http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/sep2002/serb-s23_prn.shtml
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkans
Serbia holds presidential elections two years after Milosevic's fall
By Tony Robson and Paul Bond
23 September 2002
Presidential elections are currently taking place in Serbia. Voters will
go to the polls on Sunday, September 29-almost two years to the day
since the downfall of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. The
Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), which came to power with
Western backing, still maintains the title even though it is the party
of
government.
The electoral defeat of Milosevic and the accompanying street protests
calling for his resignation were presented as a popular democratic
rebellion. However, there is a mass of evidence that what took place
was in reality a political coup orchestrated and funded by the Western
powers.
The World Socialist Web Site cautioned at the time, "One can safely
predict that the euphoric hoopla surrounding recent events in
Yugoslavia will be rather short-lived. Proclaimed by the Western
political and media establishment as the `October 5th Revolution', the
crumbling of the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia represented nothing
of the sort.... Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in the
movement against Milosevic, but from the standpoint of its leadership
and political perspective the campaign waged by the Democratic
Opposition of Serbia (DOS) could readily be labelled `made in
America'. The downfall of Milosevic's right-wing nationalist regime
was inspired, funded and organised by the very imperialist powers that
little more than a year ago were systematically bombing the Serbian
people. Their aim was then, and remains now, the assertion of the
absolute control over the Balkans, through the elimination of what they
consider to be a political impediment to their commercial and strategic
aims."
Two years on, a far more sober atmosphere dominates Serbia. The
"October 5th Revolution" failed to celebrate its first anniversary. The
much hyped pop concert in Belgrade-supposedly fronted by
Madonna-failed to materialise. The event was to have been funded by
Bogoljub Karic, a nouveau riche businessman from the Milosevic era.
The government was forced to deny that its decision to cancel the
official celebrations was influenced by a desire to avoid attention
being
drawn to its unfulfilled promises.
The anniversary coincided with a strike wave that spread throughout
Serbia. This began with the coal-miners and extended to other workers
in the energy sector, telecommunications, health and education. The
focus of this movement was opposition to legislation introduced by the
DOS government imposing a pay freeze in the public sector. However,
the terms of a standby loan negotiated between the International
Monetary Fund and the new government meant tight budgetary control.
The miners in Kolubura-who were hailed when they were in the
forefront of the protests that called for Milosevic's resignation-were
now denounced by the DOS. Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic described
the strike as "blackmail".
The DOS coalition was unable to stay together longer than a year. The
alliance was cobbled together at the last minute under pressure from the
NATO powers. Now, however, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
has parted company with his former ally, Prime Minister Zoran
Djindjic. Kostunica is contesting the elections as the candidate for the
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), while Djindjic and the Democratic
Party (DS) have endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus as
their man.
The United States and the European Union play a determining role in
all aspects of domestic policy, exercising control through the G-17
Plus-an economic think tank financed by the US government that draws
it leading personnel from former International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and World Bank employees. The G-17 Plus drafted the economic
programme of the DOS before it came to power. Its members hold
positions of influence within the cabinet and have played a central role
in introducing legislation allowing for price liberalisation,
privatisation, cuts in welfare programmes and the diminution of
workers' rights.
The main G-17 Plus representatives in the cabinet are Deputy Prime
Minister Labus, governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, Mladan
Dinkic, and Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic. In May 2001 they were
co-authors of a "Letter of Intent" to the IMF, assuring the latter that
they were committed to the liquidation and privatisation of 28 insolvent
banks. What this meant became apparent earlier this year when four of
the largest banks in Yugoslavia were closed with the loss of nearly
10,000 jobs.
Bozidar Djelic has also been responsible for the overhaul of the tax
system. In a statement dated September 10, the finance minister
announced that in the "second wave of the tax reform" corporate tax
would be reduced from 20 percent to 14 percent.
This next phase would build on existing measures to clamp down on the
grey economy and close the loopholes allowing for tax evasion. The
main purpose of this is to create a legal framework to ensure the
transparent administration of funds on behalf of foreign investors.
Djelic's statement went on to say that around 60 million euros would
have been repaid to foreign creditors-including the European
Investment Bank, the World Bank and the Paris Club-by September 15.
The change in the tax system is linked to the privatisation programme
of the DOS government. In June 2001 a new law was passed allowing
for the privatisation of the "socially-owned property" that forms the
sole remaining legacy of the Tito-era federation. So far, 22 small and
medium-sized companies have been sold by auction, 14 minority stakes
have been sold on the stock market, five companies have been sold by
private tender and 26 companies are in the process of being
restructured. This process is to accelerate, with the government
committed to the auction sale of 1,000 companies and the private tender
of 50 by the end of the year.
