BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
After 78 days of incessant bombing of Yugoslavia,
Washington and its imperialist allies got Moscow's
acquiescence and then Belgrade's final nod to allow the
deployment of a NATO-led occupation force in Kosova for an
indefinite period. The deal codifies a blow to the right to
self-determination of Kosovars and to the Yugoslav
federation.
Officers of Belgrade's army announced, "The war has ended," after signing a military agreement with NATO commanders at Kumanovo, Macedonia, June 9. The pact outlines how Serb military and police forces will leave Kosova within 11 days. U.S. government officials ordered the suspension of the bombing the next day, after NATO verified Belgrade's withdrawal had begun.
The military agreement was reached a day after the government of Russia agreed with representatives of the so- called G-7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States - on the text of a resolution for the United Nations Security Council. After much fretting and bluster at the negotiations in Cologne, Germany, Moscow basically co-signed NATO's terms. The 15- member UN Security Council passed the resolution authorizing the immediate deployment of an occupation force in Kosova June 10, by a 14-0 vote. The government of China abstained.
"The common opinion here is that the agreement is as bad or worse than the one at Rambouillet the government in Belgrade refused to sign three months ago," said Natasa Pantic, a journalism student at Belgrade University, in a June 9 telephone interview. "All the destruction, so many people killed, was for nothing." He was referring to the accord on Kosova crafted by U.S. government officials at Rambouillet, France, in March, which set the stage for launching the U.S.- NATO assault.
"There's no peace," said Branislav Canak, in a phone interview the morning of June 10. Canak is the president of Nezavisnost, the trade union federation in Serbia independent of government control. "We only have the complete capitulation of the regime, in a typical fashion, after the working class in Serbia has paid an enormous price. And in Kosova, people, those who return, will find a devastated area both from the NATO bombing and the looting of whole villages by those who carried out the `ethnic cleansing.' They won't be able even to consider their right to self-determination. They will be a protectorate of the UN, better said NATO."
Terms of deal
Under the terms of the military agreement, Belgrade's
forces in Kosova must declare an immediate cease-fire, ground
their airplanes, cease using all their air defense systems
within 24 hours, mark minefields, and provide maps of them to
the NATO forces as they withdraw. Once out of Kosova, they
are supposed to remain behind a 3- to 15-mile-wide "buffer
zone" around the province. NATO troops - led by British and
U.S. units - will begin entering Kosova within a day or two
from the start of Serb withdrawal. More than 50,000
"peacekeepers" will be deployed, about the same number as in
Bosnia, which is a much larger and more populated area. They
will control not only the ground but the air space over
Kosova and over the adjacent buffer zone. NATO will not
declare an end to the air strikes until all Serb military,
police, and paramilitary forces have completely pulled out of
Kosova. British Gen. Michael Jackson, who will command the
international occupation force, referred to as KFOR, will
have final authority regarding interpretation of the
agreement.
After the pullout is complete, Belgrade is supposed to be allowed to send several hundred troops to Kosova to serve as liaisons with the foreign occupation force, mark and clear minefields, and maintain a presence at sites such as churches and monasteries that Belgrade describes as "Serb patrimony," and at key border crossings.
The resolution submitted to the UN Security Council states that the "international security presence with substantial NATO participation must be deployed under unified command and control." Washington, the power behind NATO, will be calling the shots. U.S. president William Clinton said KFOR will have "NATO at its core, which means a unified NATO chain of command."
Kosova will be divided into five sectors, each controlled by U.S., British, French, German, and Italian forces - much like the imperialist powers have carved up military control of Bosnia since 1995. The government of Russia has pledged to send 10,000 troops to Kosova and has stated it will not place its forces under NATO command. Washington and its imperialist allies rejected out of hand Moscow's earlier demand that its troops be given exclusive control of a portion of Kosova. NATO officials say they will find a face- saving solution for Moscow to deploy its forces.
The UN Security Council is to decide on an interim administration of Kosova and all those expelled are supposed to be allowed to return. It is unclear how this will be done, however, since Belgrade authorities took away or destroyed passports and ID cards from many of the deportees. Yugoslav customs agents are slated to maintain a symbolic presence at border crossings, but will be supervised by the foreign occupying forces. The province is slated to remain under the formal sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with "substantial autonomy." Under the terms of the "peace" plan, however, Yugoslav sovereignty will in fact be nothing more than a formality.
The occupying troops will be followed quickly by investigators of the imperialist "war crimes" tribunal in The Hague that will be used to bring additional indictments against Yugoslav government officials. The tribunal has already indicted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and five other top officials in his administration on such charges. These indictments can be used as further pretext for military intervention into Yugoslavia, as NATO troops in Kosova may be asked to arrest the accused. The UN Security Council resolution "demands full cooperation by all concerned, including the international security presence, with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia."
