[ALBSA-Info] Christiane Amanpour on Kosova

[Iris Pilika]

Year in Review Special (undated)

news analysis:
NATO's war in Kosovo over human
rights has far-reaching effects

By Christiane
Amanpour
CNN Chief International
Correspondent
Special to CNN
Interactive

(CNN) -- The most important
international story of 1999
was unquestionably the
Kosovo War. It was not only
dramatic, but also it had
far-reaching, significant
implications for international policy-making.

Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic had been cracking down
on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority for 10 years, stripping
the province of autonomy, jailing political activists and
prompting the dismissal of tens of thousands of Kosovo
Albanians. But in 1998 the Kosovo Liberation Army, a
guerrilla force, began to fight back.

The Yugoslav army and special paramilitary forces
launched a savage crackdown, killing not only members of
the KLA, but also thousands of civilians.

          Soon the world was
          witnessing the kind of
          carnage that had taken
          place in Bosnia, which
          declared its independence
          from Yugoslavia in 1992.
          But this time the
          international community was
          not going wait as long as it
          did to end the bloodshed in
          Bosnia.

By 1999 it was clear Milosevic and his regime in Belgrade
would not negotiate seriously to end the conflict, so in
March NATO went to war to protect Kosovo's Albanians.

It was NATO's first war, and the first war ever waged not for
national or economic interests, but for human rights. By
early June, NATO had bombed Milosevic into suing for
peace. Yugoslav-Serb forces withdrew, Kosovo's Albanians
went back home, and NATO and Russian forces went into
keep the uneasy peace.

Balkans lessons applied in East Timor

The effect of the Kosovo campaign was quickly felt in East
Timor. The people had voted for independence in August,
but the Indonesian Army and militia fought a bloody battle to
stop the people from claiming their independence.

This time the international community acted even faster than
it did in Kosovo. Within weeks a U.N. peacekeeping force
was in, the Indonesian Army was out, and the East
Timorese were venturing back to build their new
independent state. It was hailed as another victory for
human rights at the end of the 20th century.

This new focus on human rights has been made possible by
the end of the Cold War -- the end of geopolitics and
strategic interventions. This year saw the 10th anniversary
of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dramatic event that ushered
in this new era of global politics.

It is ironic that the former Soviet Union and all the
Communist countries of Eastern Europe have switched to a
more democratic form of socialism, except Serbia, which is
still ruled by an authoritarian regime.

It is especially ironic since during the Cold War the former
Yugoslavia, including Serbia, was considered the most
liberal, developed and pro-Western country of the European
Communist world. The end of this year, the end of this
century, sees the opposition in Serbia in an uncertain fight
to oust Slobodan Milosevic.

Freedom movement building in Iran

Dramatic events are unfolding in Iran, site of the world's first
Islamic revolution, and say some, this century's last great
revolution.

Millions of young Iranians are
demonstrating for more freedom.
There is a real battle between the
majority who support a more open
democratic Iran and those
conservative hard-liners who want to
keep a closed, strictly religious state.
A freedom movement is building
momentum in Iran. Its most visible
face is the moderate President
Mohammad Khatami, elected in a landslide two and a half
years ago.

Revolutionary Iran has had a tremendous impact on world
politics during the last 20 years of this century. Early in the
21st century Iranians will go to the polls in crucial
parliamentary elections, a vote that will decide whether
reformers or hard-liners win, a vote that will decide the
shape of the future Iran.

Christiane Amanpour is CNN's chief international
correspondent and co-anchor of CNN's The World Today,
weeknights 8-9 p.m. (ET). Her most recent assignments
have sent her to Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Haiti, Algeria and Rwanda. No
U.S. network correspondent has reported as continuously
from the ethnically torn Balkans.