SERBIAN boss Slobodan Milosevic has seized on the murder in Novi Sad of Bosko Vojrodina provincial govern. crack down on the opposition.
Claims by the regime that the was linked to the opposition Otpor (Resistance) movement have been strongly denied There is much suspicion that the murder was, in fact, engi neered by the ruling Socialist Party itself.
Attacks on the coposition have not been restricted to arrest of supporters. The sole onomition TV station. Studic B, was shut down before being reopened by Milosevic sup porters. Radio B2-92, Radio Pancevo and the student radio down, as has Blic, the newspaper with the highest circulation in Yugoslavia.
Milosevic now has effective control of the media in the lead police. tions at the end of the year. Protests against the closures -Пикті Young and old alike: these Serbian prosestors hate Milosevic have been broken up by riot Nevertheless the various opposition parties are still caling for daily demonstrations in all the major cities. It is too as personal vanities of some of the leading figures, make Milosevic's survival a distinct Esewhere in formerYugoslavia there has been a limited move away from nationalist politics - most markedly among the Musim population of Bosniatercegovina. As the Musims were the chief victims of wars of aggression by both Serbia and Croatia ment. It confirms our analysis during the war in Bosnia that defence of a united, independent Bosnia-Hercegovina was opment of an alternative to the nationalist agenda. the main Muslim party, Alja Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action (SDA), was utterly routed in larger towns ay the Social Democratic Party, the successor to the former carty to say how successful Communist Party.
Sarawvo. Zenia and Tuzla Unfortunately past experi are among the cities won by ence shows the political and he SDP. SDP leader Zlatko organisational weaknesses of all the opposition parties, as wel refugees of all ethnic groups would be weicome to return to ter nomes in cipes run Dy the Social Democrats.
The pro-capitalist, pro-western policies of the SDP are clearly not ones we would support. Ivevertheless, as with the sarlier victory of the former Communist Party in Croad the SDP victory in Bosnia is an important step in breaking the large sections of the population. Moreover, the fact that the SDP vote was strongest in the main towns and cities confirms that the working cass will ad opposition to national oppres However, the break from purely nationalist politics is far Serb-controlled regions of the The Serb Democratic COURTY Pes won seout or ol municipaities in the Republika Srpska, the Serb-controlled half cleansed' of most Crosts and Muslims The SDS vote was swollen by the exclusion from the clec. nationalist Serb Radical Party.
The elections were generally comprising the ruing coalition, Sloga. Former Bosnian Serb president Biliana Playsic's Serb People's Alliance (SNS) saw its support narco, wise tre Socialist Party (SPRS) also fared poorty, notably in Banja Luka.
however Came ne Milorad Dodk's Party of Independent Social-Democrats (SNSD) increased its vote. Dodik's tiny party began the yet fared better than either of its coalition partners. HDZ improved on its 1997 position, winning clections in all the municipalities where it was previously in power, as well as New Democratic Initiative.
This contrasts dramatically itself where the HDZ was heavily defeated.
Conanued support for une HDZ in Hercegovina may well encourage the SUP govern the righe to vote in Croatian elections from Croats living abroad.
Outlook