Milosevic Dons Mantle of Fiery Opposition

Slobodan Milosevic morphed from fallen tyrant into fiery opposition leader Saturday as he retained control of a Socialist Party as battered as the country it once ruled.

During his first venture into public since an almost bloodless revolution ousted him Oct. 5, Milosevic drove out or shouted down his chief party rivals and then delivered a tirade against Yugoslavia’s new leaders, whom he branded as “traitors.”

Milosevic told about 2,300 cheering delegates at a party congress that the October uprising was actually “a coup” backed by “paid Western spies.” They, he charged, will aid “the extradition of national heroes to the new Gestapo in The Hague,” where the United Nations war crimes tribunal has indicted Milosevic and four lieutenants.

Milosevic walked through the conference hall’s front door, past a small crowd of supporters and even fewer protesters, one of them a nurse who shouted: “Traitors! Thieves! Your time has passed.”

Milosevic ignored her.

The congress reelected Milosevic as party president, confirming him as leader of the opposition against new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, whose popularity is still high despite enormous problems.

Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia’s two republics, will hold early elections Dec. 23. The Socialists hope to win back voters by blaming Kostunica for Milosevic’s legacy of runaway inflation, mounting crime and an escalating conflict along the border with Kosovo, a province of Serbia.

Judging by the latest polls, Milosevic doesn’t have a chance of a comeback this soon. But with expectations so low, Milosevic can at least claim a good start if his Socialist Party isn’t wiped off the electoral map altogether.

The Democratic Opposition of Serbia, an 18-party alliance that brought Kostunica to power, had 58.7% to just 8% for Milosevic’s Socialists in a poll by the respected independent Mark-Plan agency earlier this month.

Asked to name the politician they trust the most, 40.9% of those polled chose Kostunica. He came out way ahead of Milosevic, who placed second with 4.7% support. Kostunica’s choice for prime minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, was fifth with just 2%.

The once omnipotent Socialist Party has suffered several defections, including former party Vice President Zoran Lilic, who quit to form his own party, the Serbian Socialist Democratic Party.

Encouraged by Milosevic’s divide-and-rule strategy, Serbia’s political parties multiplied like a virus. Politicians have founded 17 parties so far this year, raising the total to 209 parties.

Kostunica is struggling against dissension from some of his own lieutenants, who want him to remove the last of the Milosevic loyalists still wielding power. Those loyalists include Rade Markovic, who heads the secret police, who are suspected of carrying out political assassinations.

He Is Believed to Live in Tito Villa

Milosevic, who is wanted on war crimes charges by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, still has police bodyguards and is believed to be living in a round, four-story villa with a panoramic view of Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia and Serbia.

The villa was built in 1979 for former Yugoslav dictator Marshal Josip Broz Tito, but he never moved in and it served as a public museum displaying gifts from foreign officials. The treasures include 12 teacups made of gold from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and a silver tray from former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

Slightly more than 49% of people polled here say they want Milosevic to face war crimes charges in a Yugoslav court, not in The Hague, so Kostunica can’t afford to let Milosevic off the hook for long. Only 2.5% say Milosevic should be sent to The Hague.

Kostunica is also under pressure from some of his allies to get tougher with separatists in Serbia’s sister republic, Montenegro, and in Kosovo, where leaders continue to press for independence, which would end Yugoslavia as a country.

Kostunica Warns of Kosovo Violence

In a letter released Saturday, Kostunica asked for talks with moderate Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, among those who insists on independence. Kostunica warned that the “wave of violence is spreading in Kosovo and from Kosovo.”

“It’s no use covering up the problem,” Kostunica added. “We have to come to grips with it. We should do that as soon as possible. Too much time has already been wasted.”

For a year, ethnic Albanian rebels infiltrating from Kosovo have clashed sporadically with Serbian police units, and the conflict intensified last week when the guerrillas advanced farther into Serbian territory and seized police checkpoints.

Four Serbian police officers were reportedly killed in the fighting with the Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army, a small rebel force that wants to unite the mainly ethnic Albanian southern Serbia with an independent Kosovo.

Kostunica called on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to seal the border. And Serbian police have threatened to launch an offensive in the buffer zone if the rebels don’t retreat by Monday night. The NATO-led peacekeeping force said Saturday that the guerrillas had agreed to cease fire until Monday night.

Kostunica also inherited massive economic problems from Milosevic, who will take as much political advantage as he can from them in the coming weeks.

The first installments of more than $200 million in emergency European and U.S. aid to Serbia are starting to provide essentials such as heating oil for the winter, electricity to end rotating blackouts and overdue pensions for the elderly.

But the end of Milosevic’s 13-year regime has also meant the abrupt lifting of price controls and subsidies that he used to buy voters’ support. The price of milk has shot up 75% during the last two months. The cost of prescription drugs almost doubled when the government eased price restrictions Thursday.

Living standards continue to fall because wage increases haven’t kept pace with inflation. The average salary in Serbia was only about $45 a month in October, a 13.5% rise from September, according to official figures.