In order to offer the transnational corporations optimum conditions for
profit making, the government has introduced legislation divesting
workers of certain rights. The labour law introduced last December
ended collective bargaining as well as the rights to establish works
councils and participate in management. Most importantly, from the
point of view of privatisation the new law "does not regulate the means
by which the labour relationship must be concluded". In order to make
these companies attractive to foreign capital there must be the
possibility of scaling back labour costs by cutting the number of jobs,
which until now had not been possible.
For the international supporters of the DOS this has been cause for
celebration. The International War and Peace Reporting web site wrote,
"Foreign investors were not ready to enter the Serbian market as long as
they were prevented from sacking a single employee-even those who
had been given permanent leave."
The new government has mustered the courage to lay off 15,000
workers from the Kragujevac-based Zastava car factory. Some 10,000
were made redundant as a result of the National Bank of Yugoslavia's
decision to liquidate four of the country's biggest banks."
An estimated 200,000 workers have lost their jobs in Serbia this year,
bringing the total up to over a million out of a population of eight
million.
The three-year standby agreement with the IMF, loans from the World
Bank and the writing off of 51 percent of Yugoslavia's debts to Britain
came with very specific requirements from the donors. Apart from the
restructuring of the economy and the legal establishment, donors have
demanded an end to the regulation of prices.
In a progress report on "One Year After Serbia's Democratic
Transition", published at the end of January, the government crowed
that over 70 percent of prices had been regulated when it came to
power, whereas now "only prices of a few items, such as bread and
basic utilities, are controlled". The outcome of this can be seen from a
survey in June's Konjunkturni barometar of the Belgrade Economic
Institute. In the first five months of 2002, inflation had risen by 3.9
percent, and the cost of living by 2.9 percent. Total retail price
increases
had been driven up by the 13.3 percent rise in the cost of agricultural
products over that period. Following IMF demands, the government
introduced a major rise in energy prices in July. On average, household
bills went up 50 percent.
The social misery produced by the government's economic policy is
revealed by two examples. The authorities have recently moved to halt
the availability of anti-stress drugs without a doctor's prescription,
following an August 29 report by the health authorities on the quantity
of anti-stress drugs being consumed by the populace. In 2001, Serbs
consumed 41 million tablets of Bensedin, 63 million tablets of
Bromazepam and 40 million tablets of Diazepam.
A more malignant expression of the social crisis is recorded in the
suicide rate. In the capital Belgrade, a city of around 2.5 million,
there
were 900 suicides last year. In Nis, with a population of 350,000, local
police estimate there is a suicide every five days.
In face of this social misery, the ruling coalition has resorted to
forestalling parliamentary elections and thwarting an inquiry into
corruption.
The DSS withdrew its ministers from the government last August
following the high-profile murder of Momir Gavrilovic, a senior
Serbian state security official. Directly prior to the killing, the
police
officer had visited President Kostunica to disclose information
pertaining to links between Prime Minister Djindjic and Balkan mafia
boss Stanko Subotic. To date no one has been arrested and charged with
the killing.
Kostunica pushed for an official inquiry into reports that had appeared
in Britain's Observer and Financial Times linking top politicians in
Yugoslavia with the Balkan mafia. A parliamentary vote for the
establishment of an enquiry was defeated by the narrowest of
margins-100 to 98-in December 2001. The critical role in blocking the
motion was played by the 11 MPs from the small party Nova Serbja
(New Serbia) as the result of a trade-off between the prime minister
and the party's leader, Velimir Illic. The latter had originally added
his
voice to those calling for an investigation, but changed his stance
after
he was given the go-ahead to build a large cigarette factory in the
municipality where he is mayor.
Since then, the momentum for early parliamentary elections has
gathered. In an effort to avert this, in July a parliamentary committee
under Djnidjic's control stripped the DSS of its assembly seats on the
pretext that the deputies had failed to attend sessions regularly
enough.
In one move, the largest single party in the parliament was expelled.
The constitutional court subsequently overturned the decision, calling
it
a violation of the law on the election of deputies.
Kostunica is opportunistically putting some distance between himself
and the DOS in an attempt to capitalise on the growing discontent. He
is seeking to divert the growing social grievances and opposition to the
subjugation of the country by the Western powers into the dead end of
Serb nationalism.
However, he signed up to the economic programme drafted by the
G-17 Plus. And, after originally claiming that he would not cooperate
with the war crimes tribunal against Milosevic in The Hague,
Kostunica has said he is in favour of introducing domestic legislation
that would enable government collaboration with the tribunal to
proceed "constitutionally".
