There were some recent responses to Dan's editorial in the Washington Times.
Kosovo's future
Because of Rep. Dan Burton's minority voice of integrity on the Kosovo question, I momentarily recognize my country again ("Negotiating for peace in Kosovo," Commentary, Monday). Mr. Burton reminds America that a monoethnic, monoreligious, Saudi- and heroin-financed peace isn't a success, that there are still such things as international laws, borders, sovereignty, human rights, dangerous precedents and negotiations without a predetermined outcome.
If anyone wonders why the Bush administration is on the same page as the Clintonites that "there is no option but independence," that "there can be no compromise on independence," that "Kosovo must be independent" and "Kosovo will be independent," as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated it's because when it comes to the gangsterland that is the Balkans, our leaders have a virtual gun pointed at our NATO troops there. In Kosovo, our leaders behave alternately as hostages and gangsters.
The Dan Burtons out there are but a handful, and, like the pro-independence camp, they include a bipartisan crew: Reps. Trent Franks, Arizona Republican; Gus Bilirakis, Florida Republican; Melissa Bean, Illinois Democrat; Diane Watson, California Democrat; and Howard Berman, California Democrat; and, while they were in office, Sen. Rick Santorum and Amb. John Bolton. Both the Democrats and the Republicans in this camp still show a shred of decency long surrendered by the John McCains, Eliot Engels, Tom Lantoses, Joseph Bidens and Dana Rohrabachers, and they will be the ones to save America's soul and future. For that is what hangs in the balance in Kosovo.
JULIA GORIN
New York CityThe Washington Times is to be complimented for publishing the comprehensive summary by Rep. Dan Burton of the ongoing efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the small Serbian province of Kosovo an area as big as Rhode Island and with a mixed population of 2 million Albanians, Serbs, Roma and others.
In 1999, the U.S.-led NATO waged an intensive bombing war from 20,000 feet against Serbian military and civilian infrastructures as a humanitarian intervention. The goal was to force an end to the attempts by Serbian authorities to combat and put down the provocations by an Albanian insurgency euphemistically calling itself the Kosovo Liberation Army. After 78 days, the bombing finally succeeded in forcing an agreement requiring the removal of all Serbian military and police from Kosovo.
However, a lasting peace was not established, even in the presence of more than 40,000 U.N. troops known as KFOR. The KLA quickly morphed into the KPC, the Kosovo Protection Corps, with the tacit approval of KFOR. Albanian-organized criminal groups exploited these developments by joining with corrupt Albanian politicians. Kosovo today is known as a major supplier of much of the heroin reaching Europe. Kosovo recently was described succinctly by a U.N. spokesperson as "a society founded on organized crime."
Recognizing the independence of Kosovo, which, as Mr. Burton notes, is an obsession within the U.S. State Department and supported by President Bush, would impose from the outside a resolution to a problem that will be inconsistent with international laws and standards of long standing and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244. After eight years, the province's economy is still a basket case except for those few groups associated with illegal activities.
I thank Mr. Burton and The Washington Times for so clearly articulating the "ground truth" regarding the issue of an independent Kosovo.
NORMAN F. NESS
Professor emeritus
University of Delaware
Newark, Del.
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