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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 136, 00-07-18

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 136, 18 July 2000


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN VISITS YEREVAN
  • [02] POLL RESULTS SHOWS ARMENIANS THINK PRESIDENT IS IN CHARGE
  • [03] AZERBAIJANI TV STATION DEFIES AUTHORITIES
  • [04] AZERBAIJAN RESUMES OIL EXPORTS VIA RUSSIA
  • [05] WAS GEORGIAN REBEL COLONEL SHOT IN COLD BLOOD?
  • [06] GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER CANCELS UKRAINE TRIP
  • [07] GEORGIA TO INTENSIFY DEFENSE COOPERATION WITH ESTONIA...
  • [08] ...AND BULGARIA
  • [09] COUNCIL OF EUROPE ALLOCATES FUNDS FOR GEORGIAN BORDER GUARDS
  • [10] BALCEROWICZ ACCEPTS GEORGIAN POST
  • [11] 'JE MEURS DE SOIF AUPRES DE LA FONTAINE...'
  • [12] KAZAKHSTAN REVOKES U.S. COMPANY'S REFINING CONCESSION
  • [13] TURKMENISTAN REFUSES PERMISSION TO REOPEN, RESTORE ARMENIAN
  • [14] TAJIKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN DISCUSS DELIMITING COMMON BORDER

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [15] THACI REJOINS UN COUNCIL IN KOSOVA
  • [16] EVERTS, IVANOVIC REACH UNDERSTANDING ON SERBIAN ROLE IN
  • [17] FRENCH, SERBS CLASH IN MITROVICA
  • [18] ROBERTSON ARRIVES IN KOSOVA
  • [19] EU BROADCASTING EQUIPMENT FOR KOSOVA SERBS
  • [20] SERBIAN COURT SENTENCES KOSOVARS
  • [21] DJUKANOVIC WILLING TO MEET MILOSEVIC...
  • [22] ...BUT VUJANOVIC SKEPTICAL ON SERBIAN PARTIES
  • [23] MILOSEVIC PARTY CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY
  • [24] BOSNIAN MUSLIMS PROTEST EVICTIONS
  • [25] CROATIA JOINS WTO
  • [26] DISAPPOINTMENT IN SLOVENIA WITH EU
  • [27] CONSTANTINESCU QUITS ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE
  • [28] ROMANIAN PREMIER REJECTS MINISTER'S RESIGNATION
  • [29] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT WANTS 'DOUBLE REFERENDUM'
  • [30] ISRAEL TO REMOVE MONUMENT HONORING BULGARIAN KING

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [31] CONFRONTING EVIL

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN VISITS YEREVAN

    Benita Ferrero-Waldner met in

    Yerevan on 16 and 17 July with Armenian President Robert

    Kocharian and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian to discuss the

    Karabakh peace process. She also had a telephone conversation

    on that subject with Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the

    unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, who reaffirmed his

    commitment to a peaceful solution of the conflict, according

    to ITAR-TASS. Ferrero-Waldner said that talks between

    President Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar

    Aliev, have yielded agreement on a number of elements of a

    settlement, but she added that it is too early to reveal what

    those elements are. She said that the time is now propitious

    for resolving the conflict but that doing so depends on the

    two sides' political will and readiness to compromise.

    Ferrero-Waldner also attended the formal opening on 17 July

    of the OSCE office in Yerevan. She flew to Baku later that

    day for talks with Azerbaijani leaders. LF

    [02] POLL RESULTS SHOWS ARMENIANS THINK PRESIDENT IS IN CHARGE

    According to an opinion poll commissioned by the daily

    "Hayots ashkharh," the results of which the newspaper began

    publishing on 14 July, 20 percent of the 1,000 people polled

    believe that President Kocharian rules Armenia, 18 percent

    believe real control lies with the mafia, 13 percent with the

    government, 11 percent with the bureaucracy, 9 percent with

    the army and law enforcement agencies, and 4 percent with the

    parliament, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. LF

    [03] AZERBAIJANI TV STATION DEFIES AUTHORITIES

    In defiance of

    warnings from the Azerbaijani prosecutor-general, the private

    television station ANS TV on 17 July rebroadcast an interview

    first aired on 14 July with Chechen field commander Shamil

    Basaev, Groong reported, citing the BBC World Service.

