A Rotten Structure Falls

The cruel and corrupt regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic collapsed as one leg after another gave way--state radio, the police, all the elements of the dictator’s power except, for now, the army. What began a decade ago with Milosevic’s attempt to dominate his Balkan neighbors in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia appears to have ended in the streets of his Belgrade.

His political opponents and their increasingly rebellious supporters gathered outside parliament to hear opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica--denied an apparent presidential victory in an election two weeks ago--declare that the first session of a newly elected parliament had convened. There was no word from the dictator himself. Milosevic had contested the results of the recent parliamentary elections that gave power to the followers of Kostunica, whom state radio declared president-elect. With the collapse of the regime, a recount seems doomed.

The key question now, with the Serbian strongman finally unhorsed, is whether victory in the streets will deliver democracy in Yugoslavia. There should be no high hopes. While the ousted president led his people to disaster, triggering Europe’s first war in decades, with Serbian-led attacks on neighbors and on Serbia’s own Kosovo province, he leaves a country torn by communal rivalries and just now beginning to function industrially after the NATO bombing that ended the Kosovo crisis. The United Nations should immediately lift the sanctions placed on Yugoslavia during Milosevic’s war.

The focus now falls on Kostunica, who like all Yugoslav politicians has operated in the shadow of the dictator. He is a Serbian nationalist and unlikely to give any political ground to his opponents. Washington, Moscow and other key foreign capitals, watching the dramatic developments in Belgrade, should recognize the advantages of extending help to the new regime. That aid, however, should be measured in order to avoid the political risks of embracing rulers who are yet to show their stripes.