The Strongman of Yugoslavia
The fact is, much of the propaganda from the White
House and Downing Street and the Foreign Office about
President Milosevic was wide of the mark. He is
responsible for a great deal of evil and thoroughly
deserves to stand trial in The Hague for what he has
done, but he is not the Hitler or the Stalin de nos jours.
Instead he is that rather old fashion figure American
journalists used to call a Strongman.
The United States and Britain
have approved of and sold
weapons to many such
leaders over the years, from
Central America to Chile,
Iran, Indonesia and Egypt.
The Strongman does not
forbid opposition to himself,
he frightens it, bribes it and
cheats it. He rigs the votes,
just as President Milosevic
did a couple of years ago,
and he buys off his critics,
just as President Milosevic bought off Vuk Draskovic.
The difference between Mr Milosevic and the regional
leaders Washington and London now approve of is not
great. President Tudjman of Croatia has overseen plenty
of ethnic cleansing in his time, and President Izetbegovic
of Bosnia-Herzogovina allowed his forces to fire on his
own people during the siege of Sarajevo, in order to
attract the sympathy of the West.
Yet such unappetising characters both appear now on
the good-guy side of the ledger, and will be showered
with American and European money. In these days of
progressive wars it is the victor who pays reparations,
not the vanquished.
news.bbc.co.uk
|
