gator, I agree with this analysis- we have blundered into a very big mess.... NATO Learns – Too Late – for Whom It Won a War
It is becoming harder by the day to justify NATO's continued collaboration with the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). A front page article in the June 25 New York Times
cites KLA commanders, former Albanian government officials, and Western
diplomats who claim KLA leader Hashim Thaci and two of his lieutenants led
purges of the KLA ranks, to root out and kill potential challengers to Thaci's
leadership. No one has come forward to say they witnessed Thaci or his
associates, Azem Syla and Xhavit Haliti, personally carrying out the killings, though
reports to this effect have circulated for years. Moreover, there have been
numerous documented accounts of people killed shortly after criticizing or being
threatened by Thaci and his associates, whose reputations for ruthlessness and
intimidation are legendary.
Among Thaci's alleged victims listed in the New York Times was rebel commander
Ilir Konushevci – killed in KLA held territory after accusing Haliti of siphoning a
profit off arms sales to the KLA. His death was blamed on the Serbs. Another was
Ahmet Krasniqi, a former Yugoslav Army colonel who, sponsored by the
administration of moderate Kosovar Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, brought 600
troops and $4.5 million to assist the KLA against the Serbs. Krasniqi, who Rugova
hoped would bring legitimacy to the moderates on the battlefield, was
assassinated in Tirana in September 1998, allegedly at the orders of Thaci and
with the cooperation of the Albanian government. Two more KLA officers, Agim
Ramadani and Sali Ceku, were killed in April of this year after opposing Thaci, and
their deaths were blamed on the Serbs. Thaci did publicly threaten Rugova's life,
after the moderate leader left for Italy and refused to back Thaci's self-declared for
government. However the New York Times' allegations have been denied by Thaci
and his associates and challenged by State Department spokesman James
Rubin.
What Thaci and Rubin have not been able to deny is the wave of reprisals against
Serbs carried out by Kosovar Albanians, including members of the KLA. Serbs
have been kidnapped, beaten, and killed, their houses and businesses looted and
burned, and NATO has been unable to stop the campaign. KLA soldiers were
arrested by KFOR after they were discovered with bound, beaten, and dead
prisoners in a police station in Kosovo. A Serb professor and two Serb workers
were found bound and shot to death at the University of Pristina. KLA troops
reportedly overran the Devic monastery, looted and vandalized it, terrorized the
priest and nuns with gunfire, and raped at least one nun. KLA officials deny their
troops' involvement in the attacks on Serbs, charging that civilian youth and
criminals are posing as KLA members and donning the uniforms and insignia of
the group. They do not explain why Albanian civilians would want to frame the KLA
for such crimes.
The Serb press raises more questions about the advisability of cooperating with
the KLA in reports that the KLA, unhappy with Italian troops' defense of Serbs in
Pec, fired at visiting Italian foreign Minister Lamberto Dini. This report has not been
confirmed by other sources. Also, according to a reporter for Jane's Intelligence
Review, evidence recovered last December from Osama bin Laden- linked
terrorists in Yemen includes video footage of the terrorists training with the KLA in
either Kosovo or Albania. While adding these new reports, allegations, and
evidence to previous reports of KLA links to Middle East terrorists and drug and
gun trafficking, one can only question the willingness and speed with which NATO
has come to accept the KLA's de facto leadership role in Kosovo.
The problem is, NATO simply has no options. It has so elevated the KLA
throughout Operation Allied Force, so marginalized Rugova and the moderates,
and so demonized the Serbs, that it can not now tear down Thaci's organization.
NATO was successfully manipulated into waging a war on behalf of the KLA and its
backers in the Albanian government. NATO is now learning that it is impossible not
to take sides in a conflict. Unless it is now willing to combat the KLA and take
complete and sole military and political control of the province, it has just handed
control of Kosovo to a group no more nor less ethical and humane than Arkan's
Tigers. NATO attempted to wage an even-handed humanitarian war to impose a
peaceful tie between hostile camps engaged in a very messy, centuries-old blood
feud. Now, too late, it learns what it stepped into.
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