© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

Toward an Endgame for Milosevic

 

By Susan Blaustein*
April 13, 1999
 
WASHINGTON -- With no end in sight to Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, it's time for the United States and NATO to commit themselves more clearly and completely to a set of short- and long-term regional objectives.
 
Most importantly, the international community must deny any further legitimacy to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a leader who has repeatedly broken his word, conducted a barbarous ethnic cleansing campaign against his own citizens, and destabilized and impoverished his country.
 
Specific policy objectives should include:
-- the complete expulsion from Kosovo of all Serbian military, police, and paramilitary forces;
-- the protection of, and care for, the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons still inside Kosovo;
-- the safe return to their homes of all deportees and displaced persons;
-- the active pursuit and apprehension of indicted war criminals, including those in positions of authority;
-- the indictment of Milosevic and other Serbian officials with command responsibility;
-- the dismemberment of the Serbian propaganda machine, and the ultimate removal from power of Milosevic.
 
Air strikes alone will not achieve these objectives. NATO must prepare for the immediate deployment of a ground protection force to Kosovo to secure and defend a safe region for displaced people. NATO also should begin preparations for an international protectorate in Kosovo that will guarantee the safety of all civilians and keep the province clear of Serbian troops.
 
NATO should also turn over all evidence and intelligence relating to war crimes committed in Kosovo to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. NATO must assist the Tribunal in preparing criminal indictments, including one for Milosevic himself. To that end, NATO should deploy, as soon as possible, a special unit whose sole responsibility will be the arrest of indicted war criminals, including those still at-large in the former Yugoslavia.
 
Alliance leaders need to keep the governments in Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania fully apprised of NATO policy as it unfolds. Now is the time for the West to assist these governments in their determined efforts to institute lasting democratic reforms. NATO should also uphold its commitments to defend Macedonia and Albania, and, to the extent possible, Montenegro, in the event of a Serbian attack.
 
Diplomats from NATO countries should reassure both Kosovar leaders and, in light of this weekend's assassination of a prominent independent Yugoslav publisher, members of the Serb democratic opposition, that the West will do its utmost to protect them and to help them regroup and reestablish themselves, in temporary exile, if necessary, and ultimately in a post-conflict Kosovo and Serbia.
 
Finally, it is time for NATO to seize or destroy Serbia's state-controlled radio and television transmitters. The West should also try to override Serbian electronic media -- long one of the most potent weapons in Milosevic's arsenal -- by broadcasting into Kosovo and Serbia from neighboring countries and from elsewhere in Europe.
 
Milosevic's mass expulsion of almost half of Kosovo's population has made it morally untenable to continue working with him. NATO and the Contact Group must now fully dictate the terms of a peace for Kosovo.
 
* Susan Blaustein is a senior consultant for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research and advocacy group specializing in Balkan conflicts.

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© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.

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