Copyright 1998-2002
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkans
Serbia holds presidential elections two years after Milosevic's fall
By Tony Robson and Paul Bond
23 September 2002
Presidential elections are currently taking place in Serbia. Voters will
go to the polls on Sunday, September 29-almost two years to the day
since the downfall of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. The
Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), which came to power with
Western backing, still maintains the title even though it is the party
of
government.
The electoral defeat of Milosevic and the accompanying street protests
calling for his resignation were presented as a popular democratic
rebellion. However, there is a mass of evidence that what took place
was in reality a political coup orchestrated and funded by the Western
powers.
The World Socialist Web Site cautioned at the time, "One can safely
predict that the euphoric hoopla surrounding recent events in
Yugoslavia will be rather short-lived. Proclaimed by the Western
political and media establishment as the `October 5th Revolution', the
crumbling of the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia represented nothing
of the sort.... Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in the
movement against Milosevic, but from the standpoint of its leadership
and political perspective the campaign waged by the Democratic
Opposition of Serbia (DOS) could readily be labelled `made in
America'. The downfall of Milosevic's right-wing nationalist regime
was inspired, funded and organised by the very imperialist powers that
little more than a year ago were systematically bombing the Serbian
people. Their aim was then, and remains now, the assertion of the
absolute control over the Balkans, through the elimination of what they
consider to be a political impediment to their commercial and strategic
aims."
Two years on, a far more sober atmosphere dominates Serbia. The
"October 5th Revolution" failed to celebrate its first anniversary. The
much hyped pop concert in Belgrade-supposedly fronted by
Madonna-failed to materialise. The event was to have been funded by
Bogoljub Karic, a nouveau riche businessman from the Milosevic era.
The government was forced to deny that its decision to cancel the
official celebrations was influenced by a desire to avoid attention
being
drawn to its unfulfilled promises.
The anniversary coincided with a strike wave that spread throughout
Serbia. This began with the coal-miners and extended to other workers
in the energy sector, telecommunications, health and education. The
focus of this movement was opposition to legislation introduced by the
DOS government imposing a pay freeze in the public sector. However,
the terms of a standby loan negotiated between the International
Monetary Fund and the new government meant tight budgetary control.
The miners in Kolubura-who were hailed when they were in the
forefront of the protests that called for Milosevic's resignation-were
now denounced by the DOS. Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic described
the strike as "blackmail".
The DOS coalition was unable to stay together longer than a year. The
alliance was cobbled together at the last minute under pressure from the
NATO powers. Now, however, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
has parted company with his former ally, Prime Minister Zoran
Djindjic. Kostunica is contesting the elections as the candidate for the
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), while Djindjic and the Democratic
Party (DS) have endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus as
their man.
The United States and the European Union play a determining role in
all aspects of domestic policy, exercising control through the G-17
Plus-an economic think tank financed by the US government that draws
it leading personnel from former International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and World Bank employees. The G-17 Plus drafted the economic
programme of the DOS before it came to power. Its members hold
positions of influence within the cabinet and have played a central role
in introducing legislation allowing for price liberalisation,
privatisation, cuts in welfare programmes and the diminution of
workers' rights.
The main G-17 Plus representatives in the cabinet are Deputy Prime
Minister Labus, governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, Mladan
Dinkic, and Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic. In May 2001 they were
co-authors of a "Letter of Intent" to the IMF, assuring the latter that
they were committed to the liquidation and privatisation of 28 insolvent
banks. What this meant became apparent earlier this year when four of
the largest banks in Yugoslavia were closed with the loss of nearly
10,000 jobs.
Bozidar Djelic has also been responsible for the overhaul of the tax
system. In a statement dated September 10, the finance minister
announced that in the "second wave of the tax reform" corporate tax
would be reduced from 20 percent to 14 percent.
This next phase would build on existing measures to clamp down on the
grey economy and close the loopholes allowing for tax evasion. The
main purpose of this is to create a legal framework to ensure the
transparent administration of funds on behalf of foreign investors.
Djelic's statement went on to say that around 60 million euros would
have been repaid to foreign creditors-including the European
Investment Bank, the World Bank and the Paris Club-by September 15.
The change in the tax system is linked to the privatisation programme
of the DOS government. In June 2001 a new law was passed allowing
for the privatisation of the "socially-owned property" that forms the
sole remaining legacy of the Tito-era federation. So far, 22 small and
medium-sized companies have been sold by auction, 14 minority stakes
have been sold on the stock market, five companies have been sold by
private tender and 26 companies are in the process of being
restructured. This process is to accelerate, with the government
committed to the auction sale of 1,000 companies and the private tender
of 50 by the end of the year.
