Army secretary blames
Milosevic for recent unrest
By Jon R. Anderson
Stars and Stripes
OUTPOST SAPPER, Kosovo - Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic bears much of the blame for recent trouble in this region, according to the U.S. secretary of the Army.
Louis Caldera made that assessment Monday in Kosovo during a three-day tour of the Balkans to check on peacekeeping operations both here and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Clearly a lot of the problem has been Milosevic's nationalism," Caldera told Stars and Stripes from the hilltop overlook called Outpost Sapper. "Getting a change in Serbia in terms of more moderate leadership and more democratic institutions would be part of the solution in the long run."
From the outpost, troops keep a watchful eye on the tense Presevo Valley region where some 60,000 ethnic Albanians remain under Yugoslav rule and outside the protective cover of NATO. Small unit leaders at the outpost, along with Brig. Gen. Dennis Hardy, the U.S. peacekeeping contingent commander, briefed Caldera on the situation.
"He started four wars in 10 years and people have caught on to his game," Caldera said of Milosevic. "They're suffering today because of his actions."
Still, he said, that does not excuse the rise of a new insurgency in the Presevo Valley styled after the Kosovo Liberation Army.
"I think it's important in these kinds of situations that you be evenhanded and that the appeal be to everyone that we've got to get beyond the fighting and the bloodshed," he said. "There are mixed motives by folks who are fomenting attacks and reprisals and using this as a pretext to continue to fight. What we've got to get the people to understand is that you've got to put the fighting behind us and work on rebuilding society."
Caldera also stumped for his new education initiative, which was announced in July. He wants troops even on remote frontier outposts like this one to be able to go to school.
In fact, he is promising that the Army will soon begin handing out free computers that can tap into Internet-driven distance-learning college courses "anytime, anywhere."
"We're going to give a laptop to every solider," Caldera told a gathering of troops here.
The program, however, will go far beyond free hardware. The Army's intention is to build a distance-learning curriculum that will enable soldiers to complete everything from college degrees to technical courses completely over the Internet.
With $550 million earmarked for the program over the next five years, Caldera said the service will start the ambitious initiative in January at two or three installations, most likely in the United States.
Along with laptops, the Army will also provide tuition assistance, textbooks, academic counseling and a help desk through the program.
In addition to his visit to Sapper, Caldera spent time with troops at Camp Able Sentry in Macedonia, the U.S. peacekeeping headquarters at Camp Bondsteel, and went on patrol with 101st Airborne Division soldiers in Vitina.
Caldera was slated to spend the night at Bondsteel and then continue his tour into Bosnia on Tuesday. ednesday, August 16, 2000
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