>
> http://www.antiwar.com/szamuely/pf/p-sz101300.html
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Decline of The West
> by George Szamuely
> Antiwar.com
>
> October 13, 2000
>
> Kostunica's Coup Unravels
>
> Last week’s coup d’etat in Yugoslavia is unraveling rapidly. President
> Vojislav Kostunica is emerging as a new type of President. He waves to
> the cameras; he gives interviews to the media; he meets foreign
> dignitaries. Yet he is in charge of nothing. He has no political party
> and no political base. He does not control the Federal Parliament. He
> does not control the Serbian Parliament. He does not control
> Montenegro. He does not control any Ministry. He does not control the
> police. Above all, he does not control Yugoslavia’s armed forces. And,
> as he reveals in an interview with the New York Times (October 12), he
> does not even control his own coalition. Kostunica won 50 percent of
> the vote – if that – in an election with a 60 percent turnout. The
> Yugoslav Presidency is essentially a powerless institution, important
> only because Slobodan Milosevic occupied it. The Yugoslav President,
> for example, is not the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. The
> Supreme Defense Council commands the armed forces. This body comprises
> the President of Yugoslavia, the President of Serbia, the President of
> Montenegro, the Yugoslav Defense Minister and the Yugoslav Army Chief
> of Staff. Since Montenegro President Milo Djukanovic is likely to
> continue boycotting the Supreme Defense Council, Kostunica is
> outnumbered 3 to 1 by Milosevic loyalists.
>
> The United States and the European Union poured hundreds of millions
> of dollars into Yugoslavia over the years trying to oust Slobodan
> Milosevic. They ended up with no popular, national hero in the Lech
> Walesa or Vaclav Havel mould; rather a not terribly bright, pedantic
> protégé, one who can only achieve power by thuggery, media attention,
> and large infusions of foreign cash. As ever, the NATO project is
> failing. Since last week throughout the country drunken mobs have been
> storming the offices of factories, coalmines, banks and universities
> and forcing people to resign. Armed gangs seized the National Bank as
> well as the Customs’ office. The managers of Yugoslavia’s largest gold
> mine and smelter were kicked out, as were the managers at Zastava, the
> country’s giant carmaker. The Director of the Kolubara coalmining
> complex was thrown out, as was the Director of Yugoslav Coal
> Production.
>
> This lawlessness has not escaped the attention of the Yugoslav
> military. Last Sunday Kostunica met the Yugoslav Army General Staff.
> At the meeting, according to the Serbian Ministry of Information,
> "concern was expressed over certain events in the country, in
> post-election period, that are not in accordance with the Constitution
> and the laws, and the position and role of the Yugoslav Army in
> resolving problems had also been considered." Sounds like a clear
> warning to Kostunica not to engage in mob rule. Zoran Djindjic,
> unquestionably the real leader of the Democratic Opposition, evidently
> decided that the time had come to try to use the same bullying tactics
> with the army. Djindjic began telling reporters about the need to
> replace Army Chief of Staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic with Momcilo
> Perisic, a former general sacked by Milosevic in 1998. "We can expect
> not only the resignation of the present chief of general staff Nebojsa
> Pavkovic, but also a wind of fresh air throughout the top ranks,"
> Djindjic said. On Wednesday Kostunica went to army headquarters – a
> highly revealing act leaving no one in any doubt as to who really
> wields power in Yugoslavia. Following the meeting, the army issued an
> ominous statement: "The army leadership drew the President’s attention
> to possible negative consequences which might result from increasingly
> violent attacks on and efforts to discredit individual Army officers
> and the Army as an institution of vital importance to national
> security and defense." Kostunica made it clear that Pavkovic was
> staying on, that he had never had the slightest intention of replacing
> him and that Djindjic does not speak for him. Like Al Gore, Kostunica
> is "his own man."
>
> On Monday, the Democratic Opposition was boasting that it had bullied
> the Serbian President Milan Milutinovic into holding elections for the
> Serbian Parliament in December and into ceding power to a transitional
> Government in the interim. Now, it looks as if there will be no
> elections until September of next year, when Parliament’s term is due
> to end. Members of Milosevic’s Socialist Party and those of Vojislav
> Seselj’s Radical Party walked out of talks earlier this week on
> forming a new government in Serbia. They vowed not to come back until
> the "end of riots, violence and lawlessness against the citizens of
> Serbia." The Radicals complained of people were being "lynched by mobs
> belonging to the illegal regime of the Democratic Opposition."
