Democracy activism: a war casualty Milosevic foes say bombs stifle them

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 05/26/99

BELGRADE - The Western allies want to replace President Slobodan Milosevic's regime with a more democratic government, but one of the casualties of NATO's bombing campaign has been the democracy movement here, pro-Western activists say.

Interviews with activists, dissidents, and intellectuals suggest that those who want Yugoslavia to have a more open, Western-style democracy believe that the NATO bombing has killed what little credibility they had with ordinary Serbs longing for the certainties of life they had under communist rule.

Rather than blame Milosevic for making his country the pariah of the international community, most people are said to feel that NATO has unjustifiably targeted them with its bombs, killing innocent civilians and causing hardship by cutting electricity and water supplies.

Those who have fought a lonely battle to wean Yugoslavia from authoritarianism say NATO's bombing campaign has silenced them and emboldened the Milosevic regime.

''We are the collateral damage of this war,'' said Dujan Masic, who heads an association of independent journalists. ''How do you talk about human rights and building democracy when the world's leading democracies are bombing you?''

The simple answer, prodemocracy activists say, is that you don't. Since the war began, the government has passed laws that allow it to hold people without charge for up to 60 days. People are wary of saying anything that could be construed as critical of the government. And still others who want to criticize the government can't bring themselves to do it because they are as angry, if not more so, at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

It is not just prodemocracy activists who question NATO's bombing. Jiri Dienstbier, the United Nations human rights investigator in the former Yugoslavia, believes the NATO raids have effectively destroyed the pro-democracy movement.

Goran Milicevic, a professor at the University of Belgrade and a leading dissident, said the prodemocracy movement ''collapsed overnight'' when the bombing began.

Public confidence in prodemocracy groups has also declined. Natasha Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Center here, said people simply stopped coming to her office.

''The people are afraid,'' she said. ''Emergency laws were a clear sign that everybody is in danger. It is better to be quiet or focus on the NATO bombardment.''

Dissent was further chilled by the April 11 assassination of Slavko Curuvija, editor of an influential newspaper and magazine that was critical of the Milosevic regime. Curuvija was gunned down on his doorstep in broad daylight.

The government denies that state agents had anything to do with Curuvija's slaying and suggest that he had crossed organized crime groups who were determined to get rid of him.

But that slaying, and the selective arrests and interrogations of those who criticize the government, has led many dissidents to conclude that discretion is the better course. Many will not talk on the telephone. Some even changed e-mail addresses, until they learned the government controls the internet providers.

Vojin Dimitrijevic has spent much of his life advocating for human rights in a country where to do so was to court arrest. But Dimitrijevic believes NATO has set the democracy movement back more than anything Milosevic has done in the past decade.

''In the long run, the biggest collateral damage of this war is the shattered possibilities for democracy,'' says Dimitrijevic, a law professor and director of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights. ''We envy those who are afraid only of bombs.''

In the handful of cities and towns where there has been open criticism of government policy over Kosovo, people have been arrested, discouraging other potential critics, human rights activists say.

''You hear statements that the war should end, but that's as far as they can go,'' said Milicevic. ''I would be utterly surprised if there were street protests, even if we didn't have water for a week. It's not a question of civic courage. It's a question of valuing your life. No one's died of stinking, but people have died of bullets.''

Student activists considered holding a street protest against Milosevic two months ago. But, said one of the student leaders, Stanimir Miljkovic, the plan was dropped when the students considered the likely international reaction.

''Madeleine Albright would get on television and point to our protest as evidence that NATO's strategy was working, so we would be inviting more bombs on our people,'' said Miljkovic, who contends the bombing is counterproductive and inhumane.

Besides being critical of NATO's bombing campaign, prodemocracy activists feel the West has paid lip service to their cause.

''There will be no real peace or stability in this region unless we get on the road to democracy and a market economy,'' Dimitrijevic said. ''But the international community has never really seriously considered this.''

Instead, Dimitrijevic said, the West economically and politically isolated Yugoslavia, a policy that has only helped what he calls ''authoritarian and xenophobic extremists.''

Prodemocracy groups have scaled back their efforts. Rather than hold street demonstrations, as in 1996 and 1997, students use a Web site to argue for a more open society. Miljkovic said the site gets about 2,500 hits a day, most from outside Serbia.