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Slovenia

Janja Klasinc of the AIM agency reports from Ljubljana in the May 10, 1996, issue of the Novi Sad weekly Nezavisni on some surprise results of a public opinion poll in Slovenia.

More than eighty percent of Slovenians highly evaluate the historical role of Tito, great majority has the similar opinion of the role of the Communist party during the World War II, but highly condemns the post-war execution of the Domobran troops (opposition troops that cooperated with Germans). They do not have anything bad to say about their life in former Yugoslavia, although they think that independence decision was a correct one.
This is only a few of the conclusions presented in the research project Understanding of the Past presented by the Public Opinion Research Center of the College of Social Science in Ljubljana. The high respectability of this center is a guarantee of the quality of the results. Those have been a great surprise to many Slovenians.

The results have shown that the media, which in the last few years insisted on a half polarization of the public between left and right, can present a completely wrong impression of the real mood of the public.

While the public establishment is attempting by all means to erase any connection with former Yugoslavia, 79,7 percent of the polled answered positively that they have lived well in former Yugoslavia. 8,4 percent even said that they lived extremely well, and only 6,3 percent stated that they lived badly. More than 34 percent remember only good experiences in former Yugoslavia, while 50,4 percent remember good and bad ones.

Still, 64,6 percent of the polled stated that the position of the Slovenian population got better after the independence. This statement does not correspond though with the answers about the estimate of the quality of life in certain time frames. By those answers, the quality of life was better in the Eighties than now, when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia.

Source: Novi Sad weekly Nezavisni, May 10, 1996

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Comments and analyses

The same day that the refusal note to Croatia from the Council of Europe came from Brussels, Croatian Foreign minister Mate Granic crossed the big pond in hope that he will find consolation and backing among the Americans. But, he was awaited with the similarly strong smash of critique, so that supposedly cunning game which was to use the misunderstandings between Europe and US (based on two cracking letters from Holbrooke to the Europeans ) left Zagreb between the two banks, which could as of tomorrow become equally distant and unapproachable.

There is no doubt that this is so far the largest foreign policy crash of Croatia, potentially, it might turn into a complete one. This maybe not so much for the postponement of acceptance in the CE, as much for the unmasking and defeat of the Tudjman formula of cooperativeness, which was based on formal glad acceptance of all international obligations, but at the same time actual attempts to swindle out of, or simply ignore them.How vital part of the Croatian official policy this was, is witnessed by the fact that Tudjman reached international recognition of Croatia - as the height of his statesmanship - with a specific trick - his formal acceptance of the Hague convention and the connected Constitutional law on minorities. The same was the case when he was closes to abyss during the Croat-Bosniak war, frozen by the Washington agreement, which was also accepted with crossed fingers in the pocket.But, obviously, he will not be able to do this anymore: any further lie coming from Zagreb will be called as such. There is no more reprieve.

Of course, all of those which watched Croatia's stumbling to the CE doorway with a dose of criticism, today have the right to say that their foresights that this stumbling will end up in a fall, have the right to say that their foresights were the most constructive ones. But suddenly, Zarko Domljan, a high official whose resignation was demanded for a good reason states to the official daily Vijesnik that the decision of postponementwas not unexpected and that Croatia was ready for it. So what kind of politics is it which plans its own misses and crashes ?! And what should be said... that nothing happened?! OR at least, could the citizens know where this fall from a horse to a mule will end, or is it possible that actually they are those mules, and the only thing lacking is the daring that they be told that ?

The possibility that Croatia completely gives up on Europe, on the symbolic level is practically a solved question when the president himself promoted into public a new term - Europslavia. This lexic newborn has as its suffix the hated word Slavia, and as a sub context even more hated Yugoslavia, and Europeans should have it clear that with this they have been placed on the index of most odious beings which had the misfortune to step on Croatia's rulers toes. In a total lack of imagination, but with ample dose of paranoid fixation, the ruling team has simply named all its internal enemies - everybody from journalists and judges to opposition - as Yugoslavs. And now it came out that huffed and puffed Europeans are also plan Yugoslavs, which nostalgically sigh for Tito, Kozara kolo dance and plum brand.

Secretary Christopher, and particularly secretary Perry, are not like that, although after the latest criticism from the US it will be questioned whether Yugoslav evil did not infiltrate among the americans too.If this comes out to be true, Croatia will break with them too, and will double its efforts on its further Albanization.

