Says Clinton
bombing strategy is wrongheaded and making situation worse;
Rejects administration's emerging doctrine of an independent Kosovo
Washington,
D.C., April 1, 1999
Today Jack
Kemp criticized the Clinton Administration for unilaterally rejecting
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov's opening to negotiations in Kosovo. Kemp said "We should
not unilaterally accept Slobodan Milosevic's conditions, but nether should
we unilaterally reject the idea of returning to the negotiating table
under a simultaneous cease-fire on the ground in Kosovo and in the air
over
Yugoslavia. The president should explore every pportunity to halt the
destabilizing violence that is threatening to engulf the entire Balkan
region.
"We've
come to this point through a series of blunders and miscalculations committed
by all the parties, beginning with Milosevic's withdrawal of Kosovar autonomy
in 1989 which the region had enjoyed for more than a decade. We properly
interjected ourselves diplomatically into the Yugoslavian civil war to
halt the violence by attempting to convince Serbia to restore Kosovar
autonomy. Then the Clinton Administration itself
committed a huge blunder by insisting that Serbia allow thousands of NATO
troops to be stationed on Serbian soil in Kosovo. Now, Mr. Clinton is
on the verge of committing another blunder by suggesting that the United
States may seek an independent Kosovo.
"It
is time to restart negotiations for the autonomy of Kosovo without insisting
that the Serbs allow foreign troops to be stationed permanently in their
country or floating any more hints that the United States and NATO
intend to establish an independent Kosovo. For make no mistake, once we
go in, there is no coming out. An independent Kosovo will turn into a
NATO protectorate, requiring our troops to remain as an occupying army
for decades to come.
"Our
thoughts, our prayers and full support are with the men and women in the
armed forces who honorably, courageously and without question carry out
the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. Yet while they are succeeding with
the air campaign, the Clinton Administration's policy is failing. And
let me emphasize that any thought of sