Sunday, Sep 7, 2008
The Yugoslav deputy prime minister is removed from office for criticizing Milosevic.
Apr 28, 1999 | Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs Vuk Draskovic was removed from office late Wednesday afternoon by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic. His firing comes in the wake of three days of sharp criticism by Draskovic aimed at the Slobodan Milosevic machine.
Draskovic's three days of dissent began Sunday evening, in a live interview on Studio B television, which is controlled by Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement. The 52-year-old deputy prime minister told Serbian viewers that they were being lied to by Radio Television Serbia. He criticized terminology often used in RTS broadcasts, such as "criminal NATO aggression."
"Aggression is never friendly," said Draskovic. He told viewers not to deceive themselves in expecting Russia to help Serbia, and ridiculed the importance of the proposed Russian, Yugoslav, Belarus alliance. "Nobody is going to help us," Draskovic said.
Draskovic urged Serbs to face reality: that public opinion had turned against Serbia, and that it was impossible to defeat NATO or the new world order. As a possible solution to the Kosovo crisis, Draskovic said that United Nations troops should be allowed to operate in Kosovo as a peacekeeping force with a security council mandate.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Draskovic was speaking on behalf of his party or the federal government. Then, at a press conference on Tuesday, Draskovic unleashed a torrent of stinging criticism aimed directly at the country's ruling parties, the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) and the United Yugoslav Left (JUL). "This isn't a war for SPS or JUL," an impassioned Draskovic said. "This is a war for the entire country." He said that the army had showed up at Studio B on Monday evening. "Censors, out from Studio B!" he railed. "Nobody loves this country more than me."
He criticized the "senseless orders" concerning Draconian war-profiteering laws. "People are going to jail for small things, because they had three or four pigs." Nor did he spare local journalists. "Journalists, I accuse you of not being brave. We have the right to speak and criticize."
Yugoslav dissidents thrilled to Draskovic's frank criticism. They hoped it might herald a new realism about the war, and openness to dissent, on the part of the Milosevic government. There were early indications that wasn't the case: News of Draskovic's impassioned news conference, for instance, was noticeably absent from Wednesday's papers. A local journalist said, "We werent allowed to publish it."
At a noon news conference Wednesday, Federal Minister of Information Milan Komnanic said that the Serbian Information Ministry, which is controlled by Vojislav Seselj's Serbian Radical Party, had ordered media to not carry Draskovic's "announcements." And a few hours after that press conference, Draskovic was fired by Bulatovic.
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