[ALBSA-Info] Daily Telegraph Editorial

[Agron Alibali]

          THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)

  February 23, 2000, Wednesday

Pg. 29



Leading Article: By the waters of Mitrovica

THE attempt by Kfor, the Nato-led force in Kosovo, to
desegregate the northern
town of Mitrovica is long overdue. The goal of allied
intervention in the
province was to establish a polity where neither
Kosovar nor Serb suffered
ethnic discrimination. That this has proved so elusive
was no excuse for
allowing Mitrovica to become divided between the two
communities at the Ibar
river. There was always a danger that the Serbs would
try to achieve a de facto 
partition of Kosovo by cleansing northern Mitrovica of
Kosovars, and maintaining
their stranglehold on its hinterland, which includes
the mine complex of Trepca.
Earlier this month, at least 1,000 ethnic  Albanians 
were driven out of the
town; those who remain north of the Ibar are guarded
by Kfor. The expulsions are
a direct challenge to the authority of that force and
the UN civilian mission in
the province. And there is no doubt that behind them
lies the hand of Slobodan
Milosevic, against whom the alliance has twice gone to
war, in
Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo, to thwart ethnic
cleansing.

   In a politically explosive situation, the
house-to-house search for weapons
in both parts of Mitrovica is a very unpleasant task.
Our sympathies are with
the Kfor soldiers who have been carrying it out; those
from the Royal Green
Jackets will at least have had the experience of
similar operations in Northern 
Ireland. But the search must now be resumed, despite
the threat of renewed
violence. The unauthorised holding of weapons cannot
be tolerated. It is the
role of Kfor and the international police force in the
province, not
paramilitary groups from the two communities, to
protect those Kosovars and
Serbs who feel threatened. Allied acquiescence in the
division of Mitrovica has 
been shameful; for that, the French, who are in charge
of northern Kosovo, bear 
special responsibility.

   The pattern of outside involvement in the Balkans
over the past nine years
has been of alternating procrastination and
decisiveness. With Kosovo, the West 
hesitated about military intervention, then launched
its air campaign against
Yugoslavia and deployed troops in the province, then
allowed Mitrovica, like
Mostar in Bosnia before it, to be divided into ethnic
ghettos. The Kosovar town 
is the latest test of allied resolve. Freedom of
movement across the Ibar must
be restored and Belgrade's plan to retain a foothold
in the province thwarted.
With reports that Serbian troops are concentrating on
the northern border, it is
now time for a show of Western determination, both in
opening the bridges across
the Ibar and in supplying Kosovo with the policemen
and funds necessary to
restore law and order and rebuild what Milosevic's
henchman destroyed.

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