Ethnic Violence Continues in Kosovo, Threatening Return of Peace

Strategic Insights -

Tensions in Kosovo remain high as ethnic attacks against Serbs and Gypsies persist, despite a fragile peace agreement in place for nearly a month. Interim U.N. administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello has urged immediate action to stop the violence, calling it "criminal acts" that cannot be excused by past suffering. Meanwhile, NATO's supreme commander for Europe, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, reported that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is largely complying with demilitarization requirements, although war crimes investigators have exhumed 57 bodies from nine separate gravesites in the southwestern Kosovo village of Celine.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ethnic attacks against Serbs and Gypsies continue in Kosovo, despite a month-old peace agreement, with interim U.N. administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello calling them "criminal acts".
  • NATO's supreme commander for Europe, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, reported that the KLA is largely complying with demilitarization requirements, citing the June 21 deal to store their weapons.
  • War crimes investigators have exhumed 57 bodies from nine separate gravesites in the southwestern Kosovo village of Celine.
  • The failure of scheduled talks between ruling party officials from Yugoslavia's two republics, Montenegro and Serbia, could lead to a referendum on independence in Montenegro and, some fear, civil war.
  • Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic stated that his countrymen would prefer to remain part of a democratic Yugoslavia, but if the Serb-led government won't concede more autonomy, Montenegrins would press for independence.

Statistics:

  • 57 bodies exhumed from nine separate gravesites in the southwestern Kosovo village of Celine.
  • 78-day duration of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
  • 9 miles northwest of Prizren, the location of village Celine.
  • 21 June, the date of the deal on demilitarization requirements for the KLA.

Sources:

  • "U.N. official condemns ethnic attacks in Kosovo" from AP News (no date mentioned in the source).
  • "Yugoslav President Vows to Crush Kosovo Unrest" from The New York Times (no date mentioned in the source).
  • "The Nation" (no date mentioned in the source).