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The Washington Times
Letters to the editor
24 August 2007
Kosovo's future
Because of Rep. Dan Burton's minority voice of integrity on the Kosovo
question, I momentarily recognize my country again ("Negotiating for peace
in Kosovo," Commentary, Monday). Mr. Burton reminds America that a
monoethnic, monoreligious, Saudi- and heroin-financed peace isn't a success,
that there are still such things as international laws, borders,
sovereignty, human rights, dangerous precedents and negotiations without a
predetermined outcome.
If anyone wonders why the Bush administration is on the same page as the
Clintonites that "there is no option but independence," that "there can be
no compromise on independence," that "Kosovo must be independent" and
"Kosovo will be independent," as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has
stated it's because when it comes to the gangsterland that is the Balkans,
our leaders have a virtual gun pointed at our NATO troops there. In Kosovo,
our leaders behave alternately as hostages and gangsters.
The Dan Burtons out there are but a handful, and, like the pro-independence
camp, they include a bipartisan crew: Reps. Trent Franks, Arizona
Republican; Gus Bilirakis, Florida Republican; Melissa Bean, Illinois
Democrat; Diane Watson, California Democrat; and Howard Berman, California
Democrat; and, while they were in office, Sen. Rick Santorum and Amb. John
Bolton. Both the Democrats and the Republicans in this camp still show a
shred of decency long surrendered by the John McCains, Eliot Engels, Tom
Lantoses, Joseph Bidens and Dana Rohrabachers, and they will be the ones to
save America's soul and future. For that is what hangs in the balance in
Kosovo.
JULIA GORIN
New York City
•
The Washington Times is to be complimented for publishing the comprehensive
summary by Rep. Dan Burton of the ongoing efforts to achieve a lasting peace
in the small Serbian province of Kosovo an area as big as Rhode Island and
with a mixed population of 2 million Albanians, Serbs, Roma and others.
In 1999, the U.S.-led NATO waged an intensive bombing war from 20,000 feet
against Serbian military and civilian infrastructures as a humanitarian
intervention. The goal was to force an end to the attempts by Serbian
authorities to combat and put down the provocations by an Albanian
insurgency euphemistically calling itself the Kosovo Liberation Army. After
78 days, the bombing finally succeeded in forcing an agreement requiring the
removal of all Serbian military and police from Kosovo.
However, a lasting peace was not established, even in the presence of more
than 40,000 U.N. troops known as KFOR. The KLA quickly morphed into the KPC,
the Kosovo Protection Corps, with the tacit approval of KFOR.
Albanian-organized criminal groups exploited these developments by joining
with corrupt Albanian politicians. Kosovo today is known as a major supplier
of much of the heroin reaching Europe. Kosovo recently was described
succinctly by a U.N. spokesperson as "a society founded on organized crime."
Recognizing the independence of Kosovo, which, as Mr. Burton notes, is an
obsession within the U.S. State Department and supported by President Bush,
would impose from the outside a resolution to a problem that will be
inconsistent with international laws and standards of long standing and U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1244. After eight years, the province's economy
is still a basket case except for those few groups associated with illegal
activities.
I thank Mr. Burton and The Washington Times for so clearly articulating the
"ground truth" regarding the issue of an independent Kosovo.
NORMAN F. NESS
Professor emeritus
University of Delaware
Newark, Del.
