[PEN-L:6155] Dismissal of a "liberal"?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, April 29, 1999

"The minister, Vuk Draskovic, the outspoken and liberal window-dressing for
President Slobodan Milosevic's government, was informed of his dismissal by
Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic just 30 minutes before it was announced on
Serbian state television, officials said."

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The Independent (London)

February 25, 1990, Sunday

'Greater Serbia' finds its Rasputin; As ethnic hostility grows in
Yugoslavia, Marcus Tanner heard the simple solutions of a Serbian leader in
Belgrade

BYLINE: By MARCUS TANNER

IN THE GREY landscape of Serbian politics, Vuk Draskovic fits Rebecca
West's image of the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne - ''a great lit-up bus
crashing through the lights''. Madder and more exciting than grey-suited
Communist officials, he exudes raffish charm, with his flowing locks,
sunken eyes and a raincoat that flaps in the wind as, from a soap-box, he
preaches his message: Serbia has been betrayed by Communist Judases.

Mr Draskovic may look like Rasputin but he is no joke. At 44, he is rich, a
successful author and the driving force behind Serbia's growing far-right
opposition movement, the Serbian National Renaissance. A man who ''hates
crowds'' and is so sensitive that he is ''tormented'' by the memory of
having once run over a cat, he has won an overnight following by offering a
populist - and brutal - solution to Yugoslavia's ethnic quarrels.

The Serbian National Renaissance says that Yugoslavia's federation of six
republics and two ''socialist autonomous provinces'' established by
President Tito in 1945 must be dissolved. In its place they propose a new
Great Serbian state enveloping the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina, the
republics of Montenegro and Macedonia and most of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
''Serbia must have everything which it held on the 1st December 1918, the
day that Serbia entered Yugoslavia,'' Mr Draskovic says. He also wants
Croatia to surrender territory in reparation for the deaths of half a
million Serbs he claims were killed by Croatian fascists in the Second
World War. ''Croatia must not be allowed to keep the borders which it
obtained through genocide.''

>From within these new borders Mr Draskovic plans the compulsory deportation
of ''disloyal'' ethnic minorities, such as Albanians, and a referendum on
restoring the monarchy. ''The abolition of the monarchy by Tito's
communists in 1945,'' he says, ''was a criminal and illegal act.''

Since its launch on 6 January the Serbian National Renaissance has become
enough of a menace to the local Communists to warrant blistering attacks
and even threats of a ban. Its followers have disrupted Communist rallies
by shouting anti-Communist slogans and hoisting the Serbian national flag
with the red star cut out. In countless subways and on crumbling housing
estates their emblem is scrawled, a cross surrounded by four S's - short
for ''only unity saves the Serbs''.

Mr Draskovic was a fanatical Communist in the 1960s, who thought ''Tito was
god and Communist Yugoslavia the happiest society in the world.'' Like many
intellectuals he returned to the Orthodox Church, monarchism and
nationalism when he decided Tito was helping Yugoslavia's other
nationalities at Serbia's expense. ''It suddenly became clear. Serbia was
being sacrificed and Tito was the greatest enemy the Serbian nation ever
had.''

When non-Communist parties are finally legalised in Serbia, the National
Renaissance seems certain to make a considerable mark by playing on the
ethnic fears of at least two million Serbs living outside Serbia. Among
this diaspora - 1.3m in Bosnia, 600,000 in Croatia and 200,000 in Kosovo -
it claims overwhelming support. Kosovo is particularly important. Serbia's
present leader, Slobodan Milosevic, was swept to power on pledges to
bolster Serbian rule in Kosovo. But instead of faltering Communist attempts
to rule the province through ''honest'' Albanians, Mr Draskovic proposes a
more draconian solution: about half a million Albanians should be
''provided with maps, escorted to the frontier and kissed goodbye,'' he says.

Although Serbia's Communist rulers have not even pledged to hold free
elections, Mr Draskovic is confident the tide is flowing his way. ''We have
200,000 members,'' he boasts. Others would put the figure much lower. ''In
a free election in Serbia, the Serbian National Renaissance would get the
biggest number of votes, Communists the least.''

© 1999, LEXIS®-NEXIS®, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)