© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

Bombing Destroys Hope for Democracy in Serbia

 
By Vojin DIMITRIJEVIC
April 1, 1999
 
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- NATO's air offensive has not simply "degraded" Yugoslavia's military installations. It has also taken its toll in human lives and is progressively destroying the economic infrastructure of our impoverished country.
 
In the long run, however, the biggest collateral damage is likely to be to the prospects for democracy in Serbia.
 
Serbia's human-rights community regards NATO's decision to use violence for humanitarian reasons as the ultimate sign of the bankruptcy of U.S and European Union policies towards Kosovo.
 
Resorting to air strikes is but recognition of the failure of the international community's long-standing policy towards Serbia, one based exclusively on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
 
I fear that the only durable result of the undeclared war will be a permanent state of emergency, during which the bewildered majority renews its support for the Milosevic regime as so often has been the case during previous times of extreme adversity and danger.
 
What Serbia needs is democracy. Indeed, a democratic Serbia is the only real cure for Kosovo. It would also help create stability in the Balkans. Yet the international community appears to have shunned this avenue.
 
Our long-standing criticism of the policies of the Milosevic regime, especially its human-rights record, is well-documented. Throughout the past decade, the movement for human rights and democracy within Serbia has grown in strength. True, we have not toppled the government. But that was never our aim. We have merely sought to build a broad democratic culture which, in time, could bring lasting change to Serbia.
 
We have organized grass-roots seminars and training programs for students. We have worked with the legal profession to improve their understanding and raise awareness of human-rights issues. We have tried to collaborate with Albanian groups to come up with lasting solutions for the deep-rooted problems.
 
Other non-governmental organizations have been hard at work in the areas of culture and the media. For example, independent radio broadcasters have come together to build a network of stations providing reliable news, free of government interference, throughout the country.
 
This work is essential. There will be no stability in the region, and there will certainly be no peace in Yugoslavia, unless and until Serbia embarks on the road to democracy. However, it appears that the international community has never seriously considered this option.
 
Those of us fighting to put Serbia on the road to democracy have received minimal support from abroad. Instead, our task has been made more difficult by the long years of international isolation. In practice, sanctions have played into the and of the extremists.
 
In the prevailing atmosphere of war, anti-democratic forces are increasing losing their inhibitions. Meanwhile, clumsy foreign attempts to "assist" democracy and respect for human rights in Serbia with vague promises merely expose the non-governmental sector to accusations that it is a fifth column.
 
The most recent example of misguided foreign intervention was the introduction in the U.S. Senate of a "Serbian Democratization Act" in the wake of the first night of NATO bombings. Amid a fanfare of publicity, it seems that we are being promised vast sums of money for "bringing down Milosevic". Just what we needed. And the money never arrives anyway.
 
In one night, the NATO air strikes have wiped out ten years of hard work by groups of courageous people in the non-governmental sector and democratic opposition. We have tried to develop the institutions of civil society, to promote liberal and civic values, to teach non-violent conflict resolution.
 
Now, however, many "politically suspect" human-rights activists live in fear of imminent mobilization into the Army.
 
Meanwhile, the fighting in Kosovo continues unabated, and the future of democracy and human rights in Serbia is likely to remain uncertain for many years to come.
 
Vojin Dimitrijevic, formerly the vice-chairman of the U.N. Human Rights Committee and professor of International Public Law at Belgrade University, is director of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights.

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© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.

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