Serbians weighed down by penury

By Vaiju Naravane

BELGRADE, MARCH 9. Vera is tall, blonde and beautiful. Clutching her shabby button-less coat about her throat, she scurries through Belgrade's crowded open-air market looking for bargains. Her small stringbag contains 1 kg of potatoes, two rolls of toilet paper and a couple of beefbones.

``I have to be very careful with money. We are already in the second week of March and neither my husband nor I have been paid yet. So, I am buying the absolute minimum. I need at least some vegetables and bread to make up a stew for tonight. But there is nothing for less than 20 dinars per kilo'', she says, her eye slingering longingly on shiny purple aubergines and tight flowerets of broccoli. ``I suppose we will have to make do again with bread and bone stock goulash made with potatoes, onions and tomatoes'', she sighs.

Vera works at an orphanage for abandoned children and earns 4,500 dinars per month, or the equivalent of 150 German marks.

With bread costing half a mark, a litre of milk at one mark and 1 kg of oranges at one and a half mark, her salary does not go far.

There is galloping inflation in Serbia and Vera complains that she can never manage to budget properly. ``My husband is in the army. But in fact, he does three jobs. After he comes back home, he hangs up his uniform to become a house painter. He does odd jobs repairing broken taps and cars because he's good at anything mechanical. Nevertheless, it's a very hard life and it's likely to become harder'', says Vera.

Branka is an economic journalist with the Italian press agency ANSA. ``The consumer basket costs three times what people earn. Even with incomes from three jobs (practically everyone tries to do at least two jobs) people find it difficult to survive. Sanctions have broken Yugoslavia's economy. Inflation is running at 30 per cent. Industrial production is down 40 per cent. Factories have fallen into disrepair because there are no spares. The bureaucracy is bloated. Unemployment is estimated at 50 per cent of the active population. The picture is very grim indeed.

``The new Government has its work cut out. The Prime Minister, Mr. Zoran Djindjic, has got together some very competent people but it will take years to set things right. ``At least for the first time we have a Government that is not telling lies to the people'', she says.

It's a glorious spring day with temperatures in the mid-twenties. Years of anxiety, penury and deprivation have etched harsh lines on people's faces. The unrelenting sunlight reveals them all, leaving faces strangely exposed, almost naked.

Vera says she knows she cannot expect an economic miracle overnight. ``We understand that the Government is doing its best. And that makes it easier to bear.

For a long time I was troubled by terrible dreams. I was in a tunnel that never ended.

``I could never see the light and I thought we would continue to live in a dark kingdom forever. When I saw the houses built by the criminal Arkan or the Karic brothers who have systematically looted this country with Slobo and Mira, I would feel the bile rising into my mouth. Now all I want is justice. I want them to pay. I want them to be tried''.

Overwhelmingly, the residents of Belgrade feel Mr. Slobodan Milosevic should pay for robbing them of their dignity and livelihood. It is now no longer a question of whether the former President and his cronies will be tried but when. Most people, while preferring a trial in Serbia, are not averse to letting the international tribunal try him.

A political analyst, Mr. Bratisava Grubacic, says ``For this Government, Mr. Milosevic is now becoming almost a secondary question. The primary concerns are economic. Yugoslavia cannot do without credits from the IMF and the World Bank. Non- cooperation with the international tribunal could hold back these loans and grants. The economy is in a state of collapse and we have no time to lose. So, even the President Vojislav Kostounica, who was adamant about not extraditing Mr. Milosevic to The Hague, is beginning to change his tune. We shall see some movement, definitely before the end of March.

``Threats of civil war brandished by Mr. Milosevic's supporters are just rubbish. Those organising demonstrations outside his house are finding it difficult to get even 100 people

together. Most of them are ignorant peasants and out of work factory hands from the countryside. There will be no bloodshed and no civil war. Due process will be followed. That is what is taking so long''.

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