Imperialists reinforce divisions
Washington and its imperialist allies boast that the deal
will guarantee the return of the nearly 900,000 deported
Albanians and claim their forces will enable all inhabitants
of Kosova to live in peace. But they are already doing their
utmost to reinforce divisions between Albanians and Serbs and
to deny the people of Kosova the right to decide their
future.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon has stated repeatedly in the media that Kosova will be "an uncomfortable place for Serbs" under the NATO-led occupation.
The Clinton administration and other imperialist governments have stated repeatedly they are opposed to self- determination for Kosova. Many politicians and pundits in the United States and the United Kingdom have explained from the beginning of the U.S.-NATO assault their opposition to self- determination or independence for Kosova. In a column in the March 30 New York Times, prominent liberal columnist Thomas Friedman said the U.S. rulers "have neither a moral nor a strategic interest in the independence of Kosova.... Our strategic interest is that Kosovo not be independent." Friedman said he was opposed to the implicit pledge in the Rambouillet accord for Kosovars to decide their future within three years "because it would send an unrealistic message to Basques, Kurds and other aggrieved groups that we will support their independence, and because Albania is already a failed state. It doesn't need a twin in Kosovo."
Instead, Washington and its imperialist allies are planning an open-ended occupation of Kosova as they've done in Bosnia. The UN Security Council resolution on Kosova says that the "civil and security presences are established for an initial period of 12 months to continue thereafter unless the Security Council decides otherwise."
Reactions in Serbia
"Under the NATO protectorate, Kosovar Albanians won't rule
Kosova," said Canak. "They will be under a governor imposed
by the foreign troops. The rights of working people will be
diminished. In addition, the homes and other property of
hundreds of thousands are destroyed and many Albanian people
will be facing abject poverty. There is no self-determination
under these conditions."
Canak and Nezavisnost - which organized nearly 25 percent of the 3 million wage workers in Serbia prior to the war - have recently been advocating self-determination for Kosova as a concrete way to undercut both the reactionary line and course of the Milosevic regime and the imperialist designs to dismember Yugoslavia and reestablish the domination of capitalist social relations there. Nezavisnost, along with the Students Union of Yugoslavia and other organizations, was in the forefront of massive protests two years ago that forced the Milosevic regime to back off from annulling municipal election results unfavorable to the ruling party. The trade union federation has also taken part or initiated actions opposing Belgrade's war in Croatia and Bosnia and the repression and denial of national rights of Kosovar Albanians.
The social cohesion of hundreds of thousands of people has been and is being destroyed by NATO's course and the actions of the Milosevic regime, Canak and others said. "It will take time and a great deal of effort to rebuild political and social organizations in Kosova. Houses are burned and entire villages have been erased."
"The agreement is not about repatriation of the refugees," said Martina Vukasovic, a mathematics student at Belgrade University and an activist in the Students Union of Yugoslavia. She also supports self-determination for Kosova. Last year she participated with dozens of other students in antiwar canvassing throughout Serbia to build opposition to Belgrade's repressive policies in Kosova. "They are trying to divide further the people of Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of Serbs left Kosova because they were opposed to the `ethnic cleansing' by the paramilitary gangs and special police or they were afraid for their lives because of the NATO bombing. There's no talk about their right to return. In fact many of the Serbs who are still in Kosova are getting ready to flee. And the Kosova Liberation Army won't be disarmed."
Washington has indicated it intends to use fighters of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) to build a local police force in Kosova. The deal Belgrade was forced to accept calls for the "demilitarization" of the KLA. Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's commander in Europe, said this means the group has to dissolve its military structures but the NATO forces entering Kosova will not attempt to disarm the group. The KLA, a guerrilla group that has waged an armed struggle for independence, has turned increasingly into Washington's tool. In the camps for expelled Kosovars in Albania, KLA members have functioned in a thuggish manner. They cut off discussion when fellow Albanians raised opposition to the U.S.-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during visits by Militant reporters in April and May. The KLA will now be used to police Albanians inside Kosova who don't kowtow to NATO's dictates.
`There's nothing to celebraté
"There's nothing to celebrate with the signing of the
accord," said Branislav Canak, pointing to reports in the
media that many people in Belgrade fired guns in the streets
and drove cars honking horns as news broke out that the war
ended. "Some people buy Milosevic's lie that the deal somehow
represents a victory for Yugoslavia. But most working people
will soon realize that the destruction of our country was
unnecessary. It was the policies of the regime and its
nationalism, which virtually all opposition parties embraced,
that opened the door to the United States to intervene."
While many people in the streets on the night of June 9 cheered when street lights came on after weeks of darkness due to the destruction NATO air strikes inflicted on the power grid, for most it was a sense of relief the bombing is over.
