[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 19, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E376-E377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL CRITICIZES SERBIAN RESTRICTIONS ON THE 
    INFORMATION MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT CLOSING OF THE SOROS FOUNDATION

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 1996

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, just a few days ago, with my colleague from 
Nebraska, Mr. Bereuter, In introduced House Resolution 378 deploring 
the recent actions by the government of Serbia restricting freedom of 
the press and freedom of expression and ending the legal authority of 
the Soros Foundation to continue its democracy-building and 
humanitarian activities in Serbia.
  The Washington Post in an excellent editorial last week commented on 
the Serbian decision to close the Soros Foundation and the measures 
taken by the government against the independent information media. I 
commend this excellent editorial to my colleagues, and I ask that it be 
placed in the Record.

                [From the Washington Post, Mar. 7, 1996]

                          Shuttering Up Serbia

       No task is more important in the former Yugoslavia than 
     building a nongovernmental civil society to open up the 
     ingrown local regimes. And in no place is this work more 
     vital than Serbia, the dominant and pace-setting part of the 
     broken-up country. Finally, in this activity no one plays a 
     larger individual role than George Soros, who, as U.S. 
     Information Agency chief Joseph Duffey puts it, does what the 
     U.S. government would do if it had the money. In a score of 
     formerly Community countries, the billionaire speculator runs 
     private foundations ``to enable people to do things which are 
     not centrally determined but autonomous and spontaneous.'' 
     Except not in Serbia. Not anymore.
       ``Even as he offered himself internationally as a man who 
     could bring peace to Bosnia. Serbian President Slobodan 
     Milosevic was further consolidating his power at home. He has 
     made a special target of the local Soros Foundation, which 
     does scholarships, summer camps and toys for children, relief 
     for Serb refugees, medical institutions, nongovernmental 
     organizations, the independent works. The foundation has 
     sustained Serbia's only independent media, including the 
     newspaper Nasa Borba and television's Studio B. But after a 
     campaign (400 articles and broadcasts) in the official media, 
     Serb authorities hoked up a technicality to close the 
     foundation down. Evidently Mr. Milosevic, heading toward 
     elections, wants no opposition, democratic or otherwise--
     least of all an open society.
       The other day, a week after Belgrade closed out the Soros 
     project, the State Department called on President Milosevic 
     to ``reverse the trend of anti-democratic repressive 
     measures.'' The question arises, however, whether Mr. 
     Milosevic had not taken a contrary clue from the secretary of 
     state's failure to receive the independent sector when he 
     buzzed through Belgrade last month.
       The Serb leader seems to be carefully weighing what his--
     undeniably considerable--contributions to ending the war will

[[Page E377]]

     buy him in international acceptance of his tightening at 
     home. Others must be careful not to let him conclude he has 
     no further need to allow space for independent local actors 
     and foreign organizations like the Soros Foundation. This is 
     space for civility and tolerance, values the former 
     Yugoslavia desperately needs.

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