A rchive Date
[ 06-10-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Yugoslavia ]
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[Serbia doesn't need our 'help'
By PETER WORTHINGTON - Toronto Sun
October 6, 2000
The irony of Slobodan Milosevic's overthrow in Yugoslavia yesterday is that it could have happened a couple of years ago had not the United States and NATO plunged head first into the Balkan quagmire by taking sides in Kosovo.
Milosevic had been becoming increasingly unpopular among Serbs, ever since his dream of a Greater Serbia in 1992 turned into the nightmare of a shrinking Serbia by 1999. By declaring air war against Serbs over Kosovo and allying themselves with Albanians, President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and NATO guaranteed that Serbs would come together against foreign intervention. (To our shame, Canada was a mindless me-too of whatever America decided.)
Kosovo was a massive miscalculation - as has been the whole Balkan intervention since Day 1.
Now that Vojislav Kostunica is president via the street's revolution against Milosevic and his desperate attempt to negate the Sept. 24 elections, Americans may feel tempted to gloat - witness Clinton's smug public support of the "opposition."
If so, a big error - but keeping in character for the Clinton gang. By blatantly financing and supporting the Yugoslav opposition, America may be tempted to think Kostunica is their man.
Not so.
His election to power and Milosevic's defeat won't ameliorate every Serb's historical and emotional commitment to Kosovo and Serb outrage at being attacked. If Kostunica is seen as an American puppet, trouble awaits.
Shamefully, the U.S. has intruded in Yugoslav affairs. Last week it apparently warned that it would force down any plane leaving Belgrade with Milosevic officials.
Milosevic is branded a war criminal by the U.S. and NATO, but at the Dayton Accords in 1996, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hailed him as a "man of peace."
Milosevic's "crimes" pre-date Dayton - but the U.S. found him useful in bringing Bosnian Serbs to heel.
If he ever goes on trial, Milosevic could tell of Western chicanery, expediency and deceit - which is why some think the U.S. would prefer him to be assassinated, or lynched.
With Milosevic sidelined, the way is now clear for Yugoslavia to get renewed Western help, which will likely offend Kosovo's Albanians. They're even more lethal and vindictive than Serbs, who've mostly been "ethnically cleansed" from Kosovo without much protest from NATO peacemakers.
The Serbian conscript army is intact and disciplined, and it wanted Milosevic gone. Now they'll look towards Kosovo.
America's penchant for interfering in the affairs of others boggles the senses. Anti-Milosevic "freedom fighters" who took to Belgrade's streets and sacked Parliament are the same Serbs who were often equated with Nazis during the Kosovo war.
Reality is that the Balkans are quicksand for foreigners. We don't like to contemplate it, but had we stayed out of that lethal area from the start in 1992, there would be no Bosnia today.
Serbia and Croatia would have divided the area and an uneasy peace would prevail.
Bosnia, instead of being a cauldron of ethnic and religious hatred and paranoia, would have remained the most cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse and harmonious region in the Balkans, as it was under Tito.
Although Milosevic is gone, the Balkan story is far from over. History has just taken another step forward.
For the sake of future security, one hopes the U.S. backs off, leaves Serbia alone and refrains from "helping." Balkan people are adept at solving their own problems, if allowed to.
As for the future, Kostunica isn't Milosevic, but he's also a Serb and is unlikely to be a lapdog - as Albanian Kosovars are and NATO will eventually find out.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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