yugoslavias implosion

PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C’EST LA MEME CHOSE:
THE ALLIANCE OF ELITES AND THE FALL OF MILOŠEVIĆ
The West’s illusions about Serbia’s democratic potential and Serbia’s
capacity to play a constructive leading role in the Balkans in
the wake of the ouster of Milošević in October 2000 were shattered
by the assassination of prime minister Zoran Đinđić in March 2003.
Any attempt to understand Serbia in the early twenty-first century
must proceed from an understanding of the period between October
5, 2000, when hundreds of thousands of disenchanted and frustrated
Serbs converged on Belgrade to demand that Milošević step
down from the presidency, and 2008, when Vojislav Koštunica finally
stepped down.
In spite of the international community’s keen desire to bring
Serbia back into its fold after Milošević’s downfall, the Serbs continued
to misunderstand the new international order; in turn, the rest
of the world continued to misjudge Serbia. No other country was
offered such favorable Council of Europe accession terms as was Serbia.
The eu unrolled a red carpet for the new democratic government
in the hope that it would make a clean break with the Milošević
regime. But the international community may have been overly
impressed by the enormous hopeful energy generated by October
5 and unable to make a strategic distinction between the protagonists,
especially two key ones: Vojislav Koštunica, who took over as
president, and Zoran Đinđić, who assumed the role of prime minister.
The international community failed to throw its weight behind
the reformist political forces spearheaded by Đinđić and mistakenly
believed that Koštunica was a democratically-minded leader.
Milošević’s resignation as president two days after the demonstrations
in Belgrade was the result not only of those mass protests,
but also of deals struck between Milošević’s staunchest allies
(the Army, the police, and his closest associates) and the Democratic
Opposition of Serbia (the dos—a coalition of anti-Milošević forces,
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