Serbs may back rebel republic in Kosovo

BELGRADE will sponsor a breakaway Serbian mini-state in Kosovo if the West prevents Serbian troops returning to the province to guarantee Serb rights, Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian Prime Minister, said yesterday.

In an interview with The Times, Dr Djindjic dismissed the American contention that it is too early to discuss Kosovo, saying that its hard-won democracy could be at risk.

This month, the United States issued a statement saying that it was concerned with developments in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo and said that any attempt to force the pace of change could lead to instability.

Dr Djindjic said nationalist extremists could regain power in Belgrade in elections next year if the international community did not stop Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority obtaining independence, which, he argued, the UN was already fostering.

“What is going on is the transfer of all sovereignty to the Kosovar institutions,” he said. “This didn’t just happen. It was planned. International institutions are creating a fully independent Kosovo. By passing laws in Kosovo’s parliament they don’t care what happens in Serbia.”

Dr Djindjic, a formidable opponent of Slobodan Milosevic, received Western support after the former Yugoslav President was overthrown in 2000.

Recently, however, his increasingly patriotic stance has alarmed Western diplomats. But Dr Djindjic is now concerned about a nationalist backlash.

He said that the powers of Kosovo’s parliament, elected under the auspices of the UN interim administration, exceeded the “substantial autonomy”, envisaged under UN Resolution 1244.

According to Dr Djindjic, this outrages Serb refugees from Kosovo in Serbia, who make up about 15 per cent of the electorate.

“They would explode if Kosovo became fully independent. People would say my Government was not defending them,” he said.

“It is time to put our cards on the table. The international community should say how it imagines the future. I don’t think that democratic government can survive if we don’t do enough now.

“Next year we have elections. Kosovo will be the issue. We can’t say it is not time now. We can offer a solution from Belgrade’s side but, if we say we are unable to do that, nationalistic forces will say: ‘We have a solution’.”

Dr Djindjic said that “a thousand or a few hundred” Serb troops should be deployed in Kosovo to enable Serb refugees to return.

“None of the promises have been implemented. All the promises to the Albanian side have been implemented but nothing on the Serbian side.”

“I can leave office and say: ‘OK, I can’t handle this’. But what will come after this Government? In the 2002 elections, the extreme nationalists, led by (Radical Party leader Vojislav) Seselj, got 30 per cent.”

Dr Djindjic denies courting nationalist votes, saying he is entrenched politically because he has outmanoeuvred his rival, Vojislav Kostunica.

Mr Kostunica became Yugoslav President after Milosevic’s downfall but was marginalised when Yugoslavia became the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

“Some people say this is an attempt to get support. I don’t need that now. Kostunica is not competition,” he said.

“My proposal is to give the Kosovo Serbs constitutional rights and the institutional tools to protect their interests. As a first step it would be enough for the Serbs to be recognised like the Croats in the Bosnian federation. The Croats were 17 per cent and they got a third of representation. In 1999, Kosovo’s Serbs were 18 per cent.

“The people say: ‘Why do Albanians in Macedonia come into the constitution and why do Croats in Bosnia? Why South Tyrol? Why ten other situations?’ What should I answer?” Without a Western-brokered compromise, he said Belgrade would not shrink from partition; with the Serb majority in northern Kosovo, next to Serbia proper, forming a breakaway mini-state similar to the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia.

Ethnic Albanian leaders would oppose that since the province’s mineral wealth is in the north around the city of Mitrovica and war could erupt again in Kosovo threatening Nato peacekeepers.

But you must be so proud, A'Brit' - all those bombs, destruction, cluster bombing civilians, destroying a TV station and commuter train, breaking the Geneva Convention... and all for absolutely nothing. I notice that your entire response consists only of a few picked out cut & pastes and absolutely no comment from you at all. That’s a lazy methodology. Mind you, when you did add your opinion in the past it was to say things in support of revenge killings of innocent people in Kosovo by the KLA, so I don’t blame you for keeping your head low.

Let me tell you that I am against our troops being misused or used to break international law - this is one aspect of this which you have missed entirely throughout your pro-Blair stance over needlessly killing Serbs (and others) and attacking Yugoslavia. Troops sign up to defend Queen and Country, not to be used in this abominable manner so that Blaair can play evangelist draped in the colours of the Albanian flag in some camp in Macedonia. Those troops currently in Kosovo need not be there if the entire matter had been dealt with differently. Kosovo could have been resolved diplomatically.

It remains interesting to me why, with no ideas or thoughts of your own on the matter other than the official line, you vehemently hate anything or anyone Serbian (for whatever reason), and probably still think that the Kosovo ‘campaign’ was a success. Why can't you even consider anything outside of what President Blaair tells you? You should be able to visit and enjoy a nice relaxing holiday in the newly liberated province - then you can report back.

