-----Original Message----- From: Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> For example, your post was the first place that
>I read about Ibrahim Rugova, who was allegedly murdered, being alive and
>on Serb TV.
-Yes, as WDK suggests here, this is a rather massive vindication of Yoshie's
-argument. Am I correct to conclude that there has been no comment on this
-by the LBO bombers? What wimps!
-I wonder what Brad "The Big Election Guy" DeLong thinks about NATO
-overriding the elected official Rugova by appealing to the KLA thugs for an
-imprimatur for its imperial adventure.
I hadn't commented on Rugova because I was waiting for some evidence that any of his spoken positions could be taken seriously. When a person disappears for a week, then reappears buddy-buddy with the men committing mass murder against his people, one has the right to suspect that his position may not really be his own. Then again, given Rugova's history of non-violence, his opposition to the bombing may be quite legitimate.
But I sure as hell don't know. We don't know if Rugova's family is being threatened, what torture he might or might not have experienced, and any other question that comes up when a person is not allowed to speak with outside journalists and commentators away from his captors.
If Rugova was making his comments from a safe haven in Macedonia, I would be taking this commentary absolutely seriously and probably calling for a halt to the bombing, even though Rugova's claims to authority have been eroding in the last year or two.
But until Rugova is allowed to leave Belgrade, his statements mean very little. If he is against the bombing for real, Milosevic's regime should encourage him to leave and speak at anti-bombing rallies around NATO. Otherwise, most people will treat his statements like any other prisoner-of-war -- not to be trusted without much more serious independent verification.
--Nathan Newman