Serbia’s shaky government: Indicted

Date: 25/10/03

An already fragile government is under threat

THE Serbian government's website greets visitors with a prominent headline: “Challenge Accepted!” Three years after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, it is having problems surviving, let alone accepting challenges. If it collapses, its replacement may be less eager to shove Serbia towards reintegration with the world.

The government's latest woes started on October 20th, when Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, announced the indictment of four top Serb generals for alleged crimes in Kosovo in 1999. The reaction from Belgrade was fury. One of the four is a former Serbian chief of police; another is his successor, Sreten Lukic, who is still in the job. Dusan Mihajlovic, Serbia's interior minister, declared that he would not hand over Mr Lukic, whom he called a hero for attacking organised crime after the assassination of the prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, in February. Serbian police plan an unprecedented public protest in support of Mr Lukic.

Zarko Korac, Serbia's deputy prime minister, said the indictments threatened Serbia's “fragile stability”. The government has been fending off a parliamentary vote of confidence that it could easily lose. It has been dogged by corruption scandals, defections, in-fighting and allegations of voting fraud. Just before the indictments, it persuaded Dragoljub Micunovic, an elder statesman of Serbian politics, to stand in the presidential election on November 16th. For him too, the indictments will be an unwelcome distraction. His main challenger is Tomislav Nikolic of the extreme nationalist Radical Party, whose leader, Vojislav Seselj, is already in The Hague.

Mrs del Ponte says politics cannot come into her considerations. She has been warning the Serbs for six months that the indictments were on the way. The Serbs claim they had been led to understand that, if they produced an even bigger fish, General Ratko Mladic, wanted for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacres, they could try the four smaller fry at home. Yet even if this is true, they have not handed over Mr Mladic. Days before he was shot, Mr Djindjic told Mrs del Ponte that he would deliver Mr Mladic “in the spring”. This may have been a reason for his killing.

Ever since, the weak Serbian government has not found the strength to arrest Mr Mladic. In the past, it has talked of not wanting a showdown with the powerful members of the army who may still protect him. But politicians are also aware that arresting Mr Mladic would be no vote-winner. Until he is caught, Serbia cannot join Partnership for Peace, the club for aspiring NATO members. The Americans may also make a Mladic arrest a condition for handing over more aid next year. Such pressure has worked in the past.

As Braca Grubacic, a political analyst, says, “no one wants to do the dirty job, but we can't stop everything because of Mladic.” The government may now agree; this week, for the first time, it claimed to be following up a tip-off on Mr Mladic's location. But if the new indictments topple the government, its successor may be less helpful.

Article says that an already fragile government in Serbia is under threat of collapsing.