ELDR Focus Year

The recent official visit of Mr. Svilanovic, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, to Bosnia and Herzegovina serves as an excellent example of how the officials in Serbia should act towards their country’s past. Avoiding the official diplomatic protocol during his visit to Sarajevo, Minister Svilanovic visited the Monument to the first victim of war in Bosnia and placed flowers on the memorial.

Mr. Svilanovic is the leader of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (CAS) - a party currently undergoing an internal campaign that will hopefully result with this party joining the liberal family.

The Civic Alliance of Serbia, the mother party of the Civic Youth Alliance (LYMEC member organisation), was founded in 1992 upon the merger of the Yugoslav Alliance of Reformists and the Republican Club. Since the outbreak of the Yugoslav crisis, the party focused all its activities on the prevention of the conflicts and has persistently protested against the wars and nationalism in Serbia.

During the hardest social and political crisis in the country, Ms Vesna Pesic PhD, renowned for her fighting for human rights, was elected Party President. Many university professors, scientists and artists joined the party at that time.
The Civic Alliance of Serbia and its members established soon after several famous Serbian NGOs: Center for Anti-war Action, Belgrade Circle, Belgrade Center for Human Rights etc. At the time, CAS protested against the war every day, especially during the siege of Sarajevo and Srebrenica and other events of the black July of 1995. During this period, the party and its members suffered repression from Milosevic’s regime, especially from his secret police. In 1997, the Civic Alliance of Serbia and Vesna Pesic received the best possible reward for their hard work - Ms. Pesic was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace.

The demonstrations ceased after the Dayton Agreement, but only three years later, the Civic Youth Alliance had a new concern – the escalation of the Kosovo crisis, followed by ethnic cleansing that was conducted again by the dreaded secret police. The NATO intervention followed, and the party’s new, young president, Goran Svilanovic, was drafted into an anti-aircraft unit in Belgrade. He was the only political leader called into the army. After the intervention, CAS was one of the founders of the “Alliance of Change” and DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia). The events of October 5th followed, and the 11-year struggle against Slobodan Milosevic ended with a victory. Goran Svilanovic became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new coalition government.

Today, the Civic Alliance of Serbia pledges for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and reconciliation processes in the ex-Yugoslavia. Most of all, the party feels that the people of Serbia need to face the past ten years and understand the tragedies that happened in those years and their perpetrators. The recent official visit of Minister Svilanovic to Sarajevo marks an important step in that process.

Note: The article is written by Rastko Petakovic, a member of the National Board of the Civic Youth Alliance (GOS) from Serbia.