In Nis, Serbia's second-largest city and among the most important industrial centers that suffered a disproportionate share of the bombing, thousands of people walked in the streets late into the night on June 9, said Duci Petrovic, a leader of the Students Union there. "Many sang songs. But for most people it was releasing the tremendous stress from nearly three months of war. Very few had any sense of victory. The only good thing is we may soon be in a better position to resume political activities and protests and, who knows, down the road get rid of Milosevic."
To justify its course of action, Belgrade boasted that the deal it accepted recognizes Yugoslav sovereignty and does not contain the Rambouillet clause calling for a referendum on Kosova's status within three years. "They also lied by telling people through state TV and radio that army generals were negotiating with UN officials in Macedonia, rather than NATO commanders," said Vukasovic.
Vukasovic, Petrovic, Canak, and others interviewed pointed to the tremendous toll the U.S.-NATO assault has exacted on the working class throughout Yugoslavia. Bombings that were widespread through June 8, have destroyed hundreds of factories and much of the country's infrastructure - including, railways, bridges, hospitals, and schools. According to official statistics, more than 2,000 civilians were killed and 5,000 wounded as a direct result of the air strikes. A similar number of casualties were inflictedYugoslav army soldiers.
Unemployment has reached 90 percent among the country's 3 million wage workers. Many of Yugoslavia's heating plants and power stations have been destroyed. Electricity is rationed in four- to six-hour shifts in much of Belgrade now. "But that's only because not a single factory is working in the capital," Canak said.
In Kragujevac, where most people depended on jobs at Zastava, the largest car manufacturing plant in the Balkans that used to employ 38,000 workers and was destroyed by the NATO bombing, the economic and social situation is depressed, said Christina Ranic, a member of the metal workers union who worked in the plant. Most workers survive by humanitarian aid from trade unions and others from abroad and food from relatives in the countryside. "We were owed months of back wages, and last week we started to get some of that," Ranic said. "We get 20 deutch marks per month. That's barely enough for bread and milk. NATO doesn't even mention what workers face throughout Yugoslavia. It's as if we disappeared from the face of the earth."
On the corpses of the people of Yugoslavia, the U.S. rulers are using their military power to further advance their dominance as the number one military and economic power in Europe and tighten the encirclement of the workers state in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
Interimperialist rivalries
"We had a very good day," boasted U.S. secretary of state
Madeleine Albright June 8, after extracting Moscow's
agreement on virtually all of NATO's terms.
Two days later, about 2,000 U.S. Marines were landing at a port in northern Greece, on their way to Macedonia. There they will join 1,700 U.S. troops coming from Albania along with Cobra and Apache attack helicopters. Together with additional U.S. forces from Germany, these units will be among the first to enter Kosova behind the British-led force of more than 17,000 NATO troops already in Macedonia. London was the most vocal backer of the White House course, clinging more firmly on its "special relationship" with Washington as a club against the UK rivals in the European Union.
In a sign of the interimperialist rivalries that have come more to the fore during the Yugoslavia wars, the government of Greece prevented for a few days U.S. ships carrying the Marines destined for Kosova from docking at the port of Thessaloniki. Athens, Rome, and Bonn had repeatedly called for a temporary halt to the NATO bombing to advance diplomacy. The German government, in particular, took the lead in vehemently opposing a ground invasion of Kosova if an agreement with Belgrade was not reached when Washington and London began pushing that option.
Washington's economic and military superiority has been unquestionable, however. Athens quickly backed down and allowed U.S. ships with NATO troops in its ports and Greek police provided safe passage against protesters with signs reading "Killers go home," referring to the U.S. troops.
Despite repeated statements of opposition to the NATO bombing, and demands that the air strikes be halted before negotiations can proceed, both the Russian and Chinese governments capitulated to the U.S.-NATO course. Beijing, which had proposed amendments to the UN Security Council resolution did not use its veto power to block it, when the vote was taken. China's representative abstained.
Working class isn't crushed
Despite the overwhelming odds and the tremendous toll the
working class in Yugoslavia has suffered in the last three
months, "working people are not crushed," Canak said.
Nezavisnost has been organizing joint activities with a
growing number of other organizations - such as the Students
Union, Women in Black, and a new group representing 25,000
Romanians in Vojvodina, who have rejected chauvinism and are
seeking alliances with fellow Yugoslavs of all nationalities
throughout the formerly federated workers state.
"Even though NATO will try to prevent us," Canak said, "we will do everything in our power to rebuild bridges with Albanian trade unionists, students, and other working people in Kosova. It's an uphill battle. But we'll struggle whether at some point Kosova becomes independent, or whether we can reknit the Yugoslav federation through mutual respect and genuine equality of all nations and cultures. Only the working class can carry this torch."