BY NATASHA TERLEXIS
ATHENS, Greece - Chanting for Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic to resign, a crowd of between 100,000 and 150,000
people gathered in front of the parliament building in
Belgrade August 19. Buses could be seen from Uzice, Cacak,
Sabac, Pancevo, Valjevo, and other parts of Serbia. A group
of protesters marched six miles from the industrial town of
Pancevo, which was hard hit in the 78-day U.S.-led bombing
campaign earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the U.S-led NATO forces are overseeing the process of a de facto partition of Kosova and exacerbating the ethnic division promoted by the Milosevic regime.
"The rally was in support of the Stability Pact for Serbia and the idea for a transitional government of experts," said student activist Martina Vukasovic from Belgrade. She was referring to a plan of economic measures proposed by professional economists that aims to break Belgrade out of its current isolation and integrate its economy with that of capitalist Europe.
Zoran Djindjic, head of the Alliance for Change and a leader of the Democratic Party, was among the opposition politicians who addressed the rally. He threatened to continue street protests if the Milosevic government does not step down in 15 days.
Vuk Draskovic, head of the other major pro-capitalist opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement, spoke despite earlier announcements that he would not participate. Draskovic, until recently vice president in Milosevic's government, charged Milosevic with isolating Serbia and accused the United Nations of annexing "our Kosovo to a greater Albania." He called for elections by November.
The platform also included various smaller parties opposed to Milosevic, a representative of the Orthodox church, and greetings from Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, son of the deposed monarch of Serbia.
The day before the rally the Belgrade government announced its willingness to hold elections, and continued to blast the opposition as traitors and NATO stooges who want to topple the government by force.
Rally organizers offer no alternative
"We need new elections," said Zorica Trufonovic, a leader
of Women in Black, "but ones where there is freedom to
campaign and all citizens can clearly learn what these
parties offer us.
"The only thing that came out of [the rally] is the boasting of politicians," she continued, disappointed by the lack of any real alternative to the policies of the current regime. "Who cares about Milosevic, if he resigns but nothing changes?" Women in Black has fought against the national chauvinist policies and "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the Belgrade regime throughout the 10 years of war that have fueled the breakup of Yugoslavia.
"People who participate in the protests don't necessarily support the politicians involved," was the opinion of Dusan, a student activist from Novi Sad who asked that his last name not be used. He explained that many people hope that "once Milosevic goes the economic sanctions will be lifted and then maybe we could get through the winter." There will also be "greater democratic space to deal with these other politicians," he added.
A series of rallies broke out with the end of the U.S.-NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia and the lifting of martial law in June, as working people expressed their anger at the government and the policies that led to the prolonged war. These mobilizations have been more sparse in recent weeks.
"There are still rallies in Kraguyevac," said Christina Ranic, a worker at the Zastava auto plant devastated by NATO bombs, in a phone interview. "The Alliance for Change calls them, and they have less participation than in the beginning. They have let the movement grow cold, and people are more and more staying home," she said. Ranic is a member of Nezavisnost, the independent union outside government control. She pointed out that the union did not participate in the Belgrade rally and members who attended did so as individuals. "We are not supporting any of the opposition politicians at the moment. They have nothing to offer."
Devastation from bombings
Working people are continuing to face every day the effects
of the massive destruction of industry and infrastructure
caused by the imperialist bombing raids. There has been no
motion to begin rebuilding the Zastava complex that once
employed 38,000 workers. Ranic reports that the only money
workers there have seen in the last month is 20 German marks
($11) that they were given in two installments. The
government is offering workers 2,000 marks to resign from the
plant, according to Ranic. "People who have families in the
villages are taking it. But those of us in the city have
nowhere else we could possibly find a job," she said.
According to Zorica Trufonovic, "Only a few workers are being paid. People are only surviving because of the social security and public health care system."
Refugees from Kosova bring the total number of Serbs who have fled to Serbia from other parts of the formerly federated Yugoslavia to nearly 700,000. Their presence is being used to fan the flames of nationalism among Serb working people. "Raising an anti-nationalist perspective is very difficult now, despite the end of the bombing," Trufonovic said, due to the influx of refugees.
Taking the moral high ground, organizations that have steadily campaigned in recent years in favor of the ability of Yugoslavs of different nationalities to live together and who have organized against "ethnic cleansing" are speaking out for these displaced farmers and workers.
Refugees from Kosova are getting only one meal per day, cannot get jobs, and their children are not allowed to attend school, according to Yugoslav Action - an umbrella group that includes Nezavisnost and 50 other organizations - because the government wants these refugees to return to Kosova.
"The latest figures regarding the humanitarian situation in Serbia are shocking, especially the fact that the regime is preventing the distribution of aid to people who need [it] the most," said Branislav Canak, president of Nezavisnost and chairman of Yugoslav Action, referring to the Serbian refugees in a recent press conference.
NATO oversees partition of Kosova
Most of Kosova's 200,000 ethnic Serbs have now been pushed
out as NATO consolidates its hold. According to the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Serb population of
Pristina, Kosova's capital, has shrunk from 40,000 to 2,000.
Serbian residents report that attacks and intimidation are
being carried out against them by the Kosovo Liberation Army
(UCK), a charge that the UCK and representatives of the US-
led NATO occupation forces in Kosova, called KFOR, deny.
"Relatives of mine in Kosovo say that if you speak Serbian in
Pristina right now you are likely to get beaten or killed,"
said Dusan. "Killings take place every day. People can't go
out to shop for necessities."
The UCK - which at one time organized those resisting Belgrade's attacks on the Albanian population in Kosova - has developed into a tool of the imperialist armies intervening in Yugoslavia through this spring's devastating bombing campaign against the working people of the region, Serb and Albanian.
Throughout the NATO assault, forces loyal to the Belgrade regime expelled 800,000 Albanians out of an estimated 1.8 million from their homes. As a result of repressive measures and attacks by the Milosevic regime, most Albanian working people had come to support independence for Kosova. Most of those Albanian refugees have now returned and face the devastation of their towns and villages, and occupying armies from 19 countries under U.S.-NATO leadership, stationed in the region to allegedly protect Albanians.
Further fostering ethnic divisions, UNHCR representative Dennis McNamara stated last week that "the conditions for return" of an estimated 180,000 Serbs and also Gypsies and other non-Albanians "do not exist right now and the UNHCR cannot support the return of displaced people to Kosovo."
Seven hundred policemen from several countries, including Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, and the United States, are now in Kosova as part of the planned 3,100-strong international police force to be built up there by mid- September under the United Nations banner. They are to be supplemented by 3,500 local police into which KFOR is considering incorporating UCK forces.
Displaced Serbs have been concentrating in the north end of the town of Mitrovica, in an area that extends to the border with Serbia. At stake here is the possible partition of the northern section of Kosova, which includes a major coal and silver mining complex.
Since August, scuffles have been taking place at the bridge over the Ibar river, which is guarded by French forces and provides passage between the two parts of Mitrovica. Albanians living in the north are being chased out.
Their homes and apartments are taken over by Serbs fleeing from other parts of Kosova. Rexhep Azemi stated to the Los Angeles Times that when a group of Serbs confronted him last week, the French forces who came to the scene told him, "It's not safe for you, you can't stay here any more. You have to go to the other side."
"There are not a lot of Kosovar Albanians living in the northern villages.... Everybody is talking about partition. This is not a real partition," asserted Bertrand Bonneau, spokesman for the French forces in Mitrovica.
Further demonstrations by Albanians at the bridge were called off when an agreement was reached with UN officials last week to allow 25 Albanian families to return each day to their homes on the northern side.
Bobbis Misailides contributed to this article.