The coup in Belgrade

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 6th October I wrote

> Yesterday the events in Belgrade were no doubt far from totally
> spontaneous, even though it may take ten years to learn all the
> connections, including those to foreign funders. The seizure of the
> television station is most unlikely to have been just a spontanous
> spill-over from popular protest, but will at some level have been a
> planned revolutionary objective of at least a section of the opposition.
> They may or may not have fully informed Kostunica in advance.


The mayor of Cacak (sp?) is reported to have given details today about the
amount of planning that went into the seizure of the Parliament building.
This had been worked out before between leaders of the column of
demonstrators driving in from Cacak, a town that strongly supported the
opposition, and various units of the Belgrade police. The latter had agreed
in advance to give way when the demonstrators surged on the building.

I do not dispute the evidence of western funding of the Serbian opposition.
What I think is necessary for a fuller analysis is one that takes into
account both the internal and the external causes of the change. Even
allowing for some boasting by this mayor, it would seem evidence that the
support of the police for the regime had become extremely weak.

Change is usually the result of a dialectical combination of internal and
external factors.


Chris Burford

London