GLIKSMAN'S LETTER TO MILOSEVIC

AIM, BEOGRAD, 20.12

A famous French philosopher and writer Anre Gliksman was refused a Yugoslav visa for coming to Belgrade where he was invited by Belgrade Circle, independent anti-war oriented organization of intellectuals, to speak on the topic "Intellectuals and war". The regular Saturday session of Belgrade circle, as well as another public discussion on European attitudes towards Yugoslav crisis, where Gliksman was also invited as a speaker, were scheduled a day and two before the election day in Serbia. Gliksman was refused the visa just few hours before planned boarding the plane for Budapest on December 17.

The French intellectual, whose books are known to Serbian public, wrote a letter to Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, saying that president's refusal meant a great honor for him. Taking into regard Milosevic's "enormous responsibilities for the catastrophe that encompassed peoples of ex-Yugoslavia", he said he was happy that the president that much didn't like him. It made him feel as if "he got a Nobel Prize for Peace on the Balkan", shared by many other European intellectuals who stood up against war crimes. According to independent daily "Borba" that published the letter, Gliksman wrote: "You are afraid of your own public. You fear what I shall say in Belgrade and that I shall inform Belgrade what the world thinks about you. You are afraid that in France and in Europe I shall talk about scornful attitudes towards you by people form Belgrade that is also affected by the war".