>
> The response of the Democratic Opposition was to threaten more
> violence. Djindjic issued an ultimatum. Either the Serbian Government
> sets a date for new elections by Friday or the Opposition will call
> its followers out into the streets. One senior Democratic Opposition
> official, Cedomir Jovanovic, warned the Socialists, that they will
> face "non-constitutional" pressure. Jovanovic said that the DOS would
> ask for the help of people in the streets to force the Serbian
> Government into holding early elections and to cede power to a
> "transitional government." The "people’s patience is exhausted," said
> Velimir Ilic, the Mayor of Cacak. "Serbs are so eager to see changes,
> and I do not know who…will protect Socialists if they continue to drag
> their feet."
>
> Meanwhile, the Democratic Opposition is trying to bring the Serbian
> police under its control. Serbia’s Interior Minister resigned this
> week citing a conflict of interest on account of having been elected
> to the Federal Parliament. The media reported this as a major triumph
> for Kostunica. No sooner had they done so, than Serbian Prime Minister
> Mirko Marjanovic announced that he was taking over the Interior
> Ministry himself and thereby assuming control of the police.
>
> Kostunica wants to ignore elected bodies and to set up so-called
> "crisis committees" to run the country. But no one is buying into the
> idea. According to Branislav Ivkovic, a senior figure in Milosevic’s
> Party, the "government [of Serbia] will…ignore all the decisions of
> the so-called ‘crisis committees’." In addition, all managers of state
> companies dismissed by the Democratic Opposition will be reinstated.
> The Serbian Government, he explains, "was elected on a four-year
> mandate, and it is the only one which can make legal decisions."
>
> This week Zoran Djindjic announced that the new Federal Prime Minister
> would be G17 Plus Chief Executive Miroljub Labus. Djindjic has long
> been an advocate of putting Yugoslavia into the receivership of the
> IMF. G17 Plus drew up the Democratic Opposition’s economic program,
> with all its promises to abide by IMF demands. Apparently this was all
> news to Kostunica. He announced that he had promised the job of Prime
> Minister to a member of Montenegro’s Socialist People’s Party, which
> is aligned with Milosevic. The Socialist People’s Party has, however,
> rejected the notion of establishing a "government of experts" in the
> interim. Kostunica intends to travel to Montenegro on Friday to meet
> local party leaders as well as Milo Djukanovic. Note that once again
> it is Kostunica who has to do the traveling and the paying of
> respects, not the politicians of Montenegro.
>
> Kostunica continues on his clueless and sycophantic way. "The United
> States has done too much meddling in our internal affairs," he says in
> the Times interview as if he were still running for office, "Now it’s
> meddling less than usual, so this will have a positive influence."
> "Less than usual"? The United States manipulated an election, and
> engineered his seizure of power. What does he mean by "usual"? On
> improving relations with the United States, the Times says: "If
> re-establishing diplomatic relations is in his competence as Federal
> President, he said, he will do it quickly." An extraordinary
> statement, first, in its revelation about Kostunica’s lack of
> knowledge as to what falls within his competence. Second, in its
> revelation as to the kind of "nationalism" espoused by this supposed
> "Serbian nationalist." He literally pants to win the approval of the
> very power that was bombing his country to smithereens last year.
> Third, if even diplomatic relations do not fall within his competence,
> what does?
>
> What happened in Yugoslavia was the overthrow of a legitimate
> Government by a combination of brute force and US threats and dollars.
> The people who have been hoisted into power are no democrats, but the
> servants of foreign interests. They have no power, and their attempts
> at circumventing democratic institutions are meeting ferocious
> resistance in the country. The media hacks, robbed of their "fall of
> the Berlin Wall" and "people power" story are unable to understand any
> of this. Convinced that the Democratic Opposition leaders are the
> "good guys," and that the United States is self-evidently on the side
> of democracy and freedom, they have only one explanation as to why
> events are not following the approved script: the old standby,
> "Milosevic is causing mischief." But this is an old story now, and an
> increasingly unconvincing one. By stepping down last week and not
> resorting to violence, Milosevic may well have outmaneuvered the
> Americans once again. The fight for Yugoslav sovereignty will
> continue.
