Today, U.S.-led NATO forces are pushing to expand their military presence by increasing to as many as 40,000 the number of occupation troops there, installing a NATO-run police force, and driving ahead toward a de facto partition of Kosova from the rest of Yugoslavia. Conflicts among the imperialist powers--an aspect of the war from the beginning--persist. Washington has been unable to get full agreement among its ally-competitors in Europe on how to proceed in the region.

In order to justify the increase in military forces and the use of them to carry out imperialist designs in the country, the big-business media has focused on a number of protests in Kosova and Serbia, highlighting divisions and fighting between Albanians and Serbs, especially around the city of Mitrovica in NATO-occupied Kosova. The overwhelming majority of the facts and quotes cited in the ruling-class media narrowly and one-sidedly cover developments there.  
 

NATO troops raid houses in Kosova

On March 15, hundreds of U.S. Army troops--by helicopter, armored vehicle, and on foot--struck five sites in southeastern Kosova, seizing weapons, uniforms, and documents, as well as detaining nine people. Some U.S. officials have declared the raids a first step to "rein in" former members of the disbanded Kosova Liberation Army (KLA). The area, under U.S. control, has seen raids by a small group of Kosova Albanians across the border into Serbia.

The Pentagon played a central role in building up the KLA leading up to the bombing a year ago. The group originally was an organization that fighters for self-determination and against imperialist intervention participated in. But it quickly evolved into a pro-imperialist outfit, co-opted by Washington as the war drive accelerated.

The same day as the March 15 raids, French troops used tear gas and stun grenades on a group of Serbs in Mitrovica who were holding a protest on a bridge that divides two parts of the city. Fifteen people were injured.

A March 22 Washington Post article reports that anti-Serb militias are moving towards an agreement with NATO forces to suspend attacks on Belgrade's security forces just beyond the U.S.-partrolled border.  
 

'NATO forces digging in for long haul'

U.S. general Wesley Clark, serving as NATO's top commander in Europe, has been calling for more U.S. and allied troops to be deployed in Yugoslavia. There are currently more than 37,000 NATO troops in Kosova--up from 33,000 a week before. Clark is requesting a force of 50,000. His approach has consistently been to boost troop strength up to what would be necessary to put a freeze on resistance and conflict in the region.

The U.S. government initially refused to add any troops above the 5,300 already in Kosova until other allied governments field more. The Clinton administration later added another 700 troops. Only three pro-NATO governments--Britain, France, and Denmark--give NATO direct authority over their troops. A joint military exercise with air and ground capabilities, involving U.S., Argentinian, Polish, and Romanian forces, as well as from the Netherlands, was organized to take place at the end of March as a show of force.

NATO "peacekeepers" have set up "confidence zones" in Mitrovica--areas tightly policed by NATO troops where Serbs and Kosova Albanians can "freely" move around the city. The zones have "forbidden" demonstrations, the use of weapons, and unauthorized parking. Mitrovica contains 50,000 Albanians and 17,000 Serbs.

Over the past decade Washington's goal has been to get its forces on the ground in the workers state of Yugoslavia as part of is long-range goal of restoring capitalist property relations there. The U.S. government has sought to bolster its dominance over European imperialist powers. While maintaining its military power in the region, Washington has fanned the flames of war in the Balkans in order to wear down working-class resistance.

U.S. government spokespeople, the big-business media, and bourgeois commentators now openly talk about Yugoslavia as if it is a place where they make the decisions about the future.

Thomas Friedman in a March 16 New York Times column titled, "Get Real on Kosovo," posed very sharply Washington's choices. Accusing U.S. officials of wanting to pull back or withdraw from Kosova, he writes, "It might be momentarily satisfying to just walk away, telling both sides: 'You people deserve each other. Why don't you just slug it out and call us when you're exhausted.'" But that could open a door to even greater instability, he argues.

Friedman puts forward two options: "Use overwhelming force to disarm the whole population and then stand guard on every corner" to enforce stability or "disarm the politics by tacitly partitioning the country." He proposes adding to Serbia the southern piece of Kosova below it and in return the Milosevic government would turn over to Kosova a couple of counties on the border.

"KFOR troops have begun to dig in for the long haul," writes Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in an article picked up in London's Financial Times, titled, "Back to the Balkan drawing board." Yugoslavia and the surrounding region are "likely to remain under NATO occupation for years," she writes. Hutchison points out that Washington's military apparatus in Yugoslavia comprises the largest overseas military construction project--some 200 buildings--since the Vietnam War.

Hutchison notes that the Texas National Guard 49th Armored Division will soon be deployed to Bosnia for eight months, the first time National Guard units will be sent there as active duty forces.

"Long term western occupation is a poor foundation on which to build a lasting peace in the Balkans," she states, while advocating Washington "redrawing the border lines" and set up "Albanian, Serbian, Croatian, and secular Muslim states." While presenting it as a plan that "reflects the apparent desires of the people who live there," Hutchison's proposal is that sought by every great power for the Balkans: divide, conquer, and enslave for the benefit of the occupiers.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home