SERBIA: THE UNIVERSITY OVERSHADOWED BY THE NEW LAW
Summary

	The international community imposed external sanctions against Serbia and
Montenegro in late May 1992. In this way it tried to stop the aggressive
policy of Slobodan Milosevic's regime. Cut off from normal communications
with the world, culture and science in our country were thus delivered to
the mercy of the political arbitrariness of domestic strongmen. Members of
the intellectual and academic community, politically labeled traitors and
"mondialists", have been exposed to internal sanctions that from time to
time prove worse than the external ones. As far back as March 1995 I wrote
about this, concerning the Rector of the Belgrade University. At that
moment, his behavior could be characterized as coarse and politically
calculative. But the new Law on the University, adopted in late spring, and
the Law on Information, passed in early fall this year, leave no doubt
whatsoever that it has all been part of planful and deliberate policy of
abolishing the autonomy of the university, freedom of conscience,
scholarship and speech. When one sees scenes in Belgrade this fall, one
cannot help recall the times in Germany in early and mid-1930s: some new
faces, their official functions unclear, physically prevent certain
professors from lecturing to students and throw them out of faculty
buildings (what happened at the Faculties of Electrical Engineering and
Philology are the most drastic, but by no means the only cases). Some
journalists have already been punished by inordinately high fines, and
night raids, confiscation, and closures have become common in various
newspapers. Intrusions and seizures in private homes have also started -
all with a legal background and "with the aim of protecting the freedom of
speech".
	For centers of political power in Serbia, the University was, and still
is, a possible or actual focus of subversive political activity that must
be strictly controlled. Annulling the residues of University's autonomy and
trampling the dignity of the academic community is the price to be paid
quite light-heartedly in order to destroy a point of possible resistance to
the creation of an autistic and xenophobic society, at odds with the whole
world. Or, in the words of the official state television, of the "most
prosperous society in today's Europe". The process of decline of
intellectual and moral values at the University has been going on for
several decades already and will not stop with the new Law on the
University. This Law is just a link in the chain of overall decay. It does
not cure the illness but rather cements an unhealthy condition.
	At the same time, the sanctions of the international community against
Yugoslavia have affected very severely all forms of scientific and cultural
cooperation of academic institutions. Paradoxical as this may sound, the
sanctions have served as an additional political stimulus to the autism and
xenophobia of Milosevic's regime. Yugoslav universities have been excluded
from all major programs, such as PHARE, TEMPUS or EUREKA. Not even after
the formal abolishment of sanctions was the cooperation resumed or
furthered. Serbia and Belarus are among the few European states that are
not members of the Council of Europe, but have very cordial mutual
relations. Similis simili gaudet! Hence Serbian universities have been
caught between the hammer of internal sanctions and the anvil of external
ones. The situation may safely be called disastrous, though not hopeless.
	 The principle of loyalty among colleagues is a prerequisite for
constituting and maintaining the university community, but inter-colleague
conformity is the beginning of its decay. The reasons for the ruin of the
university lie not only in the new law. If the situation is to turn for the
better, two basic conditions must be met. First of all, an intellectual
community is necessary in Serbia that will use contempt as a weapon in
fighting primitivism and a political power behaving in an unrestrained,
Cosa nostra-like fashion. This community may only consist of people with
firm moral and intellectual integrity, refined sense of human dignity, and
very sound knowledge in their respective fields. Also, those should be
people free from nationalist hatred against their neighbors and rejecting
the pernicious ideological platitude that "...the whole world hates us".
Instead of lamenting over the fate of the university in Serbia it would be
worthwhile to think about how much university people are themselves
responsible for refusing to take on the risks involved in living a life
worthy of a human. Instead of a passive resistance to the fascization of
the university it is necessary to create alternative institutions, offer
the world new ideas and projects and attractive research programs. If they
are really good, the international public will know how to recognize them.
But this is only one of the conditions. The other, no less important, is
the opening up of the channels of international cooperation. It is
necessary that European universities find ways, against double hindrances
stemming from both Serbia and Europe, to admit young scholars from Serbia,
enabling them to work and develop, and to support alternative research
programs and new projects, helping their realization in Serbia.
Universities in Serbia are not comprised merely of their rectors and deans,
appointed by the state. There are broad areas for possible cooperation with
individuals and groups, and quite diverse ways of giving support that would
be vitally important for them. Cooperation with these components of the
university community should be immediately established, before it is too late.
	It is not in the interest of the European culture itself to let Serbia, or
any other country, be its cloaca. Deeply convinced that it is so, I ask you
to take this contribution of mine as an appeal for understanding and help.
Universities in Serbia will survive only as an integral part of the
European university community. I invite you that we all make a joint effort
in that direction, independently and in spite of all the counterproductive
actions of the Serbian government. Whether power comes from God is not
clear; but it is surely not eternal!

(Summary of the paper, presented at the Presidency Conference on Southeast
Europe European Educational Co-operation for Peace, Stability and
Democracy, Graz, Austria, Nov. 1998)