[ALBSA-Info] Congres Hearing on Balkan Policy

[Asti Pilika]

Testimony of Andrew Eiva, Washington Office for
Bosnia, before the House
Committee on International Relations, Hearing on
Balkan Policy, August 4,
1999


    Thank you for inviting the Washington Office for
Bosnia (WOB) to
provide testimony.  WOB represents eleven grass-roots
groups in the US who
came together to "hold President Clinton morally and
politically
accountable for the tragic consequences of the Dayton
accords" (Hearing of
the House Committee on International Relations,
September 19, 1996, p.
58).  WOB also helped those groups gain Congressional
co-sponsors to lift
the US arms embargo on Bosnia in 1995 and obtain
signatories for Rep.
Eliot Engel's (D-NY) letter demanding air strikes to
block Serb cleansing
of Kosova in 1998. 

    If you examine today's testimony by the preceding
administration
officials closely, you will find they avoided defining
clear goals and
interests, although that was the subject of the
hearing.  
To understand the goals behind most dubious conduct,
the first step is to
"follow the money," to ascertain who benefits most.

    1.  US Policy in Kosova Since the End of Bombing

    After the bombing stopped, our staff focused on
what KFOR is
really doing in Kosova.  We questioned US military
officers, regional
experts, and KLA members in Kosova.  Our research has
shown that while the
official Administration position is that Milosevic
must be removed from
power, in practice KFOR has helped Milosevic retain
significant economic
and military power.
    
    1.  KFOR is allowing the Serbs to retain control
of the $5 billion
Trepce mine complex.  The Trepce complex includes 20
major mines and
processing plants with tens of thousands of employees.
 The real estate
value of Trepce is about $5 billion. It has reportedly
made millions of
dollars for Milosevic personally (New York Times, July
8, 1998, page A4).
Trepce is the key to Kosova's economic future.  

    KFOR placed Trepce in the French sector.  The
French, who often
colluded with Serb ultranationalists in the past, 
immediately partitioned
the nearby town of Kosovska Mitrovica, letting the
Serbs keep the northern
half, where the valuable Trepce-related plants and
factories are located.
The Serbs had already cleansed the Kosovars from this
northern part, where
they had been a pre-war majority.  When Kosovar
refugees tried to return
home, French troops blocked their way.  The Trepce
complex remains under
Milosevic's control.  Meanwhile, behind the KFOR
shield, hundreds of Serbs
are being moved into the Trepce complex according to
KLA reports.  KFOR
appears to be rewarding the perpetrators of cleansing
at the victims'
expense.

    Although NATO bombed Serbia's economy, KFOR is
protecting
Milosevic's personal economy.  This helps him retain
power and
impoverishes his opposition. 

    2.  The Serbs are leaving covert units in Kosova,
and KFOR looks
the other way.  Milosevic insisted on the right to
keep paramilitary units
in Kosova until forced to concede at the end of
negotiations.
Nevertheless, the Serb "Frenki" paramilitary brigade
was spotted preparing
to stay behind covertly despite NATO orders (Sunday
Times of London, June
6, 1999).  Since then, media reported violence
involving armed Serbs in
Pec, Orahovac, Zegra, and Gniljane. Anonymous NATO
officials leaked that
"hundreds, possibly thousands" of Serb troops remain
in Kosova (London
Sunday Telegraph, July 4, 1999). 

    During ex-Senator Robert Dole's visit to Pec,
witnesses saw Dusko
Milacic, a famous member of the  "Frenki" paramilitary
brigade, sneaking
out of the city.  Italian KFOR soldiers on the scene
ignored the reports,
claiming nothing was happening (Kosovapress, July 6,
1999).

    Gniljane, in the US sector of Kosova, was the main
hub of Serb
"stay behind" activity in June and July, according to
KLA reports.  But a
US military officer just back from Gniljane played
down the threat in
Washington last week, saying "There was a lot of
concern [about
stay-behind units] in the beginning, but I do not hear
about it any more."
Just a week before his report, however, U.S. forces
had arrested four Serb
paramilitaries in Gniljane, and merely returned them
to the Serb
authorities, stating that no action would be taken
against the four men
because they were "very close to the border" (Reuters,
July 23, 1999).  In
fact, Gniljane is not close to the border.  KFOR may
be signaling that it
will not punish Serb paramilitary activity in Kosova,
acquiescing to
Milosevic's intent to keep covert armed forces there.

    2.  US Policy Impact on Bosnia Since Dayton

    In Bosnia as in Kosova, following the money
provides clues to the
real goals of US policy.  Administration officials
admit that not enough
has been done to implement refugee return.  About 1.5
million Bosnians
still cannot go home.  While they suffer, however,
others profit.  About
250,000 homes which formerly belonged to Bosnian
citizens are now
controlled by  Republika Srpska.  The average value of
such homes is
$40,000.  Republika Srpska's resulting real estate
windfall is thus about
$10 billion.

