July-August  1999

The US-led NATO aggression of Yugoslavia and the carving up of Kosovo amongst the major Western powers, marks a turning point in the post cold-war era of US imperialism’s increasingly aggressive role. The new NATO Charter gives the official stamp of legitimacy to it. The post cold-war decline in US defence spending having been reversed since the last couple of years is further indication of the 21st century being ushered in amidst devastation, wars and increased destruction.

Serbia has been bombed back to a condition that existed after World War II. Damage is estimated to be upto $100 billion; its per capita income has dropped by 30%; over 5 lakh people have been displaced from work because of bombing of industries; two-thirds of Serbia is without electricity; 35 bridges, 3 oil refineries, TV and radio broadcasting station, large parts of central Belgrade, drinking water supplies... have been bombed out of existence. The bombing of fertiliser and chemical plants have resulted in enormous environmental damage, leading to the evacuation of about one lakh people. Besides, thousands of civilians have been ‘mistakenly’ bombed.

In Kosovo itself, according to UN estimates, about half the houses had been destroyed and upto 70% damaged - mostly by Serb forces, but also by ‘mistaken’ NATO bombing.

Besides this huge destruction, the ‘Campaign for Peace’ group estimates that the 79 days of bombing would have cost roughly $100 billion. Add to this the cost of sustaining half-a-million refugees and rehabilitation costs - put at $30 bn - and a peace-keeping force of 50,000 (costing some $15 bn annually) together with an army of UN administrators .... the destructiveness of this limited imperialist war (there was no official declaration of war) has been gigantic. Add to this the destruction of thousands of lives - mostly civilian, the trauma and devastation of lakhs of families, the torture and butcheries of hundreds of fighters ... it is a tragedy of monstrous proportions. The first of its kind in Europe since World War II.

Before turning to the lessons to be drawn from this war, first let us see how this war was concluded.

A NATO Agreement

The final agreement, proposed by the G-8 countries and brokered by the Russians was a total sell-out to NATO’s demands. Russia meekly signed on the dotted line dictated by NATO generals. The agreement is even more humiliating for Yugoslavia than the one proposed to be signed at the Rambouillet peace talks, before the beginning of the bombing. The agreement is not only anti-Yugoslavia but is also anti-KLA and against the interests of the Kosovo people. It only serves the imperialists’ interests of NATO that carves it up amongst the 5 major NATO powers (US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy) and hands over administrative control, not to the Kosovar people, but to imperialist administrators. It defacto turns Kosovo into a Western imperialist protectorate situated in a highly strategic region, enabling NATO to more effectively police not only East and Central Europe, but also the oil-rich Central Asian countries.

The Agreement, that was adopted in toto, by the UN Security Council says :

First, the peace-keeping forces will function under the coercive Section VII of the UN Charter, which gives it the right to use force. Section VII involves the imposition of the forces on a particular country, giving it enormous powers.... while Section VI would have entailed an invitation to the forces by the Yugoslav government, with limited powers. Now, having entrenched themselves in Kosovo, the US can use these powers to bomb Yugoslavia whenever it decides that Belgrade is not cooperating.

Second, the Agreement to station peacekeeping forces is open-ended... without any expiry date, as exists in the mandates for UN forces in Macedonia and Angola. If there had been an expiry date each subsequent extension would have required concurrence of all five Security Council members. Now the forces can be stationed there indefinitely. Not incorporating an expiry date could well lead to a situation like Iraq, where lifting the embargo is being blocked by US and Britain, both of whom have veto powers.

Third, the Agreement says that the peace-keeping forces will function under a "unified command structure" with a "fundamental NATO component". Without actually saying a NATO command, this aspect is left vague allowing NATO to take control through the back-door. This snake-like treachery of the Russians, allows it to fool its own people and the Serbs that the Russians will have a separate command structure, while actually allowing the entire mission to be under NATO operation.

Fourth, the Agreement says that all must cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which has hauled up Milosevic and some others as war criminals. This ‘judgment’ was passed based on ‘evidence’ provided by British intelligence. The ICTY chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour of Canada, has refused to investigate charges that NATO has grossly violated the laws of war.

