Shorts

Wrong paraphrase

In a recent interview which Biljana Plavsic, acting president of the Srpska Republic gave the Novi Sad daily "Dnevnik", appeared an exclusive peace-making thought ("peace has no alternative") which was then quoted by all state controlled media as an illustration of Mrs. Plavsic's new appeasement policy.

However, the acting president's cabinet soon issued a statement on state television denying that Mrs Plavsic ever uttered the incriminated slogan, but instead said that the "alternative to the current policy of the Srpska Republic could be found within the boundaries of national interests which must never be crossed". Therefore, the acting president never plagiarized or quoted the famous words of the Serbian President although it does look as if she paraphrased his forgotten statement (given to Slobodan Jovanovic of "Tanjug"): "There is no alternative to the policy directed at maintaining our state and national interests, irrespective of the pressures we are subjected to and irrespective of any continuation of such pressures" ("Politika", 4. November, 1993)

Kosava Radio

"Kosava", Belgrade's most listened to local radio-station celebrated its second anniversary in a Madona night club in Pozarevac.

More than three thousand guests gathered "in the beautiful atmosphere of one of the best out-door night clubs in the country" ("Vecernje Novosti"). "Kosava" organized the transport to Pozarevac for its employees and some of the guests. The boss of the radio station and the boss of the nightclub are Marija and Marko Milosevic, respectively, children of the president of Serbia and the leader of JUL. "Novosti" eternalized the presence at the party of Dragan Tomic, speaker of the Serbian Parliament and the president of the Serbian petrol industry, and Slobodan Perucic, director of Beobanka. Three dots that followed these two names suggest that there were other prominent business people and politicians who found time to visit a nightclub in spite of all usual party and business obligations.

On the Edge of Paranoia

An anonymous sports journalist from "Politika Express" reveals that the honour of lighting the Olympic flame, given to Mohammed Ali in Atlanta, was in fact another "abuse of sport" (heading), "flirt with the Muslims" (title), and "sucking up to all Muslims of the world" (subtitle). Although "even birds in the trees already know it" the author of the article explained that what happened was the consequence of the "hot-cold relations" between USA and the Islamic world and the estrangement between USA and Israel. That is why "old Clay, already crippled by disease, received such ovations at the opening ceremony and dwarfed, at least in terms of popularity, both Clinton and Samaran".

Creative handwriting

Diplomatic language rarely reveals all, but usually leaves enough room for the experts to read between the lines. Yugoslav diplomacy, and its front man Milan Milutinovic are not in the business of concealing things. On the contrary, they talk about things that do not exist and events that never took place: "I would especially like to emphasize that our proposal to form some kind of constitutive assembly of Balkan states, consisting of permanent delegations from national parliaments, which would meet regularly or according to need, has been accepted", Milutinovic told the press on return from the recently held conference of foreign ministers of Eastern European states in Sofia.

In the conference's main document, the Declaration on neighbourly relations, stability, security and cooperation in the Balkans there is no mention of the kind of assembly that minister was talking about. It is true however that the document states that "the idea about forming a parliamentary consultative assembly has been acknowledged", but nothing more.

Tanjug's report from the conference says that "all participants except Albania pledged their support for a faster reintegration of Yugoslavia into international organizations and institutions..."

In the above mentioned Declaration however does not mention any such support. There is however the "summary of the chairman" (which is used in the diplomatic world as a consolation to those whose proposals have not been accepted) which contains a reference to the fact that a "certain number of delegates noticed that a full reintegration of Yugoslavia in the international community would be of vital importance for a lasting peace and cooperation in the region", while one delegation pointed out the need for further steps to be taken before this can be ensured.