Milosevic made many mistakes, but only this one cost him the government!

Today marks two decades since the elections that provoked the great protest of October 5, 2000 and the collapse of the pyramid of power of the then inviolable president of Serbia and the FRY, Slobodan Milosevic.

In the last two decades, there have been many testimonies and opinions about the October 5 coup, but even today the answer to the question remains vague: how did a regime that apparently strictly controlled all the levers of power collapse in just a few hours on October 5?

The 24 September elections were characterized by the fact that, in addition to the local elections and for the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, direct elections were held for the first and only time for the president of the FRY, which was possible thanks to the approved amendments to the FRY Constitution. However, these elections turned out to be a fatal mistake by Milosevic, after which he lost power and soon found himself in The Hague. They did not actually have to be retained, but made the decision to shorten their term.

According to one of the latest testimonies from Milan Milutinovic, the then president of Serbia, given that local and federal elections were approaching at that time, the SPS leadership was convinced that the presidential elections should be held at the same cost. It was assessed that the call to rebuild and build the country after the NATO bombing, achieved certain effects in the minds of the people and that this will prevail during the elections. It turned out that the assessment turned out to be completely wrong, and even today it is unclear how it was done, because Milosevic still did not seem like such an easy man to persuade into making such strategic decisions.

Milutinovic also believes that Milosevic’s defeat in the elections and his overthrow were not just a coup, but that the whole process was provoked, among other things, by the joint action of numerous processes that took place in the 1990s, such as wars. , disintegration and economic deficiencies. situations. Furthermore, many politicians and influential circles in Serbia were convinced that the country could not advance and would not be accepted by the West while Milosevic was in power.

The election results showed that Millosevic was defeated by the DOS candidate and leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica, but he refused to admit it and ordered a second round, which provoked the anger of the people and large demonstrations.

However, despite the factors listed and the great discontent of the people, the fact is that October 5 could not have happened without two key factors: Western support for the overthrow of Milosevic and the actions of the CIA.

According to an article by American pro-David Schwimmer, the CIA and other American agencies finally agreed to overthrow Milosevic after the bombing. First, from mid-1999 to the last months of 2000 alone, American public and private organizations spent around $ 40 million on legal programs in Serbia, not only to support the opposition, but also independent media, civic organizations and the Exit and Vote initiative. “. Through this open engagement, the United States sought to influence public opinion. The CIA had the same goal, only it did its job in secret. There was a secret job in support of Milosevic’s opposition, and the CIA injected millions of dollars into the anti-Milosevic campaign, mainly through meetings with key partners of Serbian opposition leaders, outside state borders, where gave them cash on the spot.

In Serbia, the goal of the CIA was to influence the minds of its citizens, not to manipulate the polling stations. The involvement of the US intelligence community in the elections was “fundamental”, and Washington used all the instruments of national power to achieve a result that was in favor of the United States. In addition, US democracy promotion organizations tried to ensure that Milosevic did not have the opportunity to falsify the vote count. A US-funded NGO trained more than 15,000 polling stations at polling stations.

British journalist Tim Marshall also writes in his book “Shadow Game: October 5 Change of Government in Serbia” that the United States, Britain and Germany spent more than $ 60 million to fund the Serbian opposition and that the forces CIA specials participated in the plan to overthrow Milosevic. SAS and many other intelligence agents.

Another key factor in Milosevic’s downfall was the army’s decision that its units should not engage in inter-party conflicts and appear on the streets. This was very important because, according to the later testimony of General Nebojsa Pavkovic, it became known that members of the opposition, led by Velimir Ilic, took possession of a large quantity of weapons from the “Sloboda” factory, whose director joined the opposition .

Two decades later, we see the results of the October 5 coup, and history will shed light on all those details that have remained hidden to this day.

(Kurir.rs)

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Author: delivery courier