Fifth, the Agreement accepts Kosovo as an integral part of Yugoslavia (while providing for "substantial self-government) and does not even call for holding a referendum at a future date to decide on its independence, as had been earlier agreed in the Rambouillet peace talks. It also calls for the immediate demilitarisation of the KLA. Both the demands were first opposed by the KLA but, later they signed an agreement with NATO.

Finally, the Agreement calls for the establishment, under Security Council auspices, of an interim administration for Kosovo "to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants". Hardly had the agreement been signed when the UN began preparations to deploy thousands of aid workers, administrators, police and support staff in Kosovo. The operation, known as the UN Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is expected to last years and cost billions. No doubt, as in Iraq, much of this huge cost will be extracted from the local people of Yugoslavia.

What is more, the entire process of implementing the ‘peace’ displayed the utter arrogance of the NATO chiefs and their contempt for not only Russia, but also the UN.

Even after Milosevic’s acceptance of the G-8 proposals NATO continued its bombing. This bombing continued throughout the talks between the armed forces of the two sides to decide on the withdrawal of Serb forces out of Kosovo. At these talks British generals virtually dictated terms to the Serbs, with a gun pointed at their head. Once the Serbs signed on the dotted line, bombing was paused and immediately sought to bulldoze the G-8 proposals through the UN.

Never has the UN looked so pathetic and irrelevant as during this entire Kosovo episode. So contemptuous was NATO of the UN, that even before the passing of the proposed resolution it had already announced that the commander of the international peace-keeping force will be a British General and that the bulk of the so-called international peace-keeping force will be that of NATO’s. In fact during the G-8 deliberations in Bonn, British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, revealed his colonial contempt for China and the other UN member-countries, when he said that the G-8-drafted resolution was bound to be rubber-stamped by the Security Council.

For all Russia and China’s fulminations, the Resolution was passed by 14 votes to zero with China abstaining. While Russia’s capitulation was total, China did not even assert its right to veto. Thereby international brigandage was given legitimacy. International law has been bombed into its grave. With the UN ‘rubber-stamping’ the NATO-dictated resolution, not only has it given an acceptable face to imperialist war-mongering, it has signed its own death warrant. It has lost all validity for its existence. From now on it is the law of the wild — let not the imperialists now complain of ‘terrorism’ etc; they themselves have set the terms; the people of the world will act accordingly.

What then are the lessons to be gained from this Kosovo conflict ?

Lesson One : US Imperialism is the Greatest Danger to Mankind

The war in Yugoslavia (as also Iraq) indicates a new brazenness of US imperialism which was relatively subdued after its defeat in Indo-China and with the existence of a parallel imperialist superpower in the Soviet Union. With the imperialists, for the present, not yet divided into competing blocs, and with no power to challenge the US, the genocidal American regime is free to ravage the world. The one million killed in Iraq through bombings and sanctions, together with the devastation of Yugoslavia, is a warning to all countries of the world — to fall in line, or else face destruction. If a country in the heart of Europe can be so despoiled, what of third world countries !

It also is the initiation of a new kind of war, wherein the aggressors face the least risk; do not confront the ‘enemy’, but instead bomb the entire country back to the dark-ages — then strangulate it through sanctions. This ‘high-tech’ war (or surgical warfare) matches in its brutality that of Hitler’s mafia. There, the gas chambers were crude, now similar brutality is effected ‘surgically’ through impersonal bombings and even more impersonal deaths through starvation, disease and environmental damage. Then Goebbels’ crude propaganda, is now replaced with an even more Goebelsian monopoly media.... but with a sophistication not known to Hitler — lies, half-truths, distortions, whipping up of hatred etc., is now beautifully packaged and is aggressively pushed in each and every household through the TV.

All defeatist thinking of hopelessness before its mighty war-machine only whets its appetite. The ‘end of history’ syndrome, the NGO’s pacifist sterility, the silence of a consumerist middle class, only serve to encourage and facilitate its rapaciousness. Yet if a tiny Vietnam could check-mate the mightiest war machine in the world, an aroused people can puncture its inflated ego. In the face of a people’s war, its high-tech weaponry will be of little use.

