SASA STANKOVIC/AFP GENERAL MISTRUST When Kostunica tried to remove him, Pavkovic called for the President to go

Tussles at the Top
	A fired general's allegations are the latest twist in the power struggle between ex-Yugoslavia's leaders
	By DEJAN ANASTASIJEVIC | Belgrade

Posted Sunday, June 30, 2002; 11:45 a.m. BST
The future doesn't seem bright for ousted President Slobodan Milosevic, but it's easy to imagine a smirk on his face as he watches the latest news from Serbia from his cell in the Hague where he is on trial for war crimes. For more than a year, a vicious power struggle among Milosevic's successors has been tearing the country apart, and last week the crisis escalated to the brink of a military coup.

The central character in this drama is General Nebojsa Pavkovic, a former Milosevic loyalist who was in charge of Serbian troops during the 1999 Kosovo war but who continued to thrive long after Milosevic was kicked out of office in October 2000. As the Yugoslav army chief of staff, Pavkovic survived the revolution by quickly switching loyalties to the new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. But last week, when Kostunica tried to replace him, Pavkovic bluntly refused to step down, calling on parliament to sack President Kostunica instead.

Since coming to power, Kostunica has been under intense pressure to remove Pavkovic, who was deeply mistrusted by Western diplomats and many Serbs, albeit for different reasons. Though the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia did not formally indict him, Pavkovic's role in the Kosovo war could not be ignored. "We repeatedly told Kostunica that keeping Pavkovic undermines Yugoslavia's efforts to rejoin the international community," says a Western diplomat in Belgrade. Serbs, meanwhile, never forgot Pavkovic's threats to the opposition during Milosevic's last days. "People don't blame him for fighting NATO and the [Kosovo] Albanians, but they remember him acting as Milosevic's private bully," says Milos Vasic, a military analyst for the newsweekly Vreme.

Kostunica stubbornly resisted domestic and international pressure to sack the unpopular general because he needed him in his struggle against Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic. Kostunica and Djindjic were close allies in the fight to oust Milosevic, but once this was accomplished their friendship turned into a bitter rivalry. Kostunica seems to have decided that Pavkovic was too close to Djindjic, and that prompted him to act now. "Pavkovic was all right until he started flirting with Djindjic," Vasic explains. "We're all glad that he's fired, but he was fired for all the wrong reasons."

Pavkovic was quick to respond, claiming that Kostunica — who fired him by presidential decree — violated the constitution by circumventing the Supreme Defense Council, the country's top military body. After refusing to leave office, the general eventually stepped down when most members of his staff swore allegiance to Kostunica. But Pavkovic later came out with a new allegation: he now claims that last year he was ordered by Kostunica to lead a military assault on Djindjic's party headquarters, under the pretext that Djindjic was using the facility to wiretap the President. "I refused to obey because I deemed it dangerous and unconstitutional," Pavkovic said in a letter to the parliament demanding Kostunica's impeachment. Retired chief of army intelligence General Milan Djakovic backed up the allegation, which will be debated in parliament this week. A special committee is expected to be appointed to investigate, though it seems unlikely that Kostunica will be forced out of office.

Meanwhile, reforms in Serbia are stalled, the economy is sinking and prices are rocketing. Yet politicians barely seem to notice. "Most countries have political conflicts," says James Lyon, a Belgrade-based analyst with the International Crisis Group. "But in Serbia, it's becoming increasingly personal and vindictive. And lately, it is perceived as a matter of life and death." Literally. Three weeks ago, a top police general died in a hail of bullets in front of a posh Belgrade hotel. Though investigators have no clues about the perpetrators or the motive for the killing, many believe the assassination is another sign of the general political instability.

Meanwhile, apart from delivering a handful of suspects to the Hague court, all local efforts to resolve crimes committed during the Milosevic era — including war crimes — are going nowhere. "Instead of pushing the country forward, the political leaders here are devoting all their time and energy to trying to stab each other in the back," Lyon says. Milosevic may be far away, but his legacy is alive and well.

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