>> >>Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist >> >>USI, New Delhi >>April 6, 1999 Lt Gen Satish Nambiar >> >>USI, New Delhi, April 6, 1999 >>THE FATAL FLAWS UNDERLYING NATO'S INTERVENTION IN YUGOSLAVIA >>By >>Lt Gen Satish Nambiar (Retd.) >>(First Force Commander and Head of Mission of the United Nations Forces >>deployed in the former Yugoslavia 03 Mar92 to 02 Mar 93. Former Deputy >>Chief of Staff, Indian Army. Currently, Director of the United Services >>Institution of India.) >>My year long experience as the Force Commander and Head of Mission of the >>United Nations Forces deployed in the former Yugoslavia has given me an >>understanding of the fatal flaws of US/NATO policies in the troubled >region. >>It was obvious to most people following events in the Balkans since the >>beginning of the decade, and particularly after the fighting that resulted >>in the emergence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former >>Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, that Kosovo was a 'powder keg' waiting to >>explode. The West appears to have learnt all the wrong lessons from the >>previous wars and applied it to Kosovo. >>(1) Portraying the Serbs as evil and everybody else as good was not only >>counterproductive but also dishonest. According to my experience all sides >>were guilty but only the Serbs would admit that they were no angels while >>the others would insist that they were. With 28, 000 forces under me and >>with constant contacts with UNHCR and the International Red Cross >officials, >>we did not witness any genocide beyond killings and massacres on all sides >>that are typical of such conflict conditions. I believe none of my >>successors and their forces saw anything on the scale claimed by the media. >>(2) It was obvious to me that if Slovenians, Croatians and Bosniaks had the >>right to secede from Yugoslavia, then the Serbs of Croatia and Bosnia had >an >>equal right to secede. The experience of partitions in Ireland and India >>has not be pleasant but in the Yugoslavia case, the state had already been >>taken apart anyway. It made little sense to me that if multiethnic >>Yugoslavia was not tenable that multiethnic Bosnia could be made tenable. >>The former internal boundaries of Yugoslavia which had no validity under >>international law should have been redrawn when it was taken apart by the >>West, just as it was in the case of Ireland in 1921 and Punjab and Bengal >in >>India in 1947. Failure to acknowledge this has led to the problem of >Kosovo >>as an integral part of Serbia. >>(3) It is ironic that the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia was not fundamentally >>different from the Lisbon Plan drawn up by Portuguese Foreign Minister >>Cuteliero and British representative Lord Carrington to which all three >>sides had agreed before any killings had taken place, or even the >Vance-Owen >>Plan which Karadzic was willing to sign. One of the main problems was that >>there was an unwillingness on the part of the American administration to >>concede that Serbs had legitimate grievances and rights. I recall State >>Department official George Kenny turning up like all other American >>officials, spewing condemnations of the Serbs for aggression and genocide. >>I offered to give him an escort and to go see for himself that none of what >>he proclaimed was true. He accepted my offer and thereafter he made a >>radical turnaround.. Other Americans continued to see and hear what they >>wanted to see and hear from one side, while ignoring the other side. Such >>behaviour does not produce peace but more conflict. >>(4) I felt that Yugoslavia was a media-generated tragedy. The Western >media >>sees international crises in black and white, sensationalizing incidents >for >>public consumption. From what I can see now, all Serbs have been driven >out >>of Croatia and the Muslim-Croat Federation, I believe almost 850,000 of >>them. And yet the focus is on 500,000 Albanians (at last count) who have >>been driven out of Kosovo. Western policies have led to an ethnically pure >>Greater Croatia, and an ethnically pure Muslim statelet in Bosnia. >>Therefore, why not an ethnically pure Serbia? Failure to address these >>double standards has led to the current one. >> >>As I watched the ugly tragedy unfold in the case of Kosovo while visiting >>the US in early to mid March 1999, I could see the same pattern emerging. >>In my experience with similar situations in India in such places as >Kashmir, >>Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, and elsewhere, it is the essential strategy of >>those ethnic groups who wish to secede to provoke the state authorities. >>Killings of policemen