>
> Please Support Antiwar.com
>
> Send contributions to
>
> Antiwar.com
> 520 S. Murphy Avenue, #202
> Sunnyvale, CA 94086
>
> or Contribute Via our Secure Server
> Credit Card Donation Form
> [Image]
>
> Your Contributions are now Tax-Deductible
>
> Back to Antiwar.com Home Page | Contact Us
---
Insitute for War and Peace Reporting
http://www.iwpr.net
THE CACAK PLOT
Veterans of the Belgrade demonstrations which toppled Milosevic claim
the
protests were planned with military precision
By Milenko Vasovic in Belgrade
The opening blows of the Yugoslav Revolution were highly coordinated
operations backed by a core of armed and committed soldiers, war
veterans
and police officers, claims one of the organisers of the uprising.
The mayor of Cacak, Velimir Ilic, a key figure in the overthrow of
Slobodan
Milosevic, told the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti that the seizure of the
federal parliament and state broadcaster, RTS, had been "carefully
prepared"
over a long period of time.
"For months we were laying down our plans," he said." Each demonstrator
was
allocated a specific task. We knew which group was in charge for each
part
of the city and what they had to do."
Ilic said utmost secrecy surrounded the preparations. He had recruited
army
personnel, retired and serving special police officers, as well as
veterans
from the Bosnian war. Leaders from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia,
DOS,
the coalition behind Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica,
were
left in the dark about the plans, the mayor said.
"Not even the policemen and special forces who took part in this action
knew
of each others existence until the very end," Ilic said.
"It's either victory or death!" Ilic told around 10,000 people who
gathered
in Cacak, before setting out in a 20-mile long convoy of buses and
vehicles
for the showdown in the capital on October 5.
People from Uzice, Nis, Gornji Milanovac, Smederevo joined the column as
it
approached Belgrade. As they converged on the city centre, their number
was
swollen by hundreds of thousands of local protesters.
The throngs of demonstrators waged a psychological war against the
police
trying to protect key buildings. One young man walked up to an officer
outside the parliament building and opened his jacket to reveal an
automatic
rifle. "I have nothing to lose," he yelled. "You have to decide for
yourself." The policeman was speechless.
Among the thousands of demonstrators who descended on the federal
parliament
and RTS building were groups armed with guns and petrol bombs and gangs
of
youths. Prominent among the latter were Red Star Belgrade football fans
keen
to take revenge for police beatings.
Ilic claims he had at his disposal ten officers from the elite 63rd
Parachute Brigade, several former state security secret agents and about
half a dozen members of elite police units. Team leaders were provided
with
walkie-talkies - some were unfortunately attacked by demonstrators who
mistook them for plainclothes policemen.
The parliament building was finally breached when the protesters
succeeded
in tricking police outside into posing for souvenir photographs,
allowing
another group to slip by the cordon and storm the entrance.
Next to fall to the protesters was the RTS building. Petrol bombs set it
ablaze forcing police inside to surrender. In the final push, a
bulldozer
was driven through the front door.
Vladan Dugonjic, a mechanical engineer from Sabac, was one of the first
to
get inside the RTS studios. Sabac, who took part in the March 1991
clashes
with police, said he had waited ten years to realise his dream - the end
of
communism in Serbia. Despite the clouds of tear gas, he said, he managed
to
get into the building and snatch a microphone away from Spomenka Jovic,
a
pro-regime journalist.
"I fell down many times, I rushed through the flames," he said. "My
sleeve
caught fire, but I was determined to get into RTS, even if that meant
losing
my sight. That building generated so much evil."
Rumours around Belgrade say another veteran of the wars in former
Yugoslavia, Dragan Vasiljevic, alias Captain Dragan, took part in the
capture of the hated state broadcaster.
Vasiljevic led a unit of Serbian volunteers during the Krajina conflict.
People under his command, it is said, captured vital RTS transmitters,
enabling the opposition to begin broadcasting over the network.
Some claim many of the protesters were paid for a 'good day's work'. One
of
Ilic's security men, Ivan Stragarevic, vehemently denies this: "We
joined
with all our heart, we didn't do it for money."
Many of the Cacak protesters had left their hometown as if going to war,
saying final farewells to their families. "We dared not return home
without
completing the job, because the police would have beaten us and put us
into
jail on the way back," said one protester.
Milenko Vasovic is a regular IWPR contributor.
