CNN Headline News, September 30, 2000
Yugoslav Elections: Interview With Dr. Srdja Trifkovic
CNN Headline News, live
Saturday, September 30, 2000, 6:10 p.m. Eastern
Serge Trifkovic is a native of Belgrade, and he serves as the foreign editor of "Chronicles" magazine, published by the Rockford Institute. And he joins us now live from Chicago.
Mr. Trifkovic, your reaction to the ambassador's statements?
SERGE TRIFKOVIC, ROCKFORD INSTITUTE: Well, first of all we have to dispel the notion that the Federal Election Commission is an independent body that is adjudicating this dispute with integrity and total independence. Opposition members of the commission were totally excluded from its deliberations, and the commission so far has refused to produce the detailed data and methodology on which it based its extraordinary claim.
On the other hand, the opposition has presented signed and sealed affidavits from each and every polling station, over 10,000 of them, including signatures of the ruling party, SPS, Socialist Party of Serbia. And their tally is based upon empirically verifiable evidence.
In addition, I would say that it's remarkable for Mr. Milosevic to refuse Russian mediation now, because in the winter of '96-'97, when there was another dispute, when he stole another election -- that was the local election in November of '96 -- he did agree to the mediation of Phillipe Gonzalez (ph), the former prime minister. And that mediation resulted in the rectification of that result with the special law of lex especialis.
So I think...
HALL: Do you think...
TRIFKOVIC: I think Milosevic doesn't have a leg to stand on, which is why he's refusing anyone to participate in the verification of the result, because he knows what the outcome will be.
HALL: Do you think that Mr. Milosevic should be concerned at all about rejecting help from an ally, from Russia?
TRIFKOVIC: Well the question is, to what extent he can regard Russia as an ally. Because the Russians are now beginning to realize that Mr. Milosevic is a liability for them, too. For as long as he's in power, the interventionist wing of the U.S. administration will have a stand-by excuse to slice and -- to take another slice of the Serbian salami.
And for as long as Milosevic is in power, the U.S., paradoxically, will also be involved in the Balkans, just as for as long Saddam is in power it has the justification for its involvement in the Middle East.
It is in the Russian interest for Serbia to become a normal country yet again.
HALL: What about the opposition, the opposition vowing civil disobedience rallies and protests across the country until Mr. Milosevic steps down? How is it that they intend to galvanize an organization or group of people to rally when communications are not necessarily at their best?
TRIFKOVIC: Well, they were not much better in the winter of '96- '97, and yet hundred of thousands of Serbs took to the streets.
The real problem with Mr. Milosevic right now is that something has snapped in the minds of many Serbs. Something has taken place. They can now visualize Serbia after Milosevic. They can visualize Serbia without sanctions and without the shame that he has brought upon his people.
He is now a little bit like a Mafia don who doesn't mind accusations of murder but who doesn't want it to be known he's just a petty pick pocket. And yet right now, he is caught in the act, and he has almost pulled out the wallet. And to his horror, he sees a circle of his long-suffering subjects around him quietly staring at him. He may clutch the wallet and claim it is his and threaten to shoot anyone who doesn't agree, but people now know. And once they lose their respect, they will loss fear. And once they lose fear, they may end up lynching him.
HALL: Serge Trifkovic from the Rockford Institute, thanks for being with us.
|
