Newspaper Article

Price of supporting Yugoslavia could prove to be a hostile KLA: The downfall of Milosevic poses great risks for the West in its Balkan policy

Ian Bruce Geopolitics Editor

2000

Overview

The leading ethnic Albanian newspaper in Kosovo suggested wryly 10 years ago that a statue of [Milosevic] should be raised in Pristina to thank him for the repression which gave birth to the independence movement and to the Kosovo Liberation Army. There were rumours during the recent presidential elections that Kosovar Albanians might actually vote for Milosevic to keep him in power. Without the threat he posed to the peace of the province, the impetus for complete autonomy would be lost. Nato troops policing the territory now fear that the KLA, once 20,000-strong, might be oiling its hidden rifles and rocket launchers to achieve their fast- receding goal by a renewed guerrilla campaign against the people who came to save them. The KLA did hand in a token 10,000 weapons to meet Nato's demands for disarmament. The move was intended to lessen the risk of reprisals against Serb civilians still in the province. But the bulk of the Kalashnikovs and anti-tank weapons were squirrelled away, the Balkan equivalent of claymores in the thatch.

• Publisher: Gannett Media Corp