[PEN-L:6060] Kosovo Postings

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

Just so that it is clear to all on the list, I forward many of the 
postings I receive from Sid Sniad who used to be but is no longer 
on this list.  I do not necessary agree with them either with regard 
to the 'facts' they convey or with their interpretation.  However, I 
think they all are significant enough contributions to the debate to 
be worth posting.  Those that I don't think add anything I do not 
forward.  So, if you disagree with any of these, please remember 
that they do not necessarily express my views.

However, there is one point I wish to make clear.  Through many of 
the other posts on the list, the assumption/assertation is made 
that NATO began to bomb to *stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo 
and/or genocide of Albanians*.  This is false as there was no ethnic 
cleansing of Kosovo and no genocide in Kosovo prior to the 
bombing.  If you look at the UN figures previous posted on this list, 
of the *refugees* from the low level civil war initiated by the KLA, 
about 20 per cent were in Serbia.  Given that Serbs represent 10 % 
of the population of Kosovo, then there was a far higher percentage 
of Serb refrugees driven out than there were Albanians.  
Furthermore, of the estmated 2,000 killed, approximately 800 (or 
40 % were Serbs), 1,200 Albanian.  If ethnic cleansing and 
genocide was being done, then proportionately there was more 
being done by the Albanians than by the Serbs.  Perhaps NATO 
should have bombed Tirana instead.

Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba