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USAID/OTI Serbia and Montenegro Field Report

August 2001

Program Description

The United States Agency for International Development, Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI) launched the Democratic Transition Initiative (DTI) in Serbia and Montenegro in early 2001 to consolidate the political gains achieved through elections in September and December 2000. DTI promotes citizen action that encourages participation and government accountability. DTI-supported projects are designed to improve citizen participation in government decision-making; support interest groups that promote and challenge government action; magnify democratic gains through the use of media; and promote a transparent electoral process that encourages active and informed citizen participation. The first phase of OTI's program to promote a peaceful democratic transition in Serbia and Montenegro began in July 1997. OTI intensified its support to action-oriented media, civil society groups, democratically-oriented municipalities, and democratic political initiatives leading up to elections in 2000. OTI's implementing partner in Serbia and Montenegro is Creative Associates International, Incorporated.

Country Situation

Division continued in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, most notably between President Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's Democratic Party (DS) over accusations of corruption. The murder of former Serbian State Security Service (RDB) officer Momir Gavrilovic escalated the crisis. Gavrilovic was gunned down by unidentified attackers on August 3, the same day he met with advisors to Yugoslav president Kostunica. Following his death, the presidency of the DSS decided to withdraw its representatives from the Serbian government on the basis of the current "government's incapability to deal with organized crime," and a failure to honor earlier requests to reshuffle Serbian government ministers. In response, the Serbian Prime Minister proposed the following changes: the formation of a ministry for natural resources; the addition of a ministerial position without portfolio for a representative of the Muslim minority; and the appointment of New Serbia's Velimir Ilic-the only DOS member party leader without a state post-as one of eight Deputy Prime Ministers. Tensions between the DOS parties were somewhat diffused after Kostunica and Djindjic met and agreed that "political stability is a precondition for the survival of reforms."

OTPOR (Resistance) appealed to DOS to remain united until reform laws are adopted, the constitution is changed, and further democratic changes in society are implemented. Though dissatisfied with the pace of reform, OTPOR activists believe that early elections could slow changes even more.

A number of polls were conducted by local research agencies in response to the growing political split in DOS. Results indicated that 20% of the population supports immediate DOS disintegration, while 46% oppose the idea, at least until relations with Montenegro are defined and a new Serbian constitution is adopted. FRY President Vojislav Kostunica remains the most popular politician in the country, although his approval ratings slipped to 65% in August from 86% in April. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has the support of 34% of respondents. Polls show that if the DOS parties were to contest an election separately, the DSS would receive about 29% of the vote and the DS about 17.5%.

The DOS will devote one of its upcoming meetings to the performance of the Yugoslav foreign ministry and foreign policy, due to concerns arising from the replacement of the Yugoslav Ambassador to the United States, Milan St. Protic. According to the official explanation, Protic was removed from his post because of a series of critical statements he made about Yugoslavia's president, foreign minister, and foreign ministry in interviews granted to Yugoslav media. DOS decided that the decision, "dictates the need for a serious debate on foreign policy and cadres in the federal foreign ministry."

Moma Raicevic, attorney for former FRY president Slobodan Milosevic, filed charges with the Belgrade district public prosecutor's office against 14 members of the Serbian government, who passed the decree on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The charges were for "abuse of power and aiding in the abduction of the former FRY president." Raicevic told a press conference that the charges were filed against Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, Deputy Prime Ministers Nebojsa Covic, Dusan Mihajlovic, Zarko Korac, Jozef Kasa, Momcilo Perisic and Aleksandar Pravdic, as well as Ministers Aleksandar Vlahovic, Dragan Domazet, Dragan Veselinov, Dragoslav Sumarac, Dragan Milovanovic, Vladan Batic, and Slobodan Milosavljevic. In addition, charges were filled against Dragan Blanusa, the former warden of the Belgrade central jail, accusing him of abuse of powers since he "removed prisoner Slobodan Milosevic from detention, without permission from the prosecutor's office."

The FRY government adopted a joint platform on the constitutional redefinition of the FRY, proposed by DOS and the Montenegro coalition "Together for Yugoslavia" to include areas such as: foreign policy, defense, border control, monetary and customs systems, securities, and judicial and administrative procedure.

The Montenegrin Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) invited opposition parliamentary parties to discuss preparations for the organization of a referendum on republic status. The discussions, held late in August, began with a meeting of DPS and Socialist People's Party (SNP) leaders, Milo Djukanovic and Predrag Bulatovic. The two stated that DPS and SNP, as the two most influential-although opposing- political parties in Montenegro, have a special duty and responsibility for the realization of political reform and solution of the state legal status.

On August 20, representatives of 14 Vojvodina political parties and NGOs adopted a platform demanding constitutional reforms in Serbia, which would define and expand the authority of the provincial government. The platform calls for a greater devolution of legislative, judiciary and executive powers to the provincial authorities. As part of DOS coalitions in the republican and provincial parliaments, the Vojvodina political parties are set to push an initiative for the adoption of a new Serbian constitution outlining greater autonomy for Vojvodina.

OTI Highlights

A. Narrative Summary

In early August, DTI Belgrade representatives visited the town of Cuprija to discuss the success of a local environmental campaign, "Green Town." The project goal was to raise public awareness about environmental issues and the role that each citizen can play. The project included a multi-media campaign; environmental classes for children (in May); a clean-up of riverbanks, the town's central park, and schoolyards; as well as a contest for the most beautiful street. Approximately 2,000 citizens participated in the activities, which ended with an enthusiastic request for another public action to be organized for fall 2001.

OTI Country Representative Paul Randolph and Charge d'Affaires Bob Norman attended the Zeleznicka Street opening in Gornji Milanovac on August 28. The road was a joint effort between DTI, the municipality, and local citizens, who identified it as a priority project and helped to raise funds for its completion. The new street will ease traffic congestion in Gornji Milanovac's center, improve pedestrian safety, and include better water drainage and sewage run-off.

