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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 07/04
Serbia After Djindjic
March 18, 2003
Abstract
The assassination of Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic on 12 March 2003 means that Serbia has lost its most skilful and realistic politician. The great question is whether the assassination provides a catalyst that energises the governing coalition to restart the long- stalled reform process and thoroughly clean out the interlocking nexus of organised crime, war criminals, and police and army officers hiding behind "nationalist-patriotic" slogans and organisations. There are some initially encouraging signs: the police appear to be energetically pursuing the prime suspects, and sweeping reforms of the military have been promised. Djindjic's successor, Zoran Zivkovic, has yet to acquire his predecessor's authority, however, and he will need encouragement both carrots and sticks from the international community to hold the course that should have been pursued from October 2000.
Djindjic's killing is believed to have been carried out by shadowy elements in the closely linked local underworld and the state security apparatus that had long exploited the struggle between Djindjic and former Yugoslav President Kostunica to gain protection from one or the other of the contenders and prevent reforms. Djindjic's victory in that duel in late 2002 left them more vulnerable. Those alternate power structures were originally created by Milosevic to finance and protect his regime, and in order to unseat Milosevic, Djindjic and DOS were forced to make deals with them. However, while Djindjic was sensitive to Western pressure on delicate matters like cooperation with the Hague War Crimes Tribunal, wanted to reorient the crumbling socialist era economy to the free market, and was keen to align the country with Western European institutions, those same forces were the greatest source of opposition to any program of reform and modernisation. Recently, more confident of his political position, he had begun to move more vigorously on Hague cooperation, against organised crime and state corruption, and to some extent on economic reform as well.
