The occupation was established under the flag of the United Nations, whose representatives promised to supervise a transition to local "self-rule" for the Yugoslav province. But more than three years later, reported the Wall Street Journal in December, "virtually all power in the Balkan province continues to reside with the thousands of United Nations administrators who arrived in 1999." This despite the fact that local elections were held a year ago.

The UN administration--termed UNMIK, or the UN Interim Administration Mission--was put in place after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign by the U.S. air force backed up by its British counterpart. Washington seized upon incursions into Kosova by Serb paramilitary and special military forces to launch the offensive. Using cluster bombs and other explosives, the planes bombed roads, bridges, and working people’s neighborhoods in Serbia, along with targets in Kosova.

The air assault not only laid the basis for the current occupation, it also asserted Washington’s dominant position in relation to its European rivals, particularly France and Germany.

Following Belgrade’s retreat Washington took the lead in dividing Kosova into five zones, one controlled by itself and the others by France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. U.S. forces set up Camp Bondsteel, the largest U.S. military facility in Yugoslavia.

Today a total of some 30,000 NATO-led "KFOR" troops remain in Kosova, around 4,300 of them from the United States, with more in neighboring Macedonia. There are also 4,400 police officers in the province.

In his November report on these troops, U.S. president Bush told Congress that "KFOR coordinates with and supports UNMIK at most levels, provides a security presence in towns, villages and the countryside, and organizes checkpoints and patrols in key areas of Kosovo."

The UNMIK bureaucracy of 6,300 officials is overseen by Michael Steiner, a former foreign policy adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. "You need a boss," he said. "To think they are ready to take over the whole administration is an illusion."

UNMIK passes laws without debate, and legislation ratified by the Kosova parliament is invalid without Steiner’s signature. Moreover, reported the Journal, Steiner can jail any local resident by executive order and "can change the province’s temporary constitution, [and] veto any decision of the elected authorities. As well, he "has final say on the budget, foreign affairs, security and the vast network of state-owned companies."  
 
Dictators would be envious
Marek Antoni Nowicki, the UNMIK-appointed ombudsperson whose office handles matters ranging from contested imprisonment to property disputes, observed that "many dictators around the world would be jealous of the powers" Steiner holds.

Kosova residents have organized several protests against UNMIK officials, targeting deteriorating public services, growing unemployment--now standing at an estimated 60 percent--and theft from state enterprises and other abuses by UNMIK officials.

These include $4.5 million taken from a power company; falsification of thousands of land deeds in exchange for money; and a police officer charged with torturing a detainee and making him dig his own grave.

The protests underlined again the fact that the desire for self-determination remains widespread in the province, given its underdevelopment in relation to most of Yugoslavia, and the national discrimination that Albanians face in all facets of social life.

During the 1998 bombing assault U.S. officials, posing as friends of the Albanian struggle, made it clear that they would not bend to the sentiment for self-determination. Reflecting the stance of the Clinton administration of the day, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the middle of the bombing campaign, "We do not want to be formally or implicitly obligated to Kosovo independence, because it would be an endless commitment, because it would send an unrealistic message to Basques, Kurds, and other aggrieved ethnic groups that we will support their independence, and because Albania is already a failed state. It doesn’t need a twin in Kosovo."  
 
 
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