>Bill Bartlett

>>[...] (3)The agreement Milosevic wouldn't sign is because it would give
Kosovo "de facto independence now, with guaranteed de jure independence in
three years".

>If this is what the inhabitants of Kosovo want, what is the objection?

Again, the majority wanted autonomy.  But the KLA wanted independence.  This
agreement was for the KLA's likely, not ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

>>Yugoslav laws would no longer apply in Kosovo. Neither would Yugoslavia be
able to exercise police powers in Kosovo.

>As we speak the police in Kosovo are either actively engaged in, or turning
a blind eye to, (at a minimum) mass deportation of a substantial portion of
the civilian population.  Agreeing to let the Yugoslavian state exercise
police powers in Kosovo is thus a totally bizarre idea. At best the present
police are completely corrupt and incompetent, at worst... well I shy away
from even contemplating that.

As we speak NATO is bombing this region and the police have become aggressor
sinstead of protectors as a direct result of NATO's actions.  The Pentagon
and CIA warned NATO this would happen.
How often does the US go into a conflict within talking to the CIA before
hand?  I must conclude that everything that is happening right now was known
ahead of time and, I might argue, even desired.

>>After three years, these arrangements would be made permanent by the "will
of the people" - not the people of the whole country of Yugoslavia of which
Kosovo is supposedly a part, but only by the will of the people of Kosovo,
who are mainly Albanians.

>That is to say the will of the actual inhabitants of the area. You seem to
be implying that this is problematical, perhaps you could explain why? Its a
bit academic now of course, since most of the inhabitants are being driven
out of by their present government.

Just look across the border.....
The will of Serbs in Bosnia was to join with Serbia, did this happen?  The
will of Croats in Bosnia was to join with Croatia, did this happen?

Prior before the offensive by KLA, which cause repression from the YU army,
CNN polled ethnic Albanians.  It found the KLA, even though they had
military support, had NO political support.  90 percent of ethnic Albanians
were for autonomy but AGAINST independence.

The KLA goal, which is now achieved, was to get ethnic Albanians to agree
with them.  The last 13 months of fighting did exactly that.

Here is Edward S. Herman on the topic.

When trouble flared this year in the Serbian province of Kosovo, the most
difficult trouble spot in all the troubled Balkans, the West immediately
reverted to its stance in Bosnia: the Serbs are to blame and must be bombed.
Knowing this, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which seeks to detach Kosovo
from Serbia and form a Greater Albania has a simple strategy. Depend on
Serbian repression to bring in NATO forces to attack the Serbs and allow the
KLA to take over.

This scenario has been obvious and predictable from the start. For several
years the KLA assassinated not only policemen and Serbian officials, but
also ethnic Albanians who opposed the violent secessionist movement. In the
summer of 1998 the Serbian security forces finally took the bait and went
into the Kosovo countryside to root out the KLA. As usual in such cases,
hapless civilians suffered and the guerrillas simply regrouped. Untold
thousands of civilians were driven from villages believed to be sheltering
KLA fighters before security forces battered down walls and set family
compounds on fire. Between 500 and 1,000 people have been killed in this
conflict. Both sides have massacred civilians, with the stronger Serb army
very likely responsible for a disproportionate share. But only the Serb side
is threatened with any kind of NATO action.

In this way, the U.S. propensity to bomb becomes an instrument that can be
wielded even by a relatively small armed rebellion to break up a recognized
nation. The KLA may be the first "liberation" movement in history to
consider NATO its virtual air force. This opens up new horizons for the uses
of NATO.

The selectivity of the West's humanitarian concern is blatant. And in this
case,  Western policy has actually fanned the flames of conflict. Whereas
fair and friendly mediation is called for, the West's bias toward one side,
and contradictory signals have made it virtually impossible for the Serbs
and Albanians to work out a solution among themselves.

The ethnic Albanians say they want to secede. The West rules that out, as it
would set a bad precedent for the Bosnian Serbs who want to secede from
Bosnia. Some Serbs suggest partitioning Kosovo between Serbia and the
Albanians. The West rules that out, as it would set a bad precedent for
Macedonia, where Albanians would then also want to secede. The Serbs offer
to negotiate without preconditions, the Albanians refuse to sit down at the
table, and the West thereupon threatenss to bomb the Serbs "to force them to
the negotiating table."

However provoked, Serbian security forces are almost surely guilty as
charged of "using excessive force." In its righteous indignation, NATO has
assembled a mighty armada of warplanes, stealth bombers, and cruise missiles
which threaten to wipe out Yugoslavia's entire national defense capacity,
including command and control centers. This is because NATO abhors the use
of "excessive force."

--
Wit tha five centuries of penitentiary
So let tha guilty hang
In tha Year of tha Boomerang