Archive through May 18, 1999

Archive through May 18, 1999 - Kosovo War https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/ Disaster Message Service Discussion Board en-US Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:34:44 +0000 wpForo 60 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3727 Tue, 18 May 1999 18:50:00 +0000 Kosovo War guido https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3727 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3726 Tue, 18 May 1999 18:48:00 +0000 Kosovo War guido https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3726 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3725 Tue, 18 May 1999 18:22:00 +0000 All other opinions except Guido's, Emina's, Jack's, Zoja's, DS's, Pete's and Rosies' are null and void due to the fact that their authors lack the necessary insight required to discern reality from fiction.]]> Kosovo War guido https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3725 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3724 Tue, 18 May 1999 16:23:00 +0000
The use of profanity or obscenities.

A user engaging in personal attacks on others.

DMS participants straying off the discussion topic.

Using fake names or impersonating others. *

* Impersonating others is not permitted.
All users are tracked by IP address.

Thanks,
Ansen]]> Kosovo War Anonymous https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3724 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3723 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:49:00 +0000 MILOSIVIC HAVING GAY RELATIONSHIP WITH TOP SERBIAN GENERAL

STAND BY FOR UPDATE

TANJUC NEWS AGENCY]]> Kosovo War tanjuc https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3723 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3722 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:44:00 +0000 Kosovo War god https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3722 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3721 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:41:00 +0000 Kosovo War god https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/5/#post-3721 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3720 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:24:00 +0000
Lomg live Serbia, PUKE. Long live a DICTATOR FREE SERBIA!

Zoja]]> Kosovo War zoja https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3720 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3719 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:17:00 +0000
BELGRADE, May 17 (AFP) - Yugoslav General Vladimir Lazarevic,
>the corps commander in Pristina, on Monday accused NATO of
>"mobilizing terrorist forces" across Europe for use "in its
>agression" against Kosovo.
> Belgrade uses the term terrorist to designate separatists of the
>Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighting Serb forces in the southern
>Yugoslav province.
> "After the defeat of (Albanian) forces in Kosovo, NATO mobilised
>terrorist forces throughout Europe and among the Macedonian and
>Albanian population for use in the agression it is waging from
>Albanian territory," Lazarevic said.
> "We are ignoring the fact this ground attack has been going on
>for more than a month and is concentrated between Tropoja (northern
>Albania) and the Junik mountains (in western Kosovo)," he told the
>state-run television RTS.

Zoja]]> Kosovo War zoja https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3719 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3718 Tue, 18 May 1999 15:10:00 +0000 This is what we tried to bring accross all the time. What do you think of this?http://www.hinduonline.com/today/stories/05172524.htm THE HINDU, Monday, May 17, 1999 The lessons of the Kosovo war

By Thomas Abraham

THERE IS an important lesson to be learnt from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's fiasco in Yugoslavia. Military power in the modern world is useful only in two circumstances: in self- defence or as a way of conquering another country. It will be useless if the aim is only arm-twisting. NATO has tried to use its immense military power to threaten Yugoslavia and make it bend to its will. Such threats worked in the 19th and early 20th centuries. That was the era of gunboat diplomacy when the colonial Western powers had merely to station a warship or two off the coast of a weaker country and shell it a couple of times, for it to cave in. That was how large parts of Asia and Africa were subjugated.

That era is over. For one thing, military power now is much more evenly divided. More important, we live in a nationalistic age in which people won't give in to threats from outside powers. Wherever they live, people respond with an angry determination not to give in when they are bombed. The West ought to have learnt this lesson from its experiences as far afield as Vietnam and Iraq. In Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein has been at the receiving end of Western air attacks for eight years now but he has outlasted all adversaries. Mr. George Bush, U.S. President who led the Gulf War, retired and his successor, Mr. Bill Clinton, who continues the same Iraq policies, is at the fag-end of his Presidency. But the Iraqi strongman is still very much in place. The bombings have only generated long-lasting resentment against the West and helped Mr. Hussein consolidate his hold on power.

Similarly, the popular response in Serbia has not been to force Mr. Slobodan Milosevic to yield to the Western demands or to try and overthrow him. Instead, it has been anger, resentment and a determination not to succumb to the threats. It is not difficult to see why this is so. Though NATO has described the bombing as an action against Mr. Milosevic and his armed forces, ordinary people see it as an attack on themselves. Bombs, even those blessed with the surgical precision that NATO claims for its weapons, are blunt instruments. They hit buildings, bridges, roads and factories and rip the fabric of people's lives. And invariably, they produce overwhelming anger against those carrying out the attacks, rather than a spirit of compromise.