    US policy tools are solidifying this potential
real estate
windfall.  The US: 

    gerrymandered elections in Bosnia to reinforce
ethnic divisions or
create new ones;

    funded reconstruction of housing on an ethnic
basis, strengthening
Republika Srpska's boundaries.  Senator Joseph Biden
(D-DE) stated that
our reconstruction aid rewards ethnic cleansing
(Foreign Relations
Committee Hearing, July 17, 1997);

    chopped up the Ploce-Samac railroad, Bosnia's key
rail artery,
among the three ethnic statelets; and

    led SFOR in manning an Inter-Entity Boundary Line
(IEBL), which
cements Republika Srpska's boundaries.

    The Bosnian people have begun to recognize the
results of US
policy.   On the eve of President Clinton's visit to
the Stability Pact
Summit in Sarajevo last week, Bosnian activist Ibran
Mustafic was arrested
for possessing 10,000 leaflets he planned to
distribute to officials and
media attending the summit.  The leaflet's title was
Save us from Dayton!,
and it set forth SFOR's complicity with Milosevic's
agenda in Bosnia.
Mustafic was distributing the leaflets on behalf of
the Mothers of
Srebrenica and Podrinje Association, which he leads. 
A group of women
from the same association smuggled their posters past
cordons of police
officers to get the same message through. 

    Haris Siladjic, current co-chair of Bosnia's
Council of Ministers,
repeatedly asked for the use of force to return the
refugees  (Balkan
Crisis Report No. 49, June 22, 1999).  But US troops
have  done the
opposite. According to Senator Russell Feingold
(D-WI), "US troops have
reinforced ethnic cleansing."   In effect, they
protect Republika Srpska
and its real estate windfall.  In Bosnia as in Kosova,
US policy is on a
collision course with the aspirations of the people.

    3.  US Interests at Stake in Our Balkan Policy

    The key American interests in Balkan policy are
outside the
Balkans.  On the night he began bombing Serbia,
President Clinton
explained US interests as follows:  "Ending this
tragedy is a moral
imperative.  It is also important to America's
national interests."  The
President, like Congress, put our moral interest in
Kosova ahead of other
national interests.  

     US policy is about to squander a chance to make
"never again" a
meaningful factor in US foreign policy.   Congress
made scores of
legislative attempts to correct US moral myopia since
Serb aggression
began.  While Bosnia and Kosova do not equal Rwanda in
scale, the Balkan
television coverage exposed Americans to the moral
issues at stake in a
way future presidents may not enjoy.  In grass-roots
efforts around the
country, people personally touched by the Holocaust
often took the lead.
Yet the Clinton administration is pretending to oppose
the cleansing while
rewarding it in Kosova and Bosnia. 

    Rewarding cleansing encourages its spread.  Rwanda
and Chechnya
followed Bosnia. After Kosova, Sandzak may be next. 
Abandonment of moral
interests can affect strategic interests.  

    US Balkan policy is encouraging the rise of
Russian
ultranationalism which could destabilize the 20,000
nuclear weapons in
Russian hands.  Russia, with an arc of Muslim
countries to its south, has
a serious interest in amicable relations between
Orthodox and Muslim
civilizations.  When Serb aggression in the Balkans
began, Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev offered to provide Russian
transport planes to
ferry UN troops from Muslim countries to help Bosnia.
But since then,
years of Western acquiescence in Milosevic's
aggression have emboldened
Russian ultranationalists.

    US Balkan policy could encourage Serb aggression
in Sandzak,
Vojvodina, and Montenegro.  Although the media has
covered the threat to
Montenegro and somewhat less to Vojvodina, it has
overlooked the 300,000
Muslims of Sandzak, where low-level cleansing has
already begun.
Sandzak's Muslims are the most prosperous in the
Balkans, making them a
tempting target for cleansing. 

    US acquiescence in the destruction of Bosnian and
Kosovar
statehood could increase the chance of a clash between
Western and Muslim
civilizations.  Although about 5 million members of
the US Muslim
community have not yet fully engaged in the American
political process,
their awareness of US policy is rapidly growing.
     

New policies can better serve US interests:

Congress should deprive Milosevic of his $15 billion
profit from cleansing
as follows: 

    1)  Reunite Bosnia and dismantle Republika Srpska,
thus
eliminating Milosevic's $10 billion real estate
windfall;

    2)  Support Kosovar independence and territorial
integrity,
including Kosova's sovereignty over the $5 billion
dollar Trepce complex;
and

    3)  Empower Serbs, Croats and Muslims of good will
in a
Balkan-wide coalition of tolerance against the forces
of hatred

    It is time for Congress to reject any further
funding of the
counterproductive administration Balkan boondoggle. 
By asserting
America's moral interests, Congress will be at its
best.  Nothing less
will do when the administration is at its worst.

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