Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches (46 page)

Applying double standards is a dangerous game. Europe has been here before, with infamous consequences. In 1933 the Führer of a new Germany was also “democratically elected.” Europe was frightened by his speeches but, until they could no longer be ignored, paid them no attention, preferring to look to its own prosperity and pleasant morning coffee. With Europe turning a blind eye, two nationalities – the Jews and the Gypsies – were held collectively responsible for the deeds of particular individuals. What was the consequence? The consequence was 1945, with millions dead, millions burned in crematoria, and Europe in ruins.

It all started so simply. A particular gentleman with psychological problems took it into his head that one nation was great and the rest were less great, and that some, indeed, should be annihilated. Are we really to say that things are different now? That the Kremlin sometimes gives Chechens honors and medals and even promotes them to top positions and is doing something for them? Hitler did all that too, as a smokescreen for Europe’s benefit. There were “good” Jews, “honest” Gypsies were paraded now and again, and sometimes there were even “civilised” Slavs to be discovered, so that Europe wouldn’t be upset, would not become alarmed too soon. Europe pretended to swallow all this, but that did not save countless men, women and children from dying subsequently at the hands of the people of that “great” nation.

To return to the present. The double standards Europe applies to Chechnya are gradually infiltrating Europe. What did Ingeborg Foss give her life for? Why does nobody in Europe, not even in Norway, not in the OSCE or the European Parliament think it matters that an aged Norwegian mother knows nothing about how or why her daughter died, or that the investigation of the deaths of six doctors and nurses in Starye Atagi has ground to a halt? (That nothing is being done has been confirmed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Russian Federation.)

So what is modern Europe’s moral code? A pretence? Self-delusion for some and a convenient fiction for others who don’t want it to get in the way of pan-European fraternisation between the major powers
to crush those who are weaker?

Russia is in the grip of war fever, Europe reacts sluggishly, and here is the result: Ingeborg Foss, a young Norwegian woman, died in Chechnya and now her old mother, Sigrid Foss, is alone in the world. Just like Aishat Djabrailova from Gudermes, who lost her husband and her sons in the Second Chechen Slaughter. Like Ludmila Sysuyeva from Tyumen Province who received an official form advising her of the death of her only son, followed shortly afterwards by a sealed zinc coffin, and who now doesn’t know whom to turn to. We are in close proximity to each other: from Oslo to Moscow is just two hours by air, and another two hours will take you from Moscow to Chechnya. Europe is tiny.

This generation of politicians, to whom we gave the right to rule, have failed us. They act in their own interests, not in the interests of Europe.

As we said our farewells, Sigrid told me, “The fact that you remembered Ingrid has given me a few more years of life.” Behind us the Atlantic roared and the seagulls cried out. “People need answers to the questions which most concern them while they are still alive,” she added. “That may be the most important thing those in authority can do.”

JOSPIN LITE:
Novaya gazeta
’S SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT SPENDS A DAY IN THE COMPANY OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE

April 15, 2002

Seventeen candidates are registered in the 2002 French presidential election, a record. Among the hopefuls are: Lionel Jospin, present Prime Minister and Head of the Socialist Party (“moderate left”); Jacques Chirac, present President of the Republic (“right,” liberal); Arlette Laguiller (“extreme left”); Jean-Marie Le Pen (“extreme right,” archnationalist and friend of our own far-right Vladimir Zhirinovsky); Alain Madelin (leader of the Liberal Democracy Party); and Noël Mamère (Leader of the Green Party.

Our readers may legitimately be wondering what
Novaya gazeta
was
doing in France when there is more than enough to report on in Russia. Our intention was simple: it has not been at all clear what President Putin’s ideas are for ending the Second Chechen War so we decided to try to find out by asking some of the European leaders with whom Putin, by virtue of his office, has close working relationships. In favor of France was the fact that the intellectuals and politicians here, including Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, have traditionally been more radical on the Chechen issue than the elite of other countries. They have emphatically opposed the war, and helped large numbers of Chechen refugees to settle in France.