    Caucasus Press reported the next day that Russian Security

    Council secretary Sergei Ivanov has asked the Azerbaijani

    leadership to investigate how the interview was filmed and

    taken out of Russia. Ivanov said the film footage, in which

    Basaev calls for a war to drive Russia out of the Caucasus,

    could be construed as propagating war, which is a violation

    of Russian law. LF

    [04] AZERBAIJAN RESUMES OIL EXPORTS VIA RUSSIA

    Azerbaijan's state

    oil company SOCAR resumed pumping oil into the Baku-

    Novorossiissk export pipeline on the evening of 14 July,

    Interfax reported three days later. It had suspended exports

    late last month in order to cover domestic needs and build up

    a reserve of heating oil for the coming winter (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 28 June 2000). The resumption of exports coincided

    with a visit to Baku by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and

    presidential envoy for the Caspian Viktor Kalyuzhnyi. It is

    not clear whether during his talks with Azerbaijani

    officials, Kalyuzhnyi raised the question of Baku's refusal

    to pay a $29 million fine imposed by Transneft for

    Azerbaijan's failure to comply with a 1996 commitment to

    minimum oil exports via Russia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 and

    10 July 2000). LF

    [05] WAS GEORGIAN REBEL COLONEL SHOT IN COLD BLOOD?

    According to

    Elene Tevdoradze, who is chairwoman of the Georgian

    parliamentary committee of human rights, the official account

    of the events that preceded the 9 July shooting in Zestafoni

    of Colonel Akaki Eliava and one of his deputies is

    inaccurate. "Rezonansi" on 18 July quoted Tevdoradze as

    saying after meeting with three of Eliava's supporters who

    are still in custody that they had not taken any hostages at

    the Zestafoni police headquarters. Georgian officials say

    Eliava was shot because he had taken four hostages and

    attempted to escape with them (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 July

    2000). On 17 July, an independent pathologist said after

    examining Eliava's body that it showed signs of bruises and

    bleeding on the chest, head, face, and right knee that could

    have been caused by blows from a heavy blunt object, Caucasus

    Press reported. Also on 17 July, Ombudsman Nana Devdariani

    issued an appeal for the release of two of Eliava's three

    detained supporters, arguing that their arrest on charges of

    illegal arms possession was illegal as they were unarmed at

    the time. LF

    [06] GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER CANCELS UKRAINE TRIP

    Kakha

    Targamadze will not attend a planned meeting in Kyiv of

    Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian interior ministers, Caucasus

    Press reported on 18 July. The agency attributed Targamadze's

    decision to his reluctance to leave Georgia while President

    Eduard Shevardnadze and parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania

    are both abroad as well as to rising tensions in western

    Georgia in the wake of rebel Colonel Eliava's death. LF

    [07] GEORGIA TO INTENSIFY DEFENSE COOPERATION WITH ESTONIA...

    A

    visiting Estonian delegation headed by Lauri Altman, who is

    adviser to Defense Minister Juri Luik, held talks in Tbilisi

    on 17 July with Deputy Defense Minister Grigol Katamadze,

    Caucasus Press reported. The two sides focused on sharing

    experiences in air defense and army reform, and the

    possibility of junior Georgian officers undergoing training

    in Estonia. Caucasus Press quoted Altman as saying that

    Estonia considers Georgia "a partner country" with which it

    hopes to expand cooperation in the light of their shared

    aspiration to NATO membership. LF

    [08] ...AND BULGARIA

    Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Katamadze

    told Caucasus Press on 17 July that during Georgian Defense

    Minister Davit Tevzadze's visit to Bulgaria the previous

    week, agreement was reached that Sofia will present the

    Georgian navy with two de-commissioned landing craft. BTA on

    11 July quoted Bulgarian Defense Minister Boyko Noev as

    saying that "it is in Bulgaria's best interests that Georgia

    develop as a strong and stable state under the leadership of

    President Shevardnadze." LF

    [09] COUNCIL OF EUROPE ALLOCATES FUNDS FOR GEORGIAN BORDER GUARDS

    The chairman of Georgia's State Border Guard Department,

    Valerii Chkheidze, told a press conference in Tbilisi on 17

    July that the Council of Europe will provide 1 million euros

    ($1.06 million) for equipment for his force, Caucasus Press

    reported. LF

    [10] BALCEROWICZ ACCEPTS GEORGIAN POST

    President Shevardnadze

    said on 17 July that Polish economist and former Deputy

    Premier Leszek Balcerowicz has accepted a post as his

    economic adviser, Russian agencies reported. Balcerowicz will

    come to Georgia next month, together with a team of fellow

    Polish economists, to study the situation there. LF

    [11] 'JE MEURS DE SOIF AUPRES DE LA FONTAINE...'

