Renewed U.S. fighting
in Kosovo?
Instability in Albania
may spill over
By Jon E. Dougherty
¸ 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Renewed political instability in Albania
following the Oct. 25 resignation of Prime
Minister Pandeli Majko may cause the internal
feuding of rival groups to spill over into
neighboring Kosovo and once again prompt a
U.S. and NATO military response, according to
a published report.
"Despite their long history of conflict, Albania's
divided ethnic groups presented a united front
during the war in Kosovo," said the
intelligence service, Stratfor.com. "Now that the
war is over, however, the country has elected
the previous leadership and resumed its
internal feuding. It is likely this feuding will
escalate to a clash threatening to envelop
Kosovo, and forcing NATO to become
involved in yet another foreign ethnic conflict."
The resignation of Majko resulted in the official
transfer of power "back into the hands of
longtime arch-rivals Fatos Nano and Sali
Berisha, who will now directly compete for
control of Albania," the report said. "This event
... will have ramifications for the entire region"
because of "a new and potentially violent
disagreement developing between
ethnic-Albanian subgroups."
According to the report, "Albania has returned
to the extremist pre-Kosovo war leadership,"
despite the international community's efforts to
ensure a more moderate administration. "The
return of Nano and Berisha to power heightens
the danger of political instability, both for
Albania and the region."
Both men represent different ethnic groups
historically opposed to each other. "Nano and
Berisha are merely representations of Albania's
divided ethnic groups, the Northern Ghegs and
the Southern Tosks," said the report. It added:
"The Tosks generally support Nano and the
former communists; Berisha's supporters are
mostly rural Ghegs."
With the war over, both groups appear to be
poised to renew their ethnic fighting. But "in
the wake of Kosovo," the report said, "NATO
would likely interfere in the event of (renewed)
ethnic conflict." The dilemma for NATO,
however, would be in deciding which side to
support.
During the war, NATO sided with Kosovar
Albanians, whose ties are to Berisha but whose
ranks also contain former members of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, "whom (NATO) has
already allowed too much power."
"On the other hand, if NATO sided with Nano,
it would be supporting Communists as well as
confronting the ethnic Albanian population it
supported in Kosovo," the report said, adding,
"Neither choice is desirable."
During the Kosovo conflict, western observers
noted that the Albanians seemed helpful and
generous as they took in refugees and
supported their ethnic Albanian neighbors.
"The international community thought it was
finally witnessing the emergence of a stable,
almost healthy Albania," said the report.
"However, the tables have turned, and Albania
is set to pull its neighbors into its own internal
battle. NATO may again be forced to choose
the lesser of two evils in a distant ethnic clash."
In a televised debate with Vice President Al
Gore on Wednesday, former Sen. Bill Bradley,
a contender for the Democratic Party
presidential nomination in 2000, said, "We
need to find ways of using multilateral
institutions, like the UN, regional institutions,
like NATO or in Southeast Asia, to deal with
problems" -- like Kosovo -- "where we're a part
of that (solution)."
"It doesn't mean that you never deploy forces,"
he added. "But it means that if you do deploy
forces, the national interest has to be clearly at
stake and has to be consistent with values. And
if we're talking about the smaller areas, that it
would be better to work through multilateral
institutions."
Gore also supports limited intervention in
ethnic conflicts. "We're the natural leader of the
world. I don't think that's a chauvinist
American statement, I think it's a statement of
fact," he said.
"We have to accept that mantle of leadership.
And when there is terrible violence in the rest
of the world we have to pay careful attention to
it," he added.
Patrick Buchanan, the leading contender for the
Reform Party presidential nomination, told
spectators during a speech in South Carolina
on Wednesday he mostly disagrees with
continued intervention, either in Kosovo or
elsewhere.
"In the words of John Quincy Adams, our
greatest Secretary of State, 'Wherever the
standard of freedom and independence has
been or shall be unfurled, there will
[America's] heart, her benedictions, and her
prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search
of monsters to destroy,'" he said.
"The best way to keep the peace is to redefine
war on our terms," said leading GOP nominee
George W. Bush. If elected, he added, he
would re-emphasize "homeland defense" as
well as "project America's peaceful influence,
not just across the world, but across the years."
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