Key Opposition Leader Warns Against Isolating Serbia

Total isolation of Serbia for as long as Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power would be a major mistake, Zoran Djindjic, the key figure in Serbia’s democratic opposition, said Sunday.

“I know it is said that until Milosevic is gone, there will be no help for Yugoslavia,” Djindjic said in an interview here in Montenegro, Serbia’s junior partner in the Yugoslav federation and his base of operations in recent weeks.

“But I believe the international community must make a distinction between Milosevic’s government and the cities and people of Yugoslavia,” Djindjic said. “If they try to say, ‘OK, we will isolate the country and make a fire under the country, and in a few months we’ll have a political explosion in this country because of the isolation’--I don’t believe it’s true.”

The effect of such a harsh postwar strategy by NATO would be “the criminalization of society [while] Milosevic and his structure will stay,” Djindjic said.

In response to a looming “humanitarian disaster” threatened by the destruction of urban infrastructure during NATO’s bombing campaign, Djindjic’s Democratic Party--the largest party in Serbia fully committed to democracy--will seek direct international assistance for Serbian cities, he said. At the same time, it plans to launch a massive petition campaign calling on Milosevic to resign so that international aid will flow more freely.

Some of the most heavily damaged cities are in opposition hands, Djindjic noted.

“We’ll try first with Nis, Cacak and Novi Sad, and see how we can manage this,” he said. “We must see that the support is free from corruption.”

Reconstruction of facilities such as the power plants needed to provide heat to homes and apartments during the coming winter is of particular importance, he said. His party will also seek help in rebuilding bridges in Novi Sad and restoring electric power in Nis.

Djindjic expressed no optimism that Milosevic would resign as a result of a petition campaign, but he indicated that it would be the first step in a political process.

“We will make a petition directed to Milosevic saying, ‘Your position as head of our country is a hindrance to getting financial support . . . and if you remain in power, it will be a disaster for our country,’ ” he said.

“We will see how the people on the street react and how Milosevic reacts,” Djindjic said. “We will start with the 20 largest cities, which have 60% of the population. The second step must be demanding early elections . . . maybe with strikes, with rallies.”

Djindjic expressed hope of collecting “a million signatures with ID numbers--not only anonymous signatures, but with addresses and telephone numbers.”

He added, however, that under repressive laws established after the launch of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing, organizing such activities “is very high-risk--they can bring people to jail for even two years.”

Djindjic is scheduled to travel to Vienna on Wednesday to begin a multi-nation European tour aimed in part at promoting his party’s proposal for direct Western aid to Serbian cities.

The trip will take him on to Hungary, Germany, Liechtenstein and France, and probably also Romania, Bulgaria and Britain.

“It will be very bad for us if our neighbors agree to total isolation of Serbia,” he said. “Of course, we must isolate Milosevic--that is without question--but we must help the people. If we isolate all of them, it will be like during the war: There will be solidarity, they are all under attack.”

Relying on isolation and sanctions does not bring down dictators, he stressed, “not in Iraq, not in Cuba, not in Libya, not in Serbia.”