The decision of NATO to send troops to Kosovo marks a decisive
turning-point. As we go to print, British Defence Secretary George
Robertson announces in parliament that the 4th Armoured Brigade will
be sent from Germany to the war-torn province of Yugoslavia.
Officially, NATO has not yet approved the intervention. But NATO
ministers have already agreed to dispatch up to 30,000 if a peace
deal is brokered between the Yugoslav government and the rebels of
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
As usual, the imperialists present their actions as a "humanitarian
peacekeeping operation". In fact, they are pursuing a dirty game of
power politics in which the lives and rights of the peoples are just
so much small change.
All socialists stand opposed to the cruel oppression of the Albanian
Kosovars who make up about 90 per cent of the provincešs population.
Ten years ago the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic started the problem
by arbitrarily abolishing the autonomy of Kosovo. Ever since, the
Albanian Kosovars have been treated like pariahs in their own land.
Milosevic has sown the winds and is now reaping a whirlwind. The KLA,
impatient with the lack of results obtained by moderate leaders like
Rugova, have begun a guerrilla war, which has been viciously
repressed by the Yugoslav (i.e. Serb) armed forces. Massacre and
counter-massacre have plunged the province into a nightmare.
However, the manoeuvrings of NATO and the West are not dictated by
sympathy for the sufferings of the Kosovars but by crude
self-interest and cold calculation. They are terrified that, if the
conflict is not quickly brought to a halt, it can spread to the
neighbouring countries and lead to war in the Balkans. If Kosovo
succeeds in breaking away from Yugoslavia, it would inevitably tend
to fuse with Albania, giving rise to the spectre of Greater Albania.
This, in turn, would destabilise Macedonia, a fragile and unstable
statelet where Albanians make up about 40 per cent and live in an
uneasy co-existence with the Slav majority.
The imperialists are indifferent to the sufferings and deaths of
ordinary people (witness their passive complicity in the slaughter in
Rwanda) except where their vital interests are concerned. But the
break-up of Macedonia would have far-reaching consequences on the
Balkans. It would raise the threat of war involving not only Serbia
and Albania, but also Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. It would also
upset the fragile "peace" in Bosnia and set Serbs, Croats and Moslems
at their throats again. Above all, the prospect of war between two
NATO members (Greece and Turkey) fills them with horror. It is no
accident that the first NATO troops will be sent to Macedonia to
reinforce the 2,400 NATO force already there.
The leaders of the KLA lacking any real understanding or
perspectives, have looked to the West for help in their struggle for
independence. What blindness! The imperialists fear an independent
Kosovo every bit as much as Belgrade does. That is why they
constantly harp on the need for a negotiated settlement‹i.e.,
one that would leave Kosovo inside the frontiers of Yugoslavia,
albeit with a large (they hope) measure of autonomy. They could never
accept an independent Kosovo for the reasons we have stated.
The threat to send troops is not aimed to help the Kosovars but to
put pressure on both sides to reach a compromise. But this will be
difficult, since every concession Milosevic makes will be seen as too
much by the Serb chauvinists, and too little by the KLA. Any move to
put pressure on Belgrade by bombing will be fiercely resisted by
Russia and France, who are pursuing their own agenda of building
points of support in the Balkans. Any deal that is done will be at
the expense of the Kosovars who will have to accept the dictates of
the imperialists or face the prospect of being attacked
themselves.
The US imperialists will send troops, but want its European
"partners" to bear the brunt. As always, Washington pulls the strings
and London is the first to dance. Tony Blair is trying to show that
he is more trigger-happy than his friends in the Pentagon. What this
reveals is not toughness, but a pathetic and humiliating dependence
on the transatlantic Big Brother.
Socialist Appeal is in favour of the right of the Kosovars to
self-determination. But that by no means exhausts the question. Under
the concrete circumstances, how can this aim be achieved? The KLA has
no real answer. Given the actual correlation of forces, their
struggle cannot succeed. On the other hand in the long run it could
provoke a devastating war in the Balkans which will be against the
interests of all the peoples.
On a capitalist basis the national question in Kosovo has no
solution. The only lasting solution to the Kosovo problem lies in the
overthrow of the reactionary chauvinist clique in Belgrade and the
establishment of a democratic workers' state which will have no
interest in oppressing the Kosovars or anyone else. But that is the
task of the working people of Yugoslavia themselves and nobody else.
Only on the basis of a genuine democratic Socialist Federation can
the age-old national hatreds and savagery be finally laid to rest.
The involvement of imperialism in the Balkans cannot serve the
interests of the Kosovars, or any other oppressed people, but will
always play a reactionary role.
The Labour Movement must cut across the fog of lies and hypocritical
propaganda and face the real issues and firmly oppose the use of
British troops in Kosovo. No foreign intervention in Yugoslavia! A
socialist policy is the only answer!
Socialist Appeal
February 13, 1999
(Note: we would be very interested in receiving your views comments and criticisms on this article. Send them to contact@marxist.com)
Read Also The Kosovo Pogrom and the Balkans Powder Keg