Source: Split weekly Feral Tribune, May 20, 1996

In the May 6, 1996 issue of the same magazine Zagreb professor and commentator Slavko Goldstein criticizes the ideo of president Tudjman on moving the bones of Ustashi WW II war criminals along the bones of their victims at the site of the main concentration camp in Croatia, Jasenovac.

In the general rush of additional words, and good old one is loosing its true sense : reconciliation. With whom and with what are we reconciling ? Ordered reconciliation did not bring peace among those in conflict, but created it with those already reconciled. In the name of imagined reconciliation, vampire ideologies are woken from the tombs of history, ready for new wars. We are being announced that there will be morbid reconciliation of the dead, which is already creating rifts among the living. We are already used to the fact that words in politics and propaganda sometimes acquire a different sense, but the nice word reconciliation really did not deserve such degradation. But, if loudly proclaimed reconciliations do not function, one reconciliation slowly moves forward, which is systematically being put in practice: that is acceptance of crime.

The spectrum of that acceptance is wide - from distortion of history to current judicial practice, from the presidents medals to silence of the opposition parties and large part of the public. A recent example, cited by the editor of Feral Tribune is clear - a number of perpetrators of crimes during recent wars were not only alleviated from prosecution, but were actually promoted in their service and were given presidential medals. These were all members of elite Croatian units, committing crimes against civilians, unarmed prisoners of war, or even soldiers from their own ranks. Not one of the leading oppositionary parties or politicians did not raise their voice.

The same goes to the current situation in Krajina's, where the ongoing crimes are being passed by through a handful of farcical court cases, by which it turns out that most damage was self-inflicted by the Serbs. This acceptance is most clear in Herzeg-Bosnia, where it is quite obvious that the perpetrators of various crimes have quite definite names.

This acceptance of crime is particularly practiced on parts of Croatian history, which is being cut and pasted ad infinitum to the suit of current political barometer and theory of reconciliation - the Ustashi crimes are being covered up, and we put on either a Partisan or Ustashi face, depending who are we dealing with at that moment - either Europe or US, or our local Ustashi supporters.

Public criticisms of Ustashi sympathizing are mostly reduced to the warning that this damages Croatia in front of the world. Implicitly, the Ustashi state was OK, but it is not nice to speak too loudly about that. Calling genocidal crimes against the population mistakes is not only an euphemism, but bumbling evasion of history.

Source: Split weekly Feral Tribune, May 6, 1996

Boris Buden, Dejan Krsic and Igor Markovic of the Zagreb by-weekly arkzin comment in the May 10, 1996 issue of the magazine on the background of the attacks on the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee Ivan Zvonimir Cicak and his labeling as the collaborator of the secret service of former Yugoslavia - UDBA(SDB).

Two stories are in action in Croatia - the story on reconciliation and the story of UDBa collaborators. But it is wrong and naive to think that contradiction of these stories shows internal ideological inconsistency of the ruling HDZ party. On the contrary ! The story of reconciliation exists only because of the story about UDBa members ! The UDBAshis are such a material- contrary to decisive statements of the president that we have carried out reconciliation - which leaves this reconciliation open.

The par-state press continuously rambles about 'undercover communists which have infiltrated their ranks, so that they would enrich themselves through economic transition and crime, and in that manner throw shame on the HDZ party, which then does not get enough votes in local elections!

So, it is not the HDZ and the young Croatian democracy that are guilty for the breakdown of the social structure, brutal impoverishment of the population, disrespect for the human and civil rights, manipulation and robbery in the transition process... The guilty ones are those elements remaining from the old system, those we have naively left around, those who have misused our good will, those that have misused the idea of reconciliation! Those that represent themselves as the protectors of human rights, who actually continuously subvert the Croatian state. In one term - UDBA collaborators !

Behind this whole Cicak-UDBA case is not only the will for unlimited power of politically mighty, nor only the operatives of the Croatian UDBA (HUDBA), no, this would not be enough for this type of an affair ! Behind it is the evil which has for a long time become general in this society, which has already encompassed the wide masses. Those masses have for a long time already accepted to live in the atmosphere of fear. Lies, hate, persecution of those others, to whom they have delegated their own evil. Why would it, in a society in which it was completely normal until yesterday that its member would be persecuted due to his ethnicity, even though he has done nothing specific, be unusual to hear the cry get cicak the member of UDBA!?

By exorcising UDBA collaborators the ruling HDZ is carrying out definitive UDBAization of Croatia - it is being turned into a true police state. At the moment when the last member of UDBA is being named and pushed from the public scene, the complete UDBAization will be finalized.

