DATE=10/09/00
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YUGOSLAVIA POLITICS
NUMBER=5-47134
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=BELGRADE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// RE-ISSUING WITH FILE NUMBER ///
INTRO: Yugoslavia's new government is locked in a behind-the-scenes power struggle with supporters of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic still holding key government positions. From Belgrade, Correspondent Eve Conant reports backers of newly-installed President Vojislav Kostunica claim to have thwarted a plan by a pro-Milosevic faction to retake several institutions overrun during last week's popular uprising that forced Mr. Milosevic to resign.
TEXT: Vojislav Kostunica is officially Yugoslavia's president. But behind the scenes, a battle for real political control is still raging, as the new leadership tries to rid key institutions of Milosevic allies.
Serbia's President Milan Milutinovic, a Milosevic supporter who - like the former president - is sought by the U-N War Crimes Tribunal, still has direct control over the country's police forces. Serbia's police chief (Vlajko Stojiljkovic) was also close to the Milosevic government.
Vuk Obradovic is president of Yugoslavia's Social Democratic Party. He is a former army general who played a crucial role in negotiations between the new government and the military. Mr. Obradovic says the night Slobodan Milosevic conceded defeat in a videotaped address, opposition supporters thwarted a plan by the ousted leader to retake facilities occupied by demonstrators, including the state television service, which had been the mouthpiece of the Milosevic government.
/// OBRADOVIC ACT 1 - IN SERBIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He says - Slobodan Milosevic was behind the scenes. Have no doubt that he is a dangerous man, a thief, and a dictator. The fact that he congratulated Mr. Kostunica on becoming president means nothing.
Mr. Obradovic says more than three-thousand soldiers, gathered from barracks in central Serbia, came to Belgrade for the planned takeover of the television building. But once the planners realized that the opposition had been pre-warned, the operation was called off. Other former opposition leaders corroborated Mr. Obradovic's account, but when asked about the numbers, they would only say - there are certain people that need to be replaced.
Mr. Obradovic also charged that Milosevic supporters were trying to remove files and other sensitive data from key institutions, including the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
/// OBRADOVIC ACT 2 - IN SERBIAN - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Obradovic says he received a call one night from Belgrade's National Security Center warning that workers were packing documents to take to an electricity plant to burn. He adds that foreign ministry workers also complained of people taking away archives with the intent to destroy them.
Belgrade's newly sworn-in mayor, U-S educated Milan Protic, told V-O-A he knows of the attempts to remove files and other sensitive data, but sees no way to stop the process entirely.
/// PROTIC ACT 1 ///
Members of the old regime are now trying to cover their traces and trying to destroy all the evidence for things that might implicate their responsibility for all types of things financial, political, and other stuff. So essentially we have a crisis which is deeper than we see on the surface. We have a crisis of a regime which lasted over 50 years.
/// END ACT ///
In the hours and days after opposition activists stormed parliament, reports abounded of attempts to smuggle gold and hard currency out of the country. Mayor Protic says Milosevic supporters are trying to destroy evidence, not just from one man, but from an entire system.
/// PROTIC ACT 2 ///
It's not just a question of Milosevic being overthrown, but the entire system of half a century has gone down. A lot of people in the West did not want to understand that Milosevic is just the last phase, the most degenerate phase of communism in Serbia. Now we have removed Milosevic, and with him the entire system. That is why they are trying to destroy the evidence.
/// END ACT ///
But Belgrade's new mayor says there are larger challenges ahead. Among the biggest will be creating a new political order out of an old and corrupt system whose members are still in positions of power.
/// PROTIC ACT 3 ///
And at the same time we have a problem with these institutions because they were created for a particular type of system and lasted for such a long time, so we will have a tremendous task to reorganize or remodel all those institutions to function in a democratic environment.
/// END ACT ///
The task of the new government includes being on constant guard to protect its very survival. That, Belgrade's new mayor admits, leaves little time to fight those intent on covering up the old regime's tracks. As Mayor Protic explains - we already had a spontaneous rebellion, we do not want a new crisis. (SIGNED)
NEB/EC/JWH/PFH/RAE
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