DATE=10/10/00
TYPE=BACKGROUNDER
TITLE=YUGOSLAVIA / SOCIALIST FALL
NUMBER=5-47143
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=SREMSKA MITROVICA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: They are going to create a new order. Workers throughout Serbia are forcing what they call their corrupt bosses out of the country's state institutions and leading businesses. As the new president, Vojislav Kostunica consolidates power in Belgrade, workers throughout Serbia are ousting their Socialist bosses from leading businesses, hospitals, prisons, and hotels. V-O-A Correspondent Eve Conant reports from Sremska Mitrovica where they city's powerful prison warden, a supporter of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic, was forced to resign.
TEXT: When prison warden Trivun Ivkovic came to work last Thursday, just hours before a popular uprising that would end Yougoslavia's government, he had a surprise waiting for him. His own prison guards, in uniform, had gathered in a hallway to throw him out of the building. They took away the keys from his luxury car and forced him to walk home, "in humiliation" says one of the prison's administrators.
The graffiti splayed across the gate of his yellow suburban home reads "POPIS"meaning "inventory" in Serbian, as if the people were making accounts of what should be rightfully theirs. His wife, 50 year old Miloranka, who wears diamond earrings and a T-shirt bearing the logo of ousted leader Milosevic's Socialist party, is in tears as she opens the gate to her vandalized home.
/// IVKOVIC ACT 1 - IN SERBIAN - FADE UNDER ///
She says, "Our life is being ruined but it's not our fault. My husband was," as she explains it, "a great functionary." She says "he was respected in this city and now he's being treated like a criminal."
"Welcome to the wonderland" says 24-year-old opposition activist Dragan Bosiljkic (Bos-IL-kich) as he explains that corruption and political pressure under the Socialist government, and under Mr. Ivkovic, was the norm.
/// BOSILJKIC ACT 1 ///
He always threatened people, if you don't want to get out into the streets to support Slobodan Milosevic, you will lose your job, or something like that.
/// END ACT ///
Across Serbia, workers who have been living under sanctions and making a pittance, are casting out their Socialist chiefs and taking away the perks that came with support for Mr. Milosevic. It is happening in hospitals, businesses, hotels in Belgrade and in smaller towns like Sremska Mitrovica.
/// OPT /// Sixty-year-old Mile Klicakovic is one of many in this town who enjoy telling the tale of how the prison warden was famous for his appearances at local basketball games. He had a special chair for himself on one side of the stadium, while the home team and more than one-thousand fans would sit opposite him. Mr. Klicakovic explains
/// OPT // KLICAKOVIC ACT - IN SERBIAN - FADE UNDER ///
/// OPT /// He says, "The new government will replace directors of all the public firms in Serbia. Because it is not enough to replace only Slobodan Milosevic, he's just the tip of the iceberg." /// END OPT ///
The director of the local radio was another Milosevic supporter ousted from his job by frustrated workers. Twenty-four-year-old opposition activist Bosiljik explains the director's nickname had been "The Plow" because he was a simple snowplow driver until he joined the Socialist party and was subsequently promoted to a top position.
/// BOSILJKIC ACT ///
They went to the radio station and they said, 'O.K., you've got 15 minutes to sign your resignation. It was Thursday morning here and he was terrified.
/// END ACT ///
But Mrs. Ivkovic, the wife of the ousted prison warden, insists her family and other members of the old Socialist government will be able to adjust to Yugoslavia's new democratic leadership.
/// IVKOVIC ACT 2 - IN SERBIAN - FADE UNDER ///
"The government has changedit is very difficult for us. But what can we do?" She says her husband is in Belgrade looking for a new job and that the family will in, her words, "simply fit in to the new order, and try to go on with our lives." (Signed)
NEB/EC/JWH
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