After negotiations with his Press Office,
Novaya gazeta
was granted a day when, in the course of a visit to Lorient, a provincial fishing village on the Atlantic coast, M. Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France, would reply to questions we had submitted in advance. The quid pro quo was that we would publish an article about his election campaigning in Lorient. We thought that was fair enough.

All election campaigns are as alike as die-cast nuts coming off a conveyor belt. As in Russia, so in France there is The Candidate, his gaze wandering above the heads of The People. He is weary and, of course, preoccupied with affairs of state. He pretends to understand everything he is told. On the other side, The People, wearing new work clothes and clean helmets specially issued by their superiors in honor of this visit from the metropolis. There is also the clicking and flashing of the press, and a full turnout from the Mayor’s Office.

Everything proceeded according to plan in the port of Lorient, which M. Jospin visited first. He was shown a new fishing boat in dry dock, nodded silently in time with the explanations, shook the hand of a young engineer in the front row of The People, and in a practised manner took up his position for a commemorative photograph with the Mayor. Then it was our turn. The Press Office whispered in our ear, “Keep strictly to the questions!”

“Prime Minister, what do you think about the anti-terrorist operation in Russia, the war in Chechnya? About the massive violation of human rights? Have you talked to President Putin about ending it? About deadlines?”

The Prime Minister of France was clearly taken aback. A puzzled silence hung in the air until the emotionless gaze from behind his spectacles became tetchy. What was all this about?

“Oh no, not that. Lord, that’s all we need,” Jospin said, looking at the crowds surrounding him.

“But why haven’t you?”

“Why are you asking me about these things in Lorient?”

“I am a journalist from Russia, and I was invited here by your Press Office specifically to ask you about these things.”

Jospin is aghast. His press attaché comes out in blotches.

“No, no, and again no. It’s all so complicated.”

“But Prime Minister, please tell us how relations between Jospin and Putin will differ from relations between Chirac and Putin if you do in fact become President. What could Russia expect from France in that event?”

“Oh these questions. Putin … Lord. Oh no, not that. Today I shall only be talking about the sea. Ask me something about the sea!”

“Why is he being so evasive?” I ask those witnessing this strange scene in some perplexity. “Is he afraid of Putin?”

They explain as best they can, journalists from the Prime Minister’s press pool, port engineers and workers. It has nothing to do with fear of Putin. It is just that one of the customs of contemporary French politicians is never to let themselves be pinned down. They express themselves in an opaque manner so that they cannot subsequently be held to account for what they have said. Lite politicians with easy European policies which commit them to nothing. General-purpose politics, nothing too specific.

Evidently this is particularly typical of the Socialists, the party currently led by Jospin. The Socialists in France are in a league of their own. Among France’s moderate Socialist supporters are many people with a non-traditional approach, but this is not by any means seen as a political minus for the party. On the contrary, in France it is seen as a plus, giving them, including Jospin Lite, a good chance of winning elections.

Let me give an example, which, moreover, illustrates the old adage
about knowing a man by the company he keeps. Another major left-wing figure, and ideological comrade of Jospin, is Bertrand Delanoë, the current Mayor of Paris. He is famously an “out” gay politician, which recently enabled him to win the mayoral contest, with the result that Paris now has an entire gay quarter. During the election Delanoë trod warily, but now he is in power his policies are quite aggressive, in accordance with his own radical ideas. Because he regards himself as green, the traffic in Paris is being reorganised, very much to the inconvenience of drivers, to encourage them, in Delanoë’s words, to “get on their bikes.” I am not joking. To speak in generalities, but then to reform and micro-regulate is very much the way of today’s French Left.

I was warned not to take too literally Jospin’s airy answer, “Oh no, not that. Lord, that’s all we need.” In the rather twisted political idiom of modern France, I was told, this actually means that Jospin currently favors Putin’s root-and-branch approach in Chechnya but prefers not to say so, because that is not done.

Jospin’s political background is extreme Trotskyism. For almost 20 years of his mature life, between the ages of 30 and 50, he belonged to an illegal, underground Trotskyite cell whose main ideas were permanent revolution, total egalitarianism, and taking everything from the rich and sharing it out among the poor, a little for everyone. In the present election race, Jospin is eager to disown this sectarianism. When questioned about his Trotskyite past he lies, claiming that he was never a member of the cell, that it was his brother in the list of members, and that it is their shared surname which has caused the confusion.

