[ALBSA-Info] Peacekeepers, Albanians Could Clash

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Peacekeepers, Albanians Could Clash

By ROBERT H. REID

  
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - NATO's moves to strengthen positions on the Macedonian 
border and allow Yugoslav troops back into the buffer zone around Kosovo 
could lead to the alliance's nightmare scenario: confrontation with ethnic 
Albanians whom the peacekeepers were sent to protect. 

Both moves, which took place Thursday, are aimed at preventing Kosovo from 
becoming a haven for ethnic Albanians fighting for self-rule in Macedonia and 
in parts of Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia, that have large 
Albanian-speaking populations. 

Kosovo has been wracked by violence through the 1990s, as ethnic Albanians in 
the province fight to wrest it from Serbia, the largest republic in 
Yugoslavia. 

In 1998, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ordered a bloody 
crackdown on the separatist movement. The crackdown stopped only after a 
78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999. 

After the bombing, international peacekeepers were sent in to protect ethnic 
Albanians, Yugoslav forces evacuated Kosovo and a buffer zone was set up 
around the province where only lightly armed police were allowed in. 

However, ethnic Albanians guerrillas have since turned the buffer zone into a 
staging area for attacks on Serbian and Macedonian forces. The latest 
measures by NATO are meant to stop the violence. 

But there are fears that they could also turn Kosovo's nearly 2 million 
ethnic Albanians against the peacekeepers themselves. 

Much will depend on the reaction of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders - 
including Ibrahim Rugova and former Kosovo Liberation Army chief Hashim 
Thaci. 

International officials fear that if Rugova and Thaci do not condemn the new 
ethnic Albanian unrest along Kosovo's boundaries, the situation could 
deteriorate with the arrival of spring - the season when fighting in the 
Balkans has flared in the past. 

So far, neither Rugova nor Thaci has spoken out publicly against the 
rebellion. 

In the worst case scenario, U.S. and other international peacekeepers could 
wind up perceived as enemies and an obstruction to ethnic Albanian 
aspirations to unite Albanian-speaking regions of the Balkans. 

Those aspirations - including the Kosovo Albanian dream of independence - 
were blunted by the NATO and United Nations move into the Yugoslav province 
two years ago. 

The U.N. resolution that established the peacekeeping missions left the issue 
of Kosovo's final status undetermined. In the meantime, Kosovo is still 
considered part of Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia. However, the one thing 
that binds all of Kosovo's factious political groups together is their 
resolve never to come under Serb rule again. 

Washington and its allies had hoped that in time, ethnic Albanian passions 
would cool and some formula for self-rule under Yugoslav sovereignty could be 
found. There is little sign, however, that Kosovo Albanians are softening 
their opposition to remaining in Yugoslavia, despite the ouster of Milosevic 
by a democratic movement. 

Instead, ethnic Albanians in the Presevo Valley, just outside Kosovo's 
boundaries, and in neighboring Macedonia have taken up arms - clearly 
receiving support from their ethnic kinsmen in the U.N.-controlled province. 

On the other hand, neither Washington nor its allies can stand by and watch 
rebel activity around Kosovo's borders. The West is courting Milosevic's 
successor, Vojislav Kostunica, in hopes of restoring stability to Yugoslavia 
after a decade of ethnic warfare. 

Macedonia, with a large Albanian minority, is the logistical base for the 
Kosovo peacekeeping mission and borders NATO member Greece. NATO has long 
feared that instability in Macedonia could draw in Greece and Bulgaria, which 
had territorial claims to Macedonia that they have since officially 
renounced. 

For this reason, NATO took the dramatic step Thursday of agreeing to let 
Yugoslav forces back into part of the southern end of the buffer zone around 
Kosovo to curb smuggling of weapons and ammunition by the ethnic Albanians. 

That could set the stage for further clashes between the Yugoslavs and the 
ethnic Albanians - a repeat of the Kosovo conflict. American troops moved 
Thursday into a Kosovo border village after ethnic Albanian rebels evacuated 
the area.