A Ray of Hope for Partisans of Peace : A new prime minister for Yugoslavia

In one of the most extraordinary political developments of this or any year, an American millionaire, a refugee from a communist country, has been named prime minister of the country he fled. The country is Yugoslavia. Its new prime minister is our neighbor, Costa Mesa pharmaceuticals magnate Milan Panic.

Yugoslavia, once the federation of seven South Slav nations, has been reduced by the defection of three republics whose independence has been internationally recognized: Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Macedonia, a fourth, is seeking recognition. The country that now calls itself Yugoslavia consists of Serbia, always the largest South Slav nation, and Montenegro, its satellite.

A NEW VIGOR: As the old, larger Yugoslavia disintegrated, its federal presidency--a position now held by the newly appointed Dobrica Cosic, a Serbian writer--came to mean less and less, while the presidency of Serbia, an office still held by the belligerent Slobodan Milosevic, came to mean more and more. The position Panic now assumes is that of prime minister of the new, smaller Yugoslavia. The questions in all minds are: Can he restore the vigor of his office, and can he restrain Milosevic?

Only time will tell, but a little time may well be enough. As Mikhail S. Gorbachev recently observed, the overriding political lesson of recent years is that enormous change can come with enormous speed. Milosevic’s expansionist policies have been ruinous for Serbia itself. Successive wars against Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have left Belgrade facing an inflation rate of (count the zeros) 120,000%. The Serbian academy has turned against Milosevic. So, more portentously, has the Serbian Orthodox Church. Panic’s stunning declaration of intent, a statement that for eloquence and breadth of vision bears comparison only with the inaugural speeches of Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia, will cheer and strengthen the partisans of peace in his homeland.

Eastern Europe and the Balkans in particular offer examples not just of ethnic strife but also of a multiethnic harmony not easily matched anywhere on the globe. Communism did not always “keep the lid on.” On the contrary, communist leaders often responded to domestic opposition by deliberately fomenting ethnic resentment. Nicolae Ceausescu did that against the Hungarians and Germans in Romania. Slobodan Milosevic has done the same.

A RENEWED BEACON: Within Europe, Yugoslavia has been the last surviving communist state. Milosevic has held it up by waging false and unnecessary war on his erstwhile Yugoslav countrymen. Panic’s arrival, we can only hope, will mean that the last domino has fallen.

A closing note: One of the most bitter human divisions remaining on the planet is that between Muslims and Christians. Turks in Germany, Algerians in France, Moors in Spain and Christian minorities in Egypt and Lebanon all might have looked in years past to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Christians and Muslims lived in peace, as to a beacon. If Panic succeeds, that beacon may yet be restored and raised aloft.