Excerpts from Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 April 1999:
"Primacy of NATO over the UN?" by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed
Editorial:  "A brutal harvest"
"A long and muddy battle" by Salama Ahmed Salama

"Primacy of NATO over the UN?" by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed

HEADING:"Mohamed Sid-Ahmed discusses the implications of NATO replacing the UN Security Council in resolving present-day crises situations."

Quotes from text:
"...the intervening party is not empowered to carrty out punitive raids against a sovereign state without the authorisation of the United Nations... ."

"Is it that a civil war in Yugoslavia cannot be allowed to continue unchecked because Yugoslavia is part of Europe ... ."

"Arab support for separatism in Kosovo cannot be reconciled with their firm opposition to the fragmentation of Iraq."

EXCERPTS: :
There are obvious similarities between the strikes launched by NATO against Slobodan Milosevic and those that were launched against Saddam Hussein in 1991, with one important difference: ... the intervening party is not empowered to carry out punitive raids against a sovereign state without the authorisation of the United Nations... .

It is true that in the new context of globalisation national sovereignty is not as immune as it once was. It is also true that Kosovo has witnessed unimaginable atrocities. Because one side, the Kosovar Albanians are Muslim, they enjoy the sympathy of the Arab and Islamic worlds. But the hands of both sides are covered in blood. …

" Moreover, although similar atrocities have been and continue to be committed elsewhere in today's world -- in Algeria, Rwanda, Burundi, the Congo and in the confrontation of the Turkish government with its Kurdish rebellion -- they have not prompted a NATO intervention. …

Is it that a civil war in Yugoslavia cannot be allowed to continue unchecked because Yugoslavia is part of Europe ...

We believe this argument to be dangerous. Whatever the sufferings the Europeans have endured in this century or in previous centuries, they do not qualify for special treatment ...

Henry Kissinger interestingly questions Clinton's right to make "America's military power available to enable every ethnic or religious group to achieve self-determination. Is NATO to become the artillery for ethnic conflict?…

Britain's foreign minister, Robin Cook, made the case for intervention in the name of Britain's New Left in his statement to The Observer: "Milosevic represents a very poisonous brand of politics which is entirely ethnic-based and ethnic-driven. ...

The Milosevic regime is returning to ethnic cleansing and acts which are genocidal with people being murdered simply because of their identity." But this is not what veteran Leftist Tony Benn has to say on the subject: "The strikes... wrongly assert the primacy of NATO over the UN; they constitute intervention in a civil war within a sovereign state; and they might create a wider Balkan war."…

Do Europeans want a separatist state in Kosovo? Their situation appears no less ambiguous than that of the Arabs, who oppose separatism and fragmentation in Iraq, but cannot, at a time they are calling for self-determination and statehood for the Palestinians, deny the Kurds the right to some form of autonomy. Arab support for separatism in Kosovo cannot be reconciled with their firm opposition to the fragmentation of Iraq.

EDITORIAL: "A brutal harvest"

Quote from the text:
"War criminals like Milosevik will not be deterred by simple threats; they need to see action on the ground. This action must be carried out ...immediately. Otherwise, by the time NATO decides its next move, nothing will remain of the Kosovars except memories."

[IMRA: How about some Egyptian volunteers to join the ground forces?]

EXCERPTS: Despite the insistence of NATO officials, world public opinion is more and more convinced that the Allied bombing of Yugoslavia, which started a week ago under the pretext of protecting the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo, has actually worsened their predicament and accelerated the policy of ethnic cleansing being carried out by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Claims that the campaign would have been implemented in Kosovo whether or not NATO intervened do not convince anybody. Already, more than 500,000 people -- a quarter of Kosovo's population -- have been displaced. Serbian forces are confiscating the Kosovars' identity papers, which will make it impossible for them to return to their homes.

Male Albanians between the ages of 16 and 66 are being systematically separated from their families, and many of the refugees who are flooding hourly over the border to neighbouring countries have spoken of horrifying massacres and summary executions. President Milosevic is clearly trying to create a situation on the ground that he thinks will be irreversible by eliminating the ethnic Albanian majority in key parts of the disputed province.

Such a human catastrophe cannot be solved by NATO's announcement that its aircraft will start targeting Serbian ground troops and their key facilities in Kosovo. The United States and its allies should use the crimes committed by the Serbian leader to mobilise more support and unity inside the Security Council, and thus to force the Serbian war criminals to recognise the legitimate rights of the Albanian majority in Kosovo. …

War criminals like Milosevic will not be deterred by simple threats; they need to see action on the ground. This action must be carried out swiftly and immediately. Otherwise, by the time NATO decides its next move, nothing will remain of the Kosovars except memories.

"A long and muddy battle" by Salama Ahmed Salama

Quote from text:
"Had moral or humanitarian conditions been pricking Europe's concience ...Europe would have moved to save the Kurds, deprived of their human rights in Turkey, or to halt the massacres of Hutus and Tutsis in central Africa."

[IMRA: But the Arab nations have not brought resolutions to the UN an these matters.]

EXCERPTS: :
The staunch Serb resistance means that air strikes by US Stealth planes or Cruise missiles cannot be just one more military parade, or an exercise in the use of new weapons technology. …

The genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not seem to constitute a sufficient cause to prompt any moral or humanitarian response from the British or their allies. Not until the regime in Yugoslavia proved to be a thorn in the side of Europe, which, given a chance, could set the whole of central Europe ablaze, did NATO react. Yugoslavia is also Russia's back door, and can restrict NATO's dreams to expand its influence and seal its hegemony over both Eastern and Western Europe.

Had moral or humanitarian conditions been pricking Europe's conscience, we would have seen some action to address various crises before they exploded. Europe would have moved to save the Kurds, deprived of their human rights in Turkey, or to halt the massacres of Hutus and Tutsis in central Africa. In all crisis situations, however, Europe has forgotten its moral and historical commitments -- to its former colonies, at least. ...

Even after the NATO campaign began, the bombing of military facilities and positions in Yugoslavia was strictly limited. The Albanian Muslims in Kosovo remained hostage to the Serb forces. As NATO strikes against Serb defences and positions intensified, Serb brutality escalated. NATO's sophisticated death machine was unable to save the lives or property of tens of thousands of Albanians, who were chased by Serb death squads out of their villages.

The Serbs are banking on the fact that European leaders will not risk the death of a single NATO soldier. Kosovo which is entirely in Serb hands, can never be liberated unless NATO decides to engage in a ground battle. ... Only when ground troops are involved will the real war begin. The rulers in Belgrade are hybrid creatures, generated by Nazism, Communism and the belief in some mythical racial purity.