The only way NATO could actually have made its military strength work was to invade Yugoslavia, depose Mr. Milosevic and either install a pro-Western government or run the country itself. But the West does not have the stomach for such a major enterprise in a situation where its vital interests are not threatened. Thus, it opted for the easy way of holding out threats, followed by bombing, in the hope that this would work. The easy way, however, is also a futile way.

The experience of the last three decades, whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or Yugoslavia, has clearly shown how little military threats can achieve. It has also shown that there are no military solutions to what are essentially political problems. The conflict in Kosovo is a complex, ethno-nationalist issue with a long history. It is not a problem which can be solved by arbitrarily forcing a solution on two unwilling parties. Kosovo's status within Serbia is something that the Serbs and the Kosovars

will have to negotiate and all that the outside world can do is to create conditions for a peaceful dialogue. Imposing a political solution, which is what NATO is trying to do, is the easiest way to ensure that the settlement does not last. One or the other of the parties will be dissatisfied and will try to restart the conflict in the hope of a better outcome.

Political and diplomatic means could have been used to avert the crisis. It could, in fact, have been resolved some years ago. The West had a clear warning of the trouble brewing in Kosovo. In the early 1990s, when Yugoslavia began to break up, Kosovo was seen as the Balkan's most volatile area. Albanian and Serb nationalism had been battling it out in Kosovo throughout the Eighties and once the rest of Yugoslavia began to crumble, there was little doubt that there would be a major battle over the province.

Yet, Kosovo was largely ignored by an international community which was preoccupied with the problem of Bosnia. Even after the Dayton accords on Bosnia-Herzegovina, no real effort was made to bring peace to Kosovo. Last year, when the fighting triggered the flight of refugees, too large to be ignored, the United States and the European Union tried to broker a peace. But the Western effort was onesided: Mr. Milosevic was the bad guy and all the pressure was put on him. The Kosovo Liberation Army, which was engaged in a violent campaign against the Serbian police and civilians, was left unrestrained. Mr. Milosevic, not surprisingly, decided that the only course of action was to unleash a military campaign against the KLA. NATO's bombs then provided the perfect cover for him to push the Kosovo Albanians out of the province. A balanced diplomatic effort some years ago could have averted this crisis.

Catalysing political and economic changes in Yugoslavia could have averted the Kosovo tragedy. The real failure of the West has been in retarding the growth of an open political system in Belgrade through its policy of economic and political sanctions against Yugoslavia. The sanctions were meant to isolate and put pressure on Mr. Milosevic to reform. Instead, they hardened his attitudes, as sanctions tend to do, and left Yugoslavia in a political and economic time warp.

Instead of isolating Yugoslavia, the West should have embraced it and helped it become part of the rest of Europe. Money ought to have been pumped into Serbia and Kosovo to help develop the economy and prepare the country for membership of the European Union. This was a bait that the Yugoslav leadership and, more importantly, the people could not have resisted. The narrow, nationalistic and chauvinistic policies which Mr. Milosevic followed would not have survived in a liberal political and economic regime that the E.U. membership could have ensured. The E.U. aid and investment too would have made a major difference to transforming the political and economic face of Yugoslavia.

It is useful to consider how much the war has cost and how much better use the money could have been put to. One cruise missile costs $1 million and at least 100 have been fired so far. The Stealth fighter that the U.S. lost cost $45 million. Each bomb NATO dropped cost around $10,000. Adding to these figures the cost of flying over 400 aircraft for several hours a day, one estimate from the investment bankers, Lehman Brothers, puts the total at $3 billion for a month-long air war. This does not take into account the cost of feeding and housing 4,00,000 refugees who have fled Kosovo or that of maintaining the NATO ground forces stationed in Macedonia for a possible peacekeeping role in Kosovo. If there is an actual ground war in Kosovo, the cost would shoot up further. If even a proportion of this money had been pumped into Serbia and Kosovo over the last few years, it would have helped transform one of Eastern Europe's poorest regions. It would also have brought about political changes both in Serbia and Kosovo, as the people saw the possibilities that would open up with greater economic and political integration with the rest of Europe.

If there is a lesson from the Kosovo debacle, it is this: the real strength of the West does not lie in its bombs and high tech aircraft. It lies in its political stability and economic prosperity. The West can best achieve its aims by embracing recalcitrant nations and offering them prosperity through economic and political interaction rather than by raining destruction on them.

Emina and Zoja]]> Kosovo War zoja https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-18-1999/paged/4/#post-3718