[news] Messy endgame delays U.S. exit from Kosovo

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Messy endgame delays U.S. exit from Kosovo

Matt Robinson

Reuters

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A view of the Kosovo village of Debelde on the border with Macedonia April 28,
2006. A new road to Debelde represents the 'soft-power' of U.S. peacekeepers in
a region where gunrunners and smugglers flit back and forth over the porous
border that cuts Debelde from its sister village of Tanusevci in Macedonia, a
niggling threat to stability. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

CREDIT:

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Serbia (Reuters) - From the vantage point of a U.S. Black Hawk
helicopter, the new road to Debelde cuts a tidy yellow line through tilled
farmland on Kosovo's southern border with Macedonia.

The road was a U.S. military project completed six weeks ago, transforming the
mud path to the remote mountain village and improving access for the ethnic
Albanians living there.

It represents the 'soft-power' of U.S. peacekeepers in a region where
gunrunners and smugglers flit back and forth over the porous border that cuts
Debelde from its sister village of Tanusevci in Macedonia, a niggling threat to
stability.

Stretched by campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had hoped to
be out of Serbia's breakaway southern province by now, eight years since being
deployed with NATO in the alliance's second Balkan mission after Bosnia.

But faced with a Russian-versus-West deadlock on Kosovo's demand for
independence, and the prospect of the Albanian majority striking out alone, an
influential U.S. presence -- currently 1,600 National Guardsmen -- is seen as
crucial.

Thoughts of a drawdown with the planned end of Serb-Albanian talks in December
are on hold for at least another 18 months.

At some point in this period, the Albanians are expected to declare
independence and seek recognition, in a messy end to their eight-year limbo as
a U.N. protectorate.

Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo will hold more talks next Monday in Vienna, with
still no sign of breakthrough in sight.

NATO's Kosovo Force, KFOR, "is going to be here for a long period of time, at
some level over the next three or four years," said U.S. Brigadier General
Douglas Earhart, who hands over command of U.S. troops in Kosovo next month.

"I think the U.S. will be part of that as long as there is KFOR," he told
Reuters, adding that the next U.S. troop rotation was no smaller than the
current presence and "there's another rotation already planned after them, of
the same size."

"In 18 months you can probably make the case that even more progress is going
to be made, it's going to be even more stable ... and that a reduced security
presence might be okay."

Reports of armed men around Tanusevci, where smugglers and criminals have
carved out a police no-go area, have heightened fears of regional unrest if
Kosovo Albanians lose patience with the West's stalled bid to grant
independence in the face of Serb and Russian opposition.

DISRUPTIVE BAD BUYS

NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in 1999 until then strongman Slobodan Milosevic
agreed to stop killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians in a two-year
counter-insurgency war.

It now leads 16,000 soldiers in Kosovo, down from 45,000 when it deployed in
1999 on the heels of retreating Serb forces.

But analysts say that a messy endgame at the end of this year could revive
insurgencies by Albanians in Macedonia and southern Serbia, put down in 2001 by
NATO and European Union diplomacy. The Macedonian conflict began in Tanusevci.

U.S. troops have a 'forward operating base' in Debelde and soldiers regularly
camp in the village for days at a time.

"It's just to keep everybody on an even keel and remembering that we're here
not only to support them but to keep order down there, and prevent bad guys
doing things that would be disruptive to the process," Earhart said.

"My interest is in making sure that outside influences don't get inside Debelde
and create an unstable environment."

The interview took place in the U.S. military's sprawling Camp Bondsteel in
southern Kosovo, built in three months in 1999 to house 7,000 troops, inside a
7 kilometer perimeter.

Earhart spoke before flying to the opening of a community centre in the Serb
village of Partes in the east, built by Serbs and Albanians with 180,000
dollars of Pentagon funds.

An aerial tour of the U.S. command zone takes in U.S. humanitarian projects in
hard-up villages with once-leaking school roofs and remote hamlets, now with
new roads to improve medical access - 1 million dollars worth in the past year.

Earhart said he focuses on 40,000 Serbs in enclaves across his zone, about a
third of the remaining Kosovo Serb population.

Their future is uncertain, particularly if Kosovo declares independence without
a U.N. resolution and wins recognition from Washington and its major European
Union allies.

A backlash by the Serb-dominated north could spark violence against Serbs
elsewhere. Recognized by some but shunned by others, Kosovo could be a source
of tension for years to come.

Earhart dismissed reports that some states might withdraw their troops from
KFOR rather than recognize the new state.

"There is no doubt in my mind about KFOR's resolve to manage the situation in a
way that keeps everything under control, even in the face of more status delays
or perhaps postponement of decisions and that sort of thing," the U.S. general
said.

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[news] Messy endgame delays U.S. exit from Kosovo

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