RISTINA, Kosovo — When the Bush administration announced in June that it was freezing the assets of people it considered to be supporting ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia or southern Serbia, the immediate fallout was felt here in Kosovo.
Five names on the list were senior officers of the Kosovo Protection Corps, the civilian force that was set up after the war in Kosovo to absorb the Albanian guerrilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
The head of the corps, Agim Ceku, a former general and partner of NATO who was not on the list, said he would resign.
In the end the five individuals were suspended, pending investigation. They remain on the list, which bans them from entering the United States and freezes their assets, and they will probably not get their jobs back.
Washington took the step to try to tamp down fighting in neighboring Macedonia, where Albanian rebels have taken up arms against a Slav- dominated government for greater rights. The Albanians in Macedonia have received some help from Albanians in Kosovo, where guerrillas in the Kosovo Liberation Army waged a similar battle against Serbia during the last decade.
But the accusation by the United States has also aggravated questions about the value of the corps, which was set up to keep former guerrillas out of trouble. With five senior members now standing accused, a debate has reopened whether the corps, known as T.M.K., its initials in Albanian, has proven a success or a menace.
"People are saying that finally the farce of the T.M.K. is over," said one United Nations official in Pristina. "But it could be the beginning of a clean-up of the organization."
Some members of the United Nations administration and the United Nations police force in Kosovo have criticized the corps as unnecessary, saying it provides status and jobs to people they see as little better than thugs.
They have accused its members of unlawful activities from gun-running to racketeering, and even of organizing terrorism against Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo. Several corps members have been arrested in recent months for serious crimes, including the bombing of a bus in February that killed 11 Serb civilians.
But supporters say that the corps was necessary two years ago to persuade the rebels to disarm, and that now the institution should be improved, because if NATO-led peacekeepers want to leave one day, someone will have to take care of security in Kosovo.
"It is a great neutralizing mechanism," said Robert Curis, of the International Crisis Group, an independent group for conflict prevention.
The first suggestion that the Kosovo Liberation Army would have a future as a civilian force came when President Clinton's spokesman, James P. Rubin, met with Albanian rebel leaders just as NATO peacekeepers entered Kosovo at the end of NATO's war with Yugoslavia in 1999. Today much of the funds for the corps come from the United States.
The United States has not presented any evidence to support its charges against those on the frozen- assets list, nor has it shared information with the authorities in Kosovo, and officials of the United Nations administration here say they were caught by surprise by the announcement.
Hans Haekkerup, head of the United Nations administration in Kosovo, decided to suspend the men and open an investigation into their activities. But without information from the United States government, the investigation may prove inconclusive.
General Ceku, the commander of the corps and former chief of staff of the Kosovo Liberation Army, said he wanted to see the evidence. "I respect President Bush," he said, "but as a commander I have to take disciplinary action according to a code, and I need evidence."
But he seemed ready to admit there may be something behind the allegations. "Even longer established organizations have bad apples," he said. "This happens. These are just five. I have 5,000 men."
NATO peacekeepers recently appeared to gather some evidence against one of the commanders, Re xhep Selimi, when they raided his home and seized weapons, ammunition and information about an outlawed military police group, a spokesman for the peacekeepers said.
The other suspended commanders are Rrustem Mustafa, still known by his nom de guerre, Remi, probably the most effective guerrilla commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army; Sami Lushtaku, regional commander of the corps for the Drenica area, the heartland of the Albanian independence movement; Daut Haradinaj, 23, the younger brother of Ramush Haradinaj, a commander in western Kosovo who has now formed his own political party; and Ramiz Lladrovci, who lost family members early in the Kosovo war.
Diplomats acknowledged fears that outlawing the men might only encourage them to join the fight outright in Macedonia. Remi was widely rumored to be heading into Macedonia to join many of his former fighters and commanders from Kosovo days, who are now in western Macedonia.
General Ceku has already lost his deputy chief of staff and some 20 to 30 younger members of the corps, who took leave and are, he presumes, fighting in Macedonia.
On a background of frantic negotiations in lake Ohrid, this article contains little new information, but it is noteworthy and simultaneously unnerving for 2 reasons:
(i) Given the hideous editorial policy of NY Times and the blatant anti-Serbian bias of Carlotta Gall, this article appears to signify a subtle but important change in the newspaper's policy. The article elaborates on the intimate connection between KLA/KPC and NLA, referring even to Ceku's own admission. It also refers to the KPC as being widely viewed as thuggish and as harboring terrorists. This is the good side of the article.
