Fear of political violence swept across newly liberated Serbia yesterday as allies of deposed strongman Slobodan Milosevic walked out of talks aimed at forming a new government.
Five days after dramatic rallies swept Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica into power, reformers under him are attempting to get control of key ministries in the government of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic and Milosevic’s former power base.
Workers at hospitals, banks, industries and hotels yesterday threw out bosses connected to the old regime, and European nations rushed in to welcome Yugoslavia back into the community of nations after a decade of conflict and diplomatic and economic isolation.
But hard-line members of Milosevic’s Socialist Party and its allied Radical Party were still trying to spoil the celebration as they stormed out of negotiations on the new government, saying they will return only “after the end of riots, violence and lawlessness against the people of Serbia.”
That prompted Velimir Ilic, mayor of the Serbian town of Cacak, who played a critical role in the storming of the federal parliament last Thursday, to threaten more street action against Milosevic cronies.
“The people’s patience is exhausted,” said Illic, who led a gang of karate experts, boxers and ex-army officers into Belgrade armed with Molotov cocktails, bulldozers and rocks to provoke the capture of the parliament.
“Serbs are so eager to see changes and I do not know who will protect the Socialists – and how – if they continue to drag their feet,” he said.
The negotiations are a crucial step in Kostunica’s ability to gain control of Yugoslavia because the Intelligence Services and Interior Ministry, which contains the all-powerful MUP – the 120,000 member Interior Ministry police force that formed the backbone of Milosevic’s power base – remains in the domain of the Serbian government.
Kostunica’s allies in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia party say they do not yet control all of this force.