> http://www.antiwar.com/szamuely/pf/p-sz101300.html
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Decline of The West
> by George Szamuely
> Antiwar.com
>
> October 13, 2000
>
> Kostunica's Coup Unravels
>
> Last week’s coup d’etat in Yugoslavia is unraveling rapidly. President
> Vojislav Kostunica is emerging as a new type of President. He waves to
> the cameras; he gives interviews to the media; he meets foreign
> dignitaries. Yet he is in charge of nothing. He has no political party
> and no political base. He does not control the Federal Parliament. He
> does not control the Serbian Parliament. He does not control
> Montenegro. He does not control any Ministry. He does not control the
> police. Above all, he does not control Yugoslavia’s armed forces. And,
> as he reveals in an interview with the New York Times (October 12), he
> does not even control his own coalition. Kostunica won 50 percent of
> the vote – if that – in an election with a 60 percent turnout. The
> Yugoslav Presidency is essentially a powerless institution, important
> only because Slobodan Milosevic occupied it. The Yugoslav President,
> for example, is not the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. The
> Supreme Defense Council commands the armed forces. This body comprises
> the President of Yugoslavia, the President of Serbia, the President of
> Montenegro, the Yugoslav Defense Minister and the Yugoslav Army Chief
> of Staff. Since Montenegro President Milo Djukanovic is likely to
> continue boycotting the Supreme Defense Council, Kostunica is
> outnumbered 3 to 1 by Milosevic loyalists.
>
> The United States and the European Union poured hundreds of millions
> of dollars into Yugoslavia over the years trying to oust Slobodan
> Milosevic. They ended up with no popular, national hero in the Lech
> Walesa or Vaclav Havel mould; rather a not terribly bright, pedantic
> protégé, one who can only achieve power by thuggery, media attention,
> and large infusions of foreign cash. As ever, the NATO project is
> failing. Since last week throughout the country drunken mobs have been
> storming the offices of factories, coalmines, banks and universities
> and forcing people to resign. Armed gangs seized the National Bank as
> well as the Customs’ office. The managers of Yugoslavia’s largest gold
> mine and smelter were kicked out, as were the managers at Zastava, the
> country’s giant carmaker. The Director of the Kolubara coalmining
> complex was thrown out, as was the Director of Yugoslav Coal
> Production.
>
> This lawlessness has not escaped the attention of the Yugoslav
> military. Last Sunday Kostunica met the Yugoslav Army General Staff.
> At the meeting, according to the Serbian Ministry of Information,
> "concern was expressed over certain events in the country, in
> post-election period, that are not in accordance with the Constitution
> and the laws, and the position and role of the Yugoslav Army in
> resolving problems had also been considered." Sounds like a clear
> warning to Kostunica not to engage in mob rule. Zoran Djindjic,
> unquestionably the real leader of the Democratic Opposition, evidently
> decided that the time had come to try to use the same bullying tactics
> with the army. Djindjic began telling reporters about the need to
> replace Army Chief of Staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic with Momcilo
> Perisic, a former general sacked by Milosevic in 1998. "We can expect
> not only the resignation of the present chief of general staff Nebojsa
> Pavkovic, but also a wind of fresh air throughout the top ranks,"
> Djindjic said. On Wednesday Kostunica went to army headquarters – a
> highly revealing act leaving no one in any doubt as to who really
> wields power in Yugoslavia. Following the meeting, the army issued an
> ominous statement: "The army leadership drew the President’s attention
> to possible negative consequences which might result from increasingly
> violent attacks on and efforts to discredit individual Army officers
> and the Army as an institution of vital importance to national
> security and defense." Kostunica made it clear that Pavkovic was
> staying on, that he had never had the slightest intention of replacing
> him and that Djindjic does not speak for him. Like Al Gore, Kostunica
> is "his own man."
>
> On Monday, the Democratic Opposition was boasting that it had bullied
> the Serbian President Milan Milutinovic into holding elections for the
> Serbian Parliament in December and into ceding power to a transitional
> Government in the interim. Now, it looks as if there will be no
> elections until September of next year, when Parliament’s term is due
> to end. Members of Milosevic’s Socialist Party and those of Vojislav
> Seselj’s Radical Party walked out of talks earlier this week on
> forming a new government in Serbia. They vowed not to come back until
> the "end of riots, violence and lawlessness against the citizens of
> Serbia." The Radicals complained of people were being "lynched by mobs
> belonging to the illegal regime of the Democratic Opposition."
