BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
Two weeks into their occupation of Kosova, as the Militant
went to press June 24, U.S.-NATO troops were expanding control
of the province with a force projected to exceed 50,000
soldiers. In the process, they are dealing blows to the right
of Kosovars to national self-determination and deepening
divisions between Albanians and Serbs there.
As Duci Petrovic, a leader of the Students Union of Yugoslavia, put it in a June 23 phone interview from Nis, "NATO is setting up a protectorate in Kosova. They intend to stay there a long time to control the situation. In the future people will not tolerate that. They will protest." Washington and its imperialist allies have secured the acquiescence of the Russian regime in carrying out their course.
As part of Moscow's unending - and fruitless - search for stable relations with imperialism, Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed to send about 3,000 troops to Kosova that will in fact answer to NATO's command there. Moscow agreed to this blueprint by Washington at a June 18 meeting in Helsinki, making it clear that the dash of 200 Russian soldiers from Bosnia to Pristina, Kosova's capital, before imperialist troops arrived on the scene was nothing but a bureaucratic stunt by the Kremlin. Yeltsin's regime was instrumental in coaxing Belgrade to hand over control of Kosova to the Atlantic military alliance.
Through 78 days of brutal daily bombings that devastated much of Yugoslavia's industry and infrastructure, Washington dealt a blow to the Yugoslav federation. The U.S. rulers' aim is to weaken and eventually overthrow the Yugoslav workers state and gain more of an edge on their European rivals in the bargain. The Clinton administration made gains along its pragmatic course in the Balkans, but paid a price. The White House set back Washington's ability to use ground troops for a military assault abroad, by giving the false impression that U.S. imperialism can advance its interests through a high-tech air war.
NATO troops abet looting
NATO troops, led by British units, began entering Kosova
June 11, the day after Belgrade started withdrawing its forces.
By June 20, all Serb military forces, some 47,000 troops, had
left Kosova. As the Militant went to press, NATO had deployed
20,000 soldiers throughout the province into five
"sectors" - areas occupied by British, U.S., French, German,
and Italian troops.Throughout this time, NATO forces have been
fostering divisions between Serbs and Albanians, their claims
that they are there to provide security for all residents
notwithstanding. The big-business press in the United States
and other countries has been aiding the effort to portray the
conflict as one between all Serbs on one side and all Albanians
on the other.
On June 23, U.S. Marines shot and killed one Serb and wounded two others in a gun battle at Zegra, a village south of Gnjilane where the U.S. forces - now numbering 4,500 and expected to grow to 7,000 - have set up their headquarters. The Pentagon claimed its troops came under fire before shooting.
In Mitrovica, a city about 60 miles north of Pristina that used to be inhabited by 120,000 people before the war, "the French are allowing the effective division of the town into ethnic districts," according to a report in the June 24 New York Times. For two days, French troops there reportedly did nothing to stop looting and burning of homes of Gypsies.
In the first two weeks of the NATO occupation of Kosova, about 20 percent of the 860,000 deported Albanians returned to the province, according to unofficial estimates, often finding their houses or other property destroyed -either from the NATO bombing or attacks by chauvinist Serb forces. A still unknown number of Albanians, probably thousands, were killed during the mass expulsions.
In the village of Grace, between Mitrovica and Pristina, returning Albanians reportedly looted and burned homes of Serbs, after driving them out, on June 20, while British and French troops on the scene directed traffic. Lieut. Col. Robin Clifford, a NATO spokesman, described the event as "an unfortunate incident." Accounts in the big-business media paint a picture that virtually all Albanians in Kosova want all Serbs to leave, regardless of whether they participated in the "ethnic cleansing" and other atrocities committed largely by Serb chauvinist paramilitary groups and special police forces.
In telephone interviews and other accounts the Militant obtained, however, many Yugoslavs paint a different picture.
Vladimir is a university student in Novi Sad who asked that his last name not be used. He knew a number of Serbs in Urosevac (Ferizaj in Albanian), a town in southern Kosova near the border with Macedonia. "They were determined to stay after NATO troops entered Kosova," he said, "but they have left and are now in Novi Sad. They were not afraid of their Albanian neighbors returning from Macedonia; these Serbs had tried to stop the `ethnic cleansing.' But they were afraid of criminal elements and units of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) that are trying to drive all Serbs out. NATO is helping that, they are letting it happen."
