No amnesty for Milosevic, insists Serbia's new PM

By VESNA PERIC ZIMONJIC

Serbia's prime minister-designate, Zoran Djindjic, vowed yesterday to evict the last holdovers of the Milosevic regime as his alliance savoured a landslide victory in elections.

There will be "no revenge, but no amnesty either" against those who caused Serbia's troubles over the past decade, Mr Djindjic said.

At 48, Mr Djindjic can say he has made history in Serbia: he will be the first non-Communist prime minister in 55 years, after Saturday's elections handed a two-thirds parliamentary majority to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS).

The pragmatic Mr Djindjic was behind the most important event in the past decade here: he orchestrated the fall of President Slobodan Milosevic.

After his latest victory he repeated that the new Serbian authorities would seek to prosecute the former Yugoslav strongman. "Mr Milosevic will first have to answer in Serbia for all the terrible things he has done – starting with corruption, crime, election fraud and ordering murders," he said.

Rade Markovic, the State Security Service chief, is "a link that leads to Milosevic," Mr Djindjic believes. "The new Serbian government will definitely replace Markovic."

The police, built up by Mr Milosevic into a 100,000-strong force, are under the jurisdiction of the Serbian government, and the security service is believed to be behind many unsolved murders and abductions.

Swallowing his vanity, Mr Djindjic led the DOS campaign that brought Vojislav Kostunica to the post of President of Yugoslavia three months ago. With a DOS victory in the September and December polls, Mr Djindjic eliminated his personal rival, Vuk Draskovic, from the political scene.

The maverick Mr Draskovic had refused to join the DOS alliance, led by Mr Kostunica and Mr Djindjic, in July. The voters' punishment was stern – no MPs from Mr Draskovic's party are in the new Serbian parliament.

Mr Draskovic and Mr Djindjic had united in an attempt to oust Mr Milosevic by forming the coalition Zajedno ("Together"), but their mutual accusations of behind-the-scenes contacts with Mr Milosevic led to the movement's collapse.

Mr Djindjic is seen by supporters as a Western-type leader. Yet he lacks charisma, and many Serbs say he is too intellectual, too opportunistic and too power-hungry. Being aware of that, Mr Djindjic tackles burning issues with the words Serbs like to hear.

After graduating in philosophy, he led an anti-Communist university movement in the 1970s, which resulted in his imprisonment for several months. On his release, he went to Germany and obtained a doctorate in philosophy. He returned after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, becoming a founder of the Democratic Party (DS). At the time, the former anarchist had a pony tail and an earring.

Propaganda turned Mr Djindjic into a "traitor," and he moved to Montenegro during last year's Nato air raids, where he could count on his friendly relations with the reform-minded Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic.

That friendship will come under strain now. Montenegro is threatening to hold an independence referendum, while Mr Kostunica and Mr Djindjic are not ready to see the federation fall apart.

Like many, Mr Djindjic predicts the disintegration of the DOS. The marriage of convenience of 18 parties was a necessity when there was a single goal – to remove Mr Milosevic from power. A disintegrated DOS will eventually produce a normal spectrum of parties in Serbia, Mr Djindjic says, providing for real political life to start here at last.

• Four Serbs who disappeared over the weekend while travelling to Kosovo to spend Christmas with their families were released by ethnic Albanian rebels yesterday, Serb officials said. The four men, aged 17 to 26, were freed thanks to efforts by the Nato K-For peace-keepers and the Yugoslav government, the official Tanjug news agency said.

Serbians finish off Milosevic in election


Herald Online feature: Revolution in Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Serbian Ministry of Information

Serbian Radio - Free B92

Otpor: Serbian Student Resistance Movement