[ALBSA-Info] DT

[Agron Alibali]

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) 


April 02, 2001, Monday 

Pg. 19 

Resolve in the Balkans 


As the spectre of Greater Albania grows, Slobodan
Milosevic, architect of the rival Balkan project, has
at last been arrested. Greater Serbia was his dream,
and in seeking to realise it he subjected former
Yugoslavia to a scale of suffering not seen in Europe
since the Second World War. It has taken the collapse
of his power, first through military defeat, then
through the ballot box, for him at last to be brought
to account. As with Al Capone in the Chicago of the
1920s and 30s, he is being charged initially not with
murder and mayhem but with embezzlement. Nevertheless,
in seizing him yesterday from his Belgrade villa, a
rubicon has been crossed. A trial and conviction in
Serbia should open the way for his appearance before
the international war crimes tribunal, which has
indicted him for ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. 

Milosevic was overthrown last autumn but it has taken
his successors five months to arrest him. The main
obstacle was Vojislav Kostunica, the new Yugoslav
president, who did a deal with several of the old
dictator's henchmen in order to keep the peace, and
who objected, as a nationalist, to the claims of The
Hague tribunal. For the big fish to be netted, it has
required, first, the defeat of Milosevic's Socialists
in parliamentary elections last December and, second,
pressure from the United States. Washington gave the
Yugoslavs a deadline for the arrest which, if not met,
would have jeopardised their chances of receiving aid.
For a country reduced to semi-criminal penury by
Milosevic, that ultimatum was telling. 

Reluctance to move against the old president
demonstrates the democratic fragility of the Yugoslav
rump. His eventual arrest is immensely cheering, but
it is just one of a series of tests facing Mr
Kostunica and Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian prime
minister. Next month Montenegro will vote in a
parliamentary poll seen as a barometer of popular
desire to leave the Yugoslav Federation. Later in the
year, provincial elections are due in Kosovo, a
further stage in preparing the province for at least a
high degree of autonomy from Belgrade or, which is
much more likely, independence. Yugoslavia, created
after the First World War, could cease to exist. Such
a prospect is difficult for the Serbs to swallow but
it is the price they may have to pay for throwing in
their lot with a thug like Milosevic. 

In the months ahead, Western powers will need to
remind themselves of the principle for which they
became involved in the disintegration of the old
Titoist federation - that of peaceful
self-determination. That means upholding the right of
the Montenegrins and the moderate Kosovars to part
company with Serbia. It also entails defending
Macedonia and Kosovo from armed extremists. The arrest
of Milosevic is an important symbol of renaissance in
the Balkans but should give no ground for the
weakening of Western resolve. There is much to be done
before the region is at peace. 
[PS]Features: [ES] 

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