Editorial from News and Letters newspaper
August/September 1998

Support the people's war in Kosova

What is taking place in Kosova today is nothing less than a people's war. Even the most hostile bourgeois journalists and military experts concede that virtually the entire Albanian population of Kosova now consider themselves either members or sympathizers of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA). Without any significant training, the lightly armed KLA forces have, in a matter of months, taken over nearly half of the province. They are backed by a well-organized Kosovar Albanian community abroad which has funneled money, arms, and fighters into the battle zones, across the mountainous border with Albania, making the KLA a multi-tendencied and diversified rebel movement.

Arrayed against the Kosovar Albanian people are the Serbian military-police-militia forces headed by the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, the true commander of all Serb units during the Bosnian war. Serb forces are well-armed and battle-tested, with such famous "victories" behind them as the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 7,300 Bosnian men, mostly unarmed and willing to surrender.

Those who are betting on a Serb victory have forgotten the nature of a people's war. They should remember Bunker Hill in 1775 when American patriot forces composed of farmers fighting for their land, homes, and freedom routed a crack unit of the British army. They should also recall Valmy in 1794 when an untrained French citizen army, fired with the idea of freedom, shocked Europe by defeating the cream of the Prussian army, and went on to defeat all of the kings of Europe. They also forget the power of the idea of national liberation, from Ireland to India and from Poland to Nicaragua.

On the ground in Kosova, the most startling recent event was the sudden appearance of KLA units outside the strategic Trepca mining and industrial complex. This complex, perhaps the most valuable piece of real estate in the region, not only supplies power to all of Kosova plus large swathes of Serbia and Macedonia; it also earns Milosevic millions of dollars in foreign exchange through exports to the U.S. and elsewhere, evading the international sanctions against his regime. The KLA attack, although repulsed some days later, surely had a remarkable effect on Serbian nerves.

Before the 1980s, when Milosevic and his Serb chauvinist followers attacked the ethnic Albanian community of Kosova at the onset of their drive for a Greater Serbia, 75% of the Trepca miners were ethnic Albanian. After they went on strike in 1988 against the curtailment of Albanian freedom, Milosevic imprisoned their leaders and fired most of the workers, replacing them with ethnic Serbs.

In those days, before the outbreak of the Bosnian war in 1992, thugs such as "Arkan," later known for his crimes in Bosnia, were allowed to terrorize the population of Kosova, setting up a virtual apartheid system. The rulers were to be the 10% Serb minority. This was exemplified by the fact that one of the main hotels in Pristina, the capital of Kosova, had a sign out front declaring: "Entry Forbidden to Animals and to Albanians." Today the sign has been removed, but the policy remains.

The so-called international community has shed crocodile tears over Bosnia and Kosova, but taken care never to aid the liberation fighters. For example, after some mild threats against Milosevic this spring, NATO backed off once it realized that the KLA stood a chance of success. Though the vast majority of Kosovars now support independence, the U.S. and NATO steadfastly oppose it. In July, the U.S. government called off efforts to capture top Bosnian Serb war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. The UN Bosnian war crimes tribunal has tried a few small fry, but has not even indicted people for rape and sexual slavery because of pressure from the Vatican and legalistic quibbling.

The U.S. has been the most arrogant of all in attempting to block the establishment of a permanent world court to deal with war crimes. While 120 countries voted for the new court, the U.S. was among only seven opponents along with China, Libya, and Israel.

For over a decade, the Kosovar Albanians have resisted Serb rule, first nonviolently and now with armed force. They point to the lessons of Bosnia on two points: (1) Never trust promises from Milosevic, and (2) do not depend on the U.S. and its allies.

Besides the Kosovars, many forces and currents are today closing in on Milosevic and his regime. The 7,300 dead of Srebrenica and their fellow Bosnian citizens cry out for justice. Serb-populated Montenegro's people have not only encouraged their sons to desert, but have also taken in thousands of refugees from Kosova, including many Albanians. In Belgrade, people still remember the mass democracy movement of 1996-97.

We call on all who support freedom, who support national liberation, who oppose fascism, racism, rape, and sexual slavery, to join us in supporting the Kosovar Albanians in their fight against the Milosevic regime. Those factions on the Left and in the peace movement who continue to excuse Milosevic or to equivocate need to be publicly exposed and denounced. Milosevic must be defeated and tried for his genocidal crimes. There is no middle ground

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