[PEN-L:3767] Re: Re: Re: Re: Serbia

[ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224]]

Barkley,
  I know you trace the problem back to the 89 elimination of 
Kosovo's autonomy and to Milosivic's policies, but I do think that is 
something of an oversimplification.  I was in Yugoslavia around that 
time staying with the senior civil servant in the Slovenian foreign 
affairs department and I can remember a long 3 hour discussion 
over what was happening in Kosovo and in Serbia and in 
Yugoslavia during the accellerating economic crisis and the impact 
on the other republics in the federation.  Also at issue was the 
federal fund for the development of the lesser developed regions -- 
the last major redistribution fund for regional development which 
was one of the grievances that Slovenia and Croatia had with the 
federation -- they were big net contributors of many of the funds 
going to Kosovo and there were all sorts of allegations of 
misallocation of the funds by the Kosovan authorities (e.g. the 
building of the huge, ornate though quite beautiful, library in 
Pristina) rather than it going into economic development.  That is, 
the fund was being used for nationalist monuments rather than 
development.
  My own investigation into the fund and the development planning 
in Kosovo indicated two things -- that the federal fund, because of 
the principle of self-management and the autonomy of Kosovo, 
could not determine the use of the funds and, secondly, that the 
Kosovan economic planners had little or no conception of 
development planning and I found little evidence that they could in 
fact allocate the funds in a rational or developmental manner.
  Secondly, of course, the Tito constitution had deliberately 
established a concensus machinery such that Serbia could not 
take any action without the approval of Kosovo which was blocking 
Serbia's attempt to deal with the crisis -- an attempt that to my 
mind was wrongheaded and doomed to failure in any case.  
Milosevic used this as the reason for ending the autonomy which it 
also did with Vojvodina with little or no similar opposition.  
Milosevic was also being pushed in a nationalist direction by Seselj 
and Draskovic on the right-nationalist side of the spectrum.  This is 
not to say that Milosevic was right or that he is a nice guy -- 
merely that his actions were propelled by the economic and 
political crisis engineered by the IMF, Germany and the US.

However, all that is not the point of my critique of Green.  Rather it 
is his claim that the KLA represents the revolutionary  working-
class trying to overthrow the fascist imperialists.  As you well 
know, the albanian nationalists are hardly the bastion of 
progressivism, particularly with respect to women's rights.  In any 
case, it appears that a deal has been reached but I do hope that 
any peacekeeping force is not a NATO one but rather a UN or 
contact group force including Russian troups.  But that I gather is 
yet to be negotiated.

Paul
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
> Paul,
>      As you well know, I respect your knowledge of the situation in
> Yugoslavia, both current and former.  I find myself very much at odds over
> the current situation.  I do not like the idea of US troops in Kosovo.  I
> agree with you that there has been a long term demographic shift with a
> political/ethnic push behind it by the Albanian/Kosovars to push out the
> Serbian/Kosovars, something which may continue in Macedonia.  I am also
> aware that the ethnic Serbs have done some pretty awful things to the ethnic
> Albanians in the region, and that much of the current situation, including
> over all of the former Yugoslavia, stems from Slobodan Milosevic's removal
> of autonomy from Kosovo in 1989.
>      It would be great to go back to Tito or perhaps some time in the 1980s
> and undo all that has happened since and "do it right."  But that is no
> longer possible.   Humpty Dumpty is now on the ground all in pieces.  If you
> were the king, how would you put him back together again?  Or more simply,
> what would you propose as the best possible policy strategy by the EU, the
> US, Russia, and the Yugoslav leadership at this point in time.  Various list
> members would propose a working class revolution, which might be nice, but I
> am not holding my breath on that one either.
>       BTW, Henry Kissinger, of all people, just published a column in
> yesterday's Washington Post criticizing the proposed entry of US troops into
> Kosovo.
> Barkley Rosser
> -----Original Message-----