to be honest, Sam, I am receiving very contradictory reports, most of them
culminations of all kinds of observations, experiences, histories, building
to general feelings about things. Some of my friends, currently in Albania
and Macedonia--or on their way there, whose opinion I trust and respect are
very much in favour of the NATO strikes: they cite the smuggled plan,
'operation horseshoe', which describes the Serbian planned genocide.
They're also intensely conscious of Milosevic's actions in Croatia and
Bosnia. They essentially feel that the genocide would have been far, far
worse, without NATOs intervention (they also support the form of that
intervention). It's also clear that the refugee problem, while severe, is
not as desparate as it first seemed. Something close now to 400,000 have
been actually displaced from Kosovo itself--It's not clear how many are
displaced within Kosovo, or what is happening to them. This, of course, is
small compared to Rwanda (about 2 million then), and the aid and
humanitarian agencies are deploying rapid assistence in both Albania and
Macedonia to cope.
The other perspective is from friends I have--in no way supporters of
Milosevic--in Yugoslavia, who are calling for an immediate end to strikes;
because they're convinced that, at least so far, this has only strengthened
Milosevic's hand. This might be changing (the closing of Kosovo's borders
earlier this week is immensely significant). Some are suspicious of NATO
motives; they want to believe in the objectives, but are concious of the
consistent failure of Western resolve in Bosnia. They're also suspicious
about the timing. This has been going on in Kosovo since 1991. They're
trying to figure out if the West's version of truth holds any truth. They
tell me that some installations being bombed were empty in any case, and
are urgently calling for helicopter gunships to be deployed in Kosovo
itself to take out Serbian tanks. This situation is moving so fast it is
immensely difficult for us here to keep up. Short of being there, all we
can do is read and watch everything (several French journalists have gotten
into Kosovo itself. _Le Monde_ is covering this crisis really well I
think), and try to keep an open mind, politically, and historically. I
entirely agree with what you say about the primacy of human rights, but,
often, on the ground, hard choices have to be made--Rwanda, is a good, if
specific, example: there, it was not at all clear if the actions of the
humanitarian agencies were entirely without harm. The camps established
after the initial genocide were ostensibly protecting human rights, but
they came to be seen as sustaining the war. That's why people were forced
to return to their old homes, and the repressive regime, though they
absolutely didn't want to.
But I also sympathise with your pragmatism; analysis has to end--at a
certain point, save those who we can.
______________________________________________
Ian R. Douglas | Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University, Box 1831, Providence, RI 02912 USA
tel: 401 863-2420 fax: 401 863-2192
"Everything is dangerous" - Michel Foucault
http://www.powerfoundation.org
culminations of all kinds of observations, experiences, histories, building
to general feelings about things. Some of my friends, currently in Albania
and Macedonia--or on their way there, whose opinion I trust and respect are
very much in favour of the NATO strikes: they cite the smuggled plan,
'operation horseshoe', which describes the Serbian planned genocide.
They're also intensely conscious of Milosevic's actions in Croatia and
Bosnia. They essentially feel that the genocide would have been far, far
worse, without NATOs intervention (they also support the form of that
intervention). It's also clear that the refugee problem, while severe, is
not as desparate as it first seemed. Something close now to 400,000 have
been actually displaced from Kosovo itself--It's not clear how many are
displaced within Kosovo, or what is happening to them. This, of course, is
small compared to Rwanda (about 2 million then), and the aid and
humanitarian agencies are deploying rapid assistence in both Albania and
Macedonia to cope.
The other perspective is from friends I have--in no way supporters of
Milosevic--in Yugoslavia, who are calling for an immediate end to strikes;
because they're convinced that, at least so far, this has only strengthened
Milosevic's hand. This might be changing (the closing of Kosovo's borders
earlier this week is immensely significant). Some are suspicious of NATO
motives; they want to believe in the objectives, but are concious of the
consistent failure of Western resolve in Bosnia. They're also suspicious
about the timing. This has been going on in Kosovo since 1991. They're
trying to figure out if the West's version of truth holds any truth. They
tell me that some installations being bombed were empty in any case, and
are urgently calling for helicopter gunships to be deployed in Kosovo
itself to take out Serbian tanks. This situation is moving so fast it is
immensely difficult for us here to keep up. Short of being there, all we
can do is read and watch everything (several French journalists have gotten
into Kosovo itself. _Le Monde_ is covering this crisis really well I
think), and try to keep an open mind, politically, and historically. I
entirely agree with what you say about the primacy of human rights, but,
often, on the ground, hard choices have to be made--Rwanda, is a good, if
specific, example: there, it was not at all clear if the actions of the
humanitarian agencies were entirely without harm. The camps established
after the initial genocide were ostensibly protecting human rights, but
they came to be seen as sustaining the war. That's why people were forced
to return to their old homes, and the repressive regime, though they
absolutely didn't want to.
But I also sympathise with your pragmatism; analysis has to end--at a
certain point, save those who we can.
______________________________________________
Ian R. Douglas | Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University, Box 1831, Providence, RI 02912 USA
tel: 401 863-2420 fax: 401 863-2192
"Everything is dangerous" - Michel Foucault
http://www.powerfoundation.org