no ethnic cleansing)."

    One  of the  deputies claimed  that he  was quite  sure that  there were
    sufficient   elements  for   the  government   to  receive   a  vote  of
    no-confidence, and underlined that Milan Panic would never have been put
    up as a  candidate if he had been asked,  considering that there were at
    least five good candidates for the post in the hall at that very moment.

    During  the discussion  Crncevic said:  "I am  prepared to  sign that he
    (Panic)  will ask  for Parliament  to be  dissolved over  the next three
    days. We have  enough time. Let us see if  we have enough political will
    to effect a resignation."

    Borisav Jovic asked to speak again  and underscored that a country which
    is not capable of discussing a  vote of confidence in the government, is
    not a country at all.
                                                  "Vreme" News Digest Agency


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     "Vreme" News Digest No. 50                           September 7, 1992
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------------------
Vreme Magazine,			|telephone :	+38-11-646-070
Narodnog Fronta 45/ VIII sprat.	|		+38-11-642-743
11000 Beograd, Srbija		|telefax   :	+38-11-657-454
Yugoslavia			|6 months subscription - 85 USD (airmail)
--------------------------------------------------------------
e_mail subscription              pirot@buengc.bu.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia