For the most part I agree with Barkley on his comments
on Kosovo but I would add a few considerations.
1. The most recent crackdown on Albanian
separatists was a result of the killing of 4 (?)
Serbian Police in an ambush. The police
responded by raiding the headquarters of a faction
of the Kosovo Liberation Army. One may argue that
the scale of the response was inappropriate to the
provocation, but I have heard little about the
American sanctions on Britain for its military
response to IRA terrorism (or the genocide by
Suharto in East Timor.) It is obvious that the
American response (and the British) is propelled
by something other than principle, though as
Barkely points out, what it is the makes the
US and Albright so war-mongering, I am not sure.
2. It is abundantly clear that, if Kosovo was
granted independence, it would immediately begin
ethnically cleansing the region of Serbs. In fact,
ever since I have been going there for 10 years,
there have been (documented) examples of 'cleansing'
done by the Albanians.
3. The 'poverty' of Kosovo is probably not as
bad as Barkley intimates. Many Kosovan 'families'
have networks of businesses inother parts of
Yugoslavia (past and present). Eg. in Slovenia
many of the fruit and vegtable stands, pastry
shops and even sum of the pubs are run by
Albanians (and owned by Albanians) who are
obligated by family connections to remit part of
their revenues to Kosovo. (i.e. a colleague
friend told me that when he was in the army,
an Albanian in his unit had to remit part of
his salary to his 'family' back in Kosovo. The
families ahve the same sort of extended nature
and coersive (though not necessarily criminal)
as the Sicilian families.)
4. The problem is almost sure to break out in
Macedonia because of the inequality in birth
rates between the Macedonians (Slavs) and the
Albanian minority. At the present rates it
will not be too many years before the Albanian
population excees the Macedonian as in Kosovo.
The Macedonians also fear ethnic cleansing. I
was told a couple of years ago (by a Slovene)
that the Macedonian government was exploring
asking the Serbs to provide soldiers to police
its border with Albania to prevent Albanian
migration into Macedonia. I have no way of
knowing whether or not it is true, but it
does sound plausible.
5. What is the answer? I don't know -- but
the US response is only making matters worse.
Already it has brought to prominance and
leadership the ulti-rightist and nationalist
Voyslav (?) Seslj who makes Milosevic look like
a civil rights worker. God save us from US
foreign policy.
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
