Serbia's Opening

American billionaire George Soros, often described in these parts as a "controversial figure", continues confusing everyone around him with his moves. Belgrade was until recently telling him to pack up and leave together with his Foundation, his "dirty money" and "subversive intentions".

At the culmination of the campaign against the Soros foundation, a Belgrade high-school principal said it would be best if all the children prepared to accept Soros' scholarships and all parents allowing them to do so left the country.

Ten days ago, Soros said in London he would grant 15 million USD to the children of Yugoslavia, above all to the refugee children. The news of this, hitherto the largest individual donation to refugees in the FR of Yugoslavia, was hardly published by the local media. Some ignored the news, while the others felt a bit uncomfortable and printed it on their back pages.

Several months passed from the beginning of the campaign against the Soros Foundation until the news from London about the 15 million USD aid to the refugees. Much has happened in the meantime. Around 200,000 new refugees arrived in the FRY. The authorities, which could not forgive George Soros for signing the petition calling for the bombing of the Bosnian Serbs, meanwhile made major headway in talks with the ones who did not sign petitions but concretely bombed the Bosnian Serbs.

Will Soros' aid "stink" much less now and cause less nausea among those deciding what is fit, wished-for and well-meant here?

"It is completely true and quite incomprehensible that news of the greatest aid given to Yugoslavia so far passed with such little notice," Director for the Soros Foundation for FRY, Sonja Liht, told Vreme. "It is interesting that the foreign media reacted much more to the news. The US media, for example, accurately recorded what Mr. Soros said at his London conference on September 20 - that the aid was meant for children of Serbian refugees. Some foreign media said that the aid was being given to Balkan refugees, which is untrue. In any war, and in this one as well, there are victims on all sides. The victims on this side were being refuted for a very long time. That is exactly what we were afraid would again happen when the exodus from Krajina began.

At the time the refugees were crossing the border, I went to New York and saw Mr. Soros. I told him about our program of aiding refugees and suggested that it last for one year. Instead of a year and 7.5 million USD, Mr. Soros immediately decided to grant 15 million USD for a two year program. This is not only the largest individual donation which anyone had ever made to the FRY, it is also the greatest donation George Soros ever secured for one of his foundations. When we were discussing the aid and the special program our Foundation would prepare, Mr. Soros had only one wish - that the funds be primarily directed for children. He did set one condition - that our Foundation be allowed to operate normally in these parts."

Is the silence that met the news of the 15 million USD in aid to the refugees the consequence of the several month campaign conducted against your Foundation?

"That campaign has obviously exhausted itself if you recall, they published the same texts, the same lies five times, and then, since they lacked new ones, reprinted them and quoted each other. Campaigns are usually full of half-truths, but this one was based only on lies. They claimed, for instance, that we did not import insulin but contraceptives, although that was a lie. Directors of some institutions claimed they had not cooperated with us, and we had to show thank you letters they had signed. The campaign had created an odium around the Foundation, something resembling a thick, hazy fog. In such a fog, of course, people begin losing their bearings. Many are still forbidden to receive our aid, for instance. We recently distributed medical equipment worth around 700,000 USD, the most so far. The figures aren't important, but the shortage of medical machines and spare parts is great today, much greater than the shortage of medicines. And then some of the institutions took the machines, while others did not. Some medical institutions would not accept special vitaminized baby formula which is not only food, but a medicine as well. The good news is that the number of such institutions is low. The bad news, however, is that there are people heading medical institutions who are prepared to refuse aid and so assume upon themselves the responsibility whether their patients will live or die. The patients, of course, have no idea about what is going on."

Do you agree with the opinion that Mr. Soros, thanks to his wealth, is one of the rare people in the world who is able to conduct his own private foreign policy?

"No, because this simply isn't true even if he wanted to do that. Many do not take him seriously nor his visions of how to introduce order in the world. Politicians in particular. When he was explaining his positions in London recently, all everyone wanted to hear about was how he had made his fortune, or what would happen to the Dollar, the Yen or the Mark."

It seems that in Zagreb and here, the greatest uproar was raised over the aid to the independent media. The impression was created in the public that none of the independent media would have been able to survive without Soros' money.

"That aid was just an excuse, but it is true that this aid was the greatest thorn in many an eye. Our Foundation has so far earmarked 10% of our overall funds for the media. The most expensive programs are the medical and humanitarian ones. It is untrue that the independent media would have disappeared without our support. They would not have been able to survive if they had relied on our aid alone. They have survived thanks to the incredible enthusiasm of the people working within them and their deep conviction that in each society there must be a certain counter-balance to the state; that there has to be a press which will not be controlled by one center. These people have frequently gone without salaries for months, something the public rarely hears about. Our aid is rather symbolic, so they know they are not alone in times of crises. This aid has not been sufficient to keep them going, but rather to send a journalist to a book fair or a similar event so they could do their job better. I know about the rumor that they write what the Soros Foundation tells them to. That's crazy. Why would any of them then try to remain independent. They could have chosen a more powerful financier than us then."