[PEN-L:4608] NATO's 'Self-Determination'

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Hey, try not to take a position to the right of _Investor's Business
Daily_. Yoshie

Investor's Business Daily
March 12, 1999 SECTION: National Issue; Pg. A1
HEADLINE: YUGOSLAVIA'S BLOODY HISTORY
BYLINE: By Brian Mitchell, Investor's Daily

....The Serbs suffered their own holocaust during World War II, every bit as
bloody as the Nazi
genocide of the Jews. Many Serbs alive today have family members who were
murdered by forces
allied with the Nazis.

During World War II, the pro-Nazi ''Ustasha'' government of Croatia
originated the policy of
''ethnicko ciscenje,'' or ethnic cleansing. Some 700,000 Serbs and 50,000
Jews and Gypsies were
killed.

The Ustasha terror appalled even the Nazis. In early 1942, Gestapo agents
reported to SS chief
Heinrich Himmler that the Ustasha had already ''massacred or sadistically
tortured to death'' some 300,000 Serbs.

The report said the atrocities were committed ''in a bestial manner not
only against males of
conscript age, but especially against helpless old people, women and
children.''

Europe and the U.S. may have forgotten this history when they granted
official recognition to
Croatia and Bosnia after the breakup of Yugoslavia. But the Serbs hadn't.

''Once the Serbs were turned into a minority among hostile peoples who
murdered them a few years
ago, then they began to react,'' said Sir Alfred Sherman, chairman of the
Lord Byron Foundation
for Balkan Studies and adviser to Margaret Thatcher when she was Britain's
prime minister.

For refusing to live again under Croat and Muslim rule, the Serbs were
branded the aggressors in
Bosnia. With U.S. approval, the Croats were allowed to drive some 300,000
from the Krajina
region within Croatia, where Serbs had lived for five centuries.

Prospects for Kosovo

NATO opposes the right of self-determination for Serbs in Croatia and
Bosnia, but it supports the
same right for Kosovo Albanians, again ignoring the history of the region.

Both Serbs and Albanians have lived in Kosovo for centuries. They even
fought on the same side
against the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Afterward, however, most
Albanians switched
sides and converted to Islam.

Under Turkish rule, Albanians were favored and the Serbs who remained
Christians were
oppressed. The Serbs did not regain their independence from the Turks until
1878. They didn't
recover Kosovo until 1912. By then, the Albanians were probably a majority,
Stenton says.

The Serbs lost control over Kosovo in both world wars. Each time, the
conquering army favored the
Albanians over the vanquished Serbs.

''That's the problem,'' Stenton said. ''One side keeps being told the place
is really theirs, and then it turns around.''

During World War II, the Nazis recruited Albanians into the infamous SS
Skanderbeg Division.
Named for a 15th-century Albanian hero, the unit was used to enforce Nazi
control over the region.

After World War II, the Serbs did not regain control, however. The
Communists took over
Yugoslavia, led by Josip Broz Tito and supported by Soviet Premier Joseph
Stalin.

Tito created a federation of national republics on the Soviet model. Kosovo
was given a degree of
autonomy from the Serbian Republic. Albanian immigration into Kosovo was
encouraged, and Serbs
driven out during the war were not allowed to return.

In 1974, Tito granted Kosovo more autonomy in exchange for the support of
Kosovo's Albanian
Communists. The Albanians used their autonomy to push Serbs out of power
and out of Kosovo.

''The 1970s were an unpleasant time for the Serbs (in Kosovo),'' Stenton
said. ''The schoolbooks
were full of not Yugoslav Communist propaganda, but Albanian Communist
propaganda.''

Pressure on Serbs in Kosovo increased after Tito died in 1980. In July
1982, The New York Times
reported that 57,000 Serbs had left Kosovo on account of harassment by
Albanian nationalists, who
wanted an ''ethnically clean Albanian republic.''

Serb Backlash

In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic, then president of the Serbian Republic within
Yugoslavia, seized
upon the harassment of Serbs in Albanian [sic! Kosovo] to win favor with
Serbian voters. At his
urging, the Yugoslav government downgraded Kosovo's autonomy to the status
it held before 1974.

Kosovo Albanians responded with a boycott of elections, setting up their
own shadow government.
Some later formed the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Some analysts believe that the KLA has ties to the international Albanian
criminal network, which is linked to the world heroin trade.

The collapse of the Albanian government in 1997 made large caches of arms
and ammunition
available. NATO's intervention on behalf of the Bosnian Muslims in 1995
gave the KLA hope that
NATO might do the same for other people oppressed by the Serbs.

In December 1997, the KLA stepped up its attacks against Serbs. Milosevic
responded with a
crackdown that defeated the KLA on the battlefield but got the worst of it
in the Western media.

Today, NATO is still threatening to bomb the Serbs for not giving Kosovo a
vote on autonomy in
three years and not letting outside troops occupy the region in the period
before the vote takes place. Meanwhile, the KLA enjoys the support of
Albanians and Muslims worldwide.

According to Jane's International Defence Review, Serbian troops
intercepted a band of 50
guerrillas crossing into Kosovo from Albania in July. The group included
one Yemeni and 16
Saudis, ''six of whom bore passports with Macedonian Albanian names,'' the
review stated.

There are also unconfirmed reports that German and American mercenaries are
training and
equipping the KLA. Who is paying them is unknown, but analysts believe
their presence must have
at least the tacit approval of NATO authorities.

NATO Record

NATO's record in Bosnia does not bode well for Serbs in Kosovo, even if
Milosevic allows NATO
troops to enter.

Under NATO occupation, Bosnian Serbs live as second-class citizens. All but
2% of foreign aid
goes to Muslims or Croats. Serb forces have been forced to surrender most
weapons, but NATO
continues to train and equip Muslim forces.

Tensions flared this week when Carlos Westendorp, the NATO-backed governor
of Bosnia, decided
that local Serbs would not be allowed control of Brcko, the town linking
one half of the Bosnian
Serb Republic with the other half. Instead, the Serbs would share Brcko
with the Croats and
Muslims.

''The Brcko decision was a signal to the Serbs that we're not interested in
having a viable Bosnian Serb Republic,'' said Ron Hatchett, former Balkan
analyst for the Defense Department, now director of the Center for
International Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

''They just want to make it appear that the Serbs have defaulted on (the
Dayton treaty). Then they're going to rewrite the agreement,'' he said.