Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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Like a bad penny

IF ANYONE thought that Slobodan Milosevic was going to go quietly, they were underestimating the audacity of the iron-willed former Yugoslav strongman. Meek thanks offered to the Serbian people for allowing him to retire peacefully and spend more time with his family evaporated this weekend when Milosevic was re-elected as the leader of the Socialist Party and gave a venomous speech that relied heavily on his perennially popular nationalistic themes and lashed out against the newly-elected leadership as "Western spies."

Western powers were dumbfounded to find the silver-haired Milosevic neither repentant nor tactful, calling the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague -- where he has been indicted for war crimes -- the "new Gestapo" and the popular uprising that finally ousted him from power in October an outbreak of "violence and lawlessness." But the ruling Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) couldn't be happier to see Milosevic out trying to rake together a comeback. Calling the Socialist Party gathering a "vampire ball," the DOS said Saturday's spectacle was "brilliant for the DOS."

Welcome to the party

MILOSEVIC'S firebrand nationalism still ringing in his ears, newly-elected Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica was inducted into the tangle of political alliances he will have to contend with in the ongoing Kosovo drama this week when he sent an ultimatum to NATO forces demanding that they curb Albanian terrorist activity from spilling into Serbia proper from the UN-administered province. Attacks last week by the somewhat obscure Albanian separatist guerrilla movement known as the "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac" led to the deaths of at least four Serbian soldiers and a mounting showdown in the three-mile demilitarised zone that separates Serbia proper and Kosovo. Serbian armed forces began building up at the border as the Monday deadline loomed, but Kostunica softened, no doubt recognising that a confrontation with NATO so early in his tenure would ultimately stymie his speedy reconciliation with the West. The deadline was extended indefinitely.

Talk is cheap

JAPAN'S scandal-mongers were thrilled with Monday's courtroom climax in the story of Shigehiro Hagisaki, the former lieutenant-commander in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force who admitted to selling defence secrets to Russian military attaché Captain Victor Bogatenkov in the course of several meetings -- each enriching Hagisaki by about $900. The disgraced naval officer was arrested after one such encounter with Bogatenkov early in September and seeing that the game was up, Bogatenkov flew home the next day carrying the banner of diplomatic immunity.

The eagerly-awaited trial opened, coincidentally, only a day before the arrival of Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev. Perhaps the oddest twist in the tale is what lies at stake: current Japanese law is astoundingly lenient in matters of espionage. For all the sensational coverage -- and state secrets divulged -- Hagisaki faces a maximum of one year in prison or a fine that will not exceed $270. Given the circumstances, the gamble was worth it.

The comeback kid

PRESIDENTIAL elections in the small Caribbean nation of Haiti on Sunday were beset with threats of violence as Jean-Bertrand Aristide readied himself for what seems an inevitable return to power. The once phenomenally popular Roman Catholic priest rode a wave of popular support to become the first democratically-elected president in 1990, but only a year later he was deposed in a military coup. A US-led invasion in 1994 reinstalled Aristide and were it not for the bar on serving two consecutive terms, Aristide would probably have hung on. Instead he picked an agreeable successor, close friend René Préval.

Opposition parties called for a boycott of the election, claiming that it was an invitation to dictatorship. Former allies and opposition leaders accused Aristide and Préval of intimidation and fraud. Not long after the polls opened on Sunday, a bomb blast erupted in the Haitian capital Port au Prince and voters were sparse at polling stations. Sceptics have charged that bombs planted in the city were a way for the government to justify low voter turnout.

Compiled by Nyier Abdou

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