    Tbilisi Mayor

    Vano Zodelava has ordered the immediate repair of all non-

    functioning fountains in Tbilisi, Caucasus Press reported on

    17 July. Temperatures in the city recently reached 40 degrees

    Centigrade, and the hot weather is expected to continue at

    least until the end of the month. LF

    [12] KAZAKHSTAN REVOKES U.S. COMPANY'S REFINING CONCESSION

    Kazakhstan's government on 11 July revoked the five-year

    license issued to the U.S. company CCL Oil in 1997 to operate

    the Pavlodar oil refinery, Interfax reported quoting Deputy

    Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade Kanat Bozumbaev. The

    Office of the Prosecutor-General said that decision was

    prompted by CCL Oil's failure to ensure the uninterrupted

    operation of the refinery, which last year produced only

    640,000 tons of oil, down 60 percent on the 1998 level. The

    refinery is capable of processing between 6-7 million tons of

    crude annually, with yields of up to 80 percent. The state's

    87.9 percent stake in the refinery has been transferred to

    the Energy, Industry, and Trade Ministry, which intends to

    appoint a new management shortly. LF

    [13] TURKMENISTAN REFUSES PERMISSION TO REOPEN, RESTORE ARMENIAN

    CHURCHES

    The Turkmen government and the Moscow Patriarchate

    both oppose either the reopening of Armenian churches in

    Turkmenistan or the restoration of a 19th-century church in

    the town of Turkmenbashi, Keston News Service reported on 17

    July. There are an estimated 40,000 Armenians in

    Turkmenistan. LF

    [14] TAJIKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN DISCUSS DELIMITING COMMON BORDER

    A

    special Tajik government commission headed by Security

    Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov held talks in Tashkent from

    10-13 July on preparations for the first stage of delimiting

    the two countries' common border, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on

    17 July. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov and his Uzbek

    counterpart, Islam Karimov, signed a protocol on border

    delimitation last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 June

    2000). Technical work along the border is expected to take at

    least 18 months. The Uzbek cabinet has also abrogated customs

    duties on Tajik vehicles transiting Uzbekistan. During a

    telephone conversation on 17 July, Rakhmonov and Karimov

    assessed the implementation of previous bilateral agreements

    and agreed to convene a meeting of elders and representatives

    of the intelligentsia and law enforcement agencies of regions

    on either side of the border, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [15] THACI REJOINS UN COUNCIL IN KOSOVA

    Hashim Thaci, who was

    commander of the former Kosova Liberation Army and is now a

    leading Kosovar politician, has agreed to end his recent

    "suspension" of cooperation with Bernard Kouchner's UN-

    sponsored advisory council, Reuters reported on 17 July (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 July 2000). Thaci told reporters that he

    and Kouchner continue to disagree over the "temporary"

    administrative arrangements that Kouchner made with the

    Serbs. But Thaci added that he and Kouchner "made progress"

    on several other issues, including various social questions

    such as benefits for war invalids and pensioners. He stressed

    that there should be no need for the special arrangements for

    the Serbs after the local elections slated for October.

    "After the free elections, there will be a new reality," he

    said. Kouchner's spokeswoman said: "We're very happy. Now the

    work can restart and we can tackle the real problems and move

    toward elections." PM

    [16] EVERTS, IVANOVIC REACH UNDERSTANDING ON SERBIAN ROLE IN

    ELECTIONS

    Oliver Ivanovic, who is leader of the hard-line

    Serbs in northern Mitrovica, said on 17 July that he has

    promised Daan Everts, who heads the OSCE mission supervising

    the October ballot, that he will not disrupt the vote. Everts

    called Ivanovic's assurances "progress," adding: "Mr.

