OK, Max, I'll bite. But then I've already said a lot of this before.
I don't know how Kosovar nationalism would evolve, but I suspect that any regime that would emerge would look more like Albania than either Turkey or Afghanistan.
As for what I think should be done? Well, I don't see continued bombing as getting anywhere, although I have already expressed the view that His Excellency has bungled because now the UCK/ KLA will have more recruits and credibility than ever before and he will need an outside force to protect the Serb minority from that increasingly strong group.
I have also expressed my support for an international force to be in Kosmet to enforce recognition of the rights of all groups. At this point I frankly don't give a damn who is officially sovereign. We are likely to end up with something like we have in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has been pointed out to be less than wonderful, although at least nobody is slaughtering anybody else there now. Certainly His Excellency would like to have Serbia/Yugoslavia be sovereign, and that may have to be granted as a practicality. But, he has lost all credibility as a defender of the rights of the Albanian minority, that is for sure.
Actually I can see the case that has been made by a number of people for a broader conference on the Balkans, or at least with regard to the former Yugoslavia, with a more general redrawing of boundaries resulting. Let the Serbs have the Bosnian Srpska Republika and the Croats Herzegovina, with the rump Bosnia independent. Maybe let Albania have Kosmet. I see little case for an independent such state and the UCK/KLA propaganda seems to be open to such an outcome, and I also see no case whatsoever for any kind of partition. Maybe Montenegro could be given independence too, given that they seem to be increasingly disgusted with His Excellency. They were independent long before any other part of the former Yugoslavia and mostly stayed with the Serbs because of being anti-Croat and anti-Turkish.
All of this is probably dreaming and I don't know how to get from here to there. Certainly the Russians must be involved. Maybe it can be done through the UN, maybe through OSCE, maybe through some other ad hoc group. But without the Russians, the Serbs (even if His Excellency is removed from power) will not go along. Obviously a halt to the bombing will have to occur either before or with the beginning of whatever serious negotiations take place. Hopefully something like this will happen sooner rather than later with the outcome not being too outrageous. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> To: pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu <pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu> Date: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 4:13 PM Subject: [PEN-L:5237] RE: Re: What's My Line
>> Max,
>> I think that you have gone overboard here on
>> your Muslim trip. I guess it was going to that demo
>> in Lafayette Square that put you over the deep end.
>> If you want to support Albanian Kosovar nationalism,
>> then get it right. Only about 70% of the ethnic Albanians
>> are Muslim. About 20% are Orthodox and another 10%
>> are Roman Catholic (plus, as His Excellency has noted,
>> there are Muslim Serbs, the Goranci). One of the buildings
>> torched by the MUP in Pec was the Albanian Catholic
>> cathedral. Hmmm. What is to be the position of all
>> these non-Muslim Albanian Kosovars in your Muslim republic?
>> So, I would suggest that you think a bit more carefully
>> about what you support. As the old curse goes, you might
>> get what you ask for....
>
>Like the Palestinians say, a democratic, secular state.
>
>Since you know a lot more about this than I, tell me if you think
>Kosovar nationalism, if permitted to evolve at all, would become
>more like Afghanistan or more like Turkey. Of course, there's
>Turkey and the Kurds, but the latter are a much larger, more
>nationally-defined minority than the Orthodox or Catholic in
>Kosova, hence more of a provocation to the intolerant, no?
>
>Or better still, tell me a better way to safeguard Muslims et al.
>than merely demanding that NATO "stop the bombing" while the
>Serbs run amuck in their perfectly normal counter-insurgency.
>
>mbs
>24 Deep End Ave.
>Way Out, Md.
>
>