 |  |  |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
| | |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
The United States went to war in Kosovo to stop outrages like this one: An 80-year man living in Pristina was at home one day when a gang of youths broke in and smashed him in the face with a rock, merely because he was of the wrong ethnic group. The next day they returned and ordered him to leave.
"I asked them, `Why, what have I done?' " he told The New York Times."And they said, `If you do not leave by 10 tomorrow, we will cut you into pieces and throw you into the river.' " He fled, taking nothing but a plastic bag with some clothing.
Actually, that was not one of the outrages that our military intervention was launched to stop. That was one of the outrages that our military intervention made possible. The man who was forced out of his home was a Serb, his terrorizers were ethnic Albanians, and the incident took place under the noses of the troops sent by the United States and other countries to restore order to Kosovo.
The Clinton administration launched the air war against Yugoslavia to stop Serbs from terrorizing Albanians. But as soon as it began, the "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo expanded and intensified beyond what anyone could have imagined. By the time our "victory" was achieved, nearly the entire Albanian population had been displaced from its homes.
When American troops went in to Kosovo, the administration said it would not permit the returning Albanians to exact vengeance. But they came back and did what came naturally, and the Kosovo Implementation Force has so far proved unable or unwilling to control them. Most Serbs have left, and those who have stayed face chronic mistreatment and violence. So do Gypsies and Slavic Muslims.
A recent joint report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe draws a grim picture. "There is a climate of violence and impunity, as well as widespread discrimination, harassment and intimidation directed against non-Albanians," it said last week. Threats, assaults, abductions and murders are common.
The good news is that the number of attacks on ethnic minorities has declined lately. The bad news is that's only because "there has been a significant decrease in the overall non-Albanian population in the past four months." As many as 80 percent of Serbs who lived in Kosovo are no longer there.
Some people may think they're getting what they deserve, but Americans didn't go to war to cleanse Kosovo of non-Albanians. Of course, the U.S. wasn't fighting for Kosovo's independence either: Before, during and after the war, President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Kosovo should remain under the rule of the very same Yugoslavian government that we were fighting. They feared that breaking up Yugoslavia would destabilize neighboring countries. Now, however, everyone admits that goal was not terribly realistic.
Officially, the administration has not changed its policy. Privately, though, officials say an independent Kosovo is inevitable. "No one in Washington expects this not to happen," one of them told The Washington Post.
Clinton and Albright are great believers in using American military power to right all the world's wrongs, but they are discovering it's not as easy as it sounds. In Bosnia, which American soldiers have been policing for the last four years, we helped end the war, but we haven't been able to construct any real peace.
The U.S. rejected the idea of simply partitioning Bosnia into its ethnic components, insisting instead on teaching the Serbs, Croats and Muslims to live harmoniously under the same roof. We wanted all the people who had been chased out of their houses to go back and live alongside the people who chased them.
Unfortunately, they have yet to see the appeal of that course. Very few refugees have returned to their homes, and nearly 1.2 million people remain displaced. A recent study by the International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Brussels, concluded that four years after the Dayton peace accords were signed, "the ethnic cleansers have won."
No progress has been made in resolving the antagonisms that produced the war in Bosnia. The ICG says that if NATO were to withdraw, the three sides would quickly go back to killing each other.
In Bosnia, we've learned that we'll have to stay forever to prevent ethnic violence and slaughter.
That's a little better than our experience in Kosovo, where the bloodshed continues despite the presence of American troops.
The president has shown that the U.S. can take a major military role in the Balkans. He's yet to show that our intervention can accomplish much.