Meanwhile, in the face of a police crackdown and attempts to gag the media, working people, students, and opposition parties continue to mount protests against the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

"The intent of the amendment is to restore congressional oversight over the Kosovo mission," said Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia, in the Senate debate. Byrd said the Clinton administration did not like the proposal because it wants "a free hand to participate in military adventurism whenever and wherever they please. They don't want to hear a peep out of Congress."

Senate majority leader Trent Lott voiced a common theme in the debate, saying the government has "no long-term plan for Kosovo. We don't know how long we're going or how much it's going to cost. Commitments are not being fulfilled by the Europeans, and that's unacceptable."

The 46,000 foreign troops in Kosova today, assembled under the banner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and led by the imperialist powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy, are termed "peacekeepers," but their actions increasingly indicate their real role as an occupying military force. They have been stationed in Kosova since the conclusion of the 78-day air war, carried out a year ago by NATO forces under Washington's command.

That bombing campaign, which destroyed much of the infrastructure in Serbia and Kosova along with housing and public facilities, failed to remove Milosevic from power, a goal desired by the U.S. government. Washington is driven--against the interests of working people in the region--to attempt to reimpose capitalist relations in the territory of the Yugoslav workers state. This longer-term goal involves greater use of military muscle, tied to more and more flexible deadlines.  
 
Albright: U.S. is 'richest nation'
"We are the richest nation on the globe. Now is the time to advance, not retreat," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in a unabashedly imperial speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on May 17. In considering the "premature" withdrawal of U.S. forces from Kosova the senators were "playing with fire," she said. "In the Balkans signs of impatience can be misinterpreted as symptoms of weakness. We cannot afford that in a region where weakness attracts vultures."

Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the same day that "no threat is more serious than the temptation to turn inwards during good times," referring to the competitive edge--based largely on the intensified exploitation of labor power--that the U.S. capitalists are enjoying over their rivals.

In a letter to the U.S. senators, the secretary general of NATO, Lord Robertson, a former secretary of state for defense in the British Labour Party government, wrote that "the prospect of any NATO ally deciding unilaterally not to take part in a NATO operation causes me deep concern. It risks sending a dangerous signal to the Yugoslav dictator Milosevic that NATO is divided, and that its biggest and most important ally is pulling up stakes."

Claims that the European imperialist powers are failing in their commitments to fund and provide manpower for the Kosova occupation are common among the politicians who voted for the withdrawal, and who promise to keep up their fight against White House policy.

In fact, under the banner of the European Union (EU) the imperialist governments in Europe are playing an active military and diplomatic role in Yugoslavia. NATO secretary general Robertson noted in his letter to the U.S. senators that of the foreign troops in Kosova, 80 percent come from EU countries.  
 
Mass protests against Milosevic regime
The imperialist powers are trying to find points of leverage among the forces that have headed the mass protests against the Slobodan Milosevic regime in Serbia. In the largest such demonstration in many months, up to 150,000 people gathered in central Belgrade on April 14. Some 16 opposition groups united to call the action. The two most prominent opposition figures, Vuk Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement and Zoran Djindjic of the Democratic Party, appeared on stage together in a short-lived show of unity among the divided opposition groups. The protest organizers called for elections scheduled for later this year to be brought forward, and urged a vote against Milosevic.

In the weeks since, tens of thousands have participated in opposition demonstrations in Belgrade and in other cities. The working people who turn out in spite of the lack of clear leadership or unity among the opposition forces are clearly determined to force open more democratic space, and to find some way to fight against their declining standards of living.

"The electricity bill is half my salary and food takes the other half, and my wife can't find a job and I've got two kids," stated Dragan Vujacic to reporters at the April 14 rally. "I've been working for 25 years, and I have a salary of 100 German marks [US$55 a month]."

A wave of protests answered the crackdown by the Milosevic government against media outlets for the opposition. On May 17 the government seized Studio B, a television station run by the city government in Belgrade and closely associated with the Serbian Renewal Movement led by Vuk Draskovic. Over that day and the next, demonstrators, numbering some 30,000 in Belgrade, 10,000 in the northern town of Novi Sad, and 4,000 in the central town of Kragujevac, condemned the government seizure of Studio B. Around 10,000 protested in Nis--where on the previous day demonstrators reportedly attacked local legislators of Milosevic's Socialist Party.

The major opposition figures did not appear at these actions until May 19, when Vuk Draskovic urged "peaceful resistance" to 5,000 people participating in a Belgrade rally. More than 150 have been injured by the police in the course of these protests.  
 
Student activists arrested
Milosevic's police also arrested, and then released, some 40 students on the days before the seizure of Studio B. The government claims the student group Otpor, or Resistance, was involved in the May 13 assassination in Novi Sad of Bosko Perosevic, a high-ranking official in the ruling Socialist Party.

The Otpor activists call for "free and fair elections in Serbia," a "Free University," and an "independent media," on their web site. Their movement is growing rapidly, students report.

Two days after Milosevic closed Studio B, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and the organization's external relations commissioner, Christopher Patten, met representatives of the anti-government media in Serbia.

At a joint press briefing with Portuguese foreign minister Jaime Gama, Madeleine Albright stated, "Officials in Serbia face a choice. They can stand for the freedom and the rights of all Serbs, or they can prolong Milosevic's rule by participating in the oppression."

The support by imperialist spokespeople like Albright for opposition groups--and the policy of the capitalist-minded opposition leaders--gives greater credence to the slanders of the Milosevic government against the protests. Ivan Markovic, a spokesperson for the Yugoslav United Left (JUL), part of Milosevic's ruling coalition, described one anti-government rally as a "gathering of terrorist leaders and their followers" that "call for the destruction of the country and its institutions." Repeating a common slander, he linked the protesters to NATO, whose bombing campaign wreaked such destruction on the country just over one year ago.

The JUL announced that it is drafting a law against "terrorism," based on British law that provides for detention without trial in Northern Ireland.

Moscow also maintains an interest in developments in the unstable region. A United Nations tribunal, created by the imperialist-dominated Security Council, protested the visit to Moscow in early May of the Yugoslav defense minister, Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, who has been indicted for "crimes against humanity." Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte asked "why steps were not taken to arrest him."

The new government in Russia has invited prominent anti-Milosevic figures to talks on Moscow on May 29. Opposition leaders say they intend to ask for backing from the Kremlin--which has maintained close ties with the Belgrade regime--in opposing the crackdown.  
 
 
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