Is this a ploy, or might it actually be true? I discussed this with André Glucksmann, a major contemporary French philosopher. For many years Glucksmann was one of France’s most brilliant leftists, and you will search in vain for anyone better informed about this section of the French political spectrum.

“Of course it is Lionel Jospin,” he told me, “and not his brother. The organization we are talking about existed secretly, it was very conspiratorial, like a sect. Incidentally, nobody is entirely sure whether
it has disbanded or not. It is perfectly possible that it exists illegally to this day, and that Jospin is a fully paid up member who is simply carrying out its program.”

“So it’s something like the Freemasons?”

“Yes. The organization in which Jospin’s political personality was formed is essentially a Trotskyite version of Freemasonry. Their aim is to penetrate the institutions and management of the state in accordance with Trotsky’s principles. Nobody knows for certain whether Jospin is still a member or not. Perhaps his presidential ambitions are just a project of this Trotskyite sect.”

It is time to return to the port in Lorient. The Prime Minister of France makes his escape from questions he does not want to answer and heads for the safe haven of his limousine. Shortly afterwards The Candidate arrives at the local Palace of Nations in the town center, where he is due to divulge his thoughts about the sea.

Jospin’s progress to the platform is barred by a crowd of his former fellow thinkers, Communists and representatives of the most powerful Communist trade union in France, the CGT. Red flags, uniforms, slogans through loud-hailers, chanting of “Hands off the Alcatel factory.” Jospin again looks irritated. Alighting from his limousine he casts a hostile glance at this left-wing crowd and, showing a fair turn of speed, runs wordlessly into the Palace of Nations, where there is alas no sound insulation. In the hall you can hear everything going on outside: the shouting and yelling of the demonstrators, the Communist songs. Jospin pretends none of it is happening. The moment arrives for his thoughts about the sea.

“The sea unites and brings together. It bears within itself the values of solidarity … The sea plays a great part in that freedom which Socialists bring to the world in the name of the all-round development of man … The sea is unbounded. It is open to all the winds of firm liberalism, from the rubbish tips on the shoreline to sailors left to fend for themselves … To conduct a policy imbued with the spirit of the sea means to reject liberal deviations … We want to avoid the submerged rocks of excessive liberalisation.”

And finally, “Let us save the sea from the ebbing and flowing tides
of liberalism.” This soundbite summarises Jospin’s thoughts about the sea. It is the core of his politics, and if there was a special
Guinness Book of Records
for political demagogy, would undoubtedly be in it.

We need to translate all this from the idiom of French politics into something more comprehensible. What on earth was he talking about? What did he mean by the references to “firm liberalism,” “rejecting liberal deviations”? This was a uniquely French way of throwing a brick into the political garden of Jacques Chirac, the liberal President and Jospin’s main rival. By criticising him in this metaphorical manner, Jospin managed to avoid all mention of his name. By the local rules, this was considered very cool. And we thought he would talk about Chechnya!

The finale was simple, and followed the script of all election campaign finales. The last ebbings and flowings from the platform were greeted with an ovation. “Jospin – Président! Jospin – Président!” the front rows chanted to the rhythm of “Spartak – Champ-i-on!” A minute later The Candidate, in order to avoid any unpleasant contact with The People outside, was led off through the back door.

Returning to Paris very late that evening on Jospin’s plane, put at his disposal by the private air charter company Darta, the mood was positive as if after a good day’s work. Entirely acceptable wine was passed round, and Jospin’s PR team started singing their favorite songs with gusto. First, many times, “Comandante Che Guevara.” Secondly, a song of the Italian partisans. Thirdly, “Motivé,” a song of the French Communists, conveying the concept that “I am a person with motivation.: The lead singer was a young man who was Jospin’s Press Secretary. For the entire hour until we reached Le Bourget private airport near Paris, he kept the team alternating “Che Guevara,” “Bella Ciao,” “Motivé,” “Che Guevara,” “Bella Ciao”…