In a small village near Pec - a city in western Kosova that has suffered some of the worst destruction - KLA soldiers reportedly killed three Serb civilians June 19. Units of the Kosova Liberation Army - the guerrilla group that waged an armed struggle for independence for several years - have surfaced throughout the province and in many cases declared a "provisional government." The KLA became an appendage to NATO's forces during the 11-week war against Yugoslavia. On June 21, its leadership signed an agreement with NATO commanders in Kosova to disband its military structures and turn in its heavy weaponry within 30 days. At the same time, the group got a NATO promise to be allowed to reorganize as a police force of some sort. In the refugee camps in Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia in April and May, Militant reporters witnessed KLA members being used to police those Kosovar Albanians who don't follow Washington's line.
A number of Albanians expelled from Urosevac and other towns had told Militant reporters stories similar to Vladimir's about Serbian neighbors trying to protect them from Serb paramilitary units and about Serb soldiers refusing to carry out orders to drive Albanians out and instead deserting their units.
Self-determination
Many Serbs in Kosova and elsewhere in Yugoslavia are
influenced by the nationalist demagogy of the regime of
Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic toward Albanians. After
the developments in the last three months, however, vanguard
layers among Serb workers and youth have been advocating more
forcefully the need to support the Kosovar Albanians' demands
for self-determination as the only way to counter both the
reactionary line and course of the Milosevic regime and the
imperialist attempts to dismember Yugoslavia.
"The people of Kosova have a right to decide their future," said student leader Duci Petrovic. "It's almost like a natural right. Self-determination is what they need. It's the only basis on which we can build real cooperation with Albanians in Kosova. In the future we'll have a chance to rebuild ties with Albanian students there."
Petrovic and his group, the Students Union of Yugoslavia, had organized canvassing throughout Serbia last year against the suppression of national rights of Albanians in Kosova who comprised 90 percent of the prewar 2.1 million people there. The Students Union had sent a delegation from Belgrade to join large student-led demonstrations in Pristina in 1998 demanding reopening of the Albanian-language university and other rights.
Branislav Canak, president of Nezavisnost, the trade union federation in Serbia independent of government control, and other trade unionists have taken a similar public stance on self-determination and are attempting to reknit ties with fellow Albanians in Kosova.
"NATO will try to deny that," said Petrovic. "They are against self-determination. Just like Milosevic. He brags that in the agreement he signed with NATO there is no clause for a referendum on the status of Kosova."
He was referring to the deal that allowed the U.S.-NATO troops to occupy Kosova, according to which the province remains under the formal sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia "with substantial autonomy."
Russian troops, Moscow's role
Petrovic, Canak, and other interviewed by this reporter did
not think very highly of the role of Moscow in the conflict.
"No one mentions the Russian troops anymore," Petrovic said.
"There was a flurry of hysteria about it two weeks ago. Now the
whole episode is forgotten." He was referring to the speedy
dispatch of about 200 Russian troops from Bosnia to Kosova
through Belgrade. Moscow used the action as a bargaining chip
to push its demand that it be granted control of a section of
Kosova. Washington adamantly rejected that and Yeltsin gave in
at the Helsinki meeting, where he agreed that Russian troops
will be dispersed in the five sectors controlled by imperialist
powers and their top officers will have to answer to the
unified NATO command.
"We were all surprised at the beginning, when we saw the Russian troops passing through Belgrade," said Martina Vukasovic, a mathematics student at the University of Belgrade, in a June 23 phone interview. "But soon the dust settled and the pomp was over. The Russian troops will be dispersed, and they will basically be under the command of NATO. Just like in Bosnia. Our government uses it to give a false impression that the United Nations - not NATO - calls the shots in Kosova."
Vukasovic and others said the Yeltsin regime does have conflicting interests with Washington but was simply using the war in Yugoslavia to bargain for some economic concessions by imperialism. Ever since May 6, when Moscow signed the U.S.- crafted statement in Cologne, Germany, agreeing to the deployment of an international "peacekeeping" force in Kosova, it was clear it was just a matter of time before Milosevic would give in. "Yeltsin cooperated with Washington," said Dusan from Novi Sad. "He probably did it to get some more loans from the IMF." At the so-called Group of Eight summit in Cologne June 20, Yeltsin did get some promises of new IMF loans but only if his regime succeeds in pushing through austerity measures.
Only after Moscow signed off on NATO's terms did Milosevic capitulate. Even the big-business press now admits that NATO's claims of major damage its air strikes inflicted on Belgrade's military were greatly exaggerated. NATO officials acknowledged June 22 "that the alliance knocked out a good deal less military equipment in Kosovo than had been thought," said a front-page article in the June 23 International Herald Tribune. "As they were counted through NATO checkpoints," the article stated, "the Serbian force of nearly 47,000 men seemed less demoralized than allied accounts had led people to expect. They took back into Serbia what seemed to be hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers."
