Milosevic and CNN

Last week, everyone wanted to surprise everyone. The Carter family unexpectedly called on the Karadzics and, while the wives were exchanging presents and compliments, Radovan and Jimmy quickly reached an agreement on peace in Bosnia in the spirit of Baptist-Orthodox understanding. When he heard that, Slobodan Milosevic immediately spread his wings and flew to Athens, where he offered the Greeks, Macedonians, and even the Bulgarians, a Balkan Confederation. Yasushi Akashi, who understood the significance of the moment, immediately re-opened the highway of Chetnik-Ustashi brotherhood and unity (the Belgrade-Zagreb highway was called the highway of brotherhood and unity in the former Yugoslavia). Somewhere at the bottom of this massive love scene, Zoran Djindjic played a minor role by hurrying to Moscow to bring the Russians glad tidings from Pale and save them the money they would have spent to pay the telephone bill. They had already heard, but it doesn't matter.

All of these wonderful miracles took place within three days. Those who weren't lucky enough to have electricity and couldn't hear about them on TV will be able to read about them in the newspapers - if there is paper. If there isn't, no big deal, since it seems that nothing good can last more than three days in these parts. However, since we decided to endure and survive everything, it is our duty to maintain high spirits and always look at the bright side of life. For instance, I'm sure that most of us are happier to have electricity and accept that as an undeserved reward than we are irritated and angry when it is cut off. Hasn't anyone yet launched the theory that the Serbs are a nation of candles and lanterns? And that Tesla had actually swindled the whole world.

It is good that the Belgrade-Zagreb highway, which was last used by the Yugoslav Peoples' Army's tanks three years ago, was reopened. It doesn't matter that it will be used only in daytime for now. It does seem a bit of a jinx that its reopening coincides with the shortest day in the year, so there will be a traffic jam, but the most important thing is that the Serbs and the Croats can finally run into each other's arms. And if they overdo it, Croatian President Tudjman and Krajina President Martic can once again lower the ramp.

With regard to Carter's visit to Karadzic, it appears to me that no one, including the two of them, is sure who wanted what, who pledged what, who duped whom, who will win and who will lose in the end and whether anything of major importance has happened at all. Until these questions are cleared up, it will not be known in what capacity and with what authorization the former U.S. President dropped into Bosnia. If the agreement fails, if silence and peace aren't established there immediately, Carter will remain a private, self-styled middleman. If not, it will turn out that he had the official support of the U.S. Scores of people will appear, from Pale to Washington, who will try to prove that this mediator appeared as a result of their efforts.

This business of mediation, which has acquired unprecedented proportions in the case of this war, involves rules, interests, accounts to be settled and competition. International and domestic mediators, both private and official, both minor and major, are all slowly tending to forget and overlook the chief aim: the starting point and the goal. The issues of war and peace: a just, stable and lasting solution - are becoming less significant than who will deserve the most credit for peace. The issue is not what kind of peace, but whose peace - American or European? The Contact Group's or Owen and Stoltenberg's peace? Milosevic's or Karadzic's peace?

It was simply touching to see how unnerved all of the previous mediators became by the unexpected appearance of Jimmy Carter, who threatened to ruin their game. European diplomats immediately expressed their aversion and suspicions. Until then, they had accused America of excessive aggressiveness and siding with the Sarajevo government, and then, suddenly, they got scared that Carter would make Karadzic too many concessions and reach an "American peace". Owen and Stoltenberg immediately went to Belgrade, worried both about themselves and Milosevic. Finally, Milosevic himself had to hurry to Athens to again hear that he was the "unavoidable factor of peace".

He had just relaxed a bit and gotten used to having everyone come to him, thanking and congratulating him, while he promised he would exert new efforts to restore peace. However, his position became ambiguous and contradictory. He was saying it had never been his war, that it didn't concern him and that he no longer had anything to do with it, but he wanted to be the chief author of peace. Despite all his tactical skills, someone had to force him into the open once: you cannot make peace in someone else's war. If it's your peace, admit the war was yours as well.

Karadzic is the chief winner, at least for the moment, because he managed to appear on the stage in person. Of course, he can easily fall back into the well he has just peeped out of, if it turns out, and it probably will, that his requests for changes in the Contact Group plan are extravagant and unacceptable to the Bosnian federation. However, he managed to shake Milosevic up and unnerve him, which just might be his top priority.

Driven by the ambition to outdo the Bosnian Serb leader, Milosevic rushed to Athens to offer a Balkan confederation along the Belgrade-Skopje-Athens line. The Greeks were shocked, but not more than the Macedonians who had learned of his suggestion from the newspapers. In view of their relations, it would be just like telling your neighbor: Madam, you irritate me so much that it would be best if we got married".

However, Milosevic's best opportunity to parry Karadzic on the grand scene arose with the interview to CNN. He must have impressed the American public greatly, especially by his reliable knowledge of English. Larry King does not have a reputation of asking extremely sharp and unpleasant questions and he made it easier for Milosevic to appear convincing and self-confident. To those less informed, he might have even seemed sincere.

I think that he overdid it a bit, however, when he said that the Americans were totally deceived and that the Serbs and he, personally, were merely innocent victims of a media war. They might have believed that he had sincerely changed his mind and his policy, but not that he is the only one who had consistently opposed war and that the whole American press had been either deceived or conspiring. At that point, he showed an excess of die-hardism and lacked merely a nuance which would show he understood the position of others and allowed different interpretations other than hostile and conspiratorial ones. This very nuance is the one that he also fatally lacks in politics.

The most wonderful of all was how Milosevic delighted the Americans by expressing his strong belief that social justice would soon prevail there, too, and that they would enjoy the health and all other forms of protection that the citizens of Serbia do. Why shouldn't they envy us a bit? The president of the country boasting the dreariest socialism forgot to brag about how the electricity shortage here was being fairly distributed, and that it could also become a model for America, where the rich steal every kilowatt they can from the poor.

And that's how it happened that last week was marked by Milosevic's and Karadzic's conquest of America. I don't believe America will greatly alter its previous approach to the mess here or that it will take the matter into its own hands. I know that many here will start hoping or fearing that Carter's appearance in Pale and Milosevic's on CNN mean that America is taking the Serbian side, or vice versa. It means little or nothing in America. But, an amusing turnabout would be if the two Serbian leaders now began vying for America's favor. Maybe someone has explained to them that it was better to have America as an ally than as an enemy. And maybe we will soon have the opportunity to hear wails because Karadzic has sold the state for peanuts and Milosevic has become the champion of the New World Order.