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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (11213)	6/6/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

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