In March of 1999, NATO and the United States started a bombing campaign in Kosovo to stop Yugoslavia’s repression of ethnic Albanians. After a three-month intensive air war that included mainly civilian targets in major cities, Yugoslavia surrendered, and NATO sent 30,000 troops to maintain peace in Kosovo.
Nearly two years after moving to Kosovo, NATO has failed to reach its objective of providing peace and stability. Since the NATO peacekeepers moved into the province, over 250,000 non-Albanians have been expelled, according to the United Nations. There are more than 200 unsolved murders and over 2,000 kidnappings, according to the intelligence consulting firm Strategic Forecasting. Nearly every day, there is another instance of a murder or a kidnapping of a non-Albanian. For example, in March a bus full of civilians was blown up while being escorted by NATO peacekeepers.
NATO also failed to fulfill its obligation to demilitarize the Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerilla group that fought for the independence of Kosovo from Yugoslavia. The KLA has since turned into one of the most brutal terrorist organizations, smuggling drugs and weapons into the country and forcing women and children into slavery and prostitution from Kosovo, Macedonia and Southern Serbia.
What exactly is NATO doing? When the KLA fighters from Kosovo began attacks on Serbia, NATO did nothing. Now that Macedonia is drawn into the conflict, instead of dealing with the terrorists, NATO wants Yugoslav troops to return to protect the buffer zone and fight Albanians who are the same troops that NATO fought to force out of Kosovo.
NATO failed to calculate the complexity of the situation in the Balkans. Two years ago it was easy to convince the public to bomb Yugoslavia. Milosevic was the bad guy responsible for ethnically cleansing innocent Albanians, while the KLA were the freedom fighters. But now that Milosevic is gone and NATO moved in, what is happening?
Ethnic cleansing has not stopped, but it has been reversed. The Albanians want an independent Kosovo, and they are willing to do anything to get it. They are ethnically cleansing all non-Albanians from Kosovo, and attacking anyone and everyone from Serbs to Macedonians to the NATO troops. KLA is not fighting for civil rights but rather for the creation of a Greater Albanian state controlled by the KLA.
For years Kosovo has been the hub of the Balkan drug trafficking route that smuggles over $400 million of heroin a year, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Most of the funding for the KLA comes from this drug money. Kosovo is also the center of other criminal activity, such as prostitution, and illegal immigration and the smuggling of stolen goods.
NATO appears to be more interested in protecting the lives of its peacekeepers than accomplishing its mission. If NATO soldiers do not leave their barracks and do the job they were sent to do, Europe is bound for another war. By not intervening and preventing the terrorists, NATO is indirectly supporting their ethnic cleansing and the creation of the Greater Albanian state.
[George Bozovic is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.]
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