Former U.N. official decries actions in Kosovo

NEWSMAKERS JULIA TIERNAN/YH FAULT LINES: International Studies Lecturer Charles Hill blames diplomatic and military trepidation for the current refugee crisis in the Balkans.

Over the past two weeks, ethnic Albanian refugees have continued to flood Kosovo's southern border, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has
intensified its airstrikes on Serb territory. In a speech on Tues., Apr. 6, President Bill Clinton, LAW '73, insisted that NATO allies will "persist until we prevail."

Yale Diplomat-in-Residence and International Studies Lecturer Charles Hill, who served as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General to Boutros Boutros-Ghali from 1992 to 1996, believes NATO's predicament--forced to bomb Serbia to prevent further atrocities--was the alliance's own fault. "There has been a series of wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. NATO should have taken action at the beginning of this decade," Hill said.

During the months of diplomatic talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic preceding the air strikes, U.S. and NATO officials issued multiple warnings against the ongoing persecution of Kosovar Albanians. They pressured Milosevic to agree to a peace treaty that the Albanians had signed. Hill said this strategy was a drastic mistake. "It gave three options for Milosevic--sign the agreement and lose Kosovo; do not sign the agreement and risk being bombed and losing Kosovo; or do not sign, risk bombing, and use the bombing to ethnically cleanse Kosovo. He chose the third."

This fateful decision led to the current refugee crisis. According to recent estimates, over 400,000 of Kosovo's pre-conflict population of 1.8 million ethnic Albanians have already fled to neighboring countries, including Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia. "The refugees will be resisted in other countries for fear of disturbing the ethnic bal-
ance," Hill said.

Fortunately, countries outside the Balkans have agreed to take in refugees. Hundreds have already been airlifted to Turkey and Norway. The U.S agreed to temporarily take in 20,000 refugees, who will be flown to either Guam or the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hill said that while NATO should take responsibility for the refugess, he disagreed with its policy of airlifting ethnic Albanians out of the Balkan region. "The refugee is as much a political problem as a humanitarian problem. The idea of taking refugees farther from their homeland only makes the U.S. an accomplice of ethnic cleansing."

Hill offered a proposal that would protect the refugees while keeping them close to home. "In my opinion, refugees should be placed in camps across the Albanian border, and all preparations be made to return them to Kosovo."

Hill ultimately believes NATO should not pull any punches. "The American administration does not know the first thing about war. We are in a war, and if you set out to win a war, you must set out to win as quickly and as decisively as possible." The alliance is currently opposed to sending in ground troops for fear of taking on heavy casualties. To Hill, this reluctance violates a basic tenet of warfare. "The first principle of war is to not tell your enemy what you're not going to do."

Hill also found fault with the alliance's hesitation to act. "The fundamental error was not preparing for a ground operation. There should be a visible ground assault in preparation." He believes NATO made a major mistake by not amassing the necessary multi-divisional buildup of ground troops in nearby Hungary before and during the airstrike phase of the attack.

Meanwhile, NATO's tactics in Kosovo continue to raise protest from Russia, which is upset it wasn't consulted in the U.N. Security Council prior to the attacks. "[The NATO bombings] have done considerable damage to the NATO-Russian relationship," Hill said. "That Russia is given no stake in post-Cold War international relations is highly undesirable."

Hill believes diplomatic negotiations with Milosevic are no longer a viable solution. "We would not want Milosevic to go to the negotiating table," he said. "Our objectives are his removal from power and a more responsive
political system in Kosovo. When that's achieved, the war will be over."

In the long run, Hill has a distinct, democratic vision for postwar Kosovo. "The outcome of the war should be a restructured political system for Yugoslavia, which would make it a more open and democratic system," he said. For this to happen, Hill believes all Kosovar refugees must eventually return home, and an international protectorate for the region must be permanently established. But "that will take years of international support, and would probably require occupying NATO troops on the ground for years to come," he said.

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