>
> The response of the Democratic Opposition was to threaten more
> violence. Djindjic issued an ultimatum. Either the Serbian Government
> sets a date for new elections by Friday or the Opposition will call
> its followers out into the streets. One senior Democratic Opposition
> official, Cedomir Jovanovic, warned the Socialists, that they will
> face "non-constitutional" pressure. Jovanovic said that the DOS would
> ask for the help of people in the streets to force the Serbian
> Government into holding early elections and to cede power to a
> "transitional government." The "people’s patience is exhausted," said
> Velimir Ilic, the Mayor of Cacak. "Serbs are so eager to see changes,
> and I do not know who…will protect Socialists if they continue to drag
> their feet."
>
> Meanwhile, the Democratic Opposition is trying to bring the Serbian
> police under its control. Serbia’s Interior Minister resigned this
> week citing a conflict of interest on account of having been elected
> to the Federal Parliament. The media reported this as a major triumph
> for Kostunica. No sooner had they done so, than Serbian Prime Minister
> Mirko Marjanovic announced that he was taking over the Interior
> Ministry himself and thereby assuming control of the police.
>
> Kostunica wants to ignore elected bodies and to set up so-called
> "crisis committees" to run the country. But no one is buying into the
> idea. According to Branislav Ivkovic, a senior figure in Milosevic’s
> Party, the "government [of Serbia] will…ignore all the decisions of
> the so-called ‘crisis committees’." In addition, all managers of state
> companies dismissed by the Democratic Opposition will be reinstated.
> The Serbian Government, he explains, "was elected on a four-year
> mandate, and it is the only one which can make legal decisions."
>
> This week Zoran Djindjic announced that the new Federal Prime Minister
> would be G17 Plus Chief Executive Miroljub Labus. Djindjic has long
> been an advocate of putting Yugoslavia into the receivership of the
> IMF. G17 Plus drew up the Democratic Opposition’s economic program,
> with all its promises to abide by IMF demands. Apparently this was all
> news to Kostunica. He announced that he had promised the job of Prime
> Minister to a member of Montenegro’s Socialist People’s Party, which
> is aligned with Milosevic. The Socialist People’s Party has, however,
> rejected the notion of establishing a "government of experts" in the
> interim. Kostunica intends to travel to Montenegro on Friday to meet
> local party leaders as well as Milo Djukanovic. Note that once again
> it is Kostunica who has to do the traveling and the paying of
> respects, not the politicians of Montenegro.
>
> Kostunica continues on his clueless and sycophantic way. "The United
> States has done too much meddling in our internal affairs," he says in
> the Times interview as if he were still running for office, "Now it’s
> meddling less than usual, so this will have a positive influence."
> "Less than usual"? The United States manipulated an election, and
> engineered his seizure of power. What does he mean by "usual"? On
> improving relations with the United States, the Times says: "If
> re-establishing diplomatic relations is in his competence as Federal
> President, he said, he will do it quickly." An extraordinary
> statement, first, in its revelation about Kostunica’s lack of
> knowledge as to what falls within his competence. Second, in its
> revelation as to the kind of "nationalism" espoused by this supposed
> "Serbian nationalist." He literally pants to win the approval of the
> very power that was bombing his country to smithereens last year.
> Third, if even diplomatic relations do not fall within his competence,
> what does?
>
> What happened in Yugoslavia was the overthrow of a legitimate
> Government by a combination of brute force and US threats and dollars.
> The people who have been hoisted into power are no democrats, but the
> servants of foreign interests. They have no power, and their attempts
> at circumventing democratic institutions are meeting ferocious
> resistance in the country. The media hacks, robbed of their "fall of
> the Berlin Wall" and "people power" story are unable to understand any
> of this. Convinced that the Democratic Opposition leaders are the
> "good guys," and that the United States is self-evidently on the side
> of democracy and freedom, they have only one explanation as to why
> events are not following the approved script: the old standby,
> "Milosevic is causing mischief." But this is an old story now, and an
> increasingly unconvincing one. By stepping down last week and not
> resorting to violence, Milosevic may well have outmaneuvered the
> Americans once again. The fight for Yugoslav sovereignty will
> continue.
