BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
Belgrade has unleashed a new offensive against Albanians fighting for self-determination in the province of Kosova, using tanks and heavy artillery, and setting whole villages near the border with Albania on fire. As a result, more than 3,000 peasants and other Albanians fled from Kosova into northeastern Albania between May 28 and June 3.

Communications have been cut off for days with western Kosova, as Belgrade's special forces have attempted to seal off the area from the outside world. "The whole area is under blockade, and it's very hard to get accurate information," said Lulezon Jagxhiu, 22, a leader of the Independent Students Union in Pristina, Kosova's capital, in a June 4 telephone interview.

At the same time, numerous reports indicate that units of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), a guerrilla group that has been waging an armed struggle for independence of Kosova, have stepped up resistance.

"The forces of resistance are growing every day," Jagxhiu said. "The thousands of people being bombarded have nothing left but to defend themselves, to fight for their lives, their houses, for freedom."

Washington and other imperialist powers are trying to take advantage of the conflict to openly prepare for military intervention in the area, under the guise of supporting the struggle of Kosovar Albanians against national oppression. Meeting in Brussels June 3, ambassadors of the 16 governments that belong to NATO discussed plans for deploying combat forces to Albania and Macedonia. "We are keeping all options open," said NATO secretary general Javier Solana.

Gen. Wesley Clark, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Europe, had stated earlier that the Atlantic military alliance was carrying out "detailed studies of possible preventive deployment." While a decision on military intervention is not imminent, military aid for the governments of Albania and Macedonia and joint "training" exercises with NATO troops near the Kosova border have already been approved by the Clinton administration.

Washington maintains 8,000 troops in Bosnia, dominating a NATO occupation force of 30,000 in that republic. The U.S. rulers are now attempting to deepen their intervention in Yugoslavia in order to overturn the remaining gains of the 1945 revolution in that country and reestablish the domination of capitalism. These moves go hand-in-hand with NATO's expansion into Eastern and Central Europe and with tightening the imperialist encirclement of Russia.

Western Kosova in flames
"The situation in the western part of Kosova is grave," Jagxhiu stated. "Drenica is also under a new siege."

Drenica is a mountainous region made up of 50 villages with 65,000 inhabitants near Pristina where Serbian authorities began the crackdown against the independence movement at the end of February. About 85 Albanians were killed there in police and army assaults February 28 and March 5. Belgrade has now concentrated its wrath on the villages inhabited overwhelmingly by Albanians near the border between Kosova and Albania.

"Many villages in the municipalities of Decan and Gjakova are being bombarded with heavy artillery," Jagxhiu said. "As civilians flee, the Serbian special forces set on fire the houses that have not been destroyed to prevent Albanians from returning. The town of Decan itself has been turned to rubble, as well as a number of villages near the border."

The Serbian regime has poured thousands of fresh police and army troops into the region and is attempting to clear a five-mile-deep zone along the border with Albania. Belgrade claims that many Albanians have been crossing the border into Kosova, bringing weapons and human reinforcements to the Kosova Liberation Army. While information on casualties is hard to pinpoint, most reports indicate that dozens of people have been killed in the last few days, bringing the toll to over 200, mostly Albanians, since March.

The regime of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has ruled Kosova under a state of emergency since 1989, when it revoked the province's autonomous status. Since then, most Albanians have been fired from state administration, health- care services, and factories. Instruction in Albanian has been banned in college.

Most Albanian students have been attending classes in the Albanian language at homes and other makeshift facilities at a parallel university. Jagxhiu said that implementation of an education agreement between Belgrade and Kosovar Albanians that would return the university to Albanian students and professors by the end of June is not being carried out. Only one engineering faculty building has been returned, he said, but pro-Belgrade Serbs broke windows and removed all the equipment before turning over the keys in May. Ninety percent of Kosova's population of 2.1 million are Albanians and 8 percent are Serbs.

