September 1999

Sept. 29, 1999 LONDON- The western powers owe Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia nothing. They certainly don’t owe him the rewriting of history in his favour. This begs the question why on earth are Nato and Russia policing Kosovo with the avowed purpose not just of “keeping the peace”, but of maintaining the fiction that the majority Albanian-peopled territory is part of Serbia and thus part of Milosevic’s reduced empire of Yugoslavia? These questions were asked in this column back in June at the time of Nato’s bombing of Serbia. At the time Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and the other western leaders insisted on every occasion their prime purpose was simply an end of the threats to the security of the Kosovo Albanians; they were not prepared to consider a deal with Milosevic that would re-draw the Balkan map more sensibly. In fact before the war they had insisted on a future...

By Tyler Marshall,Times Staff writerLos Angeles Times,September 27, 1999 U.S. foreign affairs specialists are monitoring the potential for increased cooperation between Russia, China and India, amid a growing conviction in all three countries, especially after NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, that U.S. power must somehow be checked. Although agreeing that the three nations are far from coalescing into a pan-Eurasian, anti-NATO axis, the analysts remain concerned about what they call a nightmare scenario: an alliance that would bring together about 2.5 billion people, formidable military might and a vast stockpile of nuclear weapons, all held together by the common goal of countering America’s global dominance. “Right now, you have flirting,” said Charles Williams Maynes, president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. “I don’t know where this is going to go. If we play our cards right, it’s going to go nowhere.” But if the relationships progress, Maynes said,...

democratic model in Kosovo. (Susan Biddle ˜ The Washington Post) By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Foreign Service PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept. 23 ˆ Senior U.S. officials have privately dropped their opposition to Kosovo’s independence from Yugoslavia and say the Clinton administration increasingly sees the province’s secession as inevitable.Officials say the emerging consensus, which amounts to a major shift for the United States, is already having a significant impact on the international peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. The United States has become a leading advocate for the creation of independent institutions and legal structures that tend to isolate the fledgling United Nations protectorate from Yugoslavia’s manifold economic problems and political troubles. U.S. officials deny that the administration’s approach is meant to engineer the further breakup of Yugoslavia, as the Belgrade government claims. They say it is meant only to ensure that Kosovo becomes a viable, self-governing democracy with a successful economy. But...

Press Conference, KFOR Press Centre on 21 Sept. 1999 September 24, 1999 Introduction by Dr Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary General: Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for coming and let me tell you first that we, Mike Jackson and I, are very happy to be facing you to answer to you questions after 2 little very light statements. It is a good day for us. But, this is not an end, but a beginning. Demilitarisation is not necessarily accomplished by simply dismantling military structures and collecting soldiers’ arms. The concept of complementing demilitarisation through the transformation of former fighting forces, is well established in peacekeeping practice. It became an integral part of the Kosovo peace process. As a result of the KLA undertaking on demilitarisation and transformation presented to KFOR Commander, Mike Jackson in June. In close consultation with UNMIK, KFOR subsequently developed a concept for a civilian, disciplined,...

Today on Sep 22 on the session of the Kosovo Transitional Council the representatives of the Serbian national commuity, Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic officially resigned from their positions within the KTC. They explained their leaving of the Council with the fact that after three months of KFOR andUNMIK presence in Kosovo the multiethnic concept in Kosovo has failed. This failure was crowned by the transformation of the KLA into a monoethnic and armed Kosovo Protection Corps which is directly violating the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. After three months of peace the results are catastrophic for the Serbs in the province: about 200.000 expelled, more than 350 killed, 450 abducted, thousands of burned and looted Serb houses as well as 70 destroyed churches and monasteries in the presence of almost 50.000 international peace forces. In Kosovo there is not a single multiethnic institution. Serbs have been practically expelled from...

LONDON- Quite shortly now, if he hasn’t already, Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit will have to make up his mind whether the state should procede with the execution of the Kurdish terrorist leader, Abdullah Ocalan. On this decision Turkey’s future as a serious contender for entry to the European Union is going to hang or fall. Well, that is what a good many commentators were saying three months ago, on the conclusion of his trial. Yet, today, following the devastating earthquake in Turkey of August 17th and the serious, but rather less severe one in Greece three weeks’ later, it looks as if Turkey has been allowed a new look at the starting line for entry into the European Union, without delivering any promises about Ocalan or indeed about any of the other large hurdles it supposedly has to cross- a new deal for the Kurds (the world’s largest ethnic group...

