In the last municipal elections three years ago, Kragujevac voted for the opposition Together coalition, made up of the moderate Serbian Renewal Movement and the pro-Western Democratic Party. The two parties control 40 seats in the city assembly, compared with 21 held by Milosevic's Socialist Party and one by the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party. Before the war, economic life in Kragujevac revolved around the Zastava Yugo factory, which employed 30,000 workers. A rickety tin can of a car, the Yugo was a joke abroad but a success story in Yugoslavia, at least at first. When the old Yugoslav federation fell apart in 1991, the Yugo's supply and marketing systems also disintegrated, and the factory gradually became an industrial dinosaur.
Zastava workers insist that weapons production was limited to pistols and hunting rifles.
This is a question of survival now. Most of the people who worked here have crossed over the edge of poverty. Beko concedes that the Yugo plant was outdated, and that its destruction by NATO bombs could represent an economic opportunity. If Yugoslavia were eligible for Western credits, a much more efficient factory could rise from the ashes. Before the war, negotiations were underway with Italian automaker Fiat on a joint venture, but those plans have been put on hold indefinitely.