(ii) It is unnerving that the article (possibly echoing worries in Washington) instead of viewing posively the banning of KPC's thugs, it is stressing a concern for "backfire". Such perceived "backfiring" may drive the Bush administration back into a policy of appeasing the KLA/NLA.
None of this is real news, of course, except for the fact that it is written in NY Times, a newspaper that (along with WPost) is intimately connected with Washington policies, affecting and affected by it.
Exchanging articles and opinions in FreeRepublic is good, but the next step for someone who wants to make a difference is to have some sort of contact with decision makers. My advice is:
WRITE TO THE NY TIMES AND TO THE US GOVERNMENT! REFER TO ARTICLES SUCH AS THIS (because the US government does not take articles from other sources seriously) AND:
> CONGRATULATE THE ADMINISTRATION FOR TAKING THE FIRST STEP OF BANNING SOME OF THE THUGS' LEADERS. ENCOURAGE THE ADMINISTRATION TO FURTHER BREAK AWAY FROM CLINTON'S POLICY OF SUPPORT FOR THE MURDEROUS KLA AND ITS OFFSHOOTS.
> STRESS THAT THE POLICY OF APPEASING AND FAILING TO CONFRONT THESE THUGS WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THEM AND LEAD TO FURTHER AGGRESSION IN THE PURSUIT OF A CRIMINAL-RUN "GREATER ALBANIA" OR "GREATER KOSOVO". ANY INTERIM DEAL ON "LANGUAGE", "POLICE REPRESENTATION" OR OTHER "MINORITY RIGHTS" IS BOUND TO BE ONLY TEMPORARY.
>DEMAND THAT THE ADMINISTRATION EITHER GETS TOUGH ON THE GROUND WITH THESE "MURDEROUS THUGS" (Robertson's term) OR, PREFERABLY, SIMPLY CONDEMNS THE NLA IN THE MOST UNAMBIGUOUS TERMS, STOPS BANKROLLING THE KPC AND LEAVES THE EUROPEANS TO DO THE TOUGH JOB ON THE GROUND.
1 Posted on 08/06/2001 11:05:41 PDT by pythagorean
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To: pythagorean
Now we need to arm the Yugos and Macedonia. This will keep our arms manufacturers busy for a while. Isn't this the best business there is? Arm and support one side, then switch over and arm the other side.
The only problem is there is no money from the two sides. Uncle Sucker has to pick up the bills by taxing the suckers that support him. Life is just great if you don't care who you kill in the process.
2 Posted on 08/06/2001 11:33:27 PDT by meenie
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To: pythagorean
U.S. Attempt to Quiet Fighting in Macedonia May Backfire
The Mororns at State have never failed us yet. Why should they break a perfect record of incompetence?
If these GREEAAATT humanitarians of the UN, NATO and State really cared about peace and the fair treatment of people then they would be first involved in Africa before all else. What goes on there makes the Balkans, Middle East or Asia look like a Sunday School meeting.
3 Posted on 08/06/2001 12:40:38 PDT by Seruzawa
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To: pythagorean
Wait , it gets even better with this article.
Nato asks Serbs for use of bases
Tom Walker
JUST two years after bombing Yugoslavia, Nato is asking the new government in Belgrade for permission to use its military bases, as fears of a civil war in Macedonia grow.
In return, the Yugoslav army is looking for a deal with the western alliance that would allow a limited return of its soldiers to the few remaining Serbian-majority areas of Kosovo - a provision which was written into the agreement that ended the war, but which Nato generals have so far resisted.
All-out fighting between ethnic Albanians and Slavs in Macedonia would cut off Nato's main supply route into Kosovo, which runs from the Greek port of Thessalonika up through Macedonia. Nato would need to send up to 80 trucks a day through Yugoslavia, with stop-offs at army bases in Novi Sad in the north and Nis in the south.
"There are 40,000 guys in Kosovo - and they need feeding, water, tents, whatever. We've got to look at the alternatives," said a Nato planner who admitted that the options of going through the Montenegrin mountains or the bandit-infested north of Albania had been ruled out.
Planners have calculated it would take a year to build a suitable road through Kukes in northern Albania.
A source close to recent talks in Belgrade between the five leading Nato countries and Yugoslavia, said America,which is heading the negotiations, wants relations between the Pentagon and Belgrade to get back to where they were before Slobodan Milosevic came to power in 1987.
In the new era of detente between the former enemies, Yugoslav officers will be sent to Westpoint and Fort Lauderdale in America for training.
Details of a Nato supply line through Serbia were discussed at a meeting in Germany last week between American officers, the Yugoslav foreign minister, Goran Sviljanovic, and the Serbian deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic. The Yugoslav army is thought to be reluctant to give Nato access to some of its more secret bases.