Source: Zagreb by-weekly arkzin, May 10, 1996

Zoran Sami DSS deputy leader and professor of mathematics at Belgrade University, comments on the new electoral law in FRY in the May 11, 1996 issue of the Belgrade weekly Vreme.

Let's try to explain what's behind the new federal election law which the government adopted in late April. The draft law is just one of a number of efforts by the SPS and DPS to cover the disasters of their policies, which would undoubtedly affect elections, with an election victory by placing all other parties in an unequal position. Don't forget that, apart from the election law, all the other conditions for elections, primarily the state of the media, are much worse today than before the elections in 1990, '92 or '93.

Why are the ruling parties proposing this law? The answer is simple: the election system guarantees the SPS in Serbia and DPS in Montenegro a majority of parliament seats with some 30% of the vote for each party in its republic and could even get a two thirds majority in parliament. This isn't just an empty claim and this example illustrates it: look at the four lists below marked A, B, C, D in three typical election districts which elect four MPs each. The number of MPs to elect is realistic because, under the new law, Serbian districts will elect an average four MPs.

But to allay suspicions that the examples are to rigid, let's say we use authentic results from the 1993 elections in parts of the Kragujevac,Belgrade and Leskovac districts.

A parallel example with an identical conclusion in favor of the DPS can be drawn up for Montenegro. Add to that the fact that the results remain the same even if ethnic Albanians turn out since national minority parties do not oppose the ruling party even if they don't support it. So the ruling parties will win a majority and won't need to form a coalition with any other party. The question now is how the opposition can respond to the challenge. It has to respond since acceptance of an absolute SPS, DPS majority means collective political suicide. Unlike democratic countries where a strong opposition in parliament is an important element in controlling the authorities, here having 49% of seats in parliament is the same as having no seats at all. An example of that is the Serbian parliament where 121 opposition MPs mean nothing.

The answer isn't forming new coalitions even if they are acceptable in political terms. If you join lists B and D you gain nothing against the SPS:

Note that the proposed election system is proportional in name only and that it's effects come close to the single district majority election system. That means the only effective coalition is by a number of opposition parties that can win more votes than the SPS in the largest number of districts. That means a technical coalition primarily by the four largest opposition parties in parliament.

If parties B,C and D form a coalition they could achieve the following results

In that way the technical coalition would beat the SPS 57-51 at least.A technical coalition is not a political coalition which means it can include parties with various ideologies. It has only one goal: winning an absolute majority in parliament and starting immediate democratic changes in society which includes a new law on the media and a new, more fair election law to pave the way for regular elections. Then parties will be able to stand alone in elections and parliament will finally >> reflect the will of the electorate. The conclusion that imposes itself is that the ruling parties, by proposing the new electoral law, undoubtedly show that they want to rule by themselves.

Source: Belgrade weekly Vreme, May 11, 1996

Chief commentator of the Belgrade weekly Vreme, Stojan Cerovic, looks behind the sacking of the Governor of the Yugoslav central bank, Dragoslav Avramovic, in the May 18, 1996, issue of that magazine.

The affair concerning National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic almost by accident coincided with workers' strikes. The protest of Avramovic' conscience did not have much in common with the protest of their empty stomachs, but the coincidence suddenly turned out to be logical an legitimate. A bond was formed between them and so the Family simultaneously got two pieces of bad news which amplified each other and together sounded really bad.

It is a miracle how the workers in Nis, through the thickest media curtain, through all the wax which was daily poured into their ears, managed to hear and understand the governor. One of the security experts decorated on 13 May must have thought how wonderful it would be to prove that the innocent looking old man was, in fact, the head of a conspiracy network which organizes strikes and protest. But the fact that the workers demanding salaries cried: ``Avram, don't print money!'' proved that the whole system had failed.

First of all, it proved that the whole, expensive, false information network was no longer capable of explaining to jobless workers that the Albanians, opposition parties, the West or some internal shortcomings which would be removed on the way, were to blame for everything. The services for discouraging and frightening also failed, because it was their duty to convince the workers that nothing could be accomplished by going on strike and that it was particularly stupid and dangerous to go out in the streets. No one managed to push into their hands a single positive slogan or Slobodan Milosevic's picture, not even a black and white one. None of the false activists of the false Left tried to give them a hot speech on justice and injustice; it was evident that if anyone had tried, he would have been thrown for a swim in the cold Nisava river.

