Nebojsa Malic: Déja Vu (Fwd) [JUGOINFO]

["glr" <glr_y@iol.it>]

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Date sent:      	Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:51:25 +0200
From:           	CN La Jugoslavia Vivra' <jugocoord@libero.it>
To:             	jugoinfo@ecircle.it
Subject:        	[JUGOINFO] Nebojsa Malic: Déja Vu


Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com

December 14, 2000

Déja Vu

Two leaders face off in a hotly contested election race, one which will
determine the fate of their nation. One is a leftist
liberal, entrenched in power, relying on a police apparatus and
propaganda; the other a conservative, enjoying an advantage
in funding and promising to restore dignity to office of the president.
There is a vote. But the results are contested, ballots
are miscounted, and the Supreme Court intervenes to resolve the
election. United States, December 2000? Try Yugoslavia,
this September.

Slobodan Milosevic’s government claimed the election was too close to
call. The opposition protested, claiming outright
victory. While Vojislav Kostunica was offering a recount ("Goodwill
gesture" from Yugoslav opposition could end
impasse, AFP, 29. September 2000), Milosevic was insisting on holding a
runoff election. When Zoran Djindjic and his
cohorts running Kostunica’s campaign refused to consider such an option,
the Yugoslav constitutional court (US Supreme
Court’s counterpart) annulled the election results (see NY Times,
"Belgrade Court Annuls Vote That Was Milosevic
Setback" by Steven Erlanger, 10/5/2000). This provoked a demonstration
in front of the parliament that led to the
overthrow of Milosevic and the inauguration of Kostunica as Yugoslav
president.

On the face of it, the similarities are eerie. Knowing that the United
States was deeply involved in this chain of events, they
become downright sinister.

MANIPULATORS

A week before the elections in Yugoslavia, a NATO naval expeditionary
force was moored off the Yugoslav coast; the
US-funded Montenegrin regime boycotted the election; and Madeleine
Albright asserted that the vote would be "stolen"
weeks before any ballots were actually cast. Then the Washington Post
ran a front-page story detailing the "$77 million
U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not – get rid of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic" [US
Funds Help Milosevic’s Foes in Election Fight, John Lancaster,
9/19/2000, A01] .

Kostunica promptly denounced the US for meddling, but his convincing
lead quickly melted away. As Milosevic thundered
against "traitors and foreign mercenaries," the Post just about admitted
his allegations were true!

Four days later, Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times: "Even if, as
almost everyone expects, Mr. Milosevic simply
declares himself the victor, Washington is hoping that angry voters will
take to the streets in a way that eventually drives him
from office, much as Ferdinand E. Marcos was ousted in the Philippines
in 1986." (US Anti-Milosevic Plan Faces Major
Test at Polls, September 23). When the masses did exactly that on
October 5, everyone seemed surprised. Soon
thereafter, Kostunica’s coalition partners began boasting how they had
planned a violent overthrow of Milosevic. Was it
just them?

No, according to the Washington Post. This Monday, amidst the US
electoral controversy, the Post published another
report, detailing how the United States planned, funded and ran the
campaign against Milosevic this past fall.

CONSPIRACY REVEALED

Michael Dobbs, author of the article, claims that Americans and US-paid
consultants crafted the strategy to vote Milosevic
out of office; that retired military officers taught Otpor activists how
to organize demonstrations; that US taxpayers funded
5,000 cans of spray paint used to scrawl opposition graffiti across
Serbia; that President Clinton’s own pollsters – Penn,
Schoen & Berland Associates, Inc. – were involved in crafting
pro-opposition polls before the election.

It is startling and sickening to read how the US operatives exploited
Milosevic’s greatest weakness – his soft spot for the
democratic process. Says the Post,

    "Had Yugoslavia been a totalitarian state like Iraq or North Korea,
the strategy would have stood little
    chance. But while Milosevic ran a repressive police state, he was
never a dictator in the style of Iraqi President
    Saddam Hussein. His authority depended on a veil of popular
legitimacy. It was this constitutional facade that
    gave Serbian opposition leaders, and their Western backers, an
all-important opening."

Milosevic’s greatest weakness was that he was not ruthless enough? Such
a supreme irony, indeed, especially when coming
from the same media house that has denounced Milosevic as another Hitler
and gleefully published editorials advocating the
complete destruction of Serbia during the 1999 war.

A NEW KIND OF COVERT OP

The September 19 article described US meddling in Yugoslav elections as
"similar to previous campaigns in pre-democratic
Chile, South Africa and Eastern Europe." But Dobbs dwells on
"extraordinary US effort to unseat a foreign head of state,
not through covert action of the kind the CIA once employed in such
places as Iran and Guatemala, but by modern election
campaign techniques."

None of the countries and regions described above have profited from US
involvement. Quite to the contrary, it had
profoundly negative consequences. Guatemala plunged into a 20-year,
bloody civil war. In Iran, oppression of the people
by the American-dominated regime spawned the Islamic revolution. South
Africa and Eastern Europe have seen their state
institutions disintegrate, and have plunged into abject poverty. In
Chile, US-backed dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was
responsible for numerous crimes against its citizens.

Based on this record, extensive American involvement in Yugoslav and
Serbian elections ought to cause every
freedom-loving human being to cringe with disgust. By definition, it
flies in the face of everything that has ever been said
about democracy, responsibility, freedom of choice and international law
– to mention just a few major points.