    Ivanovic has promised that he would do what he can to avoid

    any violence or intimidation and let people at least have the

    freedom of choice, so those who want to register...[can] do

    so," AP reported. For his part, Ivanovic confirmed that he

    "condemned any violence." He added, however, that he regrets

    that Everts was unable to promise in return that "significant

    numbers" of Serbian refugees will return to Kosova soon. PM

    [17] FRENCH, SERBS CLASH IN MITROVICA

    An angry crowd of Serbs

    surrounded a UN police station in northern Mitrovica on 17

    July to protest the arrest of a Serb who had allegedly set

    fire to several cars, AP reported. French troops then fired

    tear gas to disperse the crowd. A UN police spokesman said in

    Prishtina that "a police officer was briefly detained [by the

    Serbs], but later he was released unharmed." The Serbs had

    hoped to exchange him for the imprisoned man. The spokesman

    said on 18 July that the situation in Mitrovica is calm,

    Reuters reported. PM

    [18] ROBERTSON ARRIVES IN KOSOVA

    NATO Secretary-General Lord

    Robertson and a delegation of NATO diplomats arrived in

    Prishtina on 18 July. They are slated to meet with ethnic

    Albanian and Serbian leaders. The previous day, Robertson met

    with Croatian President Stipe Mesic and other leaders in

    Brussels and praised the progress toward Euro-Atlantic

    integration that Croatia has made under its new government.

    On 19 July, Robertson and his delegation are slated to arrive

    in Sarajevo. PM

    [19] EU BROADCASTING EQUIPMENT FOR KOSOVA SERBS

    The European

    Broadcasting Union said in a statement in Geneva on 17 July

    that it has delivered camera equipment to a team of three

    Serbian journalists working for the UN's new public

    television (RTK) in Gracanica, AP reported. The $53,000

    project will also provide equipment for a similar bureau in

    Mitrovica. The UN aims to establish studios for RTK in many

    parts of Kosova and train journalists in accordance with high

    professional standards. PM

    [20] SERBIAN COURT SENTENCES KOSOVARS

    A court in Pozarevac on 17

    July sentenced 20 Kosovars to two years imprisonment each on

    charges of "terrorism," the private Beta news agency

    reported. PM

    [21] DJUKANOVIC WILLING TO MEET MILOSEVIC...

    Montenegrin President

    Milo Djukanovic told the Belgrade daily "Glas javnosti" of 17

    July that he is willing to meet with Yugoslav President

    Slobodan Milosevic, provided an agenda for the talks is

    agreed on beforehand. He added that he does not see at

    present any chance for the Serbian opposition to unseat

    Milosevic. Djukanovic said that he has rejected recent

    suggestions by several opposition leaders that he run against

    Milosevic in eventual direct elections for the Yugoslav

    presidency (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 July 2000). Milosevic

    will determine the outcome of the elections, Djukanovic

    stressed, adding that Montenegro will boycott any vote

    because it does not accept his recent changes in the federal

    constitution. PM

    [22] ...BUT VUJANOVIC SKEPTICAL ON SERBIAN PARTIES

    Prime Minister

    Filip Vujanovic said that "there is no need for further

    dialogue" with the three governing parties in Milosevic's

    coalition. "We had a dialogue with them [in 1999]. We talked

    about the possibility of their influencing the government of

    Serbia, being a constituent part of that government, to

    respond to our platform [on redefining relations between

    Serbia and Montenegro]. These talks had no result and clearly

    showed [the Serbian parties] had no wish to talk," the

    private Montenafax news agency reported from Podgorica on 18

    July. PM

    [23] MILOSEVIC PARTY CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY

    Officials of

    Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) marked that

    organization's 10th anniversary by praising what they claimed

    is its excellent record. A party spokesman said in Belgrade

    on 17 July: "The Socialist Party of Serbia has during these

    10 years achieved exceptional results despite constant and

    powerful media and economic pressures, political blackmail,

    and finally the brutal NATO bombing and aggression" in 1999,

    Reuters reported. The Milosevic-run daily "Politika" hailed

    the SPS as "the strongest leftist party in the Balkans." But

    Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement--which is as

    critical of NATO as is the Milosevic regime--said in a

    statement that "a chain of human and national tragedies is

    the achievement of the Socialist Party's decade-long reign,

    which also resulted in economic collapse, a moral collapse

    and no sign of a decent future." The statement added that

    Milosevic has transformed Serbia into a country as isolated

    as the late Albanian dictator "Enver Hoxha's Albania,"

    RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

    [24] BOSNIAN MUSLIMS PROTEST EVICTIONS

    Several dozen Muslim

    displaced persons blocked a road near Maglaj to protest

    orders for them to leave Serbian-owned homes in Bakotici

    where they have been living since the 1992-1995 war. A local

    government spokesman told Reuters that "the problem is

    linked" to the eviction of several dozen Bosnian citizens of

    Middle Eastern origin from the nearby village of Bocinja.

