U.S. Institute of Peace Peace Watch Online

Serbia’s Democratic Opposition Regroups

The Serbian Orthodox Church joins the Alliance for Change, a coalition of pro-democracy groups, in calling for democratic reform in Serbia.

Panic, Menzies

Milan Panic and John Menzies.
he Serbian Orthodox Church has joined the Alliance for Change, a broad coalition of pro-democracy groups in Serbia, to press for democratic reforms that would lead to an open, pluralistic society. Only such reforms can resolve the conflict in Kosovo and create a climate for peace and prosperity in Serbia and throughout the Balkans, says Artimije Radosavljevic, bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Bishop Artimije spoke at two recent U.S. Institute of Peace briefings on prospects for democracy in Serbia and for resolving the conflict in Kosovo. He made his comments on behalf of His Holiness Pavle, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At a September 15 meeting, other speakers included Momcilo Trajkovic, president of the Serbian Resistance Party, and Father Sava Janjic, senior monk at the Decani Monastery Brotherhood, a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo. Father Sava is known as the “cybermonk” for his timely, first-hand dispatches over the Internet about conditions in Kosovo (see his web site at www.decani.yunet.com). The Serbian Resistance Party and the Serbian Orthodox Church have hammered out a proposal for resolving the conflict in Kosovo and posted it on the party’s web site: www.kosovo.com.

Serbian leaders

Left to right:Momcilo Trajkovic, Father Sava Janjic, and Bishop Artimije Radosavljevic.
On October 15, Bishop Artimije was joined on a panel by Alliance for Change members Dragoslav Avramovic, former governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, and Milan Panic, former prime minister of Yugoslavia.

The events were organized by the Institute’s Balkans Working Group, headed by senior fellows John Menzies, former U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, and Daniel Serwer, a Balkans expert formerly with the U.S. Department of State, with the assistance of Lauren Van Metre, program officer in the Research and Studies Program.

“The ethnic approach to forming a state has brought us only disintegration in the Balkans,” Trajkovic said. “This has to end. All nationalities (within a state) must possess and enjoy full human rights.”

Speakers cautioned that when representatives of the international community meet only with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, an autocratic supernationalist leader who has increasingly cracked down on independent voices in Serbia, they reinforce his power at the expense of the democratic forces in the country.

Panic noted that Milosevic’s government has recently prohibited radio stations from rebroadcasting transmissions of the Voice of America, the BBC, and Radio Free Europe. Several independent newspapers and radio stations have been closed. University faculty critical of the regime have been dismissed.

“We have won against communism, but now we have to admit that people lived better under communism,” Panic said. “What a failure for all of us.” He urged the international community to reject Serbia’s admission to international organizations until elections have been certified as free and fair.

But to have free elections, Bishop Artimije said, “The international community should insist on freeing the media. Then the people will be able to choose [which leader] is better for their future.” The international community also has to pressure both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo to stop fighting, not just the Serbs, he said.

Although the Serb forces are withdrawing from the province, many observers predict that fighting will resume in the spring. Participants in the meetings stressed that victims of the conflict include thousands of innocent Serb civilians.

“Kosovo’s Serbs are a real factor in finding a solution in Kosovo,” Trajkovic said, just as Kosovo’s Albanians are key to finding a democratic solution for Serbia. By boycotting national elections, the Albanians in Serbia have thrown away an opportunity to elect a democratic national government, he said. “We will see if [the leader of Kosovo’s Albanians, Ibrahim] Rugova really wants the Kosovo problem resolved in a peaceful way,” he said, adding that it’s impossible to claim to be seeking peace while promoting a policy that includes extremist goals such as making Kosovo an independent state.

Serbs and ethnic Albanians “must fight together for a democratic Serbia,” Trajkovic said. Democratic forces among Serbs are ready to compromise, but they will not agree to sovereignty for Kosovo or cede territory, he said. “Albanian separatists will find great opposition among us, but they will find good friends and partners for building community life together.”

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