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Protests in Serbia Archive
Serbian Renewal Movement: News of Feb. 5

5th February, 1997

Seventy seventh day of the protest

President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic sent a letter yesterday to the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic, in which he demanded from the Government to accept the recommendations and recognize as definite the results of 17th November local elections. The citizens gathered on the meeting of the Coalition ZAJEDNO accepted this news with disbelief.

"We haven't seen that letter and we have no comment about it" - said the president of Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic. He added that the President of Serbia received couple of important world statesmen and spoke with them about urgent international loans, economic and cultural collaborati- on, urgent abolition of visas between Serbia and other countries, and other problems of vital importance to the citizens. Those important statesmen are the Minister of Internal Security forces Zoran Sokolovic, commander of the savage actions upon the citizens, general Badza, and the Chief of the State security Jovica Stanisic.

"If he had any senses, he would see that this would be the most ideal moment to recognize fully and honestly the election results in every community, every town and to invite the Opposition immediately to necessary democratic dialogue on de-blocking the public media and providing a new electorial system. This dialogue would take place in Parliament only, and only between the Parties in Parliament. But there would be raised a question of responsibility for batte- ring and everything else that happened in last eighty days", said Vuk Draskovic to the gathered citizens.

At the end of his speech Draskovic said that it depended solely upon Milosevic whether the fight for democracy would be led on the elections or on the streets.

Letter of congratulation to Vuk Draskovic

Vice president of the OSCE Assembly, Mr. Willy Wimmer congratulated the President of Serbian Renewal Movement Vuk Draskovic. In his letter he wrote:

Dear Mr. Draskovic,

After the announcement to follow the will of the Serbian voter and to recognize the results of the municipal elections as valid, I want to congratu- late you and all those who fought for this with pride and without using violence.

I hope that in close and good cooperation with the team of OSCE, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will have a democratic future and those, who live in your country, will find a valid place again among all of us.

Yours sincerely,
Willy Wimmer

Slobodan Milosevic's proposal is non - constitutional

The letter of the President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic addressed to the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic suggesting that he should use his constitutio- nal authority to propose a new law to the Parliament, by which the local election results in Serbia would be recognized in accordance with the OSCE recommendations and the election crisis in Serbia ended, is non-constitutional in itself - says judge of the Constitutional Court in Serbia Slobodan Vucetic. This would be legally possible only if the report of the OSCE had a status of a legal international act in accordance with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Constitution, and not a status of an expert opinion. The political and consti- tutional crisis regarding the vote-theft is constitutionally and legally impossible to solve in a pragmatic and a political way through the legal acts of the Parliament and the Government. Political act of 'the ruler's good will' is obviously an attempt to create an illusion of Government's readiness to solve the election crisis in the system's institutions. It would also conceal the fact that the deep political crisis and vote-theft are solely the responsi- bility of the ruling party, - says in his statement Slobodan Vucetic, judge of the Constitutional Court of Serbia.

Reaction of the legal council of the coalition ZAJEDNO to Slobodan Milosevic's letter

Coalition ZAJEDNO Legal Council President professor Dragor Hiber in his statement regarding Milosevic's letter to the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic says among other things:

"This is a situation in which the decision is not made by the system's institutions, but by the supreme master of Serbia who shows electoral grace using the new law".

He also warned that the Serbian Socialist Party MPs will vote for the law which will probably raise question of what the OSCE recommendations really are and which results should be recognized by that law.

Police violence continues

After the yesterday's Coalition ZAJEDNO meeting the events at the Liberty square led to a police raid. Four people were hurt in it and a fifteen-year old boy had a nervous break-down watching the police beat his brother.

Statement of the presidency of the European Union

The Presidency is pleased that President Milosevic has announced that he wishes to resolve the crisis with regard to the results of the local elections on the basis of the recommendations of the OSCE mission. The Presidency notes that President Milosevic proposes to this end that the Serbian Parliament adopts a law which would recognize as definitive the results of all of the local elections in Serbia, according to the recommendations of the OSCE.

The European Union will study the text of the draft law, which is yet unknown, very carefully.

The Presidency recalls that the recommendations of the Gonzales report not only refer to the results of the local elections but also to a dialogue with the opposition on the further process of democratisation, in particular revision of the electoral system, and diversity of opinions in the mass media. When insisting on the full implementation of the recommendations, the European Union also refers to this part of the report.

The Hague, 4 February 1997

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