I suggest reading of this article which is really a very balanced and objective view of the present Kosovo situation. In fact as long as the violence is continued both sides are doomed to be losers. The sooner the peace talks are resumed the easier it would be for both Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians to find a way of living together.
Fr. Sava
--
Decani Monastery 38322
Decani, Serbia, Yugoslavia http://www.decani.yunet.com
News from Kosovo: http://www.decani.yunet.com/kip.html
E-mail: decani@EUnet.yu
tel (fax) +381 390 61543 +381 390 61567
Betreff:
SN2257:Moscow OpEd
Zurückgesendet-Datum:
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 23:17:59 -0700 (PDT)
Zurückgesendet-Von:
news@siem.net
Datum:
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 23:22:49 -0700 (PDT)
Von:
Daniel Tomasevich <danilo@primenet.com>
Rückantwort:
news@siem.net
An:
news@siem.net
Rossiyskaya Gazeta(Moscow) 8 Aug 1998
Opinion
Article by political observer Vladimir Lapskiy
"Kosovo: Time Is Working Against Everyone"
It is very difficult to put together a reliable picture of what is happening now in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Correspondents are not being admitted to this district, in which 2 million ethnic Albanians live, and information issuing from the warring sides is mutually exclusive. All are winning victories, and all are suffering defeats. The only clear thing is that the fighting is not dying down, there are many casualties, more and more forces are being drawn into the conflict, which is spreading like a canker, and with every passing day it is becoming increasingly hard to surmount it.
The West's position gives rise to complex, mixed feelings. It endlessly accuses Yugoslav President Milosevic of being intractable and deeply unwilling to end the combat operations and withdraw the main police and army contingent from Kosovo, saying that it is hard for politicians to talk while guns are firing. This would appear logical. Meanwhile, official Belgrade repeats that it is ready this very minute to sit at the negotiating table with the ethnic Albanians. But if it withdraws its soldiers, the region will virtually pass to the hands of the "Kosova Liberation Army" [KLA], which is seeking secession from Yugoslavia. Then there will be nothing to discuss. This, too, has its own logic. Thus there is a vicious circle, and sometimes there seems to be no possibility of breaking out of it.
The Serbs refuse to hear of giving Kosovo up to the ethnic Albanians. For the Serbs this region is a cradle of the nation where at almost every step there are symbols and memorials of their national development and religion (neither distant forefathers nor descendants would forgive them this capitulation). In this sense a consensus exists within Serb society. Both Vojislav Seselj, leader of the radicals, who holds the post of vice premier in the Serbian Government, and opposition leader Vuk Draskovic demand with iron tones in their voice the restoration of constitutional order in the region. The war is costing Belgrade dearly: $2 million a day, with the treasury, sadly, almost empty. But, of course, this is not the true cost of the Kosovo drama. People -- citizens of Yugoslavia -- are dying every day, homes are blazing, and tens of thousands of residents (in all, according to the latest data, 200,000) are fleeing to neighboring Montenegro, Albania, and even Bulgaria, but most importantly, this conflict is certainly not strengthening the Belgrade regime's image but is creating lots of additional problems for it. Belgrade, however, has repeatedly made it clear that cost is no object.
The ethnic Albanians feel aggrieved. Previously, under President Tito, they had autonomy, which they lost about 10 years ago, under Slobodan Milosevic. Belgrade undoubtedly went too far in depriving the Kosovo Albanians of local self-management. The protest grew slowly but was visible to the naked eye. It was necessary to let off steam gradually and cautiously. Belgrade grasped the fact too late, when the Kosovo Albanians had created their own political and military structures in opposition to the official ones.
