[ALBSA-Info] Kostunica hopes for less U.S. presence

[Iris Pilika]

Kostunica hopes for less U.S. presence

Kostunica: "Insane" bombing campaign
December 17, 2000
Web posted at: 1150 GMT


BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica says he 
expects less U.S. presence in the Balkans under George W. Bush than from his 
predecessor's administration.

Kostunica said he believed his country would not have been attacked by NATO 
had a Republican been in the White House.

Yugoslavia was bombed by NATO in 1999 to punish Slobodan Milosevic, 
Kostunica's predecessor, for his crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.

Alluding to the strong U.S. support of the bombing, Kostunica said the 
administration of President Bill Clinton "made a series of moves that 
represented a deviation from the basic American foreign policy concept."

"We had the misfortune to be the first and perhaps the last country in the 
world to which such insane concept of humanitarian bombing was applied to," 
said Kostunica.

The Republicans "always had an isolationist wing," Kostunica said, "which is 
strictly against American interference in disputes in certain parts of the 
world, and which is against the thinking that protection of American 
interests demands presence in the Balkans or bombing like the one last year 
against Yugoslavia."

The foreign policy brief on U.S. President-elect Bush's Web site names 
several countries of special interest to him. But none is in the Balkans, 
and that outlook worries some NATO members.

There is also concern about statements he made on international policy 
during his presidential campaign.

For example, members of NATO, along with Russia, are worried about 
suggestions that Bush might pull U.S. peacekeeping troops out of the 
Balkans.

Condoleeza Rice, who is tipped to become Bush’s national security adviser, 
suggested during the campaign that a Bush administration would pull back 
U.S. troops from worldwide peace-keeping duties.

Specifically, she suggested U.S. troops might be pulled back from Bosnia and 
Kosovo, leaving Europe to take over more of their duties in the Balkans.

Tensions rise
The Bush team has sought to moderate worries, saying that no troops would be 
taken out of the Balkans without the allies being consulted.

But Kostunica is calling for some Western presence in the region.

He has accused NATO of not doing enough to deal with the tense situation on 
the border with Kosovo where Yugoslav forces are on high alert amid reports 
that ethnic Albanian rebels are planning an offensive.

On Friday NATO-led peacekeepers arrested five ethnic Albanians suspected of 
violence in Serbia as tensions mount in the region.

The five were suspected of belonging to the Liberation Army of Presevo, 
Medvedja and Bujanovac.

Ethnic Albanians make up the vast majority of the population in the province 
of Kosovo and the rebels are pressing to break away from Serbia, 
Yugoslavia's main republic.

KFOR has stepped up monitoring and surveillance of the boundary to stop any 
support for the rebel groups from Kosovo.

Kostunica has called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting next 
week on the issue.

Council members issued a statement saying they "condemned acts of violence 
by armed groups in southern Serbia" and reiterated their call for "immediate 
cessation of violence in this area."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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