winners and losers

kirsten neilsen kirsten at infothecary.org
Tue Jun 8 07:03:00 PDT 1999


[this is from "international papers," a feature that appears in slate a couple of times each week. the only mention of refugees is in relation to macedonia, and there is no mention of whatsoever of the population of serbia.]

Britain's Independent on Sunday compiled a list of the war's winners and losers. The winners: British Prime Minister Tony Blair ("[His] reputation as a strong leader on the international stage will be enhanced. And his commitment to the morality of the conflict will win him several saintly points."); Jamie Shea ("Each week the Nato press spokesman with a Cockney accent has been forced to explain away an array of Nato mistakes--in English and French. While his rhetorical denunciations of Milosevic got more extreme, ... he rarely lost his temper."); Albania ("The West owes it a debt of gratitude and it stands to gain economically from long-term international commitment to the area."); and construction companies. The losers: Slobodan Milosevic ("Some suspect Slobo and his wife may emulate his parents, who both committed suicide."); Apache helicopters; Ibrahim Rugova ("How can the bookish head of Kosovo's independence movement live down the shame of being shown on Serbian TV with Milosevic? ... [H]e could be bumped off as a traitor."); Macedonia ("It has suffered from loss of trade with Serbia, and most of the refugees are unlikely to leave for some time."); and the Treasury ("The costs of putting peacekeepers on the ground will be a major drain on resources. Then there is the cost of reconstruction: like the troops, most of the money will have to come from the European Union. Ultimately, that means from our pockets."). No mention was made of the estimated 5,000 Yugoslav troops killed in the conflict nor of the more than 1,200 civilian fatalities.



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