April 27, 1999
BELGRADE
A Liberal Threatens Milosevic With Street Protests
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By STEVEN ERLANGER
ELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia,
Vuk Draskovic, pledged on Monday night to lead street protests
against President Slobodan Milosevic if military control over the
Studio B television station here was not immediately lifted.
Draskovic, the most liberal member of the weak federal
government, said a military officer went to the station on Monday
evening and prevented the rebroadcast of an interview that
Draskovic gave on Sunday evening. His party, the Serbian Renewal
Movement, runs Belgrade, and, thus, Studio B.
On Monday night, he said that he was sure that Milosevic "would
overturn this stupid decision." If not, "I will fight against Mr.
Milosevic," he said. "We will enter the streets and demonstrate
in the streets against this anti-democratic action."
In the Sunday interview, Draskovic urged the government to seek
a compromise peace in the war over Kosovo, recognize that NATO
cannot be defeated and accept a U.N. armed force, including some
NATO troops, inside Kosovo to implement a political settlement.
In an interview on Monday, Draskovic insisted that Milosevic
supported "the general direction" of his remarks, and then said:
"I think he does. I hope so."
Most observers here interpreted Draskovic's comments, most of
which he has made before, as a new effort to lobby Milosevic to
settle the Kosovo matter and stop the escalating destruction of
Yugoslavia's military and infrastructure.
NATO spokesmen welcomed Draskovic's remarks on Monday as a sign,
as the British defense minister, George Robertson, said, "that
inside the system the facade of unity is cracking wide open."
But Draskovic, while speaking for many ordinary Serbs,
especially in Belgrade, is not "inside the system." He claims he
joined the Milosevic government in January not to support it, but
to change it. Many Serbs who supported him when he helped lead
anti-Milosevic demonstrations in 1996-97 regard him as an
opportunist trying to position himself for a more democratic
future.
But few regard Draskovic as a serious challenge to the power of
Milosevic, particularly during wartime, and some senior Yugoslav
officials on Monday night wondered whether he is seeking a way to
get fired from the government -- or even arrested -- to distance
himself from responsibility for a wearying and ugly war.
But Draskovic's challenge on Monday night, however bold it
seemed, was also confusing and a touch bizarre, since it seemed
based on at least some misinformation.
NATO had made repeated attacks on the facilities and
transmitters of Serbian state television, where at least 12 people
died, six of whom were buried in an emotional ceremony on Monday,
while another 20 are still missing. Given the damage, the Serbian
government on Monday got all the stations -- including Studio B -- to
agree to a wartime requirement to transmit state television's news
at its regularly scheduled time.
Studio B and another private station, Politika, did so on Monday
night for the first time. But they also ran their own news
bulletins, which have been subject to wartime censorship in any
event.
All the channels also were required to have a military censor on
site to vet the news, to prevent military secrets from being shown.
But Draskovic charged that at 6 p.m. on Monday night, an army
major came to Studio B and sent the regular editor home. The major
oversaw the transmission of the state news, vetted the Studio B
news and, Draskovic said, banned the retransmission of the Sunday
interview. According to staff at Studio B on Monday night, the
major then left and programming went on as before.
But in a fiery and somewhat wandering news conference at his
party headquarters and then, later, at a hotel where many foreign
journalists are staying, Draskovic laid down his challenge to
Milosevic to remove the military editor or face street
demonstrations.
Draskovic insisted that having spoken to Milosevic "a few days
ago" about how to settle the Kosovo problem, he "got the
impression President Milosevic is doing and thinking in the same
way I'm doing. I believe I am right."
Later, he said: "I believe -- I hope -- President Milosevic
supports my program."
But in public, Milosevic has only agreed to the idea of an
unarmed U.N. "presence" in Kosovo made up of civilian observers
from non-NATO nations.
On the war in Kosovo, Draskovic is speaking sense, many Serbs
say, and he may embolden what remains of the democratic opposition
here to speak out.
"Our people must know reality, and our small nation, very brave
and very proud, must respect reality," he said on Monday. "We
cannot defeat NATO. We must recognize the fact that the world today
is often ruled by the rule of power, and not the rule of law. We
must be very brave and approach compromise."
And he insisted that an armed U.N. force to monitor a Kosovo
deal and the return of refugees would not be a violation of Serbian
or Yugoslav sovereignty.
The independent Belgrade newsletter VIP suggested that Draskovic
was playing for high stakes.
"More likely than not, Draskovic will fail in his plans to
establish an alternative to the regime, but he has opened cracks in
what has so far been a monolithic political structure in Serbia,
which has allowed Milosevic to claim that his policy in Kosovo is
supported by both the ruling parties and the opposition," the
newsletter said.
In a darker note to the day, more than 1,000 people gathered in
front of the city morgue to honor and bury six employees at the
state television facility who were killed last Friday in a NATO
airstrike. The dead were technicians, a make-up artist and security
guards working the night shift.
"This unprecedented atrocity was committed against all 7,000
television staff," editor-in-chief Dragoljub Milanovic told the
mourners.
