← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Petr
Thread ID: 20541 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-10-06
2005-10-06 06:57 | User Profile
[I]Apparently this disillusionment with neoconnish "democracy" movements has been repeated in Ukraine, albeit only faster... cruel, but on the long run it's better for Eastern Europeans to quickly learn how empty are the messianic promises Western "democracy".
Damn it, Brussels democrats have just demonstrated how little they care about true democracy when they pushed Turkey into EU membership talks against the will of clear majority of Europeans![/I]
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051005/ap_on_re_eu/serbia_milosevic_anniversary[/url]
[FONT=Arial][SIZE=5]Some Serbs Have Mixed Feelings on Uprising [/SIZE]
[B]By JOVANA GEC, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 5, 2:49 PM ET[/B]
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - A half a million protesters stormed the parliament that night, braving rounds of tear gas and riot police in their desperation to drive out Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Slavica Ninkovic watched nearby. Her son was at the front of the crowd. Parliament was in flames. She was frantic, but she believed in the cause. By dawn, Oct. 5, 2000, Milosevic's bloody, autocratic reign was over.
Five years later, Ninkovic isn't so sure it was worth it.
Now 48, she has lost her meat factory job in the northern Serbian town of Kikinda. Deeply disappointed, she says she would never take part in any protest again.
"I utterly hated Milosevic," Ninkovic says. "But now I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel."
For many in this troubled Balkan republic, the better future they dreamed of has been slow in coming.
At first there was hope.
The leader of the 2000 uprising, the charismatic Zoran Djindjic, became Serbia's first democratic prime minister since World War II.
Within a year, he launched major economic and political reforms and arranged Milosevic's extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges of fomenting the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Then, in March 2003, Djindjic was assassinated, allegedly by a group of paramilitary Milosevic loyalists seeking a return of the former regime. It was a huge blow to Serbia's fledgling democracy, and the government soon collapsed.
Economic revival and social reforms became bogged down by political instability, scandals and infighting among those who took part in the Oct. 5 revolt. Corruption and crime flourished.
[B]The ultranationalist Radicals ââ¬â Milosevic's political allies during his reign ââ¬â cashed in on widespread discontent, becoming the single largest party in parliament.[/B]
Today, every third Serb is jobless. For those with jobs, the average monthly salary is $250. And inflation is a rampant 14 percent ââ¬â a European record, though far lower than the 120 percent of early 1990s.
Many blame conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who was part of the pro-democracy movement but later fell out with Djindjic.
Kostunica heads a shaky minority government that depends for every vote in parliament on newfound allies among Milosevic's Socialists, providing the ex-leader's party with leverage and a comeback ticket.
Kostunica's critics suspect him of making deals with the Socialists, citing the recent dismissal of a criminal indictment against Milosevic's thug son, Marko, charged with harassing and threatening his father's opponents.
"It's a matter of naked, tit-for-tat politics," political analyst Vladimir Goati said of Serbia's government. "It cannot last, it will simply cave in on its own."
When authorities last week detained Vladan Batic, Djindjic's former justice minister and a fierce Kostunica critic, the democratic opposition accused Kostunica of "treading in Milosevic's footsteps." Batic was released after 48 hours.
Kostunica has repeatedly rejected such accusations, arguing his government improved ties with the European Union and handed over 16 war crimes suspects to The Hague tribunal. He renewed pledges that Serbia will hand over the top Balkan war crimes suspects ââ¬â Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic ââ¬â key demands of the European Union and NATO for closer ties.
And even now, some say achievements of the 2000 uprising should not be dismissed so quickly.
"Many people are disappointed. Serbia's progress has slowed and that disappointment is understandable," historian John Cox, a Balkan specialist and author of a 2002 book on contemporary Serbian history, said in an e-mail interview.
But he added: "I don't think the ideals and goals of the democratic movement have been completely betrayed. ... It is important to remember that these ideals were bigger than just Djindjic."[/FONT]
2005-10-07 03:50 | User Profile
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]France, Holland, Serbija, et al are slowly waking up to the downside of a marriage with Illuminati statists...[/size][/font]