The Clinton administration is pouring money into the Yugoslav elections to defeat President Slobodan Milosevic.
The post said that in a front page despatch, charges of Chinese influence-buying in the 1996 US presidential campaign caused a political storm in Washington that has yet to fully abate. By some measures, however, that episode pales in comparison to American political interference in Serbia,
locus of a $ 77 million US Effort to do with ballots what NATO could not (with bullets)--get rid of Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloevic.
In the run-up to national elections on September 24, said the post, US aid officials and contractors are working to strengthen Serbia's fractured Democratic Opposition. They have helped train its organisers, equipped their offices with computers and fax machines and provided opposition parties with sophisticated voter surveys compiled by the same New York firm that conducts polls for President Clinton.
The US is funneling support to anti-Milosevic student groups, labour unions, independent media outlets and even Serbian heavy metal bands that stage street concerts as part of a voter registration drive called rock the vote.
Bureau Report