In Presevo and Bujanovac municipalities, DTI has begun to collaborate with the USAID-funded NGO, Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF). In other regions of Serbia, DTI discussed coordination, collaboration, and/or hand-off to other community-based projects such as the USAID-funded Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA). In Kragujevac, DTI hired additional staff to expand activities in the mostly Muslim region of Sandzak, where local communities frequently complain that they are neglected by the central Serbian government.

As part of DTI's ongoing efforts to ensure the widest possible coverage of quality media programming throughout Serbia and Montenegro, media officers continue to develop projects that would link Albanian language stations in Presevo and Montenegro, and potentially provide support for radio broadcasts out of Novi Pazar to cover the Sandzak region.

The DTI Serbia and Montenegro baseline survey was completed in collaboration with "MEDIUM Index Ltd.," a local company. The survey of 2,100 citizens and 62 government representatives in Serbia and Montenegro examined perceptions and attitudes regarding the media, the non-governmental sector, and local government activities, with particular emphasis on the level of citizens' participation in the decision-making process. Some key findings include:

• Television was ranked first among media outlet use for 57% of Serbian and 51% of Montenegrin citizens, and for 41% of Serbian local representatives, while 67% of Montenegrin authorities prefer newspapers to TV.
  
  
• When asked about the importance of access to independent media, only 24% of Serbian and 27% of Montenegrin citizens found it very important, while 72% of local representatives in both republics stated that access to independent media is very important.
  
  
• 59% of Serbian and 51% of Montenegrin citizens, and 96% of Serbian and 100% of Montenegrin local representatives are familiar with NGOs and their role in democracy building. Several local authorities, however, felt that NGOs as a whole do not serve the wider population, but instead serve their own self-interest.
  
  
• Only 4% of Serbs and 14% of Montenegrins are very satisfied with their local authorities, while 59% of Serbs and 55% of Montenegrins are not very satisfied or not satisfied at all. Respondents were particularly dissatisfied with the way in which local authorities invest money collected from property and income taxes.
  
  
• With regard to citizen participation in local government decision-making, 35% of Serbs and 31% of Montenegrins said they participate to some extent, while 19% of Serbs and 28% of Montenegrin citizens said they do not participate at all.
  
  
• When local authorities were asked to comment on citizen participation, they reportedly felt that there was a high degree of participation among Serbs and Montenegrins--89% of Serbian and 83% of Montenegrin authorities surveyed said that citizens participate to some extent.
  
  
• 87% of Serbs and 77% of Montenegrins stated that their local representatives have not communicated with them during the past six months. Nevertheless, local authority representatives reported a high level of communication with their citizens. In fact, 100% of Montenegrin and 78% of Serb local representatives reportedly communicated with citizens during the past six months.

Overall, these survey findings show that citizens of both Serbia and Montenegro are not satisfied with the level of communication with their local authorities and their participation in the local government decision-making process. Many citizens stated they are not interested in contacting and/or approaching authorities with their problems, believing that nothing would be done. While citizens understand that local authorities are responsible to them, they are not prepared to take measures to hold their local authorities accountable, or to challenge the decisions they make. It appears that even with a change in political leadership, the practices and behavior of the former regime still exist, both on the part of citizens and local authorities. The survey points to the need for programs such as DTI, which aim to encourage citizen participation through community development activities, local resource mobilization, and information dissemination through media.

B. Indicators of Success

Early in the month, a representative of the Southern Serbia Coordination Body for the Serbian government (tasked with working with the international community on humanitarian and development assistance) joined a DTI Nis staff member on a monitoring visit to the village of Biljaca, where DTI is supporting the rehabilitation of its Desanka Maksimovic Primary School. This was the first time that anyone from the Coordination Body visited the village. Following discussion with members of the Albanian community dissatisfied with the way the local community president (a Serb) was representing their needs, the Serbian Coordination Body representative suggested that the Albanian citizens should elect their own representative to work with the current president to improve coordination.

During a Breznica Community Development Group (CDG) meeting, attended by representatives of both the Bujanovac Department of Urbanism and Department of Education, villagers raised concerns about the village's teachers within the Serbian educational system. Teachers who worked in Ground Safety Zone (GSZ) schools did so on a voluntary basis over the past year. The Serbian Ministry for Education assured the community that all teachers who worked without pay throughout the school year in GSZ communities would be reimbursed and clarified how the payments would be made. The municipality's responsiveness to the concerns of this previously isolated community, elicited expression of surprise and gratitude Even though the meeting focused on the rehabilitation of the dilapidated school, having the Education Department on hand to answer other questions regarding education ministry policies had as much impact on the CDG members as the plans to repair the school.

Following the first open community meeting in the village of Dragovac, as part of DTI's CIP process, local officials from the municipality of Pozarevac noted that the meeting drew more participants than any other political rally/meeting they can remember in that village. The sizeable turnout and success of the meeting indicated the level of hope and enthusiasm in Dragovac for the CIP process.

C. Grants Activity Summary

A total of 23 grants valued at $618,990 were approved in August 2001, bringing the total approved grants this fiscal year to 264.

• CIP* - Community Improvement Projects
• Approved to Date** -- This total includes RONCO grants approved between October 1-December 22, 2000.

Southern Serbia Grants Activity Summary from February 2001 till present

• Approved/Ongoing** - indicates total number of grants and value of the projects that are ongoing, i.e. are in the implementation stage

NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES

Priorities for the month of September include:

1. Continue coordination with newly selected USAID Mission-supported NGOs, which will be implementing a similar community impact project (CIP) process.
2. Follow up on the baseline survey and review of preliminary results.