SERBIA'S VOTERS DEFY U.S. NATO AND HAGUE TRIBUNAL

By John Catalinotto

January 2, 2004--In the largest turnout in three years, voters in Serbia's national  elections on Dec. 28 rejected the U.S.-NATO definition of who was good  and who was bad for them. They voted into parliament two party leaders now behind bars in Scheveningen prison in The Hague facing war-crimes charges.

An election by itself can only indicate changes in the mood and  consciousness of the population. This one indicated that 36 percent of  the Serbian population would rather vote for an alleged war criminal, vilified and demonized, than for those who have been giving their  country away to the imperialist monopolies for the past three years.  They cast that vote even though they know it may mean more attacks from the West.

Voters in Serbia were also rejecting the efforts of NATO's tribunal at  The Hague to blame Serb leaders and Serbia itself for the 10 years of  civil war in the Balkans, which in fact were fomented by the U.S., Germany and other NATO powers.

Vojislav Seselj led the ticket of the Serbian Radical Party (SRP), a Serb nationalist party and the big electoral winner with 28 percent of  the votes and 81 of 250 seats in parliament. Former Yugoslav President  Slobodan Milosevic led the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) ticket. With 8 percent of the vote and 22 members seated, it made the best showing since Milosevic was driven from office in 2000.

The servile pro-Western, pro-globalization parties that have been  running Serbia into the ground took a big hit, but will probably remain  in office. Four of these parties got enough votes to be in the parliament, winning a total of 147 seats. These include three major  parties that promote capitalist globalization--the U.S. and European  Union call them "democratic." They would have to form a bloc with Vuk  Drascovic's monarchist party, which got 23 seats, in order to form a  government.

The imperialists are already pressuring these parties to overcome their differences with each other and unite to keep the Socialists and  Radicals from forming a government. It was imperialist intervention in 2000 that forced these pro-imperialists and 14 other small parties to  unite to defeat Milosevic in the 2000 presidential election. But many observers say they expect only a very unstable government to emerge, one  that will soon have to call new elections.

Both Milosevic and Seselj are in Scheveningen prison in The Hague,  facing serious war-crimes charges. With this election, both are now in a  position where their parties can choose to give them seats in  Parliament. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former  Yugoslavia (ICTY) will not allow them to take those seats. Still, they  have shown that being put on trial by this NATO court is actually a plus  for a candidate in Serbia. And that's even though the ICTY issued a 30- day gag order to stop the two from communicating with Serbia during the  entire election period, going so far as to prevent Milosevic from seeing  his grandson.

Milosevic has won respect back in Serbia by his strong legal and  political self-defense during almost two years of his trial, during  which he showed how the U.S. and NATO powers provoked civil wars and  then attacked Yugo slavia. His own role was to attempt to defend  Yugoslavia, a multinational state.

After the war, he was replaced by governments like the one that just  offered to send Serbia's army to Afghanistan and even Iraq to help the  U.S. occupy those countries. Disagreements between Vojislav Kostunica's party and the other even more openly pro-imperialist forces broke up the  last government.

In 2000 U.S. agents pressured the 18 anti-Milosevic parties to join together and run Kostunica for president against Milosevic, as Kostunica  was the only candidate available who wasn't already compromised either by corruption or by close entanglements with the imperialist powers.

Since the ouster of the SPS and the SRP in 2000, Serbia's economy has been globalized and taken over, mainly by U.S. and German transnational  firms and by local collaborators. The broader federation of Yugoslavia  has been completely dismantled. Unemployment is now at 30 percent with  many factories closed, prices have risen much faster than wages, and Serbia is now considered one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Whatever government emerges from the bargaining among parties following  this election, the vote has shown that the promise to integrate Serbia  with the imperialist West has steadily lost support among the population  there. The ICTY is completely discredited inside Serbia and is seen as  an imperialist tool.