By Laura Rozen in Pristina Days of dispute slowed progress towards Monday night’s agreement on the demilitarisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army and highlighted a profound disagreement between the Kosovars and the international community on the nature of the force that will replace it. The KLA made no secret of its intention to transform itself from a rebel army into a real army that will serve to defend a future independent Kosovo. The internationals have tried to compromise by agreeing to the formation of a 5,000 person ‘Kosovo Protection Corps’, which they see as a civilian national guard type force that they intended to be as harmless as the Boy Scouts. Sunday’s scheduled high-profile ceremony to mark the official end of the Kosovo Liberation Army failed to come to pass and another day of talks was needed to close the deal. The creation of the Corps was finally agreed on Monday...

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan sounded a warning Monday to a frequently paralyzed Security Council, urging it to act faster and more effectively to meet the challenge of a world engulfed in civil wars that quickly descend into the slaughter of helpless civilian populations. In an address to world leaders at the opening day of debate in the General Assembly, Annan also said that countries which have resisted international intervention will no longer be able to hide behind protestations of national sovereignty when they flagrantly violate the rights of citizens. “Nothing in the charter precludes a recognition that there are rights beyond borders,” he said, on the day an Australian-led force landed in East Timor to help complete its separation from Indonesia. A Western diplomat called the speech “courageous and very important.” Annan did not single out the United States, the Security Council’s most powerful member, or any other major...

Leader Encourages Peacekeeping Work Special to The Washington Post UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 20 Secretary General Kofi Annan today issued a call to the world’s governments to be prepared for a new era of U.N. interventionism, just hours after an Australian-led multinational force touched down in East Timor to end weeks of violence. The remarks, made in a speech marking the opening of U.N. General Assembly debate, come as the United Nations expands its role in peacekeeping operations from Kosovo to East Timor. It set the tone for the debate, an annual diplomatic speechfest for world leaders. “There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community,” Annan said. “They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.” Annan was sharply critical, however, of the NATO-led air war...

By Barbara Crossette New York Times September 21, 1999 UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan sounded a warning Monday to a frequently paralyzed Security Council, urging it to act faster and more effectively to meet the challenge of a world engulfed in civil wars that quickly descend into the slaughter of helpless civilian populations. In an address to world leaders at the opening day of debate in the General Assembly, Annan also said that countries which have resisted international intervention will no longer be able to hide behind protestations of national sovereignty when they flagrantly violate the rights of citizens. “Nothing in the charter precludes a recognition that there are rights beyond borders,” he said, on the day an Australian-led force landed in East Timor to help complete its separation from Indonesia. A Western diplomat called the speech “courageous and very important.” Annan did not single out the United States, the...

LONDON- In his urgent action message received yesterday by all his friends (and unsolicited recipients like myself) Professor Noam Chomsky wraps up the whole East Timor imbroglio as a dastardly American responsibility, replete with ulterior, dark, purposes that suggest the U.S. pursues even its most tangential interests with a total disregard for scruple. It simply wants to rule the world.* While it is probably true that Washington ventures on a dangerous and sometimes counterproductive ego trip every time it involves itself in foreign affairs there is yet- even after Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Central America, Afghanistan, Iraq, ex-Yugoslavia and now East Timor – no hard evidence that there is some malign grand design. Perhaps if there was it might be easier to deal with. No, the trouble with America is more complicated- it is its sense of self-evident (to itself) moral purpose, delivered into the foreign field- on both the military and...

14. september 1999 INTRODUCTION This is the Executive Summary of a proposal for AID AND RECOSTRUCTION IN YUGOSLAVIA – NEED AND NECESSiTY, which was prepared by the expert teams of five Belgrade independent, think tanks and NGOs: CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES (coordinating body focused on social and political part of the project);GROUP 17 (reformist economists focused on economic aspects);PALGO CENTER (Center for Public Administration and Local Government: in depth analysis of case studies of several Serbian cities);EUROPEAN MOVEMENT (working on developing concepts and relations with neighboring countries);AAEN (Alternative Academic Educational Network: preparation of maps and data bases);ECOLOGICAL CENTER (ecological research and mapping). Work on this complex project was initiated while NATO bombing was ongoing. In difficult conditions, the authors found this task as the best way to give some sense to their professional responsibility and to contribute to the efforts of a regional future looking approach. This is work in...