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"One
of us (Marjaleena Repo) has paid particular attention to election
posters as she has been involved in the long-standing and
not-yet-finished fight for the right to poster in Canada –
and she can report that posters are everywhere in the street
scene, accompanied by graffiti and the defacing of each others
posters even-steven fashion, it seems. She has seen posterers
at work in downtown Belgrade with posters urging women to
vote, while postering on top of other election messages! She
had a chance to discuss this contradiction with five English-speaking
Yugoslavian youth with their buckets and sponges. Unlike in
Canadian cities, the posters appear not to be scraped down
by city workers but live to suffer the indignities from competeing
political parties. In addition, there are huge billboards
advertising the three major presidential candidates all around
the cityscape. All in all, the appearance of democracy in
action."
DEMOCRACY
IN ACTION?
Appearances
mean a lot to these people, since their grip on reality is
tenuous, at best. With government propaganda blaring over
the state-owned media 24 hours a day, and the whole electoral
process rigged against the Opposition, what alternative was
there but postering? Duh-uh! In her missive, Marjaleena
complains that she can't deface private property with her
imprecations against the capitalist system, but seems to spy
a "contradiction" in a group of young people impolitely postering
over other posters. Although she doesn't say it, you can bet
that those five English-speaking Yugoslavian youth she met
up with in the streets of Belgrade were Oppositionists, plastering
Kostunica's visage over that of jowly old Slobo. Poor Marjaleena
was shocked – shocked! How dare they diss the
Great Leader! Ah, but never mind: this was truly a heartwarming
scene indicative of "democracy in action." In Marjaleena's
book, China, too, has some pretty cool "elections" –
why, to
listen to her, they're just as "democratic" as Yugoslavia's,
if not more so. And what, I ask you, could possibly
beat that . . . ?
WHAT'S
THAT YOU SAY?
I
love getting stuff like this because it seems so . . . eccentric.
I mean, what could possibly motivate someone living in the
West to write of "China's so-called human rights violations"?
What could give Ms. Repo the unself-conscious gall to stand
there and lecture the young rebels of Yugoslavia about their
"contradictions" as they cover up the hated visage of their
country's Richard Nixon? She's lucky she got out of there
in one piece. But just how eccentric are the Marjaleena
Repos of this world? I really began to wonder when I read
further in her missive that " the so far single American observer
is an active senior participant in the Gore presidential campaign."
Say what? I wrote Marjaleena, and asked her what's
up. Here is her answer:
"He
was a Greek-American by the name of George Spirou, and damn
if I know where he is from. I understand that he has been
a politician himself. He spoke to me very highly about the
policies of the Democratic Party – with the the exception
of its foreign policy vis a vis the Balkans in general andYugoslavia
in particular. He rolled his eyes when I asked him if he has
had or will have any influence on changing this policy..."
WRONG
NAME, RIGHT PERSON
Verrrrrrrrry
interesting, and, yes, Marjaleena has his first name wrong,
but she's right about one thing: Spirou has been a
been a politician himself. As a past chair of the New Hampshire
Democratic Party, widely given credit for knocking Bill Bradley
for a loop in his state's pivotal primary, Spirou is a top
Democratic party consultant and has played a key role in the
Gore campaign. Benjamin
Works, of the Strategic
Issues Research Institute, who correctly identifies him
as Chris Spirou, is of
the opinion that "Mr. Spirou is the only American Democrat
known to be friendly to the Belgrade government, though that
is not a crime, as yet." Well, uh, no, it's not a crime in
the legal sense, but playing along with Milosevic's game of
electoral sleight-of-hand sure doesn't earn you a badge of
honor, either, now does it? One expected to see the Communist
Party (Marxist-Leninist) of Nepal show up to one of these
propaganda extravaganzas – but the Democratic Party of
New Hampshire?
CURIOUSER
AND CURIOUSER
As
a
political consultant, Spirou's talents have been utilized
not only by the Gore campaign, but also by the Socialist Party
of Greece, whose 1993 candidate, Andreas Papandreou, faced
the incumbent conservative Premier Constantine Mitsotakis.
