Protest 1996

THE PHOENIX GAZETTE December 10, 1996 An Opinion Column Published on the Editorial Page ------------------------------------------------- PUNISH MILOSEVIC, NOT HIS VICTIMS By Bob Djurdjevic Slobodan Milosevic and the "international community" have joined forces in oppression of the Serbian people. So the U.S. is now "talking tough" and threatening to reimpose the sanctions on Serbia if Slobodan Milosevic were to use force against the Belgrade pro-democracy demonstrators. But renewing the sanctions would only hurt the Serbian people who are demonstrating in Belgrade streets, not Milosevic! Sanctions are genocidal by definition - which is exactly what the U.S. and others in the "international community" had done for almost four years during the Bosnian war. Hundreds of thousands of Serbian citizens died in silence due to malnutrition, lack of medication or just plain hunger, while the supposedly civilized world looked the other way. How much more anti-Serbian and perfidious can the U.S. government get? Threatening to punish the victims of Milosevic's oppression so as to supposedly scare the Serbian dictator off comes close to being the pinnacle in double-talk and Machiavellian scheming. Meanwhile, what is that self-righteous "international community" doing now to help the pro-democracy demonstrators in Belgrade? In a word - nothing! At least not at the top levels of government. There were no words of public outrage against Milosevic and support for the Belgrade demonstrators spoken by the self-appointed defenders of the "free world" - Bill Clinton, John Major, Jacques Chirac or Helmut Kohl. Nor, for that matter, from Boris Yeltsin. Why not? There were no words of encouragement for the demonstrators from Capitol Hill, either. Why not? Reports about the Belgrade protests are regularly buried inside the daily CNN news broadcasts, as they are in most newspapers. Many American TV stations don't even carry any news from Serbia. Yet every day for the last two weeks, over 100,000 demonstrators have been battling freezing rain, sleet and snow in Belgrade streets, not just facing Milosevic's riot police. That's not "news?" Why not? Despite the lifting of the U.N. sanctions, the U.S. embargo continues. And the World Bank and the IMF have not invested one cent in Serbia and Montenegro in the last year. Why not? Here's why not: Because the U.S.-led "international community" and Milosevic have joined hands in their oppression of the Serb people. The people in Serbia have yet to get any dividends from Milosevic's betrayal of the Serbs in the Krajina and Bosnia. Bill Clinton is as much "American" as Slobodan Milosevic is "Serbian." Both men are all greed, no morals. No wonder the birds of the feather flock together. Which is why Belgrade demonstrators should realize that when they shout "red bandits" and throw eggs at Milosevic's presidential palace, they are also handing out the same epithets and launching the same missiles against the "international community" - the Serb dictator's partners in crime. Belgrade demonstrators' best hope for success is to direct their anger at the "international community." They should try to shame Milosevic's closet admirers into giving up on him. It's been done before. Mikhail Gorbachev was also once a "darling of the West." So when the Belgrade protesters stand up to people like Clinton and Milosevic, they are also standing up for the "Old Glory." One day, patriotic Americans may follow in their footsteps. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTRIBUTION: Bob Djurdjevic is a Phoenix-based writer and businessman. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Djurdjevic TRUTH IN MEDIA Phoenix, Arizona e-mail: bobdj@djurdjevic.com _______________________________________________________________________________