SPARRING OVER SERBIA

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ's "Free at Last" (July 24) left me greatly surprised and somewhat disappointed, both by the distortion of historical and political facts and by the argumentation based on malicious and trivial political comments.

Describing Serbia as a "mafia state" is intentionally overlooking the well-known fact that the Milosevic regime met its end when the Serbian people, investing enormous effort and encountering the greatest possible risk, overthrew it in their bloodless revolution of October 2000. Serbian democratic authorities, in their crackdown on organized crime, and with the support of the United States, have established special courts that have already sentenced notorious leaders and members of criminal gangs and that have indicted war criminals. Since then Serbia has kept its democratic and reformist course through several elections, resulting in the victory of democratically oriented governments that have been consistently committed to bringing our nation toward Euro-Atlantic integration.

Serbian democratic leaders have been building friendly relations for the last six years with our neighbors, and the Montenegro referendum has shown how effortlessly the dissolution of the union of the two old European states was handled. The president of Serbia was the first head of state to visit Montenegro after the referendum, and he immediately extended congratulations and the hand of friendship. Unfortunately, Kosovo was addressed in a shallow and ignorant way. One should be aware that the exceptionally perilous circumstances of Serbs in Kosovo require exceptional provisions for their protection. So far, not enough has been done toward building inter-ethnic confidence. A negotiated outcome on their future status is the only sustainable solution, and one that would contribute to regional stability, democracy, and freedom.

Milosevic died in March 2006. For the Serbian people, he died in October 2000. Yet still some people find it hard to open their eyes to the Serbia of today. Instead, they keep playing with inadequate and biased historical symbolism while ignoring all the positive changes that have occurred. This does not contribute to enlightened discussion, but rather to stereotyping and to shallow journalism.

AMBASSADOR IVAN VUJACIC
Embassy of Serbia
Washington, D.C.

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ RESPONDS: Having been on the ground at the time of the bogus overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, I am aware that the butcher of the Balkans was replaced by "democrats" who were in no way superior to him. The latter members of the Belgrade polit-mafia included Zoran Djindjic, who was complicit in atrocities during the Milosevic aggression and was assassinated by his criminal cronies.

I am even more aware that Serbia will remain a de facto mafia state until it hands Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic over to the Hague tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. To describe Serbian conciliation to Montenegrin independence as progressive is good and accurate, but the course of Serbian internal and external politics since 2000 is not reformist, to say the least.

FAULTY TOASTER

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT's comments about our current North Korean policy are indeed outrageous, and THE SCRAPBOOK is quite right to refer to her own outlandish performance on that score as "Diplomatic Failure 101" (July 17).

But your photograph showing our former secretary of state clinking glasses with the despotic Kim Jong Il suggests that one really shouldn't be surprised at her diplomatic incompetence, for it seems that the Dear Leader, loathsome as he may be, knows how to hold a champagne glass while Madame Secretary does not.

ANTHONY OBERDORFER
Belmont, Mass.