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Friday, September 29, 2000

NATO keeping quiet
about Yugoslav voting

By Gregory Piatt
Belgium bureau

BRUSSELS, Belgium — As Western nations proclaim an opposition victory in the Yugoslav election, NATO is saying little about the vote and its aftermath, an alliance official said on Thursday.

"If there is any voice that really matters, it is that of the Serb people, and they have spoken loudly and clearly," said the official, who addressed reporters on the condition that he would not be identified.

"If NATO keeps speaking, then people aren’t listening to the one voice that really matters and should be heeded by everyone in this situation."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is very keen to make sure that any alliance statements are not used as an excuse to take some kind of action against the opposition, the official said.

"Anyone who has looked at the situation in the [Yugoslav] elections will have seen there is a common theme, which is that anyone from the opposition is labeled some kind of a NATO lackey," the official told reporters.

NATO has no contact or influence over the Yugoslav opposition presidential candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, the official said.

Kostunica, who has criticized the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year, finished first in last weekend’s presidential election.

According to the Yugoslav State Election Commission, Kostunica bested incumbent Slobodan Milosevic by taking 48.96 percent of the vote, while Milosevic had 38.62 percent of the vote.

Since Kostunica didn’t win an outright 50 percent of the vote, the election commission, which is an official body of the Milosevic-run state, is calling for a second round of voting.

However, the opposition claimed its tallies indicate that Kostunica received 55 percent of the vote to Milosevic’s 35 percent.

Western leaders have supported the Kostunica victory and have called for Milosevic to step aside.

"There are other people who are entitled to speak and should speak and have spoken, the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] for instance," the official said. "What’s going on here is elections and this isn’t a security situation and why should NATO be speaking about something that’s not a security situation."

Since the opposition claimed its candidate won, it has said it won’t participate in the Oct. 8 second round runoff.

Tensions are increasing in Yugoslavia. On Wednesday, thousands of Yugoslavs protested in cities across the country.

As the opposition protests the election results and Milosevic figures what his next move will be, the NATO official said the election outcome hasn’t increased tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina or Kosovo.

"If there was [increased tensions] we are more than capable of handling it," the official said. "This not is not a priority issue and we are not on red alert …, but if there are any spillover problems because of tensions elsewhere we are entirely confident we can carry out our mission in Kosovo and Bosnia."