Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Majority rules

SOME 900,000 ethnic Albanians made their way to what most believed to be the first free and democratic elections to have taken place in the Serbian province of Kosovo last Saturday. Chaotic, disorganised, and blatantly resented by the Serbian minority, the first municipal elections held under the UN administration were nonetheless a giddy relief for Albanians, who regard them as a step toward independence. Serb Kosovars boycotted the election, with only 1,000 of the estimated 80,000 Serb population registered for the vote. Serbia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, has stood firm in his conviction that Kosovo should remain part of Serbia, but the 20-odd parties that participated in the elections beg to differ: every party ran on a platform of independence.

Unofficial results show the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), headed by popular leader Ibrahim Rugova, ahead, but nationalist sentiments have also boosted the performance of the militant Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), headed by former Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci. For the tragically divided province, however, Saturday's poll was a bittersweet vote for peace, with NATO-led K-FOR peacekeeping troops recording the ballot as one of the quietest days since Kosovo became an international protectorate. Official results are expected within a week.

Hide and seek

WITH PERU'S former master spy Vladamiro Montesinos still at large early this week, embattled President Alberto Fujimori launched an all-out manhunt for the cunning but disgraced Montesinos, once the power behind the presidency. Montesinos unexpectedly returned to Lima after a failed bid for asylum in Panama last week and has not been seen since. Fujimori was seen personally leading a military search operation that featured such show tricks as sniffing dogs, swooping helicopter escapades and appearances by Fujimori's daughter.

Questions about the military's loyalty to Fujimori grew louder after his bold move this week to dismiss and replace the heads of the armed forces, the navy and the air force. The decision only further stoked rumours that military commanders may have remained loyal to the ex-spy chief and could in fact be sheltering him.

Hit and run

WITH only two weeks before the US presidential election, Republican candidate George W Bush pulled a quick punch on Democrats with his intentions to end US involvement in peacekeeping in the Balkans. Senior Bush advisor Ari Fleischer said that the Texas governor's position was that the US military should "fight and win wars", not be the world's peacekeepers.

Bush, who is slightly ahead of democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore in polls, has been fighting the image that he is unsavvy in foreign affairs. Condoleeza Rice, Bush's senior national security aide, told The New York Times that Bush feels peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo should be the responsibility of Europe. But Gore retorted that abandoning missions in the Balkans betrayed a "lack of judgement and a complete misunderstanding of history." Some 11,400 American troops remain in the Balkans, less than half of the 25,000-strong force sent there in 1995 after the Bosnian War.

God save their souls

IF EVER there were a profession the world over that was in dire need of divine inspiration, it is certainly the besmirched world of politics. Those of us inclined to think there is no hope were asked to take heart on Tuesday, when Pope John Paul II formally proclaimed Sir Thomas More the patron saint of politicians. The English politician and scholar was beheaded by King Henry VIII after refusing to subjugate the authority of the church to the monarchy. The pope was clearly trying to infuse modern politics with a little moral character.

Speaking at the Vatican last Thursday, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga laughably missed the point when he suggested that More's progressive ideals could have sanctioned a ménage à trois -- a rather generous interpretation of a statement in one of More's writings. Cossiga, who spearheaded the campaign to adopt More as the saviour of politicians, also reminded the Vatican press conference that Saint Augustine had kept a concubine and had an illegitimate child. At 72, Cossiga's agenda is still remarkably clear.

Sinner among saints

GAFFE-PRONE Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was left deeply embarrassed due to a scandal involving his chief cabinet secretary Hi-enao Nakagawa, Ibrahim El-Desouki reports from Tokyo. Nakagawa resigned last week after news of an extra-marital affair with a bar host-ss hit the Japanese headlines. Nakagawa had been at his post barely four months and the scandal, coupled with Nakagawa's dubious right-wing connections, reflected badly on Mori. The errant secretary sounded penitent enough, telling reporters in Tokyo, "I am no saint. It is regrettable that I have lost people's trust. I apologise."

But the political damage was already done. "I am responsible for all the ministers," Mori conceded. "I feel great responsibility as the one who appointed him." In July, Mori was forced to re-uctantly accept the resignation of another top official after less than four weeks in office, lending credence to the claim by opposition parties that he lacks the ability to gather the right people around him. Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the main opposition party, pointed out that "the responsibility does not lie with Nakagawa alone, but with Prime Minister Mori, who appointed him."

Thanks, but no thanks

A CAUTIOUS President Bill Clinton was more apologetic than confident when he greeted re-orters at the White House on Saturday after signing a bill to ease US sanctions on Cuba. The convoluted and limited scheme allows the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, but anti-Castro lawmakers made sure that provisions in the bill cripple efforts by American farmers to expand their market. Not since the explosive case of Elian Gonzalez has the administration been more at odds with the enormously powerful Cuban American lobby.

The bill is part of a whopping $78 billion ag-iculture funding plan, but the measure is largely seen as a symbolic gesture indicating a shift in tides around the remarkably enduring sanc-ions imposed on Cuba in 1962. Cuban leader Fidel Castro was not impressed though, railing against the law and swearing up and down that goods offered under the new legislation were not welcome. Clinton, who admitted signing the bill under the presumption that something is better than nothing, may have managed to please no one.

Sunken hopes

DIVERS working to recover the bodies of the 118 sailors buried in the Russian submarine Kursk pulled more bodies from the sunken wreck Sunday as Russians paid their respects to the lost crew. The bodies of four unidentified sailors have been recovered so far, one of whom bore a chilling plastic-wrapped note in his pock-t. Lieutenant-Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov scrawled the letter in darkness while waiting for death with 22 other survivors of the blasts that doomed the Kursk, Russia's worst peace-time naval disaster. Russian officials had earlier claimed that it was likely the crew was killed im-ediately after the accident, but Kolesnikov's harrowing note from the grave has re-ignited public outrage over what even Russia has admitted to be a bungled and slow response to the disaster. Russian contentions that the accident was triggered by a collision with a foreign ship have been vehemently denied by Western gov-rnments.

Compiled by Nyier Abdou

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