Even in the imperialist war in Yugoslavia, NATO forces were on the verge of defeat. Had the war dragged for another month, the NATO camp would have been in disarray. By that time, if it did not induct ground troops, there would have arisen uncontrollable conditions amongst the refugees, and NATO would have got fully discredited as a spineless monster indulging in fruitless bombing killing thousands of civilians. Besides, discontent was brewing in the refugee camps with the horrifying living conditions; and with a desperate need to get the refugees back before the onset of winter there was an urgency to wrap up the war immediately. On the other hand, if ground troops were sent, NATO would have split, and the large number of casualties which they would have suffered would have resulted in large unrest within the imperialist countries themselves.

Faced with this dead-end, it was Russia that came to the rescue of NATO.

Lesson No. 2 : Russia, A toothless Imperialist Bear

At this critical moment, the more pro-West Yeltsin stooges, ousted the more aggressive Russian-imperialist group, and allocated Chernomyrdin to negotiate the surrender. Not that the Primakov-led group did much to face the NATO onslaught — they had more bark than bite. But, with Chernomyrdin, the bark turned to a whine, and like a tame puppy wagging its tail it bartered a sell-out in exchange for a few dollars.

The total sell-out at the G-8 agreement and Russia’s endorsement of it at the UN was so obvious, that it stage-managed a takeover of Pristina airport by 200 Russian para-troopers, to give the impression of independent assertion. The stunt helped diffuse anger within Russia; it also helped give an impression of victory to the Serb forces.

Yet, through the entire process not one of the demands being put forward by Russia and the Serbs were accepted by NATO. They demanded the a skeleton Serb force be allowed to stay in Kosovo to defend Serbian monuments and local Serb civilians — but by June 20 not only had the army and para-military left, but even the entire police force. The Russians demanded a separate zone for peace-keeping and refused to function under NATO command — but, at the agreement between Russia and the US, chalked out at Helsinki, Russia was not given an independent zone and its proposed 3,600 forces were to be carved up within the American, French and German zones. Defacto overall command would remain with NATO and with an overwhelming presence (37,000 of the 50,000 proposed peace-keeping force is that of NATO) Russian troops would remain an ineffectual appendage.

Finally Yeltsin servility at the G-8 Summit was rewarded by a massive financial aid package to prop up the Russia economy. In return Yeltsin agreed to continue the START-III negotiations and even signed a declaration on the return to "full democracy" in Yugoslavia. This declaration ruled out any Western aid to Serbia as long as Milosevic continued in power, yet it was signed by Yeltsin.

Lesson No. 3 : Chinese Hypocrisy

China sought only to utilise the Kosovo issue to push its own bourgeois selfish interests. Increase in its foreign trade, enhancement of foreign capital, admission into the WTO, etc., is what it bargained for over the lives of thousands of Serb and Kosovo people. Even the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade and the killing of three of its citizens (which, in effect, amounts to an act of war against China) was utilised by the new Chinese bourgeoisie for a few added crumbs from the West.

All its tough anti-West talk looked more like hypocrisy in the light of its actions at the UN over the Kosovo issue.

At the Security Council it first insisted on a resolution "strongly condemning" the attack on the Chinese embassy. It finally accepted a statement expressing "deep distress and concern" over the attack. Its attitude towards the G-8 resolution was even worse. After strongly condemning it, when it was finally presented in the UN Security Council, it did not even vote against it, but merely abstained. Though it had the power to prevent the resolution from being passed, as one of the permanent members, it refused to exercise its right of veto. In other words, it too has collaborated in the NATO offensive, by allowing the resolution to pass.

