World

Neither Gone Nor Forgotten

November 20, 2000 / 3:37 PM EST / AP

Six weeks after handing over power, Slobodan Milosevic is still living comfortably in his posh villa, recuperating from the shock of his ouster from the presidency and plotting a political comeback.

Socialist Party officials say Milosevic has been encouraged by the new government's inability to curb Yugoslavia's economic slide as well as simmering public discontent with the new pro-democratic leadership and bickering among the forces that ousted him.

"Milosevic is not giving up politics," said Zoran Lilic, who resigned last month from the Socialist Party. "Milosevic is considering his best possible survival options, and counting on things going downhill" for the democratic movement that ousted him.

Milosevic's allies say the former president is devoting much of his time to planning for Saturday's congress of his Socialist Party. Moderates plan to use the session to try to unseat Milosevic as party leader.

However, Milosevic hopes to retain control.

"Milosevic is seeing many people," said the party's general-secretary, Zoran Andjelkovic. "Many people communicate with Milosevic personally or over the phone. Milosevic is communicating with the outside world directly. I can assure you that." He would not elaborate.

Several other Socialist Party officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Milosevic has recovered from the shock suffered when crowds rioted in Belgrade after the disputed September election, forcing him to concede defeat to Vojislav Kostunica.

AP Photo
This poster of Slobodan Milosevic
reads "He's finished!" but the man
himself doesn't see it that way.

With Kostunica refusing to extradite Milosevic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the former first couple has shelved plans to flee the country. Instead, Milosevic and his wife, Mirjana Markovic, have been seen strolling hand-in-hand in the garden of the white brick house on Uzicka Street in the capital's Dedinje district, where they moved weeks before he was ousted.

In some ways, their life is not so different from the final months of his rule, when the president rarely ventured out in public. He and his wife are guarded by a paramilitary force of some 100 loyal, well-armed troops, commanded by his longtime personal bodyguard, police Gen. Senta Milenkovic.

Their daughter Marija is staying with them, while son Marko, who has been linked to several murky business deals, is believed laying low in Russia after he was turned back from entering China shortly after his father's downfall.

When the former first couple do venture out, it is in secret, using small cars with tinted windows, officials say.

Those who claim to have seen Milosevic recently say the former strongman insists e never lost to Kostunica at the polls, but was forced out in an "illegal and violent street coup." He has convinced himself that he stepped aside to spare the nation from bloodshed.

His wife, a member of an elite communist political clan, curses army and police generals who refused to use force against demonstrators.

According to party insiders, the Milosevics are pinning their hopes on the country's deteriorating economy - which critics blame on his disastrous economic policies and nearly a decade of international sanctions.

He hopes that as Yugoslavs struggle through a winter of power outages, no heat and soaring prices, they will again take to the streets - this time against the new leadership. In the meantime, Milosevic expects the 18 parties that form Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia will break apart because of internal bickering.

That may not be so far-fetched.

There are signs that the Kostunica coalition may unravel after the Dec. 23 elections in Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia, because of increasingly public infighting between its leaders over numerous economic, political and other issues.

Among those issues is Kostunica's refusal to arrest Milosevic or to replace secret police chief Rade Markovic and army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic. Kostunica has said that he considers the U.N. tribunal to be anti-Serb.