is usually a standard operating procedure by >>terrorists since that usually invites overwhelming state retaliation, just >>as I am sure it does in the United States. >>I do not believe the Belgrade government had prior intention of driving out >>all Albanians from Kosovo. It may have decided to implement Washington's >>own "Krajina Plan" only if NATO bombed, or these expulsions could be >>spontaneous acts of revenge and retaliation by Serb forces in the field >>because of the bombing. The OSCE Monitors were not doing too badly, and >the >>Yugoslav Government had, after all, indicated its willingness to abide by >>nearly all the provisions of the Rambouillet "Agreement" on aspects like >>cease-fire, greater autonomy to the Albanians, and so on. But they >insisted >>that the status of Kosovo as part of Serbia was not negotiable, and they >>would not agree to station NATO forces on the soil of Yugoslavia. This is >>precisely what India would have done under the same circumstances. It was >>the West that proceeded to escalate the situation into the current >senseless >>bombing campaign that smacks more of hurt egos, and revenge and >retaliation. >>NATO's massive bombing intended to terrorize Serbia into submission appears >>no different from the morality of actions of Serb forces in Kosovo. >>Ultimatums were issued to Yugoslavia that unless the terms of an agreement >>drawn up at Rambouillet were signed, NATO would undertake bombing. >>Ultimatums do not constitute diplomacy. They are acts of war. The >Albanians >>of Kosovo who want independence, were coaxed and cajoled into putting their >>signatures to a document motivated with the hope of NATO bombing of Serbs >>and independence later. With this signature, NATO assumed all the legal >and >>moral authority to undertake military operations against a country that >had, >>at worst, been harsh on its own people. On 24th March 1999, NATO launched >>attacks with cruise missiles and bombs, on Yugoslavia, a sovereign state, a >>founding member of the United Nations and the Non Aligned Movement; and >>against a people who were at the forefront of the fight against Nazi >Germany >>and other fascist forces during World War Two. I consider these current >>actions unbecoming of great powers. >>It is appropriate to touch on the humanitarian dimension for it is the >>innocent who are being subjected to displacement, pain and misery. >>Unfortunately, this is the tragic and inevitable outcome of all such >>situations of civil war, insurgencies, rebel movements, and terrorist >>activity. History is replete with examples of such suffering; whether it >be >>the American Civil War, Northern Ireland, the Basque movement in Spain, >>Chechnya, Angola, Cambodia, and so many other cases; the indiscriminate >>bombing of civilian centres during World War Two; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; >>Vietnam. The list is endless. I feel that this tragedy could have been >>prevented if NATO's ego and credibility had not been given the highest >>priority instead of the genuine grievances of Serbs in addition to >>Albanians. >>Notwithstanding all that one hears and sees on CNN and BBC, and other >>Western agencies, and in the daily briefings of the NATO authorities, the >>blame for the humanitarian crisis that has arisen cannot be placed at the >>door of the Yugoslav authorities alone. The responsibility rests mainly at >>NATO's doors. In fact, if I am to go by my own experience as the First >>Force Commander and Head of Mission of the United Nations forces in the >>former Yugoslavia, from March 1992 to March 1993, handling operations in >>Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia, I would say that reports put >out >>in the electronic media are largely responsible for provoking this tragedy. >>Where does all this leave the international community which for the record >>does not comprise of the US, the West and its newfound Muslim allies ? The >>portents for the future, at least in the short term, are bleak indeed. The >>United Nations has been made totally redundant, ineffective, and impotent. >>The Western world, led by the USA, will lay down the moral values that the >>rest of the world must adhere to; it does not matter that they themselves >do >>not adhere to the same values when it does not suit them. National >>sovereignty and territorial integrity have no sanctity. And finally, >>secessionist movements, which often start with terrorist activity, will get >>greater encouragement. One can only hope that good sense will prevail, >>hopefully sooner rather than later. >> >>Lt. General Satish Nambiar >>Director, USI, New Delhi >>6 April 1999 >> --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