Lesson No. 4 : Self-determination cannot be achieved through dependence on one or the other imperialists

It is a fact that Russian-backed Serb chauvinism wreaked havoc on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo. This continued for over a decade and reached its peak during the NATO bombing. Even if NATO reports of mass graves are exaggerated, the Serb nationalist policy of mass extermination cannot be denied. Destruction of entire villages; turning nearly half the population into refugees; tortures, rapes and mass killings; can never be condoned or glossed over. Condemnation of NATO bombing cannot ignore Serb brutalities, nor can it exonerate Russian imperialism’s backing to these marauders.

Yet, this Russian backed Serb chauvinism cannot be fought by dependence on Western imperialism. As we have seen NATO has totally sold out the national aspirations of the Kosovo people; it has stabbed to KLA in the back by refusing its demand for referendum on independence; it has undertaken the task to immediately disarm the fighters, and in the new structure in Kosovo the people have no role .... where Serb administrators and police will be replaced by thousands of imperialist stooges, and Serb armed forces will be replaced by that of NATO. Besides, Kosovo people and the region’s vast natural resources will be utilised to part-sustain this gigantic army of occupation. The last drop of blood will be squeezed out of them, in order to pay for their own incarceration by the NATO/UN regime.

The KLA fighters will have to take to arms again - this time against the Western forces. The West has never trusted the KLA due to its Marxist antecedents and supposed Islamic connections. It had backed the traitor Rughova (who lately struck a deal with Milosevic and went to Italy, to be rousingly welcomed by the Italian prime minister) and was forced to deal with the KLA when it found Rughova’s party totally isolated. In the process it has created factions within the KLA and got a section to act as its fifth column against Serbian forces. It will now seek to further the faction-fighting, thereby attempting to destroy the genuine fighting forces. NATO’s utter contempt for the KLA is reflected in a recent statement by Western military experts which said that "the KLA has turned into a sort of liberation mafia run by a band of self-styled warlords."

The fourth lesson from the Kosovo conflict, is that no national liberation movement can advance by depending on any of the imperialist factions. Utilising contradictions amongst them is one thing; depending on either faction is quite another matter. No liberation force should give up its arms at the dictates of the imperialists and should always retain the initiative in battle. They must realise that it is not one or other of the imperialists that are their allies, but the democratic and proletarian forces that really support their right to self-determination, including secession. The imperialists only seek to utilise national liberation movements in their power-play, and stab them in the back once their use is over. History has proved this time and again. It is once again being enacted in Kosovo.

Lesson No. 5 : It is only people’s movements that can beat back the imperialist offensive and achieve the self-determination of Nations

NATO fears not Russia nor China, but more the rising tide of people’s movements against the war, in their own countries and around the world. This war has exposed not only the brazenness of NATO, the spinelessness of Russia, the hypocrisy of China, but also the outright bankruptcy of the pacifists. In this first-ever war unleashed by the European powers in the last 50 years, the Party of the Greens has been directly involved. Being part of the German government they also bear responsibility for the genocidal bombing.

It is the growing people’s movements against the war that has unnerved the governments. May day demonstrations saw massive protests against the war. In Italy, in mid-May, three outlets of MacDonald were attacked with bombs and two military vehicles were set ablaze by Italian protesters. In Greece, on April 27th, protestors stopped shipment of trucks and tanks. In Germany, at a Greens party convention to endorse the bombing, there was violent opposition to that section which supported the bombing. Finance minister, Fischer, was pelted by paint-bombs by anti-war protestors during a heated party congress. Also in Germany huge demonstrations have taken place at the G-8 meetings and its yearly summit. In mid-June, Britain witnessed the most violent demonstration in the last decade. Thousands of demonstrators laid seige to the city of London. After venting their anger against a MacDonalds restaurant, the demonstrators fought pitched battles with the police, that continued for hours. Many of these protests were linked to, not only the war in Yugoslavia, but also against imperialist policies in the third world.

Meanwhile, NATO’s next step will be to try and destabilise Montenegro and displace the Milosevic government in Yugoslavia. The recognition of the Kosovo people’s right to self-determination, including secession, is the starting point for any unified struggle of Serbs and Kosovars against both NATO and the Russian-backed Milosevic government. A fight against both is the only guarantee for peace in the Balkans.

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