Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Let's not blame Serbs for all the trouble in Kosovo

WHAT IS ALL of this nonsense about the necessity of the U.S. and NATO forces jumping into action and attacking the Serbs in Kosovo? Some responsible people such as former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., believe we should be forcefully involved immediately now or face another Bosnia. According to them, it's all the fault of the Serbs.

Jonathan Clarke, a former British diplomat now with the Cato Institute, gives these kinds of conclusions a close look and then sudden dismissal. Clarke, writing in the Los Angeles Times, answers the thinking of Dole and Lieberman with, "Other than both being in the Balkans, Bosnia and Kosovo have about as much in common as Argentina and Indonesia. Bosnia was an independent country; everyone realizes that an independent Kosovo would have devastatingly destabilizing regional implications."

Continually those people wanting military action in Kosovo talk about preventing genocide. What they want us to overlook is that if any group should fear genocide, it's the Serbs who live with ethnic Albanians outnumbering them 9-to-1 in Kosovo.

This column in the past has pointed to Kosovo as being a spot much hotter than Bosnia. Vanderbilt University Professor Alex Dragnich best explains the importance of Kosovo to the Serbs and the abuse of them and their religion by the ethnic Albanians. First a look at the history of the area where sins of the past are seldom forgotten.

Dragnich writes, "It had been the center of the Serbian kingdom of the Middle Ages, when Serbia was the strongest empire in the Balkans for more than 100 years. It is there that the most cherished Serbian Christian monuments, its monasteries and churches, are located. It was there that the Serbian army suffered defeat in 1389 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, and the Serbian monarch, Prince Lazar, lost his life. In the nearly 500 years of Turkish rule that followed, the Serbs never stopped dreaming of a resurrected Serbian state, a dream that was realized in the 19th century."

Dragnich then points out: "The holy ground of Kosovo was not regained until the Balkan Wars of 1912. During the intervening centuries, many Serbs fled Kosovo to escape enslavement, while the Turks sent in more and more Islamicized Albanians, who engaged in massive persecutions of Serbs, which today would be called genocide, and which were reported in detail by consuls of the European powers. These persecutions were particularly odious in the 19th century. The net result was a sharp increase in the percentage of Albanians in Kosovo. The high birthrate among Muslim Albanians also contributed to that increase."

During World War II, following Italy's defeat, the Kosovo Albanians sent a pro-Nazi regiment to fight on the side of Germany. Following the war, Dragnich reminds us that Yugoslavia's Tito "had promised the Kosovo Albanians that they could be annexed to Albania, and although he reneged on that promise, he did allow them to form an autonomous province. The Kosovo Albanians lost no time in seeking to make of Kosovo an ethnically pure area. To that end, they engaged in continual and brutal persecution of the Serbs: They raped and pillaged; desecrated Serbian religious institutions, including cemeteries; set Serbian barns and haystacks on fire; cut timber on Serbian lands; and constructed buildings on Serbian property. The purpose, of course, was to force Serbs to flee, and they did so in large numbers."

Despite this most recent history we have U.S. and British diplomats berating the Serbs and recommending that air strikes be made against them in Kosovo. News agencies have joined in the clatter with stories about the brutal conduct of Serb police officers trying to quell riots in the city of Pristina. Other stories with photos of ethnic Albanians of the Kosovo Liberation Army being armed in the Cicavica Mountains promote the rebels as heroes. Along with this comes U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke meeting with the rebels and then telling the Serbs to get out of Kosovo.

Very little publicity about Serb suffering has reached the American people. However, in a recent New York Times story is the following: "In recent days armed ethnic Albanian groups have expelled Serbs from Jelovac and Kijevo, which were populated by Albanians and Serbs. There are now 900 Serbs, displaced from their homes in the last week, taking refuge in Klina, and several say male relatives detained by the rebels are still missing. ...

"Bodies have begun turning up near Serbian settlements. Zivojin Milic, shot six times in the head, was found last Wednesday in the outskirts of Pristina, apparently a victim of the ethnic Albanian militants.

"The village of Bica, three miles north of Klina, is one of the last Serbian villages staving off rebel bands in the corner of Kosovo ..."

It's a messy and somewhat bloody situation that clearly has neither side wearing the white hats we give to good guys. There's no way U.S. ground troops can be used in Kosovo and the use of air strikes will only kill more Serbs and ethnic Albanians who are already suffering enough. It's not a case of genocide being practiced by the Serb minority who have long been the victims of ill treatment by ethnic Albanians. And, yes, Kosovo is a province of Yugoslavia and not of Albania.

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