The worst thing of all was that, ahead of the governor's planned liquidation, workers in Nis and some in Belgrade loudly supported the governor who wanted privatization and not inflation. Thus, these people, the class that every Leftist party counts on, turned their backs on the used-up deceit about social ownership and alleged protection of property from selling it for next to nothing. Another, even more unpleasant novelty was that these same workers became picky about the money that was offered to them. They no longer wanted new bank notes, but only the creased and used ones. This deceit was used up, too.

Nevertheless, the strike in Nis ended or was halted; other protests are somehow halted, hushed down or ignored and the governor is being removed. Does this mean that the Family may be at ease and deduce that everything is going well? The answer is yes, provided they do not look were they are going. And I am quite sure that they are determined not to look and not to see what the rest of us already see.

If the workers in Nis at the top of their voices cried ``liar'' and ``thief'' to Mile Ilic, the Family's chief local trustee, then most of Serbia must be saying the same to Milosevic and all of the Family. This means that they have failed in their attempt to persuade the people to forget the war, deny any ties with nationalist madness, conceal the defeat and finally return to Tito's path, as if nothing ever happened and as if such a path existed.

This idea, conceived mainly in the head of Mrs. Mira Markovic was, to put it politely, too daring. Such a solution does not exist and the Family, under such circumstances, cannot stay in power in any elections, whatever the election system, no matter how the TV operated, even if both Mitevic and Vucelic were back, even if the votes were counted by Mihalj Kertes... All of this would lead to the canceling of the elections, to ruling without elections, which was also a characteristic of Tito's path and which would not be accepted in these circumstances,but this is not our topic yet.

We knew, of course, that it was no problem for the Family to remove governor Avramovic. The question was how much it would cost and what would be done after that. It turned out to be very expensive. The governor played the ending unexpectedly, self-confidently, precisely and efficiently. He had the initiative, did not hesitate for a moment, made no deals, did not let them pull themselves together and score half a point. He destroyed the fiction about continuity, showed that the Family did not care about joining the world and that it only wanted to get hold of the keys to the mint in Topcider, while at the same time he disgraced the alleged ministers and prime ministers.

Never did we have such an insight into the misery of people, government and politics, the misery which was for so long concealed by the conspiratorial manner in which the Family conducted its affairs. The governor clearly won public confidence. His age, simple manner of speech and careless looks suddenly became his advantage. Unlike the ministers in their ironed suits, he looked like someone who did not think only of himself. Before he said or did something, he won credibility by his image, that is, by the lack of care for his image.

Considering the local customs and attitudes, it is very important that Avramovic, before being removed, showed that in fact he was leaving them because he could no longer stand them, because he was convinced their case was hopeless. In the past, those who stepped down were either forced to leave, defeated or compromised; usually it was the case of wrong grouping or symbolic sacrifice of false culprits. These were routine cleansings and renewals within the Family and such losers looked the same or worse than the ones that remained. No one has ever thought that it is a great pity that we no longer get to see and hear brains and characters such as Bora Jovic, Vucelic and Mihailo Markovic.

The procedure of the governor's removal also showed the similarities and differences between Serbia and Montenegro. This case was an ideal chance for Montenegro to protect, both the person and the principles it allegedly opted for, but the Podgorica godfathers easily agreed with the Belgrade godfathers. The great story about Montenegrin capitalism and Serbian socialism rapidly melted down to reasonable size.

The thing is only that the two families have different attitudes toward legalization of business. One lot think they could do it with the help of the West while the others do not believe in such a possibility and expect something from the East. The Montenegrin Family believes that one day they could hand over the rule and keep the prey and business, while the Serbian Family think that by losing the rule, they would lose everything and that legalization can be put off.

In the meantime, the remaining legitimacy is falling down and apart, as the strike in Nis showed. Money was urgently provided, some directors were sacrificed and the workers were allowed not to pay the bills. It is quite clear that they have nothing to pay the electricity and water with, but it is now also clear that without money there is no law. The showdown with the governor shows that money will now be printed without control, which will again lead to chaos and anarchy.

The Family is in the position to choose between a catastrophe and a catastrophe. They will probably be choosing a little of each. We deserve to enjoy watching them hesitate, only it is a pity that we cannot watch them from a greater distance.

Source: Belgrade weekly Vreme, May 18, 1996

The commentator of the Novi Sad weekly Nezavisni Jan Briza, discusses in the May 10, 1996, issue of that magazine the political differences between Serbia and Montenegro.

The leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj visited recently Russia, where his main host was Vladimir Zirinovsky, who made it possible for him to address the Duma. He also promised Seselj that there will be such changes in Russia that will inevitably influence the forthcoming elections in the FRY.

The president of the Montenegrin government Djukanovic was, almost at the same time in Washington, where he spoke mainly with IMF officials and powerful america bankers. He concluded some deals about investment of private capital in Montenegrin tourism and industry, and about the participation of the New York stock exchange in the opening of a stock market in Podgorica.

The Seselj visit to Moscow and that of Djukanovic to Washington exemplify the contradictory ways in which Serbia and Montenegro are headed for the 21st century. With less and less chance that they will jointly reach it.

The regime in Belgrade, obviously counts a lot on the victory of communists in Russian elections. It believes that the return to good old times of bi-polar world, would give it open hand to do here whatever it wants. The West would have to balk, since the East would always come to rescue of Belgrade communists, no matter what they would do. And they have a lot of unfinished business before they conclude that it is time to hold elections here. At least they have to be sure that they hold under control the mood of the half hungry impoverished population.

So while in Belgrade is covered with illusions of communist reincarnation and big brother protection, in Podgorica they are dealing with very practical questions, how to develop their economy.

Source: Novi Sad weekly Nezavisni, May 10, 1996

The Belgrade by-weekly Republika (author Zarko Paunovic) brought an article in its May 1-15, 1996 issue on the current fate of refugees in Serbia.

The author states that the whole history of the refugees in Serbia in the current circumstances is being manipulated with: its number, settlement, humanitarian help, issuance of documents, now their return.

Everybody states that the basis for the return is the freedom of choice: stay or go back. But, nobody poses the question, how to achieve this right in Serbia ? The refugees currently do not have this right, and it is doubtful they will get it, since this right in Serbia is reserved only for those ruling the state. It is an illusion to expect that the refugee problem will be solved without the solution of the political crisis in Serbia. While this regime is in power, the refugees will not have the right of choice, but will be moved from one part of the country to another, as it suits the regime at that moment.To serve the, the regime initiated such savior unions, like that of the Mikelic (former Serb Krajina prime minister) Committee for the Return of Serbs to Croatia.

This regime is afraid of the possibility that the refugees will remain in Serbia, since it estimates that not all of them will be able to return, some will not even want to do that.The number of such people is great, and of them, very little number has a good opinion about this regime.Imagine that of those 900 thousand people, as the estimate number is, some 500 thousand remain in Serbia. After what they have been through, they are against Milosevic and his regime. That is why it is in no hurry to pass the Law on citizenship, since this would enable numerous refugees to have the right to vote, which would greatly change the electoral body in the favor of the opposition.

As not to be confronted with this, the regime came up with the idea of a new refugee census. This is only an intermezzo with which the regime wants to evade the implementation of the signed principles in Dayton, so that it would be able to continue with political calculations and manipulations. It also wants, through an enlarged number of refugees to receive more foreign aid for their care.

Another thing that is worrisome for the regime concerning the remaining of a large number of refugees is their attempts to self-organize and re-establish connections and contacts. Any organizing on the side of the refugees is impermissible as far as the regime is concerned, unless it is done by it. The union of refugees could not register as such and the refugee paper Odgovor cannot get any state funding.

Due to all this, the problem of the refugees is a political one, and not only humanitarian, concludes Paunovic.

Source: Belgrade by-weekly Republika, May 1-15, 1996

Gojko Beric of the Sarajevo weekly Svijet, commented in the May 2, 1996, issue of that magazine on the background of the recent incidents when the refugees where prevented from returning home in Bosnia.

The media descriptions of the current peace in Bosnia are more and more filled with events that preceded the recently concluded war.The happening of the people is in action again, a phenomena known as a Serb political invention. There is shooting, beating and stoning. The victims are the people who are trying to at least visit their homes from which they were evicted and visit the graves of their relatives.The lynching and terror is left, as in the beginning of the war, to the groups of extremists, from whom the local police is intentionally turning away its head, knowing that the incident is happening in the arrangement of the regime.