In this overseas battle of the American political consultants,
Spirou found himself up against Paul Begala, James Carville,
and Mary Matalin, who had hired themselves out to Mitsoakis,
But quantity is not quality in the world of political consulting,
and Spirou carried the day, moving on to effectively destroy
the Bradley campaign in New Hampshire. Spirou gets around:
he was
a participant in the Dayton talks as a Bosnian representative,
along with another US citizen, Muhammed Sacirbey, who, with
the blessing of the State Department, also served as foreign
minister of Bosnia. Spirou's role at Dayton was a curious
one. According to an
item in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
he served as "the only non-Serb member of the 10-person Serbian
delegation," and boasted to journalists that he had "worked
closely" with Milosevic. "Our joint commitment is to bring
peace to the Balkans." Another
item in the New York Times [18 November 1995] describes
Spirou as "a man who introduces himself as a 'close friend'
of President Slobodan Milosevic." Sounds like Spirou and Slobo
are best buddies. . . .
TETE
A TETE IN BELGRADE?
I
wonder what kind of a tete-a-tete, if any, the two
of them had in Belgrade. Did they reminisce about the good
old days, did Spirou console his old friend over his loss
in the first round – or perhaps offer his services as
a consultant for round two? It doesn't look like Slobo is
going to need much help, with the Opposition – egged
on by Albright, Clinton, and Blair – stupidly boycotting
the second round. But you never know – and a job's a
job. Hey, this is a guy who, at the height of the impeachment
proceedings against Clinton, declared
that Democrats "owed it to Clinton to signal their support
to the nation." Why couldn't this work for Slobo? That a major
apologist for Bill Clinton could wind up performing the same
service for his "close friend" Slobodan Milosevic is not all
that surprising. What is surprising is that the GOP hit squad
seems to be out of commission. A major Gore operative exposed
as a shill for Milosevic's Soviet-style "election" –
how could they have missed this one?
BACK
CHANNEL
Okay,
now let's have some fun: It is just possible that Spirou's
role as a co-observer alongside Marjaleena Repo and the Communist
Party (Marxist-Leninist) of Nepal was a back-channel mission.
Was Spirou an emissary sent to make a deal with the stubborn
dictator? We can only speculate, but perhaps Spirou was the
bearer of a personal message from the President, opportunist
to opportunist, so to speak – a Russian dacha
and safety for his nutty wife and widely-hated children in
return for a quick exit. Or perhaps Spirou offered another
sort of deal altogether: one that would not only keep
him in Serbia, but perhaps even in office – even if it
isn't in the largely ceremonial office of President.
ANOTHER
SCENARIO
One
possible scenario that I have not seen mentioned anywhere
is that Milosevic could concede Kostunica's victory without
really losing power. The parliamentary elections, thanks to
the abstention by the majority of the Montenegrins, gave a
working majority to the Socialist-Left coalition. The key
factor here is the Montenegrin chapter of Milosevic's Socialist
Party (SNP), which is now distancing itself from Slobo in
the wake of his looming defeat. If they don't break to the
Opposition, then Slobo can run for Prime Minister, a much
more powerful position: or he can wait, and run for President
of Serbia, a post he has held before. In any case, with Kostunica
determined not to hand him over to the Hague "Tribunal," Slobo
is safe as long the US doesn't invade – an unlikely event
in the case of a Kostunica presidency, at least in the immediate
future.
EVERYBODY'S
HAPPY – EXCEPT THE SERBS
This
solution would satisfy practically everyone. Slobo would be
happy, since this scenario would enable him to rise like the
phoenix from the ashes of defeat. It would also serve the
purposes of the NATO-crats, since they could take credit for
Kostunica's victory and still have Milosevic as a target (and
a prize) in a highly personalized conflict. The crisis, far
from abating, would only increase, as would the prospect of
civil war – the tripwire for US/NATO intervention.
COUNTER-MEASURES
But,
again, this is just speculation. What is certain is
that, even as I write, Russian
envoys are meeting with Milosevic to arrange some kind
of immunity and refuge. But the role of the US – what
is it? With Russia and the US increasingly at loggerheads
in the Balkans, you can bet they aren't reading from the same
script. Now that Vladimir Putin has tilted decisively in the
direction of Kostunica, what counter-measures are the Americans
taking? Maybe someone should ask Chris Spirou. . .
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