NATO General: Milosevic May Succeed
NATO General: Milosevic May Succeed
By JEFFREY ULBRICH=
Associated Press Writer=
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ NATO's top general says Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could achieve his objective of driving all ethnic Albanians from Kosovo despite a massive allied air
campaign aimed at stopping him.
Gen. Klaus Naumann, who is retiring Thursday as head of the
alliance's military arm, also said NATO, as a coalition, is working
at a disadvantage because it has had to sacrifice ``surprise and
overwhelming power,'' two key ingredients for a successful military
campaign.
The lack of those two elements has prolonged the Kosovo
campaign, he said.
``President Milosevic's mass deportation campaign appears
achievable,'' Naumann said Tuesday at a final press briefing before
he steps down as chairman of the NATO Military Committee. ``Our
military intervention can and has slowed down the efforts of
President Milosevic's instruments of ethnic cleansing ... but we
cannot stop such a thing entirely from the air.''
Air power cannot prevent a policeman with a rifle from driving
civilians from their homes, the 59-year-old, four-star German
general said.
``I think if he really wants to get them out, and if he uses in
the same way the brutal tactics he has used so far, he may have a
chance to do this,'' he said.
NATO's only recourse is to make it as difficult as possible for
the Serb forces carrying out these deportations.
``What we can do is make life for these people so miserable that they will think twice whether they should continue,'' he said.
Naumann insisted the air campaign is working, but said it is
taking time.
``Quite frankly and honestly, we did not succeed in our initial
attempt to coerce Milosevic through air strikes to accept our
demands,'' he said. ``Nor did we succeed in preventing (Yugoslavia)
from pursuing a campaign of ethnic separation and expulsion.''
Though it is still too early to begin thinking about lessons
learned from the Kosovo campaign, Naumann said the alliance was
going to have to give more thought to making war as a 19-member
coalition.
``We need to find a way to reconcile the conditions of a
coalition war with principles of military operations such as
surprise and the use of overwhelming force,'' he said. ``We did not
apply either in Operation Allied Force and this cost time, effort
and potentially additional casualties, and the net result being
that the campaign is undoubtedly prolonged.''
Still, Milosevic is in a difficult position, Naumann said. While
he has largely defeated the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, they have
not been eliminated, and their numbers are growing.
``President Milosevic is proving to be the best recruiting
sergeant for the KLA,'' he said. ``Consequently, the fighting will
go on, and, if the trend continues, over time President Milosevic
is doomed to fail.''
One of the main difficulties in waging the campaign against
Belgrade has been orders from NATO's political leadership to avoid
civilian casualties, what Naumann calls ``a most unfortunate
byproduct of our military actions.''
He said NATO has flown roughly 15,000 sorties. Of those, about 5,000 have been actual attack aircraft. Each carried an average of three weapons.
``So you end up with some 15,000 or more pieces of ordnance
being dropped, and six went wrong,'' he said. ``I think that is,
all in all, a remarkable expression of the precaution we are taking
to avoid civilian casualties.''