By SUZANA MILICIC
Apparently the Serbs knew the least about Dr. Kouchner, even though it was their turn, too, because of everything that has happened in the last ten years, to find themselves on the list of the subjugated and insulted. The primary reason for this lack of knowledge is the long isolation of the country but also the fact that Dr. Bernard Kouchner and his team, during the period of war in Bosnia, did not frequently appear in territory under Serb control; consequently, they were not directly involved with the Serb civilian population. Since last summer, when the "world famous" physician became the head honcho in Kosovo, Serbs have had the opportunity to get better acquainted. To date, and it has been a long six months, the acquaintance has not produced a great wave of enthusiasm!
"He has leadership and entrepreneurial qualities; he has tremendous energy; and he will not only be a great leader but also an excellent front runner for all actions which we wish to implement in the region," said United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan on a Friday in July of last year, explaining why he selected Dr. Bernard Kouchner as the head of the UN Civilian Mission in Kosovo. This choice was a honor for France, while for him it must have been a great personal triumph, because the air campaign against Yugoslavia was an "idea" which he had advocated, as a politician, for years.
Biafra beginnings: Dr. Bernard Kouchner has played two roles his whole life, allowing them to intermingle according to need: a humanitarian of world renown who visited every crisis spot in the world and a leftist politician who almost constantly, though not always smoothly, made gains on the French political scene. The public learned of him at the beginning of the 1970's when he founded the humanitarian organization "Doctors Without Borders" and set out to Biafra. Still lulled by the 1968 student revolution and its ideals, the global audience greeted the appearance of this kind of organization with enthusiasm. Back then it was also "politically correct" to fight for the rights of those in peril and to selflessly help those whose lives were in danger. The starving people of Biafra were one of the initial stops of this traveling caravan which, from year to year, spread throughout the whole world. What followed were humanitarian campaigns in other parts of the world, the strengthening of the organization (which meant that money began to pour in) and winning over the attention of the world media. Kouchner and his "Doctors Without Borders" organized campaigns for the unfortunates in Vietnam and Lebanon (the "Ship to Vietnam" and "Ship to Lebanon" campaigns), rescued refugees from El Salvador ("Plane for refugees from El Salvador"), delivered food to the unfortunate Somalis ("Rice for Somalia").
Parallel to his humanitarian engagement, this ambitious Frenchman was also working on his political career. As far back as the 1960's he was a member of a student Communist organization. Pushing forward relentlessly in both careers, he managed to utilize both of them in the fight to realize the same goals. In the government of Prime Minister Michel Rocard [the Serb version of Serbocroatian uses phonetic spelling for foreign names; consequently the spelling of all names in this translation is based on translator's educated guesses] he was the minister of humanitarian affairs (1988-1991). In the following elections, he joined the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin as a member of the Radical Leftist Party in the position of minister of health. Immediately after joining the government, he changed his party affiliation and jointed Jospin's Socialist Party. He remained in the position of minister of health until he was selected to head the Civil Mission in Kosovo.
Skillfully coordinating two careers and nurturing a good instinct for when to play the role of the politician and when to play the role of the humanitarian, Dr. Kouchner very successfully won coverage in the world media and, as a result, some supporters but also some opponents. His excessive exhibitionism and use of the suffering of others to build his own image were held against him. On his part, he did not do much to deny it. He continued to trot around the crisis spots of the world with a tan and smile, in well-tailored French suits, not caring whether anyone liked it or not.
General in white: Then the war in Bosnia began and not even Dr. Kouchner managed to avoid it, both as a humanitarian and as a politician. He became known for the idea that an air campaign for humanitarian reasons was justified which, it was demonstrated several years later with respect to the population of what remained of Yugoslavia, was accepted by the international community and profoundly changed the international-legal order then in existence. As far back as the beginning of the 1990's, Dr. Kouchner was asking for an "international air offensive" against Yugoslavia. This gave him the title of creator of a new formula of international relations, embodied in the slogans "humanism is not pacifism" and "the war against war". In accordance with this idea, he advocated removing the embargo on arms shipments to Bosnia "so that the Bosnians have something to defend themselves". The French Humanite called him "general Kouchner".
During the period of the war in Bosnia and Croatia, Dr. Kouchner frequently visited Dubrovnik. He succeeded in organizing a concert in this city by his friend, the American opera singer Barbara Hendricks. A second visit to Dubrovnik in November 1991 had the goal of assisting negotiations between the warring sides and enabling the evacuation of women, children and the elderly. According to the testimony of reporter Michel Floque, who is, truth to tell, regularly quoted by the state-controlled media here, this visit ended badly for Kouchner: he was accused on intentionally inciting the population to evacuate. According to Floque the French Le Figaro wrote at that time that the Dubrovnik city administration opposed the evacuation of residents, even though Kouchner claimed that 6,000 women and children were evacuated by the French warship "La Rance".
Dismissal note: The U.N. mission in Kosovo, headed today by this sixty year-old, a father of four children, has the most detrimental effect on the Kosovo Serbs. He has admitted that he is unable to protect them from the revenge of Albanians. In Belgrade his name is hardly popular, even among representatives of organizations which he himself founded. Partially as a result of state propaganda which has swooped down on "Doctors Without Borders" because it was founded by Kouchner, partially because of Kouchner himself, no one wants to get involved in a story about him or go on record.
Although he fights like a hawk when criticized for not having done enough to stabilize the situation in Kosovo, his position is no longer as secure because more and more frequently one hears of the possibility that the position of the head boss in Kosovo may be assumed by the Finn Marti Ahtisaari. The reasons for the fear that Kouchner's mission in Kosovo may be unsuccessful should perhaps be sought in the allusions of the former UN secretary general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who called Bernard Kouchner "an unguided missile".