Your selections from the report (which isn’t even the same report, but never mind) are absolutely meaningless, they are mostly rebuttals by the likes of Cook to the original findings from the overall report that you have picked out.

eg) “50. The number of refugees and internally displaced people continued to grow, reaching 300,000 by September 1998”

…300,000 is nothing in the big scale of things… as I said earlier, the mass exodus of people started after the bombing began. This sort of number (300k) took place from Kosovo by Serbs and others fleeing the KLA after Nato entered; and also matches the number of Serbs kicked out of Krajina during the Bosnian war. The international community did not react to either of these situations (except to help during Operation Storm and not to stop the exodus while they were actually occupying and ‘protecting’ Kosovo).

eg) “86. It is clear that, as some predicted, there was an escalation in the violence against the Kosovo Albanians after the bombing began… …"They go on to report that "summary and arbitrary killing became a generalised phenomenon throughout Kosovo with the beginning of the NATO air campaign against the FRY on the night of 24/25 March."[201] The FCO itself has said that "around 10,000 Kosovo Albanians, many of them civilians, were killed by Yugoslav forces between June 1998 and June 1999…”

No-one denies that there were killings, but 10,000 ‘civilians’ between June 1998 and June 1999?? What nonsense - even now the numbers are not given as anywhere near 10,000.

In Jan 1999 Robin Cook said himself that up until that point there had been more killings by the KLA than vice versa (ie. by the state police). Hmm, separatists or police - I wonder which you would support in leafy Surrey under attack from a terrorist group?!

eg) “87. We cannot know exactly what would have happened if NATO had not launched its campaign when it did…”

Oh yes, the crystal ball phenomenom - we acted when we did because of what may have happened.

A’Brit’ you must be one of the few people left who even now think that the US and UK spent $billions to ‘save the Kosovar Albanians’ - if that was true why have they not responded to the even greater number of deaths and acts of violence post ‘liberation’? How nice to be able to believe that war is waged to ‘help’ people which have nothing to do with your own country whatsoever. And in order to justify an attack on a non-threatening nation, lies can be told on a massive scale to create the impression that genocide is under way - no questions asked.

For an overview, why not refer to the Blair Broadcasting Corps which did a summary of the Select Committee Report (and they are hardly know for having been open-minded about the entire ‘not-a-war’)? I won’t post the entire pieces, but here are selected highlights:

Tuesday, 24 October, 2000, 11:26 GMT 12:26 UK
UK Kosovo role slammed

The contribution of air strikes was 'at best marginal'

The British contribution to the Nato air campaign in Kosovo was disappointing, according to a report published on Tuesday.
The Commons Defence Select Committee report said the UK air forces were badly equipped and responsible for less than 5% of the Nato sorties flown.
…Britain's major contribution to the campaign was to drop unguided 1,000lb cluster bombs, which the committee condemned as "of limited military value and questionable legitimacy".
The 2% confirmed as hitting their targets was "distressingly low", it said.
…The whole Nato air campaign came in for criticism from the committee.
"The strikes against fielded forces in Kosovo failed in their declared primary objective of averting a humanitarian disaster," it said.
"The limitations of airpower in pursuit of such humanitarian goals were clearly demonstrated and this lesson must be learned."
The report added that there had been a "poor kill rate" and that the contribution of air strikes to the alliance's military objectives was "at best marginal".

Wednesday, 7 June, 2000, 13:51 GMT 14:51 UK
Kosovo campaign 'illegal', say MPs

Nato's bombing campaign was not sanctioned by the UN
A committee of MPs has issued a report strongly criticising the conduct, strategy and judgement of Nato's war against Serbia.
The Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said the military campaign was of "dubious legality", but added that Nato's intervention on behalf of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population had been justifiable on moral grounds. {I know that you’ll love that bit!}
The MPs said Nato had made a "serious misjudgement" when the alliance failed to predict the mass expulsions from Kosovo that followed their air strikes on Serbia.
…The cross party committee is now urging the government to publish Nato's assessment of why it had not foreseen Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's response, given the "over-riding public interest" in what happened.
The MPs concluded that Nato has no powers under its treaty to conduct a war on humanitarian grounds without the consent of the United Nations.
…The report said: "We conclude that Nato's military action, if of dubious legality in the current state of international law, was justified on moral grounds." {Break the law and then judge yourself on moral grounds.. that should be interesting!}
It added: "We believe a very serious misjudgment was made when it was assumed that the bombing would not lead to the dramatic escalation in the displacement and expulsion of the Kosovo Albanian population."
…The committee urged the government to reconsider the use of cluster bombs given the risk posed to civilians.
It also called on ministers to justify the controversial bombing of a Serb broadcasting station in which 16 people died, and to disclose the outcome of the review into the error which led to the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by US warplanes.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.