-Caveat Lector- From http://www.cato.org/dailys/08-21-99.html > August 21, 1999 > > Theater of the Absurd in Kosovo > > by Gary Dempsey > > > Gary Dempsey is a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute. > > As NATO's occupation of Kosovo enters its second month, one thing has become > painfully clear: NATO and the Clinton administration are willing to go to absurd > lengths to deny that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is taking over Kosovo and > laying the foundation for a Greater Albania. When the KLA missed NATO's deadline > for turning in its heavy weapons, for instance, NATO's top man in Kosovo, Gen. > Michael Jackson, insisted that the KLA was not defying NATO. Rather, he claimed > the guerrillas were so diligently accounting for all their weapons that they > were being delayed. "I do not regard this as non-compliance," said Jackson, "but > rather as an indication of the seriousness with which [the KLA]... is taking > this important issue." As of yet, the KLA hasn't turned in all its heavy > weapons, and on the day NATO's deadline expired, German soldiers stumbled upon a > secret cache of 10 tons of ammunition--probably a mere fraction of what the KLA > has hidden away. > > Even more alarming, the KLA has taken sweeping political control of Kosovo, > establishing a network of self-appointed ministries and local councils, seizing > businesses and apartments, and collecting taxes and customs payments. Moreover, > each day brings new reports of KLA atrocities against Serb civilians--the > drowning murder of a fully clothed, 78-year-old Serb woman in her own bathtub, > made the front page of the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Lt. Cmdr. Louis Garneau, > NATO's spokesman in Kosovo, conveniently announced, "We don't keep statistics on > civilian deaths" under NATO's watch. > > We now know, however, that in the first seven weeks of NATO's occupation there > were 198 confirmed homicides, 573 confirmed arson attacks, and 840 confirmed > incidents of looting. More than 40 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries > have been destroyed or damaged, and 200 Serb civilians have been kidnapped. > According to Human Rights Watch, more than 80 percent of the Serbs in Kosovo > have left or been driven out. Most of the kidnappings and murders, adds the > rights group, have been committed by members of the KLA, who believe NATO has > given them expansive reign. > > State Department spokesman James Rubin, however, insists that "there is no > evidence of KLA involvement" in the outrages against Serb civilians. Rather, > claims Rubin, there are rogue elements at work, not an organized ethnic > cleansing campaign administered by the KLA leadership. Ironically, this is the > same excuse Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic gave for the ethnic cleansing > committed by Serb paramilitaries in Bosnia. The truth of the matter, however, is > that ethnic cleansing need not be systematic, merely tolerated in limited cases. > Throw a rock at one bird on a wire, and all the birds on the wire will take > flight, goes an old Balkan saying. The KLA's take on the continuing ethnic > violence is even more absurd. > > While paying lip-service to peace and harmony in front of the international > press corps and Western diplomats, Hashim "Snake" Thaci, the KLA's self-declared > prime minister of Kosovo, has scoffed, "There might be some people who are armed > who aren't under KLA control... but there might be some people in KFOR [NATO's > Kosovo Force] who aren't under General Jackson's control." Nonsense. NATO troops > are not disobeying Jackson's orders, let alone killing civilians, burning down > houses, and looting stores. The United Nations says it is now moving into Kosovo > to help deal with the ethnic violence, and the UN's chief administrator, Bernard > Kouchner, says he wants to pull the KLA into the exercise of power, offering it > a share of executive responsibility. Other Western officials want the KLA to > form the core of Kosovo's police force. What is likely to happen is more theater > of the absurd, as the KLA's control is institutionalized while the charade that > the KLA is not in control is perpetuated. > > In the meantime, NATO commanders find themselves not with a peacekeeping policy > in Kosovo, but a KLA management policy. That was entirely predictable. "When we > entered Kosovo there was still fighting going on and without a doubt the KLA had > seen NATO and the air campaign as all part of what they were doing," concedes > NATO's Gen. Jackson, "But time's moved on." It certainly has. NATO served as the > KLA's unwitting errand boy, which was the KLA's aim all along, and now the KLA > is advancing on to its next goals: ruling over Kosovo and pursuing a Greater > Albania. Both those goals, of course, contradict NATO's calls for the creation > of a multi-ethnic democracy in Kosovo and could bring NATO peacekeepers and the > KLA into direct conflict. They also bode ill for Balkan stability--an ostensible > goal of NATO's occupation in the first place. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > | Index of Daily Commentaries | Cato Institute Home | > > © 1999 The Cato Institute A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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