The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.12           March 29, 1999 
 
 
Washington Prepares To Bomb Yugoslavia  

BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
After the delegation of Kosovar Albanians reportedly acquiesced to a U.S.-crafted "peace" deal, the U.S. media cranked up Washington's propaganda for launching air strikes on Yugoslavia. Round two of the negotiations in Paris is winding down with Belgrade still intransigent to accepting U.S. demands to deploy a NATO occupation force in Kosova.

"We continue to leverage the parties with the credible threat of NATO force," U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark told the House Armed Forces Committee March 17. The NATO commander said the military alliance is ready to bomb Yugoslavia if Belgrade doesn't buckle.

"No matter the pressure, blackmail, and ultimatums from abroad, Serbia won't agree to the NATO presence," declared Serbia's minister of information Aleksandar Vucic.

"The Serbs seemed to be bracing for war instead of preparing for peace," said the New York Times March 17. The big-business media reported on the movement of Yugoslav tanks and thousands of troops near the province.

Belgrade has stepped up a military offensive against the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) of Albanian rebels, who are waging an armed struggle for independence. Serbian military and police forces pounded the Podujeva villages with artillery and mortar fire all night long March 14. The next day a Serb military unit launched artillery attacks on the villages of Mitrovica, Skenderaj, and Vushtrri, the Kosova Information Center reported. On March 13 three bombs exploded in northern Kosova, killing seven people and injuring 58, mostly Albanians.

The Clinton administration, which opposes independence for Kosova, has used Belgrade's war against the Albanians' struggle for self-determination as a pretext to campaign for military intervention. Meanwhile, Belgrade is doing Washington's dirty work of attempting to crush the independence movement.

"There is broad consensus that, if necessary - and it may be necessary quite soon, that NATO is prepared to use military force," said U.S. defense under secretary Walter Slocombe. NATO officials in Brussels said 10,000 NATO soldiers are already in neighboring Macedonia for a rapid deployment and 26,000 troops could start occupying the province within one week from the time an agreement is reached.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the imperialist arsenal of some 400 NATO warplanes are in the region ready for action, including 250 U.S. aircraft. The air power also includes B-52 bombers flying from Britain. Several U.S. warships are also poised for attack in the Adriatic Sea, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

NATO officials are now making political preparations for launching a military assault, according to the Associated Press. The scenario would presumably open with a European foreign ministry delegation traveling to Belgrade to press Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to relent. If that fails top NATO officials would make the trip, delivering Milosevic a deadline to agree or face air strikes. A similar performance led by U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright ended in a fiasco at Rambouillet, France, last month when the Albanians refused to swallow the imperialist agreement.

The Kosova delegation announced March 15 that they are ready to sign the U.S.-drafted plan. The next day, however, head Albanian negotiator Hasim Thaci said he would not actually sign until the Serbs did, according to the March 16 London's Financial Times.

The accord mandates the UCK rebels to disarm and drop their struggle for independence in return for limited autonomy. Some Albanian commanders say they will continue fighting for independence. Adem Demaci, who opposed the deal, resigned March 2 from his post as UCK political representative.

Washington's plans for intervention in Kosova has accelerated its collision course with Moscow, exemplified in NATO's expansion in Eastern and Central Europe over strong objections by the Russian government and U.S. government threats to scuttle the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. The U.S. rulers are setting the stage for a possible military confrontation with the Russian workers state, aimed at reestablishing the domination of capitalist property relations throughout the former Soviet Union.

This lies behind the NATO expansion into Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which formally joined the Atlantic military alliance March 12. This opens the immediate prospect of deploying U.S. troops near Russia's borders. Already, Polish troops are deployed in Bosnia and a Hungarian army engineering unit has rebuilt bridges there. Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of NATO, to be commemorated with a summit held in Washington, D.C.  
 
 
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