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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (14756)	10/7/1999 12:46:00 PM
From: MNI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Clark Ridicules Milosevic For Failures In Kosovo By Gideon Long Oct 7 11:07am ET go2net.com ROME (Reuters) - NATO's supreme commander in Europe Thursday ridiculed Yugoslav President Milosevic over his failures in Kosovo and said Italy's reputation within the alliance had been enhanced by the Balkan conflict. General Wesley Clark, never one to hold his tongue in NATO's rhetorical war with the Serbian leader, noted Milosevic had failed to keep control of the southern Serb province of Kosovo and was now struggling to cling to power in Belgrade. ``In January this year Milosevic told me that Kosovo was more important to him than his own head,'' Clark recalled at the launch of a book-length interview with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema on Italy's role in the conflict. D'Alema and United Nations civilian administrator for Kosovo Bernard Kouchner were also present. ``(Milosevic) failed to shoot down NATO aircraft in any significant numbers, he failed to destabilize neighboring countries and he failed to intimidate and fracture the alliance,'' Clark said. ``He failed to defeat the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) and he failed to enlist Russian materiel support to achieve his aims.'' ``He had to give up either Kosovo or his head and he gave up Kosovo. Now he is fighting to save his own head,'' he added. ITALY TURNED NATO THEORY INTO PRACTICE Clark, who will step down as NATO supreme commander in April -- three months early -- said Italy's Adriatic airbases were vital to the alliance's 36,000 sorties, which dumped 23,000 bombs and missiles on Yugoslavia during the three-month battle. ``Italy did a magnificent job during the war, starting with the use of its airbase at Aviano right through to the outstanding participation of Italian airmen,'' he said. ``It was Italy's leadership that allowed NATO's strategic theory to be transformed into strategic practice.'' D'Alema, whose book ``Kosovo -- The Italians and the War'' is based on an interview with the prime minister by an Italian journalist, said the Kosovo conflict had been an important test which Italy had passed. But he said Italy and Europe had to address the imbalance between their weakness and U.S. military might. ``If Europe wants to count for more...it has to seriously confront the problem of its own (lack of) strength,'' said the former communist who took over as prime minister just six months before NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia began. He called for a common European defense policy to allow Europe to act alone when Washington chose not to participate. KOSOVO'S FUTURE D'Alema said he did not favor independence for Kosovo but acknowledged it was difficult to see how the province could deal with Belgrade while Milosevic remained in power. ``It's not easy to imagine a Kosovo of the future tied in some way to Serbia but if you imagine a change in the leadership in Serbia it becomes easier to envisage,'' he said. Kouchner said the U.N's objectives in Kosovo were threefold. Firstly, it had to ensure the security of all minorities, including Serbs; secondly, it had to help re-establish an administrative network in the province, as virtually all ethnic Albanians had been forced out of administrative posts; thirdly, Kosovo had to be shepherded toward democratic rule. Kouchner rejected criticism of the speed with which the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) had acted since the province effectively came under international control in mid-June. ``I've been involved in several U.N. operations and I can say this one is moving more quickly than any other,'' he said.

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