Serbian Lawmakers OK a Power-Sharing Deal

Former President Slobodan Milosevic’s party opened its last stronghold to democratic forces Tuesday as the Serbian parliament replaced a Socialist-dominated Cabinet with a power-sharing administration to manage Yugoslavia’s main republic until Dec. 23 elections.

The vote ratified a deal reached after more than two weeks of negotiations following an uprising that forced Milosevic to concede electoral defeat Oct. 6 and yield the presidency of Yugoslavia to Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia.

Sworn in late Tuesday, the caretaker Cabinet met and acted quickly to fill a power vacuum left by the tumultuous end of the Milosevic era.

The Cabinet moved to bring down soaring prices by restoring subsidies on milk and bread production and hinted at price curbs on monopoly providers of other commodities, such as cooking oil and meat. The Socialist-led regime had abandoned subsidies and price controls two weeks ago, claiming that the victorious democrats didn’t want them.

With temperatures near freezing and scattered blackouts hitting Serbia’s cities, the new administration also must replenish dwindling fuel supplies and cover what it estimates to be a $7-million monthly shortfall in pension and unemployment obligations to millions of citizens.

Kostunica has narrow formal authority as president of the Yugoslav federation, which consists of Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro. Until Tuesday, his victorious democrats had no jurisdiction over key institutions that sustained Milosevic in power for 13 years.

The new president’s allies now must establish a new Yugoslav administration to be eligible for tens of millions of dollars in aid pledged by the West to ease a democratic transition here. The Yugoslav parliament that was elected last month is expected to form such a government, without Milosevic’s old ministers, as early as next week.

Serbia’s new 36-member Cabinet is led by a Socialist prime minister, Milomir Minic, deemed by the opposition to be untainted by the corruption that pervaded the old regime. But a few Milosevic loyalists hated by the opposition, including the chief of the secret police, have kept their posts for now.

Under the power-sharing deal, two deputy prime ministers--one from Kostunica’s coalition and one from the smaller opposition Serbian Renewal Movement--have the same weight as Minic in making decisions.

Similarly, the three political factions assumed tripartite command of the four ministries overseeing Serbia’s police, courts, media and treasury. They divided the other 21 ministries among them, with the Socialists getting 11 and the other two factions getting five each.

They also agreed on the makeup of a commission of 18 nominally nonpartisan judges that will supervise elections for a new Serbian parliament two months from now.

Kostunica’s 18-party coalition is favored to win those elections and control Serbia’s next government. The uprising against Milosevic forced his demoralized followers to agree to hold the Serbian elections nearly a year ahead of schedule.

An interim power-sharing deal was agreed upon in principle last week. But it was delayed by bickering over which Socialists would be allowed to keep their jobs and by opposition from the Serbian Radical Party, a onetime ally of the Socialists.

In the end, the Socialists agreed to strike some provocative figures from their slate of ministers but kept others, including former Milosevic spokesman Ivica Dacic, who will help run the Information Ministry.

They also refused to fire state prosecutor Dragisa Krsmanovic and secret police chief Rade Markovic but hinted that both might be dismissed by the caretaker administration. Milosevic’s foes suspect Markovic’s hand in the 1999 slaying of crusading journalist Slavko Curuvija and the disappearance two months ago of Ivan Stambolic, a Serbian president of the pre-Milosevic era.

The 250-member parliament, dominated by 110 Socialist deputies, ratified the power-sharing deal by a vote of 133 to 1 after 83 Radical Party deputies walked out. It was parliament’s last act before its expected dissolution today.

The Radicals called the power-sharing deal a coup. They railed in parliament against a series of student and worker takeovers that have ousted Socialist and Radical bosses from scores of hospitals, universities, companies and other state-run institutions.

Minic, the new prime minister, told reporters that he agreed to lead the caretaker Cabinet “not because of fear” but “because of a sense of responsibility for Serbia.”

“A wave of violence and lawlessness has spread over Serbia,” he said of the mostly peaceful takeovers. “When the government and security forces are not able to secure peace and respect for institutions and law, the only solution is a political solution.”

The Cabinet is expected to name a new leadership board at Radio Television-Serbia, which switched abruptly from being Milosevic’s mouthpiece to promoting the ideas of the Kostunica allies who now dominate the network.

Radical deputies were infuriated when the network refused to telecast Tuesday’s parliamentary session, depriving them of a forum for their filibustering against the power-sharing deal. Parliament had voted to order live coverage, but the network pleaded technical difficulties.