[ALBSA-Info] Vojislav Kostunica is an unapologetic Serb nationalist

[Iris Pilika]

Vojislav Kostunica: Tough intellectual

Vojislav Kostunica is an unapologetic Serb nationalist


October 6, 2000
Web posted at: 0610 GMT



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In this story:

'No to White House'

'No corruption, no comparison'


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By Romesh Ratnesar

(TIME.com Europe) -- He is rumpled and retiring and most at ease in his 
modest Belgrade apartment, surrounded by law books and cats. But Vojislav 
Kostunica has learned to play tough.

During the campaign for the Yugoslav presidency, the 56-year-old legal 
scholar travelled without bodyguards. When he stumped in Kosovo last month, 
supporters of Slobodan Milosevic pelted him with rotten vegetables, bottles 
and stones, opening a gash under his eye.

Kostunica carried on with his speech, refusing protection from NATO soldiers 
standing nearby. When the Milosevic campaign ran advertisements describing 
him as a "moral degenerate," Kostunica barely shrugged. "Politically, I have 
a pretty strong stomach," he said.

'No to White House'
Kostunica's surprising steeliness has helped him stare down Milosevic, but 
it doesn't endear him to the West. Despite his passive, hang-dog demeanour, 
Kostunica is an unapologetic Serb nationalist.

He posed for a photograph in 1998 brandishing an assault rifle to show 
solidarity for Serb troops in Kosovo. During the campaign, his disdain for 
Milosevic was matched only by his contempt for the United States. One slogan 
urged voters to say "no to White Palace" -- Milosevic's suburban mansion -- 
and "no to the White House."

He refused to support the 1995 Dayton accords, claiming they were unfair to 
Bosnian Serbs, and he lambasted the NATO campaign in Kosovo, while at the 
same time blasting Milosevic for his handling of the Kosovo crisis.

Kostunica has shown no sign that he would cooperate with demands that 
Serbian war criminals, including Milosevic, be delivered to the Hague. He 
believes the UN tribunal is a tool for American meddling.

And yet Kostunica still represents a refreshing turn in Serbian politics. He 
has none of the bombast of other Serb opposition leaders. He drives a 
battered Yugo and rarely travels outside the country.

Kostunica was a reluctant candidate, agreeing to stand for election only 
after polls showed more recognisable figures, such as Vuk Draskovic and 
Zoran Djindjic, stood no chance of beating Milosevic.

Kostunica appealed to voters with his common touch -- he campaigned 
door-to-door in five cities a day -- but also because he is unsullied by 
association with Milosevic, the West or the former communist regime.

'No corruption, no comparison'
Since the 1970s, when he was fired from his teaching post at Belgrade 
University, Kostunica has been one of the country's most ardent advocates of 
democracy and liberal economics.

That makes him palatable to the West, particularly given the alternative. 
"He is not an indicted war criminal," says a veteran U.S. diplomat. "He's 
not somebody who has started four or five wars. He is not a corrupt person. 
There is no comparison."

As president, Kostunica would likely blunt his anti-Western campaign 
rhetoric in an effort to improve ties with the EU and secure the lifting of 
international sanctions.

And he has said that he would begin negotiations with Montenegro's President 
Milo Djukanovic about the future of the Yugoslav federation, talks that 
could result in a new constitution and eventual independence for Montenegro.

But he will also demand greater rights for Serbs in Kosovo and will not 
entertain the idea of Kosovar independence without major concessions from 
the West. That may be the price of democracy.

"The West has to realise," says former British Foreign Secretary David Owen, 
"that you can't have peace in the Balkans without a Serb Government that 
speaks for the Serbs." If nothing else, Kostunica seems determined to do 
just that.

(With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic/ Belgrade and Andrew 
Purvis/Budapest.)



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