Mrs Mira Markovic, the wife of the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, yesterday addressed a snide personal letter in English to the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, writes Lara Marlowe. Mrs Markovic is a university professor and leader of the Yugoslav Left party, which rules in coalition with her husband's Socialist Party.
She did not begin her letter to Mr Cook with the words "Dear Sir", she said, "because you are not behaving like one." The First Lady said her outburst was prompted by a comment Mr Cook made 10 days ago, alleging that she and the Milosevic children, Marko and Marija, were not in Yugoslavia. "Could it be that the Foreign Minister of Great Britain has really nothing better to do than care what my children and I are doing?" Mrs Markovic asked, adding that "you do not have enough state affairs to attend to. . . so you spend much of your ample free time caring about other people's private lives." Mr Cook's comment was intended "to send a message to the world public that my children and I are dishonest and fearful."
Her daughter is working for a youth radio station, while her son "is in uniform and cares about his small new family." Both "have highly developed patriotic sentiments, they are indeed courageous, rather smart and extremely beautiful," she said.
Mrs Markovic assured Mr Cook that her husband "manages the country and receives foreign diplomats" in Belgrade, not Tahiti, as she said Mr Cook would soon claim. "We do not have any intention of leaving. . . despite the terror against Yugoslavia of which you, among others, are one of [the] ideologues and executors."
Alluding to the break-up of the British minister's marriage, Mrs Markovic wrote that "if a similar situation befell your country, you and your family would flee, if you had one, of course." After signing the letter "very disrespectfully yours", Mrs Markovic denied in a PS Mr Cook's allegation that the Milosevic family possesses five villas abroad. "We could hardly afford to," she said.