The Times (London) November 23, 2007.
Letters p. 22
[Final 1 Edition]
A new Kosovo crisis in the making
Sir, As another crisis looms ("Fears grow for Kosovo as poll victor demands
independence", November 20), we should remember the blunders and myths that
led to this impasse.
In 1998-99 violence in Kosovo, then as now legally part of Serbia, stemmed
from Serbian repression of the Kosovo Albanians, but also from the Albanian
terrorist "Kosovo Liberation Army", to whose attacks the Serbs reacted with
inexcusable brutality.
The pretext for the three-month Nato bombing of Yugoslavia was Serbian
rejection of the ultimatum deliberately crafted at Rambouillet by Madeleine
Albright (then US Secretary of State) to ensure Serbian rejection and
Albanian acceptance.
To secure the latter, Ms Albright, without Nato, UN or legal authority,
promised the Albanians what amounted to independence. Nato bombing did not
halt the Serbs' expulsion of thousands of Albanians from Kosovo:
it precipitated it.
Nato bombing never achieved the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo:
American, Russian and Finnish diplomacy negotiated a settlement differing
radically from Nato's demands.
Everyone knew that NATO would never agree to a costly and dangerous
land invasion.
Nato's misguided attempt to exclude Russia and the UN from the eventual
settlement failed completely, and the illegal use of force without United
Nations authority created a catastrophic precedent for the Iraq fiasco
four years later. Subsequent Serbian elections, not Nato bombing,
rid Serbia of Milosevic.
Now Russia, Serbia and most of its neighbours understandably fear that a
unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians would have
disastrous regional consequences, inevitably aggravated by recognition by
America and others. A solution short of full independence, with safeguards
for the beleaguered Serbian minority in Kosovo, should remain the objective,
even if it takes another eight years for the Kosovo Albanians to accept it.
Otherwise "Balkanisation" may take on a new and yet more tragic connotation.
Sir Brian Barder. HM Diplomatic Service, 1965-94 London SW18
Copyright (c) Times Newspapers Limited 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article2925131.ece
