UNMIK ON AIR
27 April 2004
KOSOVO AND PRESIDENTAL
ELLECTION IN SERBIA
(By Zoran Culafic)
It is election time
again in Serbia and campaigning is one of the top priorities for presidential
candidates. Political leaders jockey
for prominence and an increasingly Serbian nationalist tone has emerged as
coalition building is underway. In
this edition of UNMIK on Air, we focus on the upcoming Serbian Presidential
elections and the public discussions it has generated regarding Kosovo.
Hello and welcome, this is UNMIK on Air.
<<Send Serb
police and military back into Kosovo>> and <<Kosovo is the ancestral land of Serbs>> is just a
taste of the campaign talk the public can anticipate to hear from Serbian
politicians with an eye on the Presidential seat in the upcoming elections.
Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, head of Belgrade based NGO Yugoslav
committee of lawyers, YUCOM, believes, however, that these types of slogans are
merely political rhetoric of pre-election campaigning to garner the public
attention and to galvanize support for respective campaigns.
But Vuco notes that fewer people are going out to vote, adding
that the growing number of disaffected voters shows clearly the gap between
political circles and voters.
Biljana Kovacevic Vuco: Looking from the perspective of the messages
that politicians send to the citizens, and particularly when Kosovo is at
stake, I have to say that the fact that we have more and more abstainers is
positive. We have certain kind of manipulation with the Serbs and with the situation
there, and that shows again that the Serb electoral body is more mature indeed
than the politicians themselves. That is even more positive, keeping in mind
that politicians are trying to contaminate it with pretty narrow ideas of
Kosovo.
Even so, political observers say real presidential campaigning has
yet to begin.
Analysts are pointing to the candidacy of Dragan Marsicanin,
representing Prime Minister Kostunica’s party, and of Boris Tadic-- supported
by the opposition Democratic Party-- both are expected to vocally promote the
stance of the Serbian government regarding Kosovo—that is, a concept of
territorial autonomy for the Serb minority community.
Ironically, Belgrade-based journalist Dragan Bujosevic adds that
acting president of the ultra nationalist Serbian Radical Party is a favorite
in the election even as the radical party’s track record has demonstrated a
backpedaling on the issue of Kosovo:
Dragan Bujosevic: Radical Party representative Mr. Tomislav
Nikolic, of course, will be much sharper and he would say that Government is
not doing enough for Kosovo, but I think that in this part of Serbia, excluding
Kosovo, such story won’t find any good ground. I think the voters would choose
a candidate mainly according to their personal impression, and not according to
what they are saying during the campaign. I think the same could apply in
Kosovo too, but we have to bear in mind that Radical party won majority of
votes there, which seems quite strange, because, if anyone has done something to
give up Kosovo, if anyone has put Kosovo under, what the radicals used to say,
under the foreign military boot, then it was
them, the radicals, during the time they were in power with Milosevic.
But they forget all of that, and the Serbs forget it too.
Political observers
acknowledge that in Kosovo today there is not a significant number of Serb
voters to seriously animate politicians in Belgrade to rely on their
votes. But few politicians dare to give
up the issue of Kosovo publicly- this according to the former Speaker of the
Serbia and Montenegro Parliament, Dragoljub Micunovic.
In light of this, Micunovic also believes that the
government in Belgrade will highlight the Kosovo issue in this upcoming
presidential campaign season as one of the most important state issues.
Even so, Micunovic
predicts that the Serbian Radical Party, will try to capitalize politically on
Kosovo- by insisting that the region is a most fateful and crucial political
issue a sort of DNA for Serbs:
Dragoljub Micunovic: There are, of
course, very many such a exaggerations. But, we have also quite an
ambivalent political situation there; everybody here is for preserving Kosovo
at any price. Not all of them agree
how to do that and in which form, but all public surveys tell you that Kosovo
remains integral part of our territory, which is anyway in accordance with UN
Security Council Resolution 1244. From
the other side, all are skeptical whether the resolution would be satisfactory
as they would expect …or some other solutions could be implemented too.
Whether or not leaders in Belgrade aim to highlight Kosovo in their campaigns to boost their political currency, Vuco of the Yugoslav committee of lawyers says not one politician has shown a serious or appropriate approach to the Kosovo issue.
Biljana Kovacevic Vuco: It is one of the most mentioned issues, but the
one that is not considered to the heart of the matter. For majority of
politicians, Kosovo is regularly an empty slogan in their speeches, but I have
never seen what all of them really want to do, except telling a demagogic, and,
to say, “necessary” and “needed” words during political campaign.
The former Speaker of the Parliament for Serbia and
Montenegro- Micunovic -charges that politicians use whatever means possible
to get votes… and that Kosovo is simply a political and emotional tool.
Dragoljub Micunovic: But from the other
side, politicians must answer on some concrete questions too, what will happen
tomorrow and how can you solve today a certain problem; In the first point
almost everyone would agree, and they would use Kosovo as an example of fight
for national interests, fight for human rights and to save every life there, or
every holy place, churches and monasteries etc. and I believe that there would
be a competition among politicians who will show more concern and interest in
such issues.
For instance, Micunovic anticipates that few practical solutions for Kosovo will emerge from the upcoming political campaign rhetoric, outside of advocating for the return of Serb police and military to the region.
Dragoljub Micunovic: Unfortunately, when
Kosovo is at stake I think that during the presidential campaign we’ll
have a deficit of practical solutions and a surplus of emotional statements and
promises. But there are some practical issues and I don’t know whether anyone
will address it, as the issue of how to implement the EU Convention of
protecting the human rights, in Kosovo, for all our citizens, regardless their
ethnicity, which I suggested at recent Legal Committee Conference in
Paris. The Security Council has the
jurisdiction there through UNMIK, and UNMIK is implementing exclusively the UN
Security Council decisions.
Dragoljub Micunovic: But it is hard to
imagine that any jurisdiction could limit human rights. These are some concrete
issues that have arisen after all crimes which have taken place in Kosovo
recently, and it turned out that from the perspective of international law
there is no one to protect those people there. But I don’t believe that
presidential candidates will address such issues, but surely the institutions
and some other political parties would address it and request to speak about
concrete problems in Kosovo. And what the final resolution of Kosovo issue
would be, and when it’d happen, it is hard to say now.
That is all for this edition of UNMIK on Air... thanks for
listening and stay tuned for more.