RFE/RL Watchlist: excerpts

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RFE/RL Watchlist: excerpts



RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL Watchlist  
Vol. 1, No. 45, 9 December 1999

A Weekly Checklist Of Events Affecting Civil Societies In Eastern
Europe And The Post-Soviet States


Murders and kidnappings continue in Kosova

On 6 December British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook warned the Kosovar
Albanian leadership that it must halt violence against Serbs remaining
in the province. Cook cited the just released KFOR report which listed
279 persons killed in the nearly five months of its rule--145 ethnic
Albanians and 135 Serbs. (The ethnic origins of the remainder were not
disclosed.) KFOR reported 137 persons kidnapped--77 Albanians and 43
Serbs. The Serb National Council in Kosovo disagreed, claiming 350
Serbs killed and 450 kidnapped. "Protection of the Serbs, Roma, and
other minority groups is raised as the acute question by international
diplomacy," wrote from Pristina Fehim Rexhepi for the independent news
service AIM. But, the reporter argued, UNMIK and KFOR have full power
in Kosova, and while some Kosovar Albanians are responsible for the
murders and the kidnapping, it is unfair to shift all the blame on the
Albanian community as the province still has no courts and no laws,
and nothing is being done to create them.



End note

Vojvodina leader fears Seselj will replace Milosevic

By Charles Fenyvesi

The man most likely to succeed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
is his deputy prime minister, Vojislav Seselj, the autocratic leader
of the right-wing nationalist Serbian Radical Party which is a key
component in the government coalition, according to Laszlo Jozsa, a
member of the Yugoslav federal parliament and a leader of the
principal ethnic-Hungarian party, the Vojvodina Alliance of
Hungarians. Jozsa told "RFE/RL Watchlist" that though he and his party
are now coordinating political action with Milosevic's democratic
opposition, he fears that persistent internal disputes and "the
thoughtful intellectual bend" of some of its leaders disqualify it as
a force that could act in "the swift and decisive manner" required to
oust Milosevic.

A far more likely scenario, Jozsa argued, is for Seselj's disciplined
and well-armed supporters to stage a putsch, or perhaps to take
advantage of a putsch mounted by someone else and then have Seselj
step in as deputy prime minister and form a government of national
salvation. "Seselj has a lot of sympathizers in the army's general
staff and in the officer corps," Jozsa said. "He has great suggestive
power, a firm and articulate answer to every question, and a sharp
mind. His memory is prodigious. Despite the fact that his popularity
has declined since the last parliamentary election, mostly because he
failed to deliver on his promises, such as larger pensions and
apartments for army officers, he has dedicated followers who worship
him. His is still the second largest party after Milosevic's
socialists, and he has set up powerful networks throughout Serbia, and
even in Montenegro and Bosnia."

Jozsa puts little hope in the new elections that the opposition has
been calling for. "Rumor has it that Milosevic might agree to
parliamentary elections in February or March," he said. "But
large-scale cheating could produce a narrow Milosevic victory or a
vote almost evenly divided between Milosevic and the opposition.
Milosevic has lots of opportunities to falsify the results, and he
will not hesitate to take advantage of the tight bureaucratic control
he has over the country."

He fears that instead of getting rid of Milosevic, which is the
opposition's number one objective, Yugoslavia is moving closer and
closer to an outright dictatorship. "People are drawing up lists of
people with whom they want settle scores," Jozsa says. "We may be
facing more radicalization and still more bloodshed."

A representative from the Vojvodina town of Subotica, Jozsa is
dissatisfied with his allies in the democratic opposition for turning
down ethnic Hungarian demands for restoring Vojvodina's autonomous
status canceled by Milosevic. He is also troubled by the objections to
the ethnic Hungarian plan, launched this past summer, of creating a
district in northern Vojvodina where the Hungarian majority could
control its political and budgetary affairs. He finds even stronger
resistance to the third point of the Hungarian plan, which would allow
Hungarians in Vojvodina to determine the curriculum in
Hungarian-language schools and the agenda of publicly supported
cultural activities. "At the moment, we ethnic Hungarians have no say
in the organization and the programming of publicly supported
Hungarian-language news media," he said.

"Those opposed to us fear that what we are after is secession," Jozsa
said. "But the truth is that we want to integrate, hopefully within
the European-Atlantic framework, and not to secede. Sadly, in the
post-Kosovo state of mind, even democratic leaders do not want to be
seen acting friendly to a minority. It is now fashionable to hate
everyone."

*************************************************
Copyright (c) 1999. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

RFE/RL Watchlist is prepared by Charles Fenyvesi on the basis of a
variety of sources including reporting by RFE/RL Newsline and RFE/RL's
broadcast services. It is distributed every Thursday. Direct comments
to Charles Fenyvesi at [email protected].

Technical queries should be emailed to
[email protected]

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