The US government may argue that its meddling helped the Serbs. The jury
is still out on whether Kostunica’s presidency
has made things better, though. International recognition is hardly a
compensation for famine, economic collapse and fuel
shortages that have descended on Serbia after Milosevic’s fall.
Kostunica’s election may yet prove to be a beneficial
development for the Serbs, plagued as they have been by ill fortune
throughout the 20th century. But that would come in
spite of Washington’s plots, not because of them.

TIMED FALLOUT

Those who consider Kostunica a US puppet have a hard time proving their
case. Though not exactly hostile, he is certainly
no big friend of Washington. His government has hardly been a pushover,
though it has been very flexible on many issues
Milosevic refused to yield ground over the years – such as the UN
membership, Yugoslav succession and, to an extent, war
crimes.

If he really were a US puppet, how would one explain the persistent
secessionism of Djukanovic’s regime in Podgorica, or
the ambivalence of NATO in face of the Albanian invasion of southern
Serbia? Kostunica’s party has supported the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia, which the US is endeavoring to
ban even though it won the elections there fair
and square. Kostunica has also insisted on territorial integrity of
Serbia and Yugoslavia, while the US has supported
separatist demands of its clients in Kosovo and Montenegro, even while
publicly claiming otherwise.

There are, however, leaders in Kostunica’s motley coalition that are
more inclined to serve foreign interests. Every nation
has its share of traitors and sellouts, and it is their direction one
needs to look when following the US money trail and the
conspicuous interference in Yugoslav and Serbian affairs.

Conspicuous is the key word here. The timing of this article’s
publication cannot be an accident. Even in its imperious
arrogance, the mainstream American press would never dare publicly
announce its government’s machinations in
Yugoslavia if doing so would hurt the efforts of Washington oligarchs.
It certainly marched in lockstep with the government
during American-led terror bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

The Washington Post’s September 19 article gave credence to Milosevic’s
claims of foreign interference and hurt
Kostunica’s coalition just a week before the federal elections. Soon
after Kostunica took over on October 5, as he was
trying to establish legitimacy and convince the people he was not a
stooge of NATO, US papers and politicians started
claiming credit for his success, praising the policies of bombing,
sanctions and separatism – along with propaganda and
"democratization" projects such as those detailed in the Post – as being
the real reason for Milosevic’s fall.

The newest article detailing the intricacies of the American conspiracy
– for how else would one call such a degree of
tampering in another country’s elections? – again comes at the worst
possible time for Kostunica. Albanian bandits have
invaded southern Serbia, Yugoslavia’s economy is tanking fast, and Zoran
Djindjic seems poised to sweep the December
elections and pull the rug out from under Kostunica’s feet.

TAKING SIDES

Indeed, though the December elections are described as the clash of
Kostunica’s DOS and the remnants of Milosevic’s
Socialists, the real power struggle will be between factions within DOS
– Kostunica and Djindjic.

The Post then dumps a cauldron of investigative pitch on the heads of
all involved, eroding Kostunica’s legitimacy and
deriding the efforts of the opposition (now government) in changing the
politics of Serbia. One is tempted to wonder if
Washington wants Kostunica to fail, or at least to be sufficiently
weakened to submit to US demands.

A WRENCH IN THE WORKS

Kostunica may be too American for the Empire’s comfort. He actually
believes in the constitution, rights and liberties,
limited government, patriotism and sovereignty – all issues the current
regime in Washington has undermined or sidelined
over the past eight years.

If the December 11 article was truthful – which seems likely – then it
represents an irrefutable proof that there really was a
US plan to overthrow Milosevic and install a friendlier regime,
dominated by pro-American politicians. Kostunica might
have fit into the plan as a figurehead, intended to be replaced by
Djindjic or someone else when the time was ripe.

Apparently no one told him that, since Kostunica went on to become a
true statesman and garner tremendous support
among the people. His strength now surpasses that of Djindjic’s party,
so much that Djindjic needs Kostunica’s support to
become Serbia’s Prime Minister after the elections in late December.
Hence comes the need to take Kostunica down a peg
an attack his honesty, integrity and independence, effectively propping
up Djindjic’s power grab. So the Post says:

    "To many opposition activists, Kostunica’s denials ring a little
hollow. While it is true that his own party, the
    Democratic Party of Serbia, rejected anything that smacked of US
aid, his presidential campaign benefited
    enormously from the advice and financial support the opposition
coalition received from abroad, and
    particularly from the United States."

SECRETS, BARGAINS AND LIES

Though the full fallout from the Post’s article will only be known in
the coming days, one of its unintended consequences
was to expose the extent of America’s illegal imperial adventures. Now
that it is known the US was so deeply involved in
Milosevic’s overthrow, maybe other secrets will also emerge – such as
its exact role in the events of October 5, and the
extent to which Kostunica’s peaceful takeover and Milosevic’s concession
were or were not a part of that plan. Perhaps
some day soon, the American public – and the Serbian public as well –
will find out what the puppet masters had in mind,
and which actors were (or were not) their puppets.

BOOMERANG

The penultimate irony, of course, is that the US found itself mired in a
similar situation just two months later. Could the ballot
manipulation in Florida be the consequence of similar practices abroad?
The temptation to use the ways and means of
empire-building at home are great, especially when the prize is the
Empire itself.

But let us be realistic. It is hard to envision masses of angry
Americans charging Capitol Hill of the White House and
inaugurating the candidate they consider the victor, or the US Supreme
Court annulling the election. Alas, neither of the US
candidates has the integrity of Vojislav Kostunica or the ruthless
political savvy and charm of Slobodan Milosevic. There
won’t be any bulldozers on the streets of Washington any time soon, and
more’s the pity.
 

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Giorgio Ellero 
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