    Those men traveled to Bosnia as Islamic fighters during the

    war and subsequently acquired Bosnian citizenship by marrying

    local women. Many representatives of the international

    community have called for the eviction of the former Islamic

    fighters, whom they suspect of having links to terrorist

    organizations based elsewhere in the Muslim world. The

    Sarajevo daily "Avaz" reported on 18 July that the

    authorities have declared a state of emergency in the area.

    PM

    [25] CROATIA JOINS WTO

    On 17 July, Croatia formally became the

    137th member of the World Trade Organization in Geneva,

    RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

    [26] DISAPPOINTMENT IN SLOVENIA WITH EU

    Guenter Verheugen, who

    is the EU's commissioner for enlargement, said in Ljubljana

    on 17 July that Slovenia is a "front-runner" for EU

    membership in terms of popular consensus for joining the EU

    "and not only in that respect," Reuters reported. He added,

    however, that Slovenia must speed up privatization and cut

    bureaucracy. The Ljubljana daily "Delo" wrote the next day

    that Verheugen disappointed the Slovenian public, which had

    hoped for better news and concrete information on

    Slovenia's admission to the EU. PM

    [27] CONSTANTINESCU QUITS ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE

    President

    Emil Constantinescu, speaking on national television on 17

    July, said he will not run for a second term.

    Constantinescu said that a "Mafia-type system with links to

    official institutions" is dominating and destroying the

    country's economic and political structures and that his

    attempts to fight corruption have been presented by his

    opponents as part of an election campaign. Alluding to his

    predecessor, Ion Iliescu, Constantinescu pledged not to

    seek a parliamentary seat and will thus forego

    parliamentary immunity. He also said he will not seek the

    leadership of any political party. Constantinescu said

    "political competition" among parties and individuals has

    "deteriorated into a blind struggle for power-seeking

    personal or group interests. " This is a time when "people

    buy and sell principles, ideologies, seats in the

    parliament and the cabinet, making use to that end of lies,

    blackmail, vulgarity, and manipulation" he commented. MS

    [28] ROMANIAN PREMIER REJECTS MINISTER'S RESIGNATION

    Mugur

    Isarescu on 17 July rejected the resignation of Finance

    Minister Decebal Traian Remes, who had wanted to protest

    the National Liberal Party's decision to continue talks

    with the Alliance for Romania (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17

    July 2000). Government spokeswoman Gabriela Vranceanu said

    Remes has been "carrying a great part of the burden of

    unpopular but necessary economic decisions" and his

    presence in the cabinet is required even more "at a time

    when some of the positive effects" of those policies are

    beginning to become apparent. The premier, Vranceanu said,

    will not accept "a resignation that has nothing to do with

    the cabinet and its policies." MS

    [29] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT WANTS 'DOUBLE REFERENDUM'

    Presidential

    spokesman Anatol Golea told journalists on 17 July that

    President Petru Lucinschi will not promulgate the law on

    changing Moldova's semi-presidential system into a

    parliamentary one, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported.

    Lucinschi says that the law, which was passed on 5 July,

    contravenes the results of the 23 May 1999 non-binding

    referendum, which approved Lucinschi's initiative to

    transform Moldova into a presidential republic. Golea also

    said Lucinschi may ask the parliament to approve a

    referendum on both the 5 July constitutional amendment and

    his own initiative to increase the presidential

    prerogatives. Last week, the Constitutional Court ruled

    that the latter is in line with the provisions of the basic

    law. But parliamentary chairman Dumitru Diacov and Party of

    Moldovan Communists leader Vladimir Voronin were quoted by

    Infotag as saying the parliament will examine Lucinschi's

    initiative "in six months." By then Lucinschi's term will

    have expired. MS

    [30] ISRAEL TO REMOVE MONUMENT HONORING BULGARIAN KING

    A semi-

    governmental Israeli organization has announced it will

    remove a monument it erected in Israel to honor King Boris

    III for having saved the lives of Bulgarian Jews, dpa

    reported on 17 July, citing the Israeli daily "Ha'aretz." The

    Jewish National Fund said that an expert commission has

    established that the king failed to act to prevent the 1943

    deportation of more than 11,000 Macedonian and Thracian Jews

    to the Treblinka Nazi death camp (at the time Bulgaria had

    occupied Macedonia and Thracia). The commission also said

    that King Boris had supported Bulgaria's joining the

    Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy, and Japan in March 1941.

