KOSOVO: U.S. Warns of Looming NATO Attack

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8 1998 (IPS) - Western diplomats said Thursday an attack on Yugoslavia by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces appeared imminent, unless Yugoslav security forces withdraw from Kosovo.

The bitter rhetoric over Kosovo stepped up sharply with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright telling NATO’s leadership in Brussels it was time “to take the difficult but necessary decision to authorise military force if (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic fails to comply” with U.N. demands for troop withdrawal from Kosovo.

“We would prefer, we would far prefer, to secure President Milosevic’s compliance with the will of the international community in a peaceful manner,” U.S. President Bill Clinton said in Washington. “But NATO must be prepared to act militarily to protect our interests, to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe in the Balkans.”

A U.N. source told IPS that he was convinced Washington would make good on those words by pushing for air strikes on Yugoslavia within the next few days. Sources say the order could come as early as Saturday, when NATO’s governing North Atlantic Council is to meet to discuss the crisis.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook held out the hope Thursday that talks between U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and Milosevic could yield a Yugoslav pullback and halt to fighting. But he insisted that any agreement include the return of Kosovar refugees to their homes, Yugoslav cooperation with a U.N. war crimes tribunal, and the withdrawal of Belgrade’s troops to positions they held before the crackdown began in March.

“Any settlement that offers compliance with (U.N. resolutions) must be irreversible,” Cook added, calling for “full and credible verification” of any deal.

U.S. officials believed some 11,000 troops and as many as 14,000 Serb and Yugoslav police and security forces remained in Kosovo, despite signs of some withdrawals in recent days.

The momentum for attack has built up sharply over the same period, belying the insistence by Russia and China that no attack could be staged without a new authorisation to do so by the U.N. Security Council – where both nations hold veto power.

Albright insisted Thursday, however, that NATO has all the authority it needs under previous resolutions to use force in Kosovo. She criticised the withdrawal of some 10,000 troops from Kosovo in recent days as only “cosmetic gestures.”

“What we have seen is a televised show of soldiers leaving Kosovo,” she said. “What we need is a complete and verifiable withdrawal of the forces responsible for the violence.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week reported that Yugoslav security forces have committed collective punishments among Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, including killings and the destruction of thousands of homes. U.N. officials estimate that more than 200,000 Albanians have fled their homes and are facing a humanitarian crisis as severe weather hits the region.

For months, European nations have been divided on how to handle Milosevic’s crackdown on the separatist Kosovar Liberation Army, which wants independence for what even the United States recognises is a Yugoslav province.

Russia threatened to veto any explicit authorisation of force in the Security Council, calling the Kosovo crisis an internal Yugoslav affair. Several European NATO members – among them, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Greece – have argued that Council authorisation is required before NATO can use force in Kosovo.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, for example, has asked for “legitimation” of any NATO action, and his shaky leftist-backed coalition is wary of any unauthorised use of force. The incoming German government will likely have the pacifist Green movement in key positions including the foreign ministry, and may be angered if Washington leads any sudden push for air strikes.

However, Albright and Cook met the Russian, Italian and German foreign ministers at London’s Heathrow Airport Thursday night, and Cook said later that all were in agreement about the need for Milosevic to comply with U.N. demands for a withdrawal and halt to fighting.

Political calculations in Washington are likely to compel a tough stance from Clinton over the next few days.

The president has been battered by the Republican-led Congress, which Thursday voted to allow an impeachment inquiry to investigate whether he lied under oath about an affair with a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Republican officials already have begun to doubt the timing of any new NATO activity with the Lewinsky hearings and Congressional elections in November looming.