Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

22 March 2004

KOSOVO

• In the wake of last week’s ethnic violence in Kosovo, Bild am Sonntag, March 21, quoted German Defense Minister Struck saying in an interview that peacekeepers would have to remain in the province much longer than 2006, as had been planned. “We will have to stay much longer. We had planned to withdraw the NATO troops gradually—this has become irrelevant for the time being,” Struck was quoted saying. Sueddeutsche Zeitung writes meanwhile that the events of the past few days have a symbolic power. Not only the homes and shrines of the Serbs have been ruined but also the illusions of KFOR that a multi-ethnic Kosovo could be preserved and that some kind of “light” (KFOR presence) would be possible, the newspaper comments.
  
  
• Moscow’s Interfax quotes Foreign Minister Lavrov saying Monday that Russia has asked its NATO partners to put the Kosovo crisis on the agenda of the Russia-NATO ministerial meeting scheduled for April 2.
  
  
• According to Reuters, a UN spokesman said in Pristina Monday police have arrested 163 people suspected of arson, looting, murder and other crimes during last week’s explosion of ethnic violence in Kosovo. The spokesman is further quoted saying police estimate 51,000 people were involved in 33 riots. About 28 people from both communities were killed and 870 injured. Attackers burnt down or blew up 30 Serb churches, vandalized or damaged another 11 churches or monasteries, and destroyed 286 houses. Seventy-two UN vehicles were destroyed.

Media continue to center on last week’s ethnic violence over Kosovo. A statement by Serbia-Montenegro President Marovic, indicating that Gen. Jones had told him “international forces are in control of the situation in Kosovo,” was noted by international and local media.
According to Belgrade media, reports Sueddeutsche Zeitung, “Gen. Jones told President Marovic that KFOR has the situation under control.”
“In the words of Gen. Jones, KFOR has the situation under control,” writes Die Welt.
“President Marovic and Gen. Jones discussed the situation in Kosovo. Gen. Jones said the situation is fully under KFOR control,” reported Belgrade’s Radio Beograd, March 20.

Media are conveying their perception that the situation in Kosovo has calmed down over the weekend.
The Daily Telegraph remarks that the funerals of two Albanian boys, which threatened to prompt a new wave of violence across Kosovo, passed off peacefully Sunday as strengthened NATO forces appeared to have reimposed order in the province. “The funerals were closely monitored by large contingents of the NATO force, which put on an obvious show of strength to deter renewed attacks,” stresses the newspaper.
While BBC News reported that Albanian authorities were setting up a special fund to rebuild homes and churches damaged in the violence, AFP observes that “a conciliatory note” was hit Saturday by Hashim Thaci, the political leader of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). “I strongly denounce the incidents of the past days which have seriously tarnished the image of Kosovo,” the dispatch quotes Thaci saying.

With KFOR’s initial reactions to the incidents under scrutiny, several media charge that the force was caught “off guard.”
“Taken off guard, the troops and the UN … have led their credibility damaged by the violence,” writes The Guardian.
Stressing that the “UN and NATO officials were caught off guard by the violence,” the Financial Times writes that “UN and NATO failure to protect the province’s Serb minority,” led Boris Tadic, defense minister of Serbia-Montenegro, on Friday to say Belgrade might reconsider its hands-off approach in Kosovo if security were not restored.
The Washington Post quotes unnamed UN officials saying an initial reluctance by international peacekeeping forces under NATO command to use deadly force against assailant allowed the marauding to intensify. The newspaper also quotes a KFOR spokesman saying the peacekeepers initially made protecting their own forces a priority, a decision that delayed the aggressive pursuit of gunmen and rioters. The article further quotes the spokesman saying, however, that the arrival of NATO reinforcements would send a “message” that NATO meant business.

The inter-ethnic violence has shifted the media focus to Kosovo’s political situation.
Stressing that Kosovo’s independence is being forced onto the West’s agenda, Reuters notes that “last week’s incidents rudely awoke the slumbering debate on Kosovo’s future.” The dispatch quotes former UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner saying the 1999 Security Council resolution 1244 was no longer a sufficient basis for maintaining stability. “We have to renew the diplomatic and political effort that was made on Kosovo at the outset—contact groups, international conferences and a new UN resolution,” Kouchner reportedly said.
“Even those who refuse to care about the Balkans ought to notice what is happening in Kosovo It is a symptom of a deep malaise. It is unfinished business, which nobody except the local killers is doing anything to complete,” says the Daily Telegraph. The article continues: “The world has advanced an important step by displaying through the UN or NATO a willingness … to commit troops to stop killings. Unfortunately, however it has not got past this. The international community remains ineffectual in promoting political progress to follow the deployment of soldiers. It would be wrong to dismiss what has been achieved in the Balkans. The presence of peacekeepers has saved countless lives. But it is deeply depressing that so little has been done over the past decade toward building viable societies.”
An editorial in the Financial Times, March 21, said: “NATO has reacted by flying in more peacekeepers to try to restore order. Once that is done, the international community needs to start thinking hard about how to map out a better future for all in the territory.”
Additional soldiers are supposed to reinforce the international protective force in the province. However, they cannot make the decision for the international community where it wants to lead its protectorate, stressed Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntag Zeitung, March 21.

AFGHANISTAN

• According to BBC News, forces belonging to the governor of Afghanistan’s western city of Herat have regained control after heavy factional fighting led up to 100 people dead. The program reported that the clashes between the governor’s forces and those belonging to a local military commander broke out following the death of the country’s civil aviation minister Mirwais Sadiq. It noted that a spokesman for the governor blamed Sadiq’s death on forces loyal to a local military commander.