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| WAR
ON TERRORISM SKIPPED THE KLA |
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| For
National Post |
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| U.S. President George W.
Bush has made it clear the war against terrorists will be
unremitting and relentless. Even those countries affording
shelter to terrorists will not be spared. These words come
too late for the Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and other
non-Albanians who have been driven from their ancestral
homes in Kosovo by the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army.
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| It is
too late as well for Macedonia, which has been forced by the
United States, the European Union and NATO to yield to all the
demands of the Albanian terrorists in that country.
This double standard and lack of consistency when dealing
with terrorists calls into question the policies the United
States and its NATO allies followed in the Balkans. It also
underlines the necessity for the United States and its allies to
clean up their act if they wish to retain credibility in the war
against terrorism. |
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| The
bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999 allegedly to stop
ethnic cleansing and prevent the Balkans from becoming once
again the powder keg of Europe has backfired. Kosovo has become
exclusively an Albanian province with the exception of a few
stalwart Serbians in the Mitrovica area who live surrounded by
barbed wire and are threatened daily with murder and mayhem by
their Albanian neighbours. The Balkans, since the end of the
bombing, have been in constant turmoil caused by the KLA
terrorist activities. |
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| NATO
allowed the KLA, which under the terms of United Nations
Resolution 1244 was to be disarmed after the end of the bombing,
to keep its weapons. The KLA was renamed the Kosovo Protection
Force and been given the task of maintaining peace and security
in Kosovo. How well it has been able to carry out this task is
summed up in a report dated Feb. 26, 2001, to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, which
accuses the protection corps of widespread acts of murder,
torture and extortion. |
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| That condemnation
should not have come as a surprise. As early as 1998, the U.S.
State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization
financing its operations with money from the international
heroin trade and funds supplied from Islamic countries and
individuals, including Osama bin Laden. This did not stop the
United States from arming and training KLA members in Albania
and in the summer of 1998 sending them back into Kosovo to
assassinate Serbian mayors, ambush Serbian policemen and
intimidate hesitant Kosovo Albanians. The aim was to destabilize
Kosovo and overthrow Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. |
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| Bin
Laden and radical Muslim groups have been deeply involved in the
Balkans since the civil wars in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995.
Despite a UN arms embargo and with the knowledge and support of
the United States, arms, ammunition and thousands of Mujahideen
fighters were smuggled into Bosnia to help the Muslims. Many
remain in Bosnia today and are recognized as a serious threat to
Western forces there. The Bosnian government is said to have
presented bin Laden with a Bosnian passport in recognition of
his contribution to their cause. He and his al-Qaeda network
were also active in Kosovo, and KLA members trained in his camps
in Afghanistan and Albania. |
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Emboldened by the knowledge it could achieve its political
objectives by terror, the KLA moved into southern Serbia and
initiated, under the eyes of 40,000 NATO troops, a campaign of
terror against the Serbian population. Not until NATO permitted
the new democratic government of Serbia to send the Serb army
back into the area was the KLA routed and sent back across the
border into Kosovo.
Macedonia, with its large Albanian minority, was the KLA's next
target. In February, its forces moved against this small and
newly independent democracy. |
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| The familiar pattern of
murder, ambush and intimidation followed. Unlike Serbia,
which still possessed a powerful and well-equipped army,
Macedonia had little with which to defend itself against the
well equipped and battle-hardened KLA fighters. The promises
of assistance made by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in
return for Macedonia's co-operation during the Yugoslav
bombing were forgotten. |
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Nevertheless, when the fighting started, it appeared NATO and
the European Union might help Macedonia resist the terrorist
threat. In March, Lord Robertson, the Secretary-General of NATO,
condemned the KLA terror campaign and described them as
"murderous thugs." He supported the Macedonian government's
refusal to negotiate with the terrorists. Obviously, Lord
Robertson was not aware the United States had other ideas about
which side to support in Macedonia. |
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| The
message was made clear in May, when U.S. diplomat Robert
Fenwick, ostensibly the head of the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe, in Macedonia, met secretly in
Prizren, Kosovo, with the leaders of the Albanian political
parties and KLA representatives. Macedonian officials were not
invited. It was clear the United States was backing the Albanian
terrorist cause. |
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| This
was confirmed a month later, when a force of 400 KLA fighters
was surrounded in the town of Aracinovo near the capital, Skopje.
As Macedonian security forces moved in, they were halted on NATO
orders. U.S. army buses from Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo arrived to
remove all the heavily armed terrorists to a safer area of
Macedonia. German reporters later revealed that 17 U.S. military
advisors were accompanying the KLA terrorists in Aracinovo. |
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| In
August, fearing the Macedonian forces might be able to defeat
the KLA, U.S. Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice flew to Kiev and
ordered the Ukrainian government to stop sending further
military equipment to Macedonia. Since Ukraine was the only
country supplying Macedonia with military assistance, the
Macedonians realized continued resistance against the KLA
terrorists, the EU and NATO was futile. |
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| Macedonia was forced to
concede defeat and obliged to accept all the terrorist
demands. When the peace treaty was signed, Lord Robertson
proclaimed, "This day marks the entry of Macedonia into
modern, mainstream Europe ... a very proud day for their
country." |
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