On Events In Yugoslavia

Board of International Society "Memorial"

      The guilt of the present Belgrade regime is evident and it is admitted by the whole of the world except a number of Russian politicians and Russian mass media. But how can we estimate the actions of the Western leaders who have publicly announced their goal - to prevent a humane catastrophe in the Balkans, and have actually provoked this catastrophe?
      If before the bombings some of the NATO politicians were serious in believing that air raids to Yugoslavia could stop the extermination of the Albanian population in Kosovo by Serb units - this is glaring incompetence.
      But if it was meant "to punish Milosevic for his stubbornness", then this is an appalling lack of responsibility. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians appeared the first to be "punished".As for the position of Milosevic inside the country, it seems to have strengthened a lot.
      Another side-effect of the NATO military action is a growing probability of the communist revenge in a number of countries, including Russia. The influence of anti-western fundamentalist forces on the home and foreign policy in this country is quite visible even now; in the present situation it threatens to become a decisive factor. After this the events may start to develop in an unpredictable and very dangerous way.
      No doubt, the responsibility for the destiny of the Russian democracy is not on the NATO authorities but on the citizens of Russia. No doubt, no political considerations can outweigh the need to prevent the massacre. But so far the NATO politicians have endangered the prospect of cooperation between the East and the West, the countries of the "third world" and advanced democratic countries, without making the situation of the Kosovo Albanians any easier.
      The NATO alliance has got into the same trap as the Russian leadership who tried to eliminate General Dudayev’s power in Chechnya by force four years ago. But the shameful Chechen was has just discredited the young Russian democracy. A new war in the Balkans threatens to undermine the prestige of democracy as such.
      The impotence of the World Community in a peaceful way to make the Yugoslavian government observe the humane norms in Kosovo proved that the system of international relations, as it is now, is extremely imperfect. But the military action ruining this system turned out to be equally impotent.
      A few years ago it seemed to us that the fall of communism would lead to a new world order based on law. It did not happen.
      The twentieth century is coming to an end in the same way as it started - with Balkan wars. Does the mankind remember that one of those wars turned into a world war?
      The only reasonable and moral policy today is to take any little chance to halt the hostilities, to stop the violence over peaceful population, to get back to negotiations however hard or even humiliating these steps might seem to any participant in the conflict. But, as it appears, none of the parties directly or indirectly involved in the conflict has enough willingness, courage, or common sense to pursue such a policy.