In order to offer the transnational corporations optimum conditions for
profit making, the government has introduced legislation divesting
workers of certain rights. The labour law introduced last December
ended collective bargaining as well as the rights to establish works
councils and participate in management. Most importantly, from the
point of view of privatisation the new law "does not regulate the means
by which the labour relationship must be concluded". In order to make
these companies attractive to foreign capital there must be the
possibility of scaling back labour costs by cutting the number of jobs,
which until now had not been possible.
For the international supporters of the DOS this has been cause for
celebration. The International War and Peace Reporting web site wrote,
"Foreign investors were not ready to enter the Serbian market as long as
they were prevented from sacking a single employee-even those who
had been given permanent leave."
The new government has mustered the courage to lay off 15,000
workers from the Kragujevac-based Zastava car factory. Some 10,000
were made redundant as a result of the National Bank of Yugoslavia's
decision to liquidate four of the country's biggest banks."
An estimated 200,000 workers have lost their jobs in Serbia this year,
bringing the total up to over a million out of a population of eight
million.
The three-year standby agreement with the IMF, loans from the World
Bank and the writing off of 51 percent of Yugoslavia's debts to Britain
came with very specific requirements from the donors. Apart from the
restructuring of the economy and the legal establishment, donors have
demanded an end to the regulation of prices.
In a progress report on "One Year After Serbia's Democratic
Transition", published at the end of January, the government crowed
that over 70 percent of prices had been regulated when it came to
power, whereas now "only prices of a few items, such as bread and
basic utilities, are controlled". The outcome of this can be seen from a
survey in June's Konjunkturni barometar of the Belgrade Economic
Institute. In the first five months of 2002, inflation had risen by 3.9
percent, and the cost of living by 2.9 percent. Total retail price
increases
had been driven up by the 13.3 percent rise in the cost of agricultural
products over that period. Following IMF demands, the government
introduced a major rise in energy prices in July. On average, household
bills went up 50 percent.
The social misery produced by the government's economic policy is
revealed by two examples. The authorities have recently moved to halt
the availability of anti-stress drugs without a doctor's prescription,
following an August 29 report by the health authorities on the quantity
of anti-stress drugs being consumed by the populace. In 2001, Serbs
consumed 41 million tablets of Bensedin, 63 million tablets of
Bromazepam and 40 million tablets of Diazepam.
A more malignant expression of the social crisis is recorded in the
suicide rate. In the capital Belgrade, a city of around 2.5 million,
there
were 900 suicides last year. In Nis, with a population of 350,000, local
police estimate there is a suicide every five days.
In face of this social misery, the ruling coalition has resorted to
forestalling parliamentary elections and thwarting an inquiry into
corruption.
The DSS withdrew its ministers from the government last August
following the high-profile murder of Momir Gavrilovic, a senior
Serbian state security official. Directly prior to the killing, the
police
officer had visited President Kostunica to disclose information
pertaining to links between Prime Minister Djindjic and Balkan mafia
boss Stanko Subotic. To date no one has been arrested and charged with
the killing.
Kostunica pushed for an official inquiry into reports that had appeared
in Britain's Observer and Financial Times linking top politicians in
Yugoslavia with the Balkan mafia. A parliamentary vote for the
establishment of an enquiry was defeated by the narrowest of
margins-100 to 98-in December 2001. The critical role in blocking the
motion was played by the 11 MPs from the small party Nova Serbja
(New Serbia) as the result of a trade-off between the prime minister
and the party's leader, Velimir Illic. The latter had originally added
his
voice to those calling for an investigation, but changed his stance
after
he was given the go-ahead to build a large cigarette factory in the
municipality where he is mayor.
Since then, the momentum for early parliamentary elections has
gathered. In an effort to avert this, in July a parliamentary committee
under Djnidjic's control stripped the DSS of its assembly seats on the
pretext that the deputies had failed to attend sessions regularly
enough.
In one move, the largest single party in the parliament was expelled.
The constitutional court subsequently overturned the decision, calling
it
a violation of the law on the election of deputies.
Kostunica is opportunistically putting some distance between himself
and the DOS in an attempt to capitalise on the growing discontent. He
is seeking to divert the growing social grievances and opposition to the
subjugation of the country by the Western powers into the dead end of
Serb nationalism.
However, he signed up to the economic programme drafted by the
G-17 Plus. And, after originally claiming that he would not cooperate
with the war crimes tribunal against Milosevic in The Hague,
Kostunica has said he is in favour of introducing domestic legislation
that would enable government collaboration with the tribunal to
proceed "constitutionally".
Copyright 1998-2002
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved