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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 07/04
Serbian Reform Stails Again
July 17, 2003
Abstract
The reformist zeal displayed by the Serbian government following the 12 March 2003 assassination of Premier Zoran Djindjic appears to have dissipated. A number of important and positive steps were taken while the shock of that political murder was still fresh. Increasingly, however, their impact is being counterbalanced by actions that bring into question the governmentÕs ability to press decisive political and economic reforms home so as to achieve the goal of integration with wider European institutions.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, public commitments to cooperate with The Hague Tribunal were made; the army began to be put under civilian control; the highest-profile organised crime gang and parts of the Milosevic-era parallel security structures were dismantled; several dozen prominent murders, many dating back to the old dictatorÕs time, were solved; and the new union of Serbia and Montenegro was admitted to the Council of Europe. All this should have happened quickly after MilosevicÕs fall in October 2000, but the reform agenda had been blocked by nationalist forces around former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica until February 2003.
