Betreff: [ALBANEWS] Newsday: U.S. Force In Kosova Keeping Near Base / Troops' security is a top priority
Datum: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 07:17:09 -0400
Von: Haxhi Haxhaj <hhaxhaj@IDT.NET>U.S. Force In Kosova Keeping Near Base / Troops' security is a top priority
By Roy Gutman. WASHINGTON BUREAU
Ferizaj, Kosova, - From a distance, the mammoth U.S. Army construction project looks like a movie set, as bulldozers methodically lop off hilltops, and trucks by the hundreds clog the narrow roads, delivering enough gravel and material to build a small city.
In a region still staggering from the aftermath of war and neglect, the construction of two chapels, two fitness centres, a volleyball court and air-conditioned military housing seems surreal. Even more out of touch with reality, according to humanitarian observers and some Army officers, is the U.S. strategy of concentrating two-thirds of the U.S. troops in Kosova in such a base, well away from where they are most needed to calm the increasing violence in the American zone of Kosova.
The latest violence, mainly against Serbs, began when the NATO-led Kosova Force arrived in June, and up to Sept. 6, Serbs in Gjilan documented 56 murders, 50 wounded, 59 kidnappings, 120 burned houses and 38 bombings.
Serbs charge that the American KFOR force has largely ignored their pleas for protection and done nothing to solve the crimes, even though the Americans have arrested 11 Albanians for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping of Serbs.
"There is too much bunkering down, too much of an inward focus to be effective," says Dale Fosnight, a retired U.S. officer with six years of experience in the Balkans and who is in the region as a contractor. "They are so involved in protecting the lives of their soldiers that they are missing the point here. We have to give some sort of security to these minority Serbs." He said the basic U.S. mistake was "whoever took the decision to build that big camp." "I tell my men that this mission isn't worth the life of a single U.S. soldier," said Capt. Lance Kohler, 30, of Muncy, Pa., commander of Bravo company of the First Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, based in nearby Gjilan.
The U.S. Army commander in southeast Kosova, Brig. Gen. Craig Peterson, said he disagreed with Kohler's "particular choice of words" but not the sentiment.
The main reason for spending $70 million to house nearly 5,000 of the 7,000 U .S. troops in Bondsteel and in a second, smaller base in Gjilan, Peterson told Newsday last week, is "force protection." The American zone of southeast Kosova emerged relatively unscathed from Serb ethnic cleansing and NATO bombing last spring, and as a result, local Serbs, who say they have committed no crimes, were more likely to stay.
For example, in Gjilan, a town of more than 50,000, a U.S. census counted nearly 18,000 Serbs, compared with 19,400 before the war. Because of the relatively high proportion of Serbs, the U.S. security mission has become one of the toughest in Kosova. Americans have a minority that needs protection and there are enough Serbs to make this the test case of the western goal to preserve a multiethnic society. "One perception might be that the mission is floundering," said Maj. Mike Boeme, who heads the U.S. civil affairs team in Gjilan.
If anything, things recently have gotten worse. During a recent seven-day period, four Serbs and two Albanians died, and six Serbs and four Albanians w ere injured, in ethnic attacks in half a dozen villages.
In Gjilan, Serbs are chased from their dwellings, Serb shops are firebombed or grenaded, and Albanian shopkeepers face intimidation and heavy "fines" from Albanian toughs if they sell goods to Serbs.
Serbs, who were already well armed, have retaliated, resorting to their old tactic of blocking main roads. One night last week they paralysed U.S. forces trying to determine who had fired mortar rounds into a village.
Such tactics here in the Balkans are harbingers of more violence to come, and this time, GIs could be caught in the middle. "The fact that so many killings, abductions, and house burnings have occurred suggests that there is room for improvement" in the area of security, said James Reynolds, the Red Cross' chief delegate.
Asked if the mission is faltering, Maj. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the First Infantry Division, said: "The ethnic boundaries are hardening. We have got to work that problem." The chief of staff in the U.S. Kosova deployment, Col. John R. Martin, offers a cautious assessment of the mission's prospects. "Are we faced with challenges?
Yes. Are we ready to throw in the towel? No," he said. The heart of the criticism is that U.S. forces need to get out to countryside. For example, Ponesh, a village of 80 percent Serbs and 20 percent Albanians, has seen violence.
Since June, five Serb men were murdered and a sixth kidnapped. "We ask KFOR daily to assure our security. They come, they write down the details, and then say they will do what they can but they must ask their commander," said Trajan Stojanovic, 32, a Serb ambulance driver. He is convinced that a permanent presence of U.S. troops would bring some security.
The military officer in charge of the Gjilan area, Lt. Col. Robert Scurlock, said a permanent presence in Pones has been considered. "Clearly I'd like to put a physical presence in every town," he said.
But commander Peterson is more blunt: "There are 40,000 Serbs here. I can't protect them all, 24 hours, seven days a week." He also said it required less effort to protect Camp Bondsteel, named for a Vietnam hero, than it would to protect "20 satellite installations." Instances where KFOR has failed to offer sufficient protection have come back to haunt it.
In July, the Kosova Liberation Army appointed a director for the Gjilan water treatment plant in the village of Përlepnicë, and Albanian employees requested KFOR to provide security for two highly experienced Serb engineers working there.
Escorts were provided for about 10 days, and then the Serbs were left to travel to work on the company pickup truck. On Aug. 24 at 7:45 a.m., two men with pistols stopped the vehicle outside the gate, examined the documents of the seven employees in the vehicle, then took aside the two Serbs and beat them.
Since then, the Serbs, Zoran Stafanovic and Slobodan Antic, have been missing, and water services for Gjilan have repeatedly broken down. Albanians working at the plant, fearing reprisal kidnappings from Serbs, have asked for KFOR patrols, which are there daily.
"It is not that KFOR is doing nothing. They are doing a lot. But they always come late," said Ratko Stoljkovic, a schoolteacher and spokesman for the Serbian Orthodox Church National Council in Gjilan.
For example, KFOR troops now guard practically every Serbian church in the region, but after most of the damage was done. The church council records show 13 assaults on Orthodox churches and monasteries since KFOR's arrival.
Who is responsible for the violence? Commander Peterson offers a series of possibilities: a "backlash" between Albanians and Serbs, organized crime, and "the more sinister possibility" that it was President Slobodan Milosevic attempting to create conditions that would justify his claim to have the right to send back Serbian troops. He does not mention the KLA or those associated with it.
"I would submit that the KLA has been compliant with the agreements they signed," he said. "I have been personally assured by the KLA that they are not responsible for these acts." He added that it would be "counterproductive" and "against their own self-interest" for the KLA to engage in violence against Serbs. But he said t hose arrested in grenade attacks against Serb shops do include KLA "wannabes," unemployed Albanian males aged 15 to 22 who never fought, looking to "get a blood stripe" and claiming to be KLA members.
It sounds naive, for as Dale Fosnight points out, in this part of the world, "you can say one thing and do the exact opposite," adding that the question is whether U.S. support for a multiethnic society "is also only the official line."Date: 09-16-1999
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