Can Milosevic be trusted

At the press conference Mr. Milosevic was asked the diplomatically formulated question in front of more than a hundred journalists: "As your opponents - generally from Croatia - persist in speculating about Serbia's attitude towards the coup in USSR, could you comment on this?" The diplomatic question was met by Mr. Milosevic's diplomatic answer: "As far as the coup is concerned I am not going to give you any evaluations, I shall only state the facts. Here with me is the Foreign Affairs Minister of Serbia. At the time of the coup, he stated in the name of the Serbian Governemnt on TV that Serbia categorically opposes the use of violence such as the coup in question. Serbia is the only Yugoslav republic that has condemned the coup while it was still in progress and only when it failed did everybody else condemn it. These facts can be checked in the press." After checking "the facts in the press", following Mr. Milosevic's advice, it turned out that he has repeated his Parisian manoeuvre: with a dead pan face, he tried to convince the world and the home public that what was said was not said, while what was not said - was said. Mr. Vladislav Jovanovic (Serbian Foreign Minister) "while the coup was still in progress" has stated the following for the TV cameras: "Our government's attitude is that it is an internal question of the Soviet Union and that we should not interfere", and then he named the Federal Foreign Affairs Ministry and Mr. Loncar as the ones who should be consulted about that matter. At the same time, dr. Mihailo Markovic, the Vice-President of the ruling party in Serbia, has expressed his profound satisfaction and sincere hope in the success of the coup. These were "the facts that can be checked in the press" which presented no problem: we still do not live in Orwel's "1984" where old newspapers are being adjusted to accomodate the later statements of the rulers.