They receive tremendous assistance from their historic motherland, which the Kosovo Albanians use as a natural rear area (in the last few days Belgrade has decided to widen the border zone along the frontier with Albania to 5 km). It is thought that almost all the Kalashnikov rifles in the KLA's arsenal came from the Albanian Army arsenals plundered during the 1997 riots. In that year 650,000 guns and more than 1.5 billion rounds of ammunition were stolen.(more) 08 aug dp/marshall
Appetite grows with eating. Whereas at first the Kosovo Albanians were seeking only the restoration of autonomy, at the height of the clashes with the Serbs a new, radical slogan appeared -- full secession from Yugoslavia. Now the KLA and political forces close to it are demanding the creation of a greater Albania consisting of the Muslim Ur-motherland, Kosovo, and Albanian-populated parts of Macedonia. That is, it is a question of an attempt to radically change the entire geopolitical situation in the Balkans and, in point of fact, of a new "30-year" Balkan war. The immediate result of that demand was the Serbs' rapprochement with the Macedonians -- Macedonian Albanians have already tried to come to the aid of their coreligionists with weapon in hand but were thrust back from the border by Serb troops. No special warmth was observed previously in relations between Belgrade and Skopje, but now the two countries' foreign ministers -- Zivadin Jovanovic and Blagoj Handziski -- have just met in the south of Serbia. They spoke about how to cool the ardor of radically-minded ethnic Albanians on both sides of the border.
One more "breakthrough" was made this week. NATO experts at last finished drafting an emergency plan providing for military intervention in the Kosovo conflict. Reporting this, U.S. diplomat James Rubin did not specify what the 16 NATO countries intend to do. As always in such instances, however, there was a "leak" of information. It is planned to proclaim the skies above Kosovo a "no-fly zone." NATO aircraft will perform alert duty in the rebellious province's airspace. The alliance's ground forces might also be mobilized -- 10,000 men who will be stationed along the Yugoslav border on the territory of Albania and Macedonia to seal the border.
The United States and other NATO countries are opposed to Kosovo's independence and, all the more so, to a greater Albania, while realizing the whole chimerical nature of such a conglomerate. Their views coincide with Russia's on a majority of points. But in recent months their peacemaking efforts with a distinct anti-Serb accent (they greatly dislike Milosevic) have created a feeling of a definite bias and one-sidedness. I will provide evidence. NATO has long been openly threatening to bomb important military installations in Yugoslavia -- all over the federation's territory, moreover. These threats have emboldened the ethnic Albanians, and demonstrations have taken place in Kosovo beneath the slogans "NATO is with us!" and "We await NATO troops!" Thus, by demanding the opening of talks, the West has sided with the Albanians, maybe not even wishing this itself, and, in the final analysis, has hindered the talks.
The gunmen of the KLA have virtually no major military installations, still less air defense system, and are waging a guerrilla war. If the matter goes as far as NATO military intervention, strikes will be made exclusively against the Serbs. Will this increase the warring sides' desire to hold talks? I think not. Most likely, it will harden the Serbs and encourage the Albanian separatists....
For some reason little attention is being paid to one aspect of the NATO decision. Who gives NATO the powers to essentially attack another country? The Russian representative on the UN Security Council will undoubtedly vote against military interference. Moscow has opposed it from the outset.
The previous day U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen warned: "A UN mandate would be desirable for us but not compulsory. Our partners in the alliance could use the collective defense statute enshrined in international law." Such a thing has never happened before! Who is threatening the security of NATO countries separated from Yugoslavia by a belt of neutral states? At the end of the day the Kosovo knot, however complex and dramatic it might appear, is an internal matter for that country.
Meanwhile, you get the impression that the United States' European allies are far less pleased than their "elder brother" at the prospect of getting involved in the Kosovo conflict -- the nightmares of Bosnia, whose wounds have not fully healed many years on, are still fresh in the memory. NATO military interference in Yugoslavia could greatly exacerbate the situation and make the Kosovo conflict more protracted. Moscow prefers to act by diplomatic means. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolay Afanasyevskiy flew to Belgrade last Wednesday to continue the effort for the speediest settlement of the situation in Kosovo. His main interlocutor is Slobodan Milosevic. The Russian diplomat will endeavor to persuade the Yugoslav leadership to declare unequivocally its readiness to grant the Kosovars autonomous status. Then it will take over the initiative from the Albanians, and in that case their leaders will have to reply why autonomy is unacceptable to them.... Much work still lies ahead.
Behind lies an unbroken sequence of missed opportunities, hundreds of human lives wasted, and tens of thousands of wrecked lives. It is necessary to make haste. Time in Kosovo is now working against everyone.
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