>
> Please Support Antiwar.com
>
> Send contributions to
>
> Antiwar.com
> 520 S. Murphy Avenue, #202
> Sunnyvale, CA 94086
>
> or Contribute Via our Secure Server
> Credit Card Donation Form
> [Image]
>
> Your Contributions are now Tax-Deductible
>
> Back to Antiwar.com Home Page | Contact Us
---
Insitute for War and Peace Reporting
http://www.iwpr.net
THE CACAK PLOT
Veterans of the Belgrade demonstrations which toppled Milosevic claim
the
protests were planned with military precision
By Milenko Vasovic in Belgrade
The opening blows of the Yugoslav Revolution were highly coordinated
operations backed by a core of armed and committed soldiers, war
veterans
and police officers, claims one of the organisers of the uprising.
The mayor of Cacak, Velimir Ilic, a key figure in the overthrow of
Slobodan
Milosevic, told the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti that the seizure of the
federal parliament and state broadcaster, RTS, had been "carefully
prepared"
over a long period of time.
"For months we were laying down our plans," he said." Each demonstrator
was
allocated a specific task. We knew which group was in charge for each
part
of the city and what they had to do."
Ilic said utmost secrecy surrounded the preparations. He had recruited
army
personnel, retired and serving special police officers, as well as
veterans
from the Bosnian war. Leaders from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia,
DOS,
the coalition behind Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica,
were
left in the dark about the plans, the mayor said.
"Not even the policemen and special forces who took part in this action
knew
of each others existence until the very end," Ilic said.
"It's either victory or death!" Ilic told around 10,000 people who
gathered
in Cacak, before setting out in a 20-mile long convoy of buses and
vehicles
for the showdown in the capital on October 5.
People from Uzice, Nis, Gornji Milanovac, Smederevo joined the column as
it
approached Belgrade. As they converged on the city centre, their number
was
swollen by hundreds of thousands of local protesters.
The throngs of demonstrators waged a psychological war against the
police
trying to protect key buildings. One young man walked up to an officer
outside the parliament building and opened his jacket to reveal an
automatic
rifle. "I have nothing to lose," he yelled. "You have to decide for
yourself." The policeman was speechless.
Among the thousands of demonstrators who descended on the federal
parliament
and RTS building were groups armed with guns and petrol bombs and gangs
of
youths. Prominent among the latter were Red Star Belgrade football fans
keen
to take revenge for police beatings.
Ilic claims he had at his disposal ten officers from the elite 63rd
Parachute Brigade, several former state security secret agents and about
half a dozen members of elite police units. Team leaders were provided
with
walkie-talkies - some were unfortunately attacked by demonstrators who
mistook them for plainclothes policemen.
The parliament building was finally breached when the protesters
succeeded
in tricking police outside into posing for souvenir photographs,
allowing
another group to slip by the cordon and storm the entrance.
Next to fall to the protesters was the RTS building. Petrol bombs set it
ablaze forcing police inside to surrender. In the final push, a
bulldozer
was driven through the front door.
Vladan Dugonjic, a mechanical engineer from Sabac, was one of the first
to
get inside the RTS studios. Sabac, who took part in the March 1991
clashes
with police, said he had waited ten years to realise his dream - the end
of
communism in Serbia. Despite the clouds of tear gas, he said, he managed
to
get into the building and snatch a microphone away from Spomenka Jovic,
a
pro-regime journalist.
"I fell down many times, I rushed through the flames," he said. "My
sleeve
caught fire, but I was determined to get into RTS, even if that meant
losing
my sight. That building generated so much evil."
Rumours around Belgrade say another veteran of the wars in former
Yugoslavia, Dragan Vasiljevic, alias Captain Dragan, took part in the
capture of the hated state broadcaster.
Vasiljevic led a unit of Serbian volunteers during the Krajina conflict.
People under his command, it is said, captured vital RTS transmitters,
enabling the opposition to begin broadcasting over the network.
Some claim many of the protesters were paid for a 'good day's work'. One
of
Ilic's security men, Ivan Stragarevic, vehemently denies this: "We
joined
with all our heart, we didn't do it for money."
Many of the Cacak protesters had left their hometown as if going to war,
saying final farewells to their families. "We dared not return home
without
completing the job, because the police would have beaten us and put us
into
jail on the way back," said one protester.
Milenko Vasovic is a regular IWPR contributor.