Sick Joke of the Year
1999

                        And the winner is...
 

Against  rough competition, Serbia's Goran Matic was presented with the 1999 Sick Joke of The Year Award at the NATO Briefing on 11 May. Unfortunately, Mr Matic was unable to attend, but in his absence, Jamie had this to say:
 

                 "Finally, I was interested to see yesterday that a Yugoslav Minister,
                 Mr Goran Matic, said that terrified refugees fleeing from Kosovo
                 were in fact actors taking part in a NATO directed film screenplay.
                 Mr Matic said that 3,000 - 4,000 ethnic Albanians were paid $5.50
                 each to act the parts of Kosovar refugees fleeing Yugoslavia in the
                 first days of the NATO airstrikes. Mr Matic claimed further that the
                 refugee crisis began when these refugees tried to return home, not
                 having been paid. I must say that of all the hypotheses and theories
                 put forward in recent days to explain the terrible outpouring of
                 refugees from Kosovo, this one probably qualifies for the sick joke
                 of the year award. Instead of being paid $5.50 to leave, the truth is
                 that refugees have to pay - they have to pay - 3,000 deutschmarks
                 to leave with their lives. Instead of being given a screen identity,
                 they lose their real identities when they have to hand over their
                 passports and their documents, their properties, their most intimate
                 possessions, and be separated from their loved ones."
 

 
                 "On the total number of refugees, Mr Matic cites Benjamin Disraeli.
                 "There are lies, damned lies and statistics." However, Mr Matic has
                 no figures of his own to provide. And what he described as lies, we
                 know this, are the products of extensive research and face-to-face
                 interviews carried out by a wide range of international agencies,
                 including the UNHCR and the International Organisation of
                 Migration. And I have read Disraeli extensively and I would like to
                 offer another quotation, if I may, from his work, wisdom and
                 ignorance, when he says that "upon the education of the people, the
                 fate of this country depends". And I hope that the sooner the
                 authorities in Belgrade recognise that truth will always come out,
                 and credits its people, then the brighter the future for Yugoslavia as
                 a whole."

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