'Freedom in, NATO out': Slovene view of alliance sours
LJUBLJANA (AP) -- It's been a Slovene political mantra for more than a
decade: the ultimate goal is to join NATO.
Now, just when membership seems like a sure thing, Slovenes are no
longer certain they want to tie their future to the alliance.
"Freedom in, NATO out!" says fresh graffiti in the capital Ljubljana.
Slovene news media have begun openly questioning the benefits of NATO
membership and anti-NATO activists are regularly being given a say in
public debates and television shows.
For the first time, support for NATO membership has dropped below 50
per cent, said a government-financed survey last month.
It's all happening just six months before the former Yugoslav republic
may finally be invited to join the alliance at a November summit on NATO
expansion in Prague. Up to 10 Baltic and East European countries are
expected to join the alliance, which took in Hungary, Poland and the
Czech Republic in 1999.
Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel calls the sudden shift a
"striking paradox."
"We are one of the top candidates for entry, yet we seem to have the
least public support for this goal," he said recently.
Ever since gaining independence in 1991, Slovenia's pro-western
leadership has worked hard to make the country of two million people,
bordered by Italy, Hungary and Croatia, a part of the European Union and
NATO.
For Balkan and southern European countries, the EU and NATO long have
been seen as a ticket to wealth, success -- and the West.
Slovenia's first victory came with associate membership in the EU in
1996; the first blow with NATO rejection a year later. Since then,
Slovenia has initiated a flurry of measures and diplomatic efforts in
hopes of making sure an invitation to join is a sure thing in November.
The last thing the government needed -- or expected -- was to see
public support erode.
Rupel acknowledged anti-NATO activists have created a "noise that's
heard far away."
"NATO's member states and its leadership are now asking us whether we
really want to become a member," he said.
Opponents of NATO membership are not well-organized. There are some
students and professors and several prominent journalists and
sociologists. They haven't staged a single demonstration -- but they're
speaking up and the mainstream media have given them a stage.
But opponents of membership insist it's too expensive because the
government will have to spend money on weaponry and military
reorganization and they contend tiny Slovenia will never be heard among
the big NATO players.
Others wonder: what's the point? Slovenia enjoys peaceful relations
with its neighbours, they argue and not even NATO could thwart the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks.
Miso Alkalaj an anti-NATO activist, said the attacks on the United
States, a mighty NATO force, showed "there was no real defence against
terrorism, the No. 1 threat of today's world."
In many ways, Slovenia already belongs to the West.
It has a vigorous economy and a stable government. Support for the EU,
which unlike NATO promises concrete economic benefits, remains high.
Even so, the government has realized it must fight to ensure NATO
membership doesn't slip from its grasp.
Rupel has publicly urged President Milan Kucan to engage opponents.
Government officials are preaching the benefits of membership at every
opportunity. The NATO question dominates TV talk shows and a special
phone line has been set up to give Slovenes more information about the
alliance.
"We haven't used all our ammunition yet," Rupel said.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
