Multichoice (written) Test for you
1. Clinton saved Kosovars
2. Clinton saved Serbs
3. Clinton prevented Greece and Turkey to go to war over Siberia
4. Thaci would chose Sorento over Istambul
5. Milosevic is a lot smarter than Albright
6. Albright is a lot smarter than Al Gore
7. Al Gore is a lot smarter than Bill Clinton
Albright Warns Ethnic Albanians
Wednesday, 15 March 2000
W A S H I N G T O N (AP)
IN A stark reversal, the Clinton administration has sternly warned ethnic
Albanian leaders in Kosovo that U.S. and other NATO peacekeepers are
determined to defend the border against crossover attacks on police in
Serbia.
Kosovar Albanians "are in danger of losing our support" if provocations
continue, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a Congressional panel
on Wednesday.
But she said extremists were persecuting Serbs while "the large majority of
Kosovar Albanians are trying to put their life together."
Albright sent her spokesman, James P. Rubin, to Kosovo this week to
deliver the warning directly in meetings with Ibrahim Rugova, the president
of Kosovo's largest political party; Hashim Thaci, the former political
leader of Kosovo's rebels; and others.
"Although we are concerned about this, we do not believe we are drifting
toward a conflict with Kosovar Albanian insurgents," Rubin said
Wednesday as he returned. "And we are working to limit the influence of
extremists."
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that U.S.
forces raided five sites in eastern Kosovo and recovered weapons held
there by Albanians.
"I believe they understand the seriousness of the situation and that we are
coming at them as a friend," Rubin said. "I hope they will do more to
prevent these things from happening."
Some 200 ethnic Albanian guerrillas are believed to be poised to cross the
border into Serbia to bolster the guerrillas in attacks on Serbian police.
More than a year ago, similar attacks on police and other Serbs in Kosovo
prompted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to drive hundreds of
thousands of Albanians from the province.
This, in turn, triggered a NATO bombardment of the Serbs, expelling the
Serbian troops and special police.
In the end, ethnic Albanians took control of Kosovo from Yugoslavia.
While the current forays against Serbs in the Presevo Valley is on a smaller
scale than the earlier Albanian provocation in Kosovo, the violence worries
the Clinton administration.
"We are determined to police the border and not allow this kind of
cross-border activity," Rubin said.
The Kosovo Liberation Army, which spearheaded the rebellion against
Belgrade, "doesn't want a confrontation" with the peacekeeping troops,
Rubin said. "They are very careful of this."
The United States and its allies intervened against Milosevic's troops as
part of a bargain with the ethnic Albanians, Rubin said: "We made a
commitment: If they demilitarized and chose peace we would use force"
against the Serbs.
The Albanians have turned in their heavy weapons, but "there are more
weapons out there that we are still looking for," Rubin said.
The three-day mission to Kosovo was Rubin's second unusual assignment
for a spokesman. Last June, he met with Thachi in Macedonia, Kosovo
and Albania and helped work out an agreement in which the ethnic
Albanians drew back from their demand for a postwar army.
His regular appearances on television, briefing reporters at the State
Department, made him well-known to the Albanians and he apparently has
built up their trust in him.
On this week's trip, he made stops in Pristina, the provincial capital;
Kosovoska Mitrovica, where violence flared again Wednesday; and
several villages.
"There were very warm and emotional moments, with people thanking
America for saving them," Rubin said. "It's very touching when elderly men
kiss your hand."
Still, Rubin said he told Albanian leaders they were not doing enough to
promote democracy in Kosovo. They understood that the message - and
"a stern message to avoid provocation of the Serbs" - came from a friend,
he said.
At the Pentagon, an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Vic Warzinski, said,
"What we are trying to do now is defuse the situation before it gets out of
control."
NATO's commander in Kosovo, Gen. Klaus Reinhardt, and the top U.S.
military official in Kosovo, Brig. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, also "expressed
their displeasure" with recent violence in a meeting Friday in Gnjilane with
local leaders, Warzinski said.
Pentagon officials are particularly worried about the gathering of ethnic
Albanian guerrillas in the rugged no-man's region of the Presevo Valley.
For several weeks, the military has been tracking six to eight armed
groups, ranging in number for a two dozen to 200 each, some of whom
have connections to the former Kosovo Liberation Army.
Richard N. Haass, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings
Institution, took a dark view of the situation.
"I think the situation is deteriorating," he said in an interview. "We entered
Kosovo under the guise of peacemaking, and that context no longer exists.
Increasingly, we have to face the challenge of peacemaking, not
peacekeeping."
Haass said "Jamie Rubin's visit is not going to stop" cross-border attacks.
"It's going to require beefing up the U.S. presence along the border and
giving U.S. troops a more aggressive role to go after the guerrillas, if need
be."
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On the Net: The State Department's Kosovo site:
state.gov |
