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| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
WESTERN imperialist countries cannot duck their responsibility for the creation of a Serb-free zone in Serbia's province of Kosovo.
The revelation that there are no more than three municipalities in Kosovo which have appreciable Serb populations stands as a condemnation of Western complicity in ethnic cleansing.
Just as with the cleansing of Serbs from the Krajina and western Slavonia regions of Croatia, NATO forces have stood aside as Kosovo Liberation Army groups have targeted civilians for intimidation and murder.
NATO military and political officials cannot claim that they have been incapable of preventing the situation from deteriorating.
They were told beforehand what the likely consequences of their collaboration with the KLA would be.
Even when NATO claimed that it was opposed to the Greater Albania concept favoured by the KLA, it continued to provide air cover for KLA operations and allowed a flood of arms to reach its groups.
And, despite providing some photo opportunities for Western media networks to witness the arrest and disarming of a number of KLA members, the imperialist forces have lacked the ability or desire to slow down or stop the expulsion of Serbs from their homeland.
Far from halting the exodus, they appear committed to accelerating it.
Western diplomats' rejection of a proposal to establish Serb enclaves in Kosovo on the grounds that this would obstruct efforts to create a unified, multiethnic Kosovo are breath-taking in their cynicism.
The West supported dismantling the multiethnic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the creation in its place of ethnically pure states like Slovenia and Croatia or ethnically divided states like Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Former British diplomat Bryan Hopkinson was at least frank in giving reasons for his rejection of the cantons proposal, noting the likelihood that one of them would be in Mitrovica.
"That would give the Serbs control over much of Kosovo's most valuable mines and mineral rights."
Who does Mr Hopkinson think should have control of Serbia's mines and mineral rights?
The implication is clear that NATO did not fight a one-sided, high-tech aerial war in order to leave ownership of mineral rights in the hands of the people of that state.
This view would dovetail with a part of the Rambouillet document which stipulated the need for a free-market economy in Kosovo to distance it from the rest of Serbia.
The thinking of Mr Hopkinson - and, doubtless, the rest of the NATO and EU hierarchy - is that Kosovo's mineral wealth should be open to foreign ownership and control.
This is part of the ongoing economic war against Yugoslavia, together with the offers of international assistance to Montenegro, provided that it breaks with Belgrade, and with offers of aid to Serbia, provided that its people overthrow its elected government.
NATO politicans condemn ethnic cleansing and plans for a Greater Albania, but talk is cheap. Their record shows that they will pose no effective opposition to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo or to the next stage of ethnic conflict and redrawing of borders in Macedonia.