No jobs, worries for winter
The NATO air raids, however, did inflict a great deal of
damage on working people. Almost all of Serbia's oil
refineries, a majority of heating plants that provide heat and
hot water to city residents, much of heavy industry, and dozens
of roads, railways, hospitals, and schools were destroyed.
According to Dusan Rakovic in Nis, a student whose father used to work in a machine tool plant and is now out of a job, and representatives of Nezavisnost, unemployment in Serbia is about 70 percent.
"We've been without jobs since April 9," said Christina Ranic, a member of the metal workers union in Kragujevac, an industrial city 60 miles south of Belgrade. She worked at the Zastava car manufacturing plant, which at one time employed more than 30,000 workers. "We now occasionally go to the factory to clean up the debris. We survive mainly from humanitarian aid that comes from some trade unions but mainly from Greek churches."
While electrical power has been restored in most of Yugoslavia since the end of the bombing, the day-to-day hardships for working people are enormous and most expect them to worsen. "Without fuel and enough electricity we'll have a rough winter," said Dusan from Novi Sad.
Imperialist powers pledged reconstruction aid for Kosova at the recent G-8 summit but made it explicit no funds will go for rebuilding any parts of Serbia as long as Milosevic remains in power.
The Milosevic regime has been issuing calls on state radio and TV for people to join reconstruction efforts. "It's a Potemkin village," said Duci Petrovic, a facade, referring to these announcements.
"There are no funds or materials," Dusan pointed out. "Plus most people are not going to cooperate with this regime, which they hold responsible for the disaster we face."
Milosevic's troubles begin to grow
"Discontent is growing against the regime," said auto
worker Ranic. "Everyone here expects anxiously his fall,"
referring to Milosevic. More than 100 army reservists blocked a
main road in Kragujevac, leading to Belgrade, June 19 demanding
their back pay, Ranic said. They had been promised about $10 a
day for serving in the army during the NATO air strikes. The
protest was defused after the army promised to pay them within
a week.
Ranic said her husband, an officer in Nezavisnost, has been called to Belgrade for a broad union meeting to discuss how working people can be mobilized to begin rebuilding the country and organize more effective opposition that can lead to replacement of the government. Ranic and others said the recent call by the Serbian orthodox church for Milosevic's resignation was another indication the regime may not be able to hold on to power for too long.
The most consistent protests against Milosevic have taken place in and around Belgrade by Serbs who fled Kosova since the NATO occupation. "Up to 1,000 people from Kosova who tried to enter Belgrade but were turned back in the suburbs yesterday protested," said Martina Vukasovic June 23. Hundreds have been waging protests inside Belgrade for the last three or four days. The government is trying to force most of the 50,000 Serbs who left Kosova to return. State radio and TV are calling these protesters "traitors" and are hiding the extent of the exodus.
"Milosevic handed part of Yugoslavia to NATO. Now he has the gall to call Serbs who leave Kosova, who are afraid for their lives, `traitors' because of what his regime did," said Dusan from Novi Sad. "The government is not telling the truth about Serbs fleeing Kosova because that would show their claim `Yugoslavia won the war' is nothing but a lie."
On June 23, Milosevic promised to lift the war emergency measures that banned public protests without a permit, imposed strict censorship, and gave special powers to the police. Anti- government protests have been announced in the central Serbia cities of Cacak and Kraljevo. "But it's too early to tell what will shape up," Dusan said. "The regime may still keep restrictions on democratic rights and many people are still absorbed with daily survival at the moment."
For the imperialist powers that marched into Kosova, their seeming triumph did not enhance the fortunes of the respective ruling parties, especially in Europe. Three days after the British NATO units first entered Kosova, Anthony Blair's Labour Party suffered a major setback in the June 13 elections for the European parliament. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's social democrats suffered a similar defeat to the opposition Christian Democrats. Bonn subsequently announced major new austerity measures in an attempt to stem the deterioration of the German mark and the euro against the U.S. dollar.
These are all indications that Washington has gained more of an edge over its imperialist rivals in Europe. On the home front, the Clinton administration whipped those in the U.S ruling class who pronounced the White House course in Yugoslavia a fiasco and argued for a ground invasion or for an end to the bombing. But Clinton's seeming victory can easily turn into his disaster.
With nearly 100,000 NATO troops deployed in the Balkans now - from Bosnia and Croatia to Macedonia and Albania - Washington is not in sight of its goal of reestablishing capitalist social relations in Yugoslavia and the region. Recent protests by Romanian miners, opposition by Polish farmers to the effects of the capitalist market, and deep-seated attitudes against privatizations and layoffs among working people in Albania and a number of former Yugoslav republics have shown that the former landlords and capitalists can return to power only astride a cannon.