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Subject: GOP Institute Sends Team To Monitor Yugoslav Vote;Report Says Conditions Not
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 10:44:02 EST
Message-ID: <34.1992Nov26.104402@AmeriCast.com>
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GOP Institute Sends Team To Monitor Yugoslav Vote;Report Says
Conditions Not Set for Fair Election<By A. D. Horne<Washington
Post Foreign Service<

U.S.  advisers, working with the approval of Acting Secretary of
State Lawrence S.  Eagleburger, are monitoring the reelection
campaign of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and democratic
rivals who challenge his support for Serbs fighting in neighbor-
ing Bosnia.

The monitoring teams, sent to Yugoslavia by the International
Republican Institute (IRI) with funds from the Agency for Inter-
national Development, have included a Senate staffer, a former
Federal Election Commission lawyer and an expert on the Balkans,
said Margaret Thompson, IRI vice president for programs.

In their first report, issued this week, the IRI monitors "con-
clude that the preelection environment and election-day prepara-
tions are falling short of what is necessary to complete a credi-
ble election process." The elections, for president and parlia-
ment in both Serbia and Montenegro, as well as for the parliament
of the new two-republic Yugoslav federation, are scheduled for
Dec. 20.

IRI's team, led by staffer Mary Catherine Andrews, warned that
"the official media, especially Television Belgrade and Podgorica
(the Montenegrin capital), are acting as a pro-Milosevic pro-
paganda machine." The monitors also noted that "the election laws
are vague, and many procedures have not yet been adequately ex-
plained." The State Department obtained an exemption from the Un-
ited Nations Sanctions Committee last week to permit broadcasting
equipment to be sent to Belgrade to expand the range of an in-
dependent TV station critical of Milosevic's policies. But the
IRI report warned that the station "will have to pay the
equivalent of $1 million to receive the new republic-wide fre-
quencies. . . .  Furthermore, it seems questionable if the fre-
quencies will be operational" prior to the vote, even if Serbian
customs officials "allow the equipment to enter."

State Department officials are reevaluating the monitoring mis-
sion "on a daily basis," a congressional source said, to ensure
that U.S.  participation in the elections does not wind up "legi-
timizing a process that cannot be saved."

The Democratic Coalition formed by major Serbian opposition par-
ties Nov. 12 split three days later, and the identity of
Milosevic's chief challenger for the Serbian presidency is still
unknown.  Federal President Dobrica Cosic, a prominent novelist
and veteran Serb nationalist, and federal Prime Minister Milan
Panic, a California businessman, have been mentioned in specula-
tion. Candidates need not register until Dec. 5.  Both IRI and
its Democratic counterpart, the National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs, have monitored and advised election cam-
paigns around the world, working under rules that allow them to
encourage democratic procedures but not to support specific par-
ties. The institutes were created by an act of Congress, which
generally funds them.

In Yugoslavia, the institutes' strictures put IRI in the position
of possibly working with Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party of
Serbia (SPS) - the former League of Communists - as well as with
the democratic opposition.

To David Phillips, president of the private Congressional Human
Rights Foundation, that possibility is outrageous. "By including
SPS as an equal partner," Phillips said in a telephone interview,
"we're giving them the signal that whatever you do will be
tolerated."

But a congressional staffer said, "We were told IRI was ap-
proached by opposition parties and they said, 'You have to ap-
proach Milosevic's party,' " to avoid giving the strongman a
chance to denounce the opposition as American puppets.

A State Department official said the first IRI team, sent to Ser-
bia at the beginning of November, "spoke with a broad range of
private, academic, political and lower-level government contacts.
The consensus . . .  of these Yugoslavs was that (working with
all sides) would be the best way to proceed."

"We have to work with all political parties . . .  during the
campaign period," said IRI program director Thompson. If Milosev-
ic chose to participate, however, "we would need a U.N. waiver to
work with the ruling party."

AID's contract with IRI, signed Nov. 16, envisioned spending up
to $425,000. But Thompson said the program has been cut back sub-
stantially, eliminating the training of local election officials
and media professionals and keeping only a limited program of
monitoring - "maybe 15 people over three weeks." A new, smaller
budget is being prepared, she said.

IRI's first report said "there is significant concern that ob-
servers will not be permitted to attend the voting and tabulation
procedures." The question of sending American observers to the
election next month is still open, Thompson said.<02:26 11-
26C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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