The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.38           October 26, 1998 
 
 
Accord Puts Off NATO Air Strikes, Deepens U.S. Intervention In Yugoslavia  

BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
The U.S. government special envoy to the Balkans Richard Holbrooke and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic announced an agreement October 13 in Belgrade, putting off the immediate prospect of NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia.

The night before, Washington and its imperialist allies in NATO had issued an "activation" order authorizing the air raids. The bombing was to take place within four days if the Milosevic regime did not withdraw its special armed forces from Kosova, a region in the southern part of Yugoslavia where 90 percent of the population of 2.1 million are Albanian.

Implementation of the accord will deepen U.S. intervention in Yugoslavia. It will place on firmer ground Washington's position as the major "European power," which has been established on the blood and bones of the Yugoslav people. Despite demagogic rationalizations, the U.S. rulers' aim is not to stop "ethnic cleansing," impose "democracy," or protect the national rights of the Albanians in Kosova. It is to establish U.S. supremacy in Europe and create the conditions that one day will facilitate the restoration of capitalist social relations throughout the Yugoslav workers state.

The accord calls for 2,000 international "observers" and NATO noncombat reconnaissance flights to monitor withdrawal of troops and police from Kosova that Belgrade promised it will carry out. The monitors are to be deployed under the auspices of the Organization of Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE).The leading candidate to head up the mission is former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador William Walker, who was until recently in charge of the U.S.-led forces in the Krajina region of Croatia. U.S. State Department spokesperson James Rubin said NATO has contingency plans to send troops to get the monitors out of Kosova if needed. "They will have backing them up a force that we are trying to put together to extract them in extremis," Rubin stated October 14.

Milosevic has supposedly promised negotiations that would lead to some kind of autonomy for the province. The agreement proposes postponing settlement of Kosova's status for three years. The Milosevic regime revoked Kosova's autonomous status in 1989 and has since ruled the region with sheer force - banning the Albanian language from schools, firing tens of thousands of Albanians who refused to sign loyalty oaths from hospitals, government administration, and industry, and insulting and brutalizing Albanians on a daily basis. Belgrade vehemently opposes independence for Kosova, the main demand of the majority of Albanians there. Washington is also against independence.

The near launching of NATO air strikes heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow. The two governments are on a collision course over expansion of NATO to Eastern and Central Europe, repositioning U.S. forces close to the Russian borders, and attempts by Washington to build a zone of domination and influence along Russia's southern flank, especially in the oil-rich former Soviet republics of the Caucasus region. Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov said NATO bombings would be a "tragic mistake" that would threaten cooperation between the two governments. Then Moscow recalled its representatives from NATO headquarters and a Russian general threatened to ship arms to Serbia. Primakov urged a negotiated solution.

The leadership of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) announced a cease-fire in the wake of the accord as long as its forces and unarmed civilians are not attacked by Belgrade's troops. The UCK has been fighting a guerrilla war for independence and has won popular support among a growing number of Albanians in Kosova.

Adem Demaci, political representative of the UCK in Pristina, Kosova's capital, said in an October 14 statement that the accord will legitimize the abolition of sovereignty for Kosova and attempts to turn a temporary cessation of hostilities into a permanent reality.

The Holbrooke-Milosevic accord was reached after a three- month offensive by Belgrade's troops in Kosova that forced about 300,000 Albanians, many of them peasants, to flee their villages and seek refuge in the mountains. As many as 2,000 Albanians have been killed or disappeared since the Milosevic regime launched its military assault at the end of February. Under the accord, the Milosevic regime is supposed to allow civilians to return to their homes. Scores of villages have been burned to the ground, however, or destroyed by shelling.

Leaders of the Democratic League of Kosova, the dominant political party among Albanians there that most openly identifies with Washington, praised the accord but also called for deployment of NATO troops rather than unarmed "monitors."

Smaller layers of Albanians continue to oppose this course. "The agreement is worthless as far as our struggle for self-determination is concerned," said a student leader in an October 15 telephone interview from Pristina, who asked that his name not be used. "It may result in postponing the war for a month or two. But it does nothing to deal with the root of the crisis, which is political: denial of national rights to the Albanian people. It's another game that allows Milosevic to remain strong and gives an opening to the United States to intervene for its own interests. We gain nothing. We need to rely on our own forces."

 
 
 
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