http://www.espritdecorps.ca/On%20target%20070618.htm
IN THE NEWS
Kosovo independence not so clear cut
By Scott Taylor
June 18, 2007
---------------------------------
Eight years ago today I returned home to Canada after spending more than
three weeks covering the bloody conclusion of the NATO intervention in Kosovo.
In total, Serbia had been subjected to 78 days of continuous aerial
bombardment by the allied air force. The original NATO timetable estimated it
would take just five days to force Serbia to withdraw their armed forces from
the disputed province of Kosovo. In the end, despite air defences that could
offer only token resistance, stubborn Serbian defiance forced NATO to a
negotiated settlement.
My perspective on this conflict is unique as I was one of only a handful of
western journalists granted a visa from the Belgrade authorities. As such I
reported on the NATO air campaign from the Serbian perspective and witnessed
the collateral damage of innocent civilians killed by errant bombs and endured
the depravations brought about as a result of the destruction of the power grid
and water plants.
Arriving in Pristina in advance of the NATO ground forces, I was in Kosovo
when the Russian troops defiantly took possession of the Zlatina airfield and
dared advancing British troops to ignite World War III. Thankfully, calmer
heads prevailed and NATO yielded to the Russians, but widespread interethnic
killing continued. The Serbian minority population in Kosovo fled en masse in
the wake of violent Albanian reprisals conducted without intervention by NATO
security forces.
Under the terms of the UN resolution 1244 ceasefire agreement, Serbian
military and police forces were to withdraw from the province in exchange for
Kosovo remaining recognized as a sovereign Serbian territory. An estimated
250,000 Serb civilians fled with the departing military columns rather than
face revenge at the hands of the Albanians.
Of the 40,000 or so Serbs who remained in Kosovo, many paid the ultimate
price in the orgy of violence that followed NATOs entry and the rest banded
together in protected enclaves. The 2,700 NATO accredited journalists who
rushed into Kosovo alongside the troops were quick to proclaim victory and
downplay the Albanian reprisal killings as a justifiable settling of scores.
In the subsequent eight-year occupation of Kosovo, it has become apparent
that the victory declarations may have been a little premature. The continual
presence of NATO troops and the virtual isolation of the Serbian population
from the Albanian majority has given Kosovo the outward appearance of relative
stability. However, as the massive pogrom into the Serbian enclaves in March
2004 and the ongoing protests against the international community reveal,
Kosovo remains a boiling pot of inter-ethnic hatred. Despite the best of
intentions and a massive infusion of foreign aid, Kosovo has not developed into
the peaceful, prosperous entity that was promised.
Many observers in the international community, in particular the UN police
force, realize that granting Kosovo independence at this stage would be
premature. While U.S. President George Bush is backing the Albanian Kosovo
independence movement, this is more driven by the hard-pressed American
military necessity to close the books on at least one conflict rather than on
common sense.
Even UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari has recommended that any independence
granted to Kosovo should still be supervised by the international community. As
the pogrom of April 2004 clearly illustrated, the Albanians have no intention
of allowing the few remaining Serbs to reside peacefully in their Kosovo
enclaves. Should George Bush get his wish and Kosovo becomes truly independent
in the near future, the final Serbian residents will be wise to depart with the
last of the NATO soldiers.
If that transpires, then NATOs intervention in 1999 to prevent ethnic
cleansing will have resulted in the most thoroughly ethnically cleansed region
in the entire world.
A victory worth remembering.
---------------------------------
Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot
with the All-new Yahoo! Mail
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
