Foreign Affairs on KLA

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sun May 16 15:51:15 PDT 1999


Yes, very interesting article. Coincidentally or not so coincidentally, I picked it up in the museum area of London yesterday. The journal which I have only glanced at previously has all the advantages of being an establishment in-house magazine. It is rather like the Financial Times. There is no propaganda distortion for the dumb electorate. If you can endure the languid cynicism, it is pure analysis of realpolitik with imperialist assumptions lying pretty transparently near the surface, in a rather objective way.

I thought it worth highlighting and commenting on some key passages.

Although slightly pro Kosovan it is interestingly compatible on some points with Peter Gowan's detailed article in NLR, even though Gowan leans somewhat to the Serbs.

It signals confirmation of one of Gowan's theories: that the rival imperialist interests of the USA and Europe, particularly the Germans, have been a key feature of the pattern of involvement in the Balkans.

Thus: "The good news is that the Western alliance's response to the Kosovo crisis, however ragged, shows that some lessons have been learned from the bumbling in Bosnia. The Europeans no longer talk about handling matters alone but demand the presence of the United States." !!

The article is cleverly written and selected to say little about the opening of bombing on 24th March and to be useful whatever the deadline for which it was submitted.

It argues that the NATO strategy has probably failed (although it does so elegantly and not in any way as to be offensive to the diplomatic intelligentsia).

It gives evidence of the mass Kosovan support for taking up arms by 1997: "It was no coincidence that once the rebellion erupted a year ago, local LDK (Rugova's League of Democratic Kosovo) leaders immediately picked up weapons and became commanders of village units. By the time of the uprising, Rugova had lost control of his own party."

Furthermore "..on November 28 1997, uniformed KLA fighters had, for the first time, appeared before a large crowd. Before some 20,000 mourners at the funeral of a schoolteacher slain by the Serbs, two KLA leaders delivered a rousing call for liberation that was greeted with a roar of approval and thunderous chants of "KLA! KLA! KLA!"

He describes strenuous security measures by the KLA and the Serb "counter-terrorist" measures:

"My interlocutor was nearly killed some months later when two men with ski masks arrived at his unmarked office in Geneva and pulled out pistols with silencers. The assistant who answered the bell, although shot in the stomach, managed to slam shut the security door, no doubt saving the official's life. The would-be assassins were never apprehended. The office has since been closed."

(I rather suspect is it unecessary for the police allegedly investigating the ex-boyfriends of the late British tv presenter, Jill Dandoe, to be given such details, as they probably have them already.)

The article confirms that the Dayton settlement in 1995 was completed in disregard of the need for a policy for Kosovo if this was to be a true pax Americana.

Hedges describes at least two currents in the KLA. One of these was around one of the old Albanian peasant clans, the Jashari's, whose headquarters in Prekaz he visited three weeks before the Serbs attacked. On his return he personally counted 51 bodies, including two dozen women and children.

The other faction of the KLA was the product of the growth of Pristina University after 1974 when Tito gave the province autonomy. These intellectuals got hold of Hoxha's works on guerilla war. "a huge percentage of the KLA leadership come out of the university".

Like Gowan in NLR he confirms the evidence that in 1998 US policy was to cooperate with Milosevic to control the Kosovans.

"US Special Envoy to the Balkans Robert Gelbard gave what many have interpreted as a green light to Belgrade to go after rebel bands by announcing in Pristina on February 23 1998 that the KLA "is without any question a terrorist group". He went on the add that the United States "condemns very strongly terrorist activities in Kosovo". Within two week Serb forces had turned Prekaz into a smoking ruin, killed close to a hundred people, in ignited the uprising."

The article concludes "Led by the KLA, Kosov will separate from Serbia whether by negotiations or by violence."

Although according to the editorial policy of Foreign Affairs, this article is an individual contribution and not editorial line, its submission prepares the ground for abandonment of Clinton's line of trying to impose autonomy on Kosovo within the state of Serbia. It comes closes to revealing what I am coming to see as a profound feature of imperialist strategy in the Balkans - the containment of militant Islam, in conformity with one of USA's global strategic goals.

During the Bosnian wars the British Home Secretary was alleged to have asked reporters whether they really wanted a militant islamic state in Europe. The Foreign Office denied these reports. But it was interesting that for all the intervention in Bosnia, and the condoning of ethnic cleansing by the Croats, the US and the west delayed as long as possible supplying arms to the muslim government forces, even though they were being literally massacred with the weapons of the federal army that the Serbs had. The explanation was a vague one about maintaining international sanctions.

Subsequently it is said that in Bosnia under the NATO protectorate what they are most zealous about is chasing islamic militants. Karadicz by contrast is still at large.

Hedges not only predicts the likely failure of the West's strategy in Kosovo, he describes the hidden menace:

"if the Wests's peace push eventually dies, as now appears likely, the KLA leaders will swiftly become utterly disenchanted with the West and - as if they were not already implacable enough - turn to Islamic radicals ready to back another battle by Muslim's against Orthodox Christians. There are already signs that contacts have been established. The Serbs, whose information is admittedly often unreliable, say that Islamic charities in the Persian Gulf are giving millions to the KLA. US officials say they have detected ties to Islamist organizations and suspect that some money has been forwarded to the KLA. I saw bearded mujahideen, who did not look Albanian, wandering around the staging areas in northern Albania, a hint that there may be some truth to these assertions."

And interestingly enough a source none other than the Serbian Ministry of Information website has a picture of militant mujahideen, when describing the muslims of Kosovo.

So as the US and NATO agonize about how they can possibly risk a single Apache helicopter in Kosovo even though human shields as a matter of principle will continue to be bombed blindly from 20,000 feet, because there are no foot soldiers to protect them from shoulder held surface to air missiles, and while a row is said to have broken out between Blair and Clinton about ground troops, spare a thought for why realpolitik prevents the the USA from openly arming the KLA as it has armed proxies in so many other wars. Clearly it could impose any conditions it wanted. Even to be nice to Serb civilians. But something holds it back despite the noble aims of this war.

Although some agenda impelled it to rush into this war ill prepared and contrary to Pentagon briefs.

Could it be its estimate of its own imperial self-interest? And that one of those aspects of realpolitik is so serious that it cannot be stated on the record anywhere. The containment of militant islam?

Of course for marxists the way to avoid the Kosovans become influenced by sectarian muslim politics is by supporting and respecting their right to self-determination.

Chris Burford

London



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