>>>Yet that was not the original justification of the NATO attack, which was
>>>based on the population of Kosovo being deprived of its right to self
>>>determination (within Yugoslavia - interestingly).
The one thing that stands out more obviously than any other is that Kosovo's 'self-determination' is the one thing that Nato is not interested in.
They have appointed a Frenchman Bernard Kouchner as the head of the "civilian" administration, and a German as head of the military. Such expressions of national will that are expressed in Kosovo - such as the attacks on Serbs, or the formation of an army are an embarrassment to Nato.
There was a fascinating article in yesterday's Guardian newspaper built on a press release of Medicins San Frontiers, the Nobel stamped NGO founded by Kouchner and now running much of Kosovo's health service. MSF were complaining that Kosovan women were 'in denial' about there emotional trauma after the war, and would insist on asking for sleeping pills for sleeplessness and aspirin for headaches. Those wise MSF people of course understood that the Kosovans did not know there own minds and insisted that the women have counselling. Not surprisingly the women were all horrified at the suggestion that they were mentally disturbed and told them to get lost. Sadly, shaking their heads at the inability of Balkan women to adopt the values of urban West Europe's middle classes, MSF concluded that they were 'in denial' and would have to be treated anyway.
The whole assessment assumed ludicrous proportions when MSF insisted that the tiny number of women who had come forward with stories of having been raped was evidence, too, of being 'in denial', and of shame. Obviously the MSF started from the assumption that Kosovars were victims first and if they chose not to act that part, their own choices were of no account.
Self-determination? Hardly -- Jim heartfield