A larger group of Bosniaks and Croats was stoned in its attempt to enter Doboj, even though it had permission from Serb authorities and was escorted by IFOR.The witnesses say that the storming troops were lead by Ozren Chetniks, who are now living in best Bosniak and Croat houses in Doboj. The IFOR soldiers had to shoot in the air so to prevent a bloodshed. The frustrated general Mladic, who is dispelling away his fear with the statement that his head is very expensive, has threatened IFOR, that if similar mishaps come about, there will be spontaneous reprisals of the Serbian people. So, if IFOR remains an obstacle to Serb bullies, the Serbian people will change the tactics of their reprisals, since the war is lost anyway.

Only a few days later, the Serb extremists have repeated a similar incident. This time they have beaten up with sticks about ten out of 300 Croat civilians from Tramosnica near Gradacac, which came to visit their village, from where they were expelled in 1992. Then the Croats made sure that the Serbs do not stay without some arguments, preventing around 600 refugees to visit their homes and family graves in Glamoc. The Croatian authorities have previously permitted this visit, but in not such a number.

These incidents testify that the refugees represent the detonator which could activate new explosions in Bosnia. Their attempts to return to their homes, which they are enabled by Dayton agreements, are now manifested as the war of nerves, which could one day turn into new armed conflicts. The return of refugees, even in partial numbers,would mean the defeat of all extremists, first of all Croat and Serb ones. It is another question whether this return is realistic. The nationalist leaders are conditioning it with a supposed reciprocity, but are actually preventing it by all means, since otherwise, their adventure in Bosnia would crash. At the moment when the signatories of the federal contract - Bosniaks and Croats are making each others life bitter, what is then to be expected of the Serbs ?

The hate epidemics is not waning. all of its generators are still operating - from the media to people doing work on persons of different nationality. The hatred is here the main wheel of a certain political project, whose goal is the division and disappearance of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the historical drama of Bosnia is actually in the fact that it cannot be divided. Current division was conducted by force and through massive crime over Bosniaks. The peace is currently under guard of IFOR, the strongest of the four armies stationed in Bosnia. But, the current peace will, more and more, take up the form of unbearable hell. Two millon people are still away from their homes. This is the energy that could decidedly influence the re-integration of Bosnia, but it is also the force that could lead it to new bloodshed.

Source: Sarajevo weekly \Svijet\, May 2, 1996

The situation in the media

The editor in chef of Feral Tribune Viktor Ivancic and journalist Marinko Culic could become, as things stand at the moment, the first victims of the mini-reform of the Croatian penal code and earn a jail sentence of at least six months, up to a year and a half. Ivancic and Culic would then become the first journalistic victims in the free,independent and democratic Croatia, a statement repeated incessantly by president Tudjman, which will be tried for a verbal delict, named officially defaming the president.

The case is set for June 14, and even with all the protests, from within Croatia, and particularly from abroad, there is no sign that Tudjman will give up on his intention to persecute journalists. It is a big question whether Tudjman, who made sure that Croatia is not accepted into the Council of Europe, among other things by raising indictments against journalists, as well as wit nebulous ideas of reconciliation of the dead in the concentration camp Jasenovac, will succumb to pressure of USA and Europe, or whether he will raise an indictment against Clinton himself, since he sees no reason for him to meddle in internal matters, a message he has sent recently to the German foreign minister Kinkel.

Source: Novi Sad weekly Nezavisni, May 25, 1996

Tatjana Tagirov of the Zagreb by-weekly Arkzin examines the same issue in the May 10, 1996 issue of this magazine.

In the most democratic state in the world, of course a mini-reform of the penal code had to come about, by which we got new, even more protected holy cows, which will nip in the bud even the smallest of reasonable and critical minds. A colleague from the Serbian independent press attempted to console us that ex-offo protection of (their) holy cows exist in their legal system too. But, the fact remains that so far there have been almost no proceedings against journalists in the Yugoslav bastion of evil, while we, the most democratic state in the world are recently bombarded with supposed defamation of our president and his entourage.

When the current changes in the law were being brought about, experienced lawyer Vesna Alaburic stated in an interview in Arkzin that the whole story is developing since his highness has had enough of genial photo-montages in Feral Tribune. This doubts has been confirmed recently - Feral journalist are the first on the hit list.

To all this have to be added the known case of the daily Novi List, weekly Panorama (no matter what is behind this), but also the scandal with the beating of the lawyer Slobodan Budak by Mladen Naletilic - Tuta. What would have happened if this incident did not happen in front of the incident ? And why, in difference with the speed in the Freral case, in which president was only insulted, there is no outcry by those who have mouthful of legal state ?

Source: Zagreb by-weekly Arkzin, May 10, 1996

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