04.02.1999

Reject Nato ultimatum

Kosovar people demand independence

This weekend sees a deadline over the war in Kosova. Four months into the US-sponsored ‘ceasefire’, Nato has ordered both Serbia/Yugoslavia and representatives of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosova to the negotiating table on Saturday in Rambouillet, outside Paris. With the threat of military action against the Serbian army and the Kosova Liberation Army, the opposing sides will be given a fortnight to come to a ‘political settlement’. If either side fails to comply, force will be used.

Western imperialism is waving the big stick, with some commentators suggesting that the UK, France, Germany and the United States are prepared to commit up to 30,000 ground troops to ‘implement’ any brokered or enforced settlement. What is clear at this stage is that imperialism’s prime objective is not a democratic solution which will satisfy the just aspirations of the brutally oppressed Albanian majority of Serbia’s once autonomous republic. Instead, what is foremost is the attainment of imperialist interests. As the Financial Times explains, “Europe and Nato cannot abandon Kosovo - stability on its southern flank is too important” (editorial, February 1).

The talks, which seem likely to be attended by all parties, will be a far cry from negotiations without preconditions - independence for Kosova is not on the table.

Instead, the six-nation Contact Group is intent on bending both sides to imperialism’s agenda. Kosovar independence would be too much for the west (as it is for Serbia). And Serbia, one of the New World Order’s pariah states, cannot be allowed to maintain a self-defined and undemocratic ‘national integrity’ based on intransigence towards the west - and on aspirations for a Greater Serbia. So we say ‘no’ to all imperialist threats against Serbia, and ‘yes’ to Kosovar independence from Serbia. Our main enemy, here in Britain, is not Serbia, but the UK state.

The ‘framework document’ for the imperialist settlement drawn up by the US and agreed by the Contact Group last Friday provides for an interim accord of three years during which Kosova will have ‘autonomy’ within the Federation of Yugoslavia. Beyond that time period, nothing is laid down.

The west aims to deny democratic self-determination - an idea that may produce more dominoes in the region. Instead, what is wanted is a delaying period which would, as Robin Cook said in the Commons, “establish a political community within Kosovo, which if independence were to be the outcome ... could be ready to take that extra step”. One would have thought that the community in Kosova is fairly political already. In fact Cook wants a subdued community and a compliant, pro-western government.

Despite all the liberal soundbites under the guise of an ‘ethical’ foreign policy, the goal is clear - bring both the Serbs and the uppity Kosovars to imperialism’s heel.

Nato is threatening to bomb Serbia, crush the KLA and put in ground troops - all to back up a US-designed ‘solution’ that Cook says will include a “democratic, self-governing Kosovo free from fear and bloodshed”. Evidently this ‘democratic and bloodless’ solution will be imposed whether the Kosovar people want it or not.

However, the proposed Nato solution is untenable. Firstly, it lays blame equally at the door of both Serbia and the KLA. Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Cook stated that the text of the Nato document is “even-handed and has authorised [Nato secretary-general] Javier Solana to take action, depending on the response of both parties - not just one party”. In a statement last Friday, the foreign ministers of the Contact Group countries said: “The KLA shared responsibility with the Yugoslav security forces for the escalation of violence.”

This ‘even-handed’ approach is a ruse to disguise the fundamentally undemocratic approach with which imperialism is approaching this conflict. Imperialism cannot and will not accept that the war of the KLA is a just war. Given the history of violence, the only democratic solution is independence for Kosova. Plans for ‘autonomy’ and the continued domination of Kosova by Serbia - ‘only’ in the areas of foreign policy, external defence, monetary policy, the single market, customs and federal taxation - is flagrantly undemocratic.

However, the ultimatum handed down by Nato is militarily untenable. If the talks fail to go ahead this week, or if there are breaches of the enforced ‘solution’, Nato can only strike effectively against the Serbs. The conflict is not between two belligerent powers, but between an oppressive state and an oppressed people, risen in arms. Nato can bomb Serbian airfields, attack Serbian barracks and take out the buildings of the Serbian security forces. But the KLA is like a fish amongst the Kosovar people. To bomb them means taking up the methods of the Serbian forces - razing Kosovar villages to the ground and wiping out at random alleged ‘terrorists’.

Cook said: “We are not going to be conscripted as the KLA’s air force.” Yet in any enforced settlement, what is to stop the KLA provoking Serbian forces in order to force Nato to bomb Serbia? Indeed, what is to stop the KLA turning their guns on Nato enforcers?

Settling this conflict is for imperialism not just a question of dealing with an immediate ‘security issue’ and managing lesser states. On top of this is the wider agenda of building an international legal framework for the New World Order.

Although the UN Security Council has sanctioned the Nato threats, under international law its right to bomb Serbia over what is ostensibly an internal problem is not sustainable. According to such legality, the sovereignty of existing states is paramount. Kosova is as much a part of Serbia as Northern Ireland is of the United Kingdom. Communists, by contrast, are for the democratic rights of actual peoples, not concerned with upholding lines on maps.

Clearly, imperialism offers nothing positive. Yet the military and political resistance of the Kosovar Albanians alone is not enough. Key is winning the Serbian masses away from Greater Serbian nationalism to an internationalist and democratic championing of Kosovar independence and building a genuinely anti-imperialist movement in the west.

Marcus Larsen