Back in November, under the subject line of Re: Autonomy? (Re: Kosovars Gained Autonomy with Fewer Losses than Expected), W. Kiernan said:
> In fact the threat of intervention did successfully prevent further
> mass murder, or at least it might have; in the middle of March
> Belgrade had been pressured to the point that they were willing to
> allow troops in U.N. uniforms occupy Kosovo. This was BEFORE the
> bombing began.
And Nathan Newman sneered:
> Okay, this counteroffer existed, or so it is claimed. I've yet to see
> the exact wording. Can you post the language proposed by Milosevic?
And I was mildly incensed, so I flounced off to Lexis to track it down. I remembered clearly a story about the Serbian parliament passing resolutions that okayed such a counteroffer days before the bombing; I think I read about it both in a Cockburn column and on ZNET. But I couldn't find a trace of it in any mainstream paper. This only aggravated my chase lust further, and I called in all the favors I could think of, including a friend at the Wall Street Journal who has a close colleague in Belgrade, and Elena, who has several academic friends in Serbia. And now, a month later, I've come to the sad conclusion that Nathan was right. This offer seems to have been a piece of propaganda concocted by our side. A resolution by the parliament is not a secret. If it happened, there should have been an ample trace of it. Of course, I would be happy if someone could do what I couldn't and can dig up some evidence that it ever existed. But until then, I think it's a weak point that we anti-bombers should retire from our arguments -- although I, for one, will miss it.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com