BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
White House officials have announced plans for deploying
an occupation force in Kosova as the NATO war machine makes
preparations for military intervention in Yugoslavia. "I have
said that we would examine that among other options," said
U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright at a January 26
news conference in Moscow, when asked if Washington would
participate in a Kosova "peacekeeping" operation.
Four days earlier National Security Adviser Samuel Berger "briefed" President William Clinton on ground troops after his "top foreign-policy advisers" discussed using a ground force, the Wall Street Journal reported January 22.
The policy advisers' discussion included establishing a "large Bosnia-style" military force of 30,000 imperialist troops in Kosova after waging airstrikes on Yugoslavia. "If there is a political settlement down the road we would confront [the troops] decision in consultation with Congress and our allies," said an unnamed U.S. White House official.
As the Stalinist caste that had ruled Yugoslavia shattered in the early 1990s, rival bureaucrats went to war with each other, whipping up chauvinism in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and other regions to justify their turf battles. Washington sabotaged various efforts by Paris, Bonn, and London to act as power brokers in the region, each trying to gain economic and military leverage. In 1995 the U.S. government established itself as the major European power, imposing the Dayton "peace" accord and leading an occupation army of 60,000 NATO troops, including 20,000 U.S. GIs into Bosnia. This followed more than 3,000 U.S.-led airstrikes and naval and ground shelling against Serbian forces.
Washington has again beefed up the NATO war machine in the region by increasing its warplanes from 80 to 400 in the past week, according to the January 27 Washington Post. Gen. Klaus Naumann of Germany said the military alliance has selected a range of targets in Yugoslavia for airstrikes and has drafted plans for exerting military pressure on the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), whose soldiers are waging an armed struggle for independence from Yugoslavia. Imperialist troops would be stationed at seaports and airports in Albania supposedly to block the rebels from receiving any weapons.
The French government is gearing up to join the looming imperialist occupation. "We will share our part of the responsibility at the heart of Europe and the Alliance," declared French defense minister Alain Richard. French officials state that 100,000 troops from Europe and the United States would be needed to impose "peace" in the region.
Richard said his government would have about 40 planes in Italy ready and a military spokesman said the aircraft carrier Foch would leave Toulon for the Adriatic Sea with 14 bombers, four reconnaissance planes, and helicopters ready for a massive onslaught "next week," the January 25 New York Times reported. Government officials in Germany, Britain, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands said they are sending more aircraft to join imperialist military forces in Italy for a possible onslaught.
The Clinton administration has seized on Belgrade's assault on Albanians in Kosova as a pretext to wage a campaign for military intervention. When confrontations escalated between the UCK and the Yugoslav Army last October, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke using the threat of NATO airstrikes forced Belgrade to accept a deal where hundreds of retired cops and soldiers dressed in civilian clothes have been deployed as "peace monitors" in Kosova under the auspices of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The U.S. rulers and their imperialist allies oppose the Albanian independence struggle. Their war moves are also aimed at cramming Washington's dictates down the throats of the Albanian workers and peasants. At a January 26 meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, U.S. government officials pushed for an ultimatum to be issued to Belgrade and Albanian leaders that threatened bombardment within 10 days if they did not accept a deal that called for imperialist-imposed "autonomy."
One Albanian leader, pro-imperialist Ibrahim Rugova, said January 21 that "only bombing can get Belgrade back to the [negotiation] table." Rugova, who claims support for independence, has asserted that the Kosova leadership "would accept an international protectorate." He was elected president of the Republic of Kosova in 1992.
The so-called Contact Group - made up of representatives from Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States -plan to meet in Paris January 29 to negotiate an agreement. Moscow opposes the U.S. deployment of military force.
Meanwhile, the Clinton administration has increased its intervention inside Kosova as the "monitors" assert the right to be "everywhere on the ground," as U.S. official William Walker, who heads the team, put it.
In 1997 Walker served as UN "transitional administrator" in eastern Slavonia and was given broad authority and a military apparatus to impose the U.S. rulers' mandates. According to London's Financial Times, Belgrade views Washington's arm-twisting and meddling as a "plot to establish Kosovo as a kind of protectorate, with Mr. Walker as its governor."
In achieving this goal, however, the imperialists may face a challenge from the UCK rebels, who have shot and wounded two "monitors" already.