For its part, Nato is still wary of allowing any Yugoslav soldiers back into Kosovo, even in almost wholly Serbian areas such as Kosovo Mitrovica in the north. "We believe it is still too dangerous," said one officer.
How comical is this ?
4 Posted on 08/06/2001 21:23:31 PDT by gajic
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To: meenie
Meenie, it never seemed that selling arms to any of the sides in Balkan conflicts has been a significant determinant of US or western European policy. After all, as you say, not much money can be made this way. The most important goal of US and EU policies is probably the geostrategic control of the area, a goal promoted by eroding the sovereignty of the local countries and the installment of weak governments, or outright protectorates, obedient to their western sponsors. US military involvement in the Balkans (besides being a largely criminal undertaking causing death and destruction) has proved futile and costly both politically and, as you point out, financially. The latter is of course directly payed by the taxpayer.
5 Posted on 08/07/2001 06:06:56 PDT by pythagorean
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To: Seruzawa
Seruzawa, I don't view the specific "U.S. Attempt to Quiet Fighting in Macedonia" that the article refers to as a moronic one. This attempt is actually an effort to distance the US from the KLA/NLA criminals that the Clinton administration actively supported. It is, therefore, a small step in the right direction. The morons in this case are Carlotta Gall and the NY Times, who have constantly applauded militant interventionism, supported the appeasement of Albanian extremists and criticized the Bush administration for attempting to change the destabilizing and criminal policy of their predecessors.
6 Posted on 08/07/2001 06:25:20 PDT by pythagorean
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To: gajic, balkans
• On the proposed usage of Yugoslav bases by the US:
It is not a crime per se for the US to have geostrategic interests in the Balkans. Political, financial and military cooperation should have been negotiated with Yugoslavia many years ago on an equal to equal basis. Instead, the US government, with the passive complicity of a largely ignorant public misled by propaganda, chose to impose its will by devastating Yugoslavia in a series of unprovoked acts of political and military aggression. The people of Serbia have a sense of honor, a spirit of independence and keen historical memories and for a long time will have no reason to trust the US. If Yugoslavia does make a significant strategic deal with the US, it will be doing so from a position of weakness, being a victim of blackmail, not out of conviction or trust. A blackmail could possibly be of the type "give us the bases or we will make sure that you lose Kosovo sovereignty". This would be a mostly under the table blackmail, unlike the overt "Milosevic for $" blackmail.
I cannot possibly know all the relevant strategic aspects, but I firmly believe that if Yugoslavia has a real choice, it is in its long-term interest to strengthen milititary ties with Russia - not with the current western Europe neither with the US.
• On the return of the Yugoslav Army to Kosovo, the political isolation of KLA/NLA leaders and other possible future western-backed developments that may "upset" ethnic Albanian extremists:
Honoring Resolution 1244 and allowing the Yugoslav Army to return to Kosovo and guard its borders is an integral part of the best strategy that the "west" can follow to get out of the quagmire that it created by supporting the KLA/NLA criminals. The centerpiece of the strategy is to unequivocally guarantee the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and FYRO Macedonia and make it clear to the ethnic Albanians that they will have to either live lawfully in these countries or go to their own land, Albania.
The KLA/NLA owe most of their power and prominence to western, particularly American, patrons, some of which are dedicated and some opportunistic (Dole & Dole, Dio Guardi, McCain, McConnell, Lieberman, Wesley Clark, Abramowitz, some in the ICG and Soros globalist crowd, etc). The myth that, if not appeased, KLA/NLA will turn their guns against NATO is deliberately promoted by KLA/NLA themselves and their powerful patrons in the US and Europe. The KLA/NLA leaders are not stupid and they understand very well that if they lose the western support they have enjoyed, any future military or terrorist acvtivities on their part will be futile and self-destructive. So they will prefer to shut up, stop these activities and continue with their more "peaceful" activities of drug-running, sex-slave smuggling, car-stealing etc.
7 Posted on 08/07/2001 08:02:30 PDT by pythagorean
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To: gajic
Grecce should blow NATO out of the water. Stop NATO before it reaches Solonica or has Greece become muslim like the US.
8 Posted on 08/07/2001 17:51:46 PDT by Cassian
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To: Cassian
Bravo my Greek brother !
The sooner the Orthodox Balkan nations unite together to fight our common enemies cannot come soon enough.
9 Posted on 08/07/2001 20:02:22 PDT by gajic
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To: gajic
Without Russia or at least the threat of Russian help....impossible.....I am afraid.
10 Posted on 08/07/2001 21:13:53 PDT by crazykatz
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