NATO Action, Uncertainty, Escalate in Balkans -- 03/29/1999

NATO Action, Uncertainty, Escalate in Balkans

29 March, 1999

By Scott Hogenson
CNS Executive Editor

(CNS) - The chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee said the coming week will be critical in determining whether US-led NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia will be successful in stopping the fighting in the Balkans.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that the success or failure of expanded NATO action in the region this week "will be telling" in determining whether continued support for NATO action "will begin to unravel," among the 19 nations which belong to the alliance.

NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark said on the same program that American and NATO forces were now prepared to focus on an "expanded set of targets" in Serbia and Kosovo, in an attempt to dislodge the estimated 300 Serbian tanks and thousands of Serb forces that have been reportedly rounding up civilians in Kosovo and destroying ethnic Albanian villages in the Yugoslav province.

The statements Sunday of Clinton Administration officials, NATO commanders and Members of Congress underscored the uncertainty of how to proceed in the Balkans, with many policy positions, objectives and strategies seeming to contradict each other.

Reports of murder, burning, shelling and looting in Kosovo are filtering out of Macedonia and other neighboring areas, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have fled to escape the growing violence in Kosovo.

Eyewitness accounts of summary executions and beatings of civilians by Yugoslav forces have increased substantially since the U.S. - led NATO offensive against the Serbs began last week.

But Defense Secretary William Cohen said that attributing the alleged increase in atrocities to NATO action was a "misapprehension," and a NATO spokesman said that it was "perverse" to suggest that the air strikes were increasing the hardship faced by ethnic Albanians at the hands of Serbian troops and police.

The expulsion last week of foreign reporters from the area and a virtual news blackout has made it difficult to confirm the reports of atrocities against the Kosovars. An estimated half million refugees have left Kosovo as a result of the fighting there.

Cohen reiterated on Meet the Press that the objective of the mission was to reduce the fighting in and around Kosovo, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton said on the same program that there is "no plan to introduce ground troops in Kosovo short of a diplomatic solution."

The official NATO and Clinton Administration position was bolstered by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, who said on ABC's This Week that "at this point, troops will not be employed on the ground."

But Shelby and others in Congress have noted that they know of no armed conflict that was resolved through air power alone, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) indicated that it was unlikely that the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo would end without "some countervailing ground force."

Lieberman said such a ground force should not be led by the U.S. or even NATO, leading to the question of whether the U.S. should provide arms to Kosovars fighting Serb forces. The Clinton Administration has expressed its opposition to arming the Albanian forces in Kosovo, saying the objective is to decrease the fighting in the Yugoslav province, not increase it.

But Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and GOP presidential contender said that American credibility was at stake in the Balkans, indicating the possible need for additional U.S. force to end the fighting in Kosovo.

We're in it and we have to win it," said McCain on This Week, adding that, amid reports that "atrocities are increasing," the United States must be prepared to "exercise every option," in order to secure a clear victory in the region.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger voiced his own concerns about U.S. involvement in Kosovo, saying "there's no exit strategy except victory." Yet with no plans by the Clinton Administration for introducing ground forces or arming the ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo, it was uncertain how such a victory could be achieved.

Another indicator of the impact of the NATO raids was reported in Moscow, where shots were fired at the American Embassy Sunday. Reports said that local police were able to disperse the crowd of angry Russians protesting the U.S. involvement in the Balkans before any injuries occurred.

Both NATO and administration officials said they have no indication that Russia was prepared to begin helping the Serbs by re-arming their forces.

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