Discovering America

While reports of new clashes between the Yugoslav Army and Police and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are coming in daily, surprising things have begun to happen on the diplomatic front.  The pressure of the West, until recently almost exclusively directed at Belgrade, has shifted to include the Albanian side, virtually unseen.  “I think that during the past weeks the whole complexity of the problem has been better understood,” stated NATO Spokesman Kenneth Bacon, on Tuesday.  “Until one or two weeks ago, the whole issue was looked at in a one-sided way, and it appeared that the problem lay in the fact that the Yugoslav Police and Army were attacking Kosovo’s Albanians.  Now it is becoming clear that the Albanians have stepped up their demands for independence and their military activities.”  Despite the worsening situation on ground, no threats came from NATO this time.  On the contrary, in a way that is clearer than ever before it was stated that this organization is “interested in a diplomatic and also the most desirable approach.”

One day earlier in Washington, State Department Spokesman James Rubin sharply criticized the position of the Albanian side.  Even though at the beginning he observed that the main fault for the difficult situation in Kosovo can be attributed to Bilosevic, Rubin devoted the greater part of his presentation to those whom he called “extremist elements on the Albanian side.”  “Those elements should not think that they are spared of responsibility.  They should realize that their demands for independence will never materialize.  The international community will not support independence and will never accept a Greater Albania,” stated Rubin, stating that the fundamental problems of Kosovo’s Albanians rest in “denied independence, basic human rights, and the rights of a minority,” as well as that such problems “will not be solved on the battlefield with extremist violence.”

COOLING: Compared to the threatening statements which we listened to the all last month, these words represent a particular kind of “discovery of America”, and could be taken to mean that the short-term American flirtation with KLA has come to an end without the establishment of a lasting connection.  Namely, this organization appears to have understood all too literally Holbrooke’s taking off of his shoes in Junik last month, choosing to believe that this ceremonial gesture had far deeper meaning.  In the weeks that followed, it became clear that KLA is simply not ready to be included in the negotiations, because no one who claimed to represent them succeeded in proving that they have any sort of influence in the situation on ground.  What is worse, their various, self-proclaimed spokesmen and political commissars spent the whole week competing in passing the harshest judgement on eventual negotiations with the Serbian side, even though for the time being serious negotiations are not even on the horizon.  Thus Bardilj Mahmuti, who presents himself as KLA Representative Abroad, stated that a “war is being waged in Kosovo”, which is why “it is too late for negotiations”, forgetting in his enthusiasm that all wars, sooner or later, end on a green table, and not in a trench.  At the same time, KLA spokesman in Kosovo, Jakup Krasnici, stated in an interview with Pristina’s daily Koha Ditore that he does not accept the authority of any politician from Kosovo, not even the institution of the Albanian parallel state, and he especially does not accept Ibrahim Rugova as president of the “Republic of Kosovo”.  “Whatever kind of pacifist, he is simply a doormat”, he stated, and was only slightly kinder to Demaci, Cosji, and others.  Krasnici also stated the conditions under which KLA would be ready to cooperate with politicians: the “only” thing expected of them is to form a unified “national front” and to declare a state of war.  As much as those politicians are willing to sacrifice themselves for an independent Kosovo, certainly none of them is willing to settle for anything of this kind.  Namely, by doing this they would entrust all their authority (that is to say what there is remaining of it) to one organization which does not have a clear leadership and which is explicitly against a political solution to the crisis in Kosovo.

ARROGANCE:  With their extreme and fundamentally arrogant attitude, KLA managed to “cool” not only American heads, but also those of a good number of Albanian political leaders, who until now some hoped would proclaim these woodsmen “liberators” as their representatives and would give them the authority to decide about war and peace.  Now, after Krasnici’s insults and threats, event the most stubborn among them realized that they are dealing with people who only accept their own law and authority, and who can turn all their weapons, as soon as tomorrow, against “domestic traitors”.  Listening to Krasnici and others, it is easy to get the impression that as far as KLA is concerned, the list of those “traitors” is fairly long and potentially unending.

With this, conditions have been finally reached for the moderate current among Albanian representatives, which up to now had been suppressed by the “hardliners”, to get a chance to be heard.  Until recently it was impossible to hear criticism of KLA from Albanian politicians — some of them simply feared KLA, while others sided with it.  However, this week, in the capacity of Coordinator of the Albanian Negotiating Team, Fehmi Agani condemned the unreasonable demands of the “liberators” with a sharpness that was unseen up to now.

Finally, it should be mentioned that last week the Contact Group, which had on several occasions expressed contradictory demands in regard to Kosovo, had come out with a surprisingly unanimous attitude that Kosovo cannot expect independence, while at the same time it is preparing its own plan for autonomy.  More importantly, at the same meeting the Contact Group had authorized the American Ambassador to Macedonia, Christopher Hill, as its mediator for Kosovo.  He is a man with extensive Balkan experience (he opened the American Embassy in Tirana and was one of the key members in the reaching of the Dayton Agreement) who now has official authorization to represent six of the most powerful countries in the world (including Russia), which creates the conditions for the international community to finally speak with a single voice.

STEPS: This general diplomatic and political “grounding” does not appear to have bypassed Belgrade either, where the epithets “so-celled” and “self-proclaimed” have stopped to be used in connection with the Contact Group, and where Hill’s mandate was accepted without any comments, along with appointments of tens of foreign observers (civilian and military) who received authorization to move freely around Kosovo.  Beside this, the twelve-member OEBS Mission arrived in Belgrade on Wednesday with the objective of negotiating more permanent offices in Serbia (including Kosovo).  Thus, despite the referendum and public attitudes voiced by the ruling coalition, Milosevic formally accepted foreign intervention and foreign observers, while Western diplomatic sources claim that it appears that in due time he will also accept Gonzales, in return for Yugoslavia’s return to OEBS.

Everything listed above represents steps in the right direction, but the problem is that they are too small and too late in order to influence the situation on the ground with required speed.  Had this been done six months ago, around three hundred dead and several hundred missing would still be alive, well, and at home.  Concrete progress in resolving the problem of Kosovo will only be achieved once KLA emerges from its Romantic phase.  Unfortunately, until this happens, at least one long winter full of bloodshed will have to pass.