    The monument honoring the king was erected in Israel's

    Bulgaria forest at the request of Jews from Bulgaria who said

    Boris had been instrumental in saving their lives. MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [31] CONFRONTING EVIL

    by Patrick Moore

    There are times when things must be called by their

    proper name and acted on accordingly.

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement on

    10 July marking the fifth anniversary of the Srebrenica

    massacre that "the tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt

    the history of the United Nations. This day commemorates a

    massacre on a scale unprecedented in Europe since the Second

    World War--a massacre of people who had been led to believe

    that the United Nations would ensure their safety."

    Annan stressed that "we cannot undo this tragedy, but it

    is vitally important that the right lessons be learned and

    applied in the future. We must not forget that the architects

    of the killings in Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia and

    Herzegovina, although indicted by the [Hague-based]

    International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,

    are still at large. This fact alone suggests that the most

    important lesson of Srebrenica--that we must recognize evil

    for what it is, and confront it not with expediency and

    compromise but with implacable resistance--has yet to be

    fully learnt and applied."

    As the secretary-general noted, those most to blame for

    the evil are still at large. These include not only Bosnian

    Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, but

    especially the one man most responsible for the destruction

    of the former Yugoslavia and for all the tragedies that

    accompanied it--Slobodan Milosevic.

    It will perhaps be to the undying credit of the Hague-

    based tribunal that it issued a public indictment in May 1999

    against Milosevic and four of his top cronies. At a stroke,

    the court ensured that they could not considered respectable

    negotiating partners. There would thus be no repeat of the

    tragicomic developments during the Croatian and Bosnian

    conflicts, when Western diplomats and politicians beat a

    steady path to Milosevic's door and hailed him as "the man

    who can deliver."

    In fact, the question inevitably arises as to why it

    took the international community so long to realize who

    Milosevic really is and treat him accordingly. Perhaps a

    deep, public discussion of this issue would help avoid some

    future tragedies elsewhere. Certainly such a discussion could

    prove more fruitful than the current, often sterile debate

    regarding which bombs hit which targets in 1999.

    Milosevic's aggressive intentions were clear from his

    rhetoric in the 1980s, just as Hitler's were in the 1930s.

    But just as it took several international crises before the

    Allies became willing to stop Hitler by force, so long months

    passed and thousands of peoples died before even the first

    timid steps were taken to contain the Serbian dictator's

    aggression, let alone halt or reverse it. In the end, it was

    Croatian and Muslim ground troops that sent the Serbian

    forces fleeing. NATO air strikes helped deliver the peace in

    Bosnia, but it was not until Kosova in 1999 that the Atlantic

    alliance showed that the lessons of the previous decade had

    been learned.

    Even then, what remained was a "Saddam Hussein peace,"

    with the dictator still in power. Milosevic continues to

    proceed at home with policies that have led to the gradual

    destruction of Serbia's best traditions in public life,

    society, culture, and the economy.

    His policies have already led to four lost wars and an

    end to centuries-old Serbian settlements in the south and

    west, just as Hitler's policies cost Germany the results of

    centuries of colonization in the east. It now seems clear

    that Milosevic's next victim outside Serbia's borders is

    Montenegro. The question is whether NATO will act before he

    has an opportunity to cause further destruction and

    bloodshed.

    At least one leader of a NATO country has drawn the

    necessary conclusions and had the courage to say so in

    public. Just one day after Annan's remarks about the need to

    face up to evil, Czech President Vaclav Havel said in

    Dubrovnik of the Montenegrin crisis: "Apart from political

    options, there are alternatives, which consist of a

    demonstration of force. The international community

    [previously] looked on events [in former Yugoslavia] with

    surprise and abhorrence and reacted too late. It should not

    be repeated a fifth time."

    18-07-00


    Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    URL: http://www.rferl.org


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