Serbia Concedes Some Opposition Ballot Victories

The government of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Friday conceded for the first time a handful of opposition election victories that it had earlier annulled. But the government continued to refuse to admit defeat in other races, rejecting most of the findings of an international mediating delegation.

Both the opposition and Western officials said the new government stance--contained in a letter to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe--fell far short of the democratic recognition needed to defuse the most tenacious political crisis faced by Milosevic in nearly a decade of rule.

After almost seven weeks of boisterous street protests that continued Friday, Milosevic appeared to be attempting to make token concessions to appease the international community. But the most important disputed race--that for the city council of Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital--remained in doubt.

Opposition leaders immediately rejected what they called a ploy and said they will press ahead with daily demonstrations, triggered when Milosevic overruled their victories in key cities in Nov. 17 elections.

The government letter was in response to an OSCE fact-finding mission, which came to Belgrade last month at Milosevic’s invitation to inspect allegations of election fraud. Chaired by former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the OSCE delegation found evidence of extensive fraud and ordered all election results annulled by Milosevic to be reinstated, handing the opposition 13 cities in addition to Belgrade. Milosevic was said to be furious at the OSCE findings.

All 54 nations represented in the OSCE on Friday endorsed the Gonzalez report in an emergency meeting in Vienna and called for “prompt and complete implementation” of its recommendations.

But at the same time, the government was making its formal response to the OSCE.

Flouting the Gonzalez recommendations, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic, who signed the letter, said the government recognized opposition victories in nine Belgrade districts but claimed victory in six cities that Gonzalez said should be awarded to the opposition.

Even the city of Nis, where a court recently restored opposition wins, was said by Milutinovic to be under review. Nis is Serbia’s second-largest city and was the scene of the most blatant fraud.

“Tricks, lies and misunderstandings,” Vuk Draskovic, a leader of the opposition coalition known as Zajedno, or Together, said of the government response. “Milosevic has sent an offensive and humiliating answer to the suggestions of the OSCE.”

Washington had a similar reaction.

Belgrade’s response to the OSCE “does not go nearly far enough in acknowledging the obligations of the Serbian government to make sure that it respects the voice of the people,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said. “The letter contains hollow assurances, in our view, of Serbia’s commitment to democracy. [It] fails to address seriously the recommendations in the Gonzalez report that would try to help resolve some of these very serious issues that have led to the political crisis in Belgrade.”

The letter offered to recognize Zajedno victories in three cities--Uzice, Kragujevac and Zrenjanin--that were not even in dispute. And it said no party achieved a majority in three other cities that Gonzalez determined were won by the opposition. Where it recognized opposition victories, it did not outline any steps for reversing the annulments.

“We consider that the free multi-party elections in Serbia confirm most comprehensively the strong democratic tradition and long experience in developing stable democratic institutions in Serbia,” Milutinovic wrote in the four-page letter.

Serbia, which has been under Communist or socialist rule for more than 50 years, forms, along with tiny Montenegro, the rump Yugoslavia.

Milutinovic’s letter arrived in Vienna hours before the OSCE convened its emergency session. Although the OSCE endorsement of Gonzalez was not a direct reaction to the Yugoslav response, it did emphasize reinstatement of all annulled elections, suggesting that Milosevic’s gesture would not be considered sufficient.

At the Vienna meeting, only the Russians, longtime allies of the Serbs, voiced reservations and warned against interfering in another country’s internal affairs, OSCE sources said. The Russians urged better understanding for the Serbian government’s problems.

But in the end, Moscow too endorsed the Gonzalez findings.

The OSCE can condemn Belgrade, but it has no teeth to enforce its recommendations. It suspended Yugoslavia from its ranks in 1992.

In the election dispute, the city of Belgrade remains the most confusing point.

Residents vote for a council in their district and for an overall citywide council, seat of the real local power.

Gonzalez originally erred in his report, referring only to nine Belgrade districts that Zajedno was cheated out of and failing to mention the citywide council.

OSCE officials later said he meant to indicate eight districts plus the citywide body, which would give the opposition control of all Belgrade.

But the government has apparently seized on the mistake, and in Friday’s response it accepted defeat in nine districts but pointedly did not mention the citywide council.

The party that controls the citywide council controls the post of mayor of Belgrade.

Under the annulled results, the opposition won and the post would have been occupied by Belgrade’s first non-Communist mayor in half a century.

“It is clear that Milosevic not only rejects Gonzalez’s report and the OSCE recommendations, but he also deliberately misleads the world about the election results in Serbia,” a statement from the opposition coalition said.

“It has become very clear that Milosevic has opted for a conflict with the whole world in an effort to stay in power.”