The heavy-handed repression by Belgrade is causing fissures among the Serbian regime's army and police forces. Associated Press, Reuters, and other news agencies have reported that fighting has recently broke out between UCK militants and Serbian troops near Kosova's capital, shutting down Pristina's airport.

"Reuters and other agencies aren't doing objective reporting," Jagxhiu noted. "We don't trust them."

The fighting that reportedly took place near the airport, where a Serbian military base is located, has been between Serb soldiers attempting to desert and their officers, the student leader stated. "A number of Serb soldiers and policemen are refusing to carry out orders to indiscriminately bomb villages," he said. "This is new."

The June 3 Telegraf daily, published in Belgrade, reported that 100 Belgrade cops have been fired for refusing to go to Kosova and fight. "We have reason to believe this," Jagxhiu said, "coming from a paper that's not on our side."

Jagxhiu said that daily protests for independence and demanding a withdrawal of Belgrade's forces have been taking place in Pristina for nearly two months. They are called by the Democratic League of Kosova (DLK) and other political parties that predominate among Albanians. Most are small, in the range of a few thousand, according to Jagxhiu. But occasionally larger marches take place. Tens of thousands demonstrated June 4, for example.

The Independent Students Union has focused its energies over the last few weeks on organizing shelter and food for students from other areas of Kosova who are stranded in Pristina because of the fighting. It has also been campaigning for the release of seven leaders of the Students Union from Prezren, all high school students. They were arrested by Serb police on May 23 on charges of "preparing for terrorism," after organizing a first aid class. They remain in detention.

Under the circumstances, the center of the struggle for self-determination has shifted to the rural areas, especially western Kosova, Jagxhiu said.

Thousands of Albanians have been joining the ranks of the Kosova Liberation Army, frustrated by the DLK's continued reliance on "help from the international community" and mounting Serbian repression.

DLK leader and Republic of Kosova president Ibrahim Rugova has been more openly calling for U.S. intervention into Kosova as the solution to the crisis. "We urged an increased U.S. presence in Kosova and for more protection on the part of the United States for the people of Kosova," Rugova said after meeting U.S. president William Clinton during a visit to Washington May 29. "Any use of NATO power should be directed toward Kosova, not surrounding it," added Veton Surroi, editor of the Albanian-language daily Koha Ditore, published in Pristina. Surroi, also a DLK leader, accompanied Rugova on the recent U.S. visit.

Tirana wants NATO troops at border
The government of Albania, which has so far condemned UCK activities and has identified with the Rugova leadership, indicated recently a possible shift in its policy on the use of force by Albanians in Kosova.

"In Kosova, people have taken up arms in self-defense and their organization in structures is a reality that should not be ignored," said Albania's prime minister, Fatos Nano, recently. Nano's regime has repeatedly called for deploying NATO troops in Albania, at the border with Kosova. Tirana is now claiming Serb army units are crossing the border into Albania in pursuit of rebels. "We have had several reports of incursions into our territory by Serb commando teams that appear to be scouting the area," said Nano June 3.

NATO officials have turned down such requests in the past, but are now contemplating such a move. Gen. Wesley Clark has indicated that about 20,000 soldiers would be needed to "police" the entire Kosova-Albania border.

In addition to floating plans for troop deployments, Washington is threatening tougher sanctions on Belgrade and implementing a ban on foreign investments in Serbia that had been approved earlier but suspended by the U.S. government after Milosevic agreed to meet Rugova in mid-May.

Moscow has objected to military intervention, stating NATO cannot post troops in Albania without the approval of the United Nations.

The Russian government "opposes any decisions leading to the use of external forces interfering in those problems," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Valery Nesterushkin. Moscow has been on a collision course with Washington over expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe and U.S. attempts not to only dominate the oil in the former Soviet republics of the Caspian Sea region, but to establish a stronger regional line of influence and pressure across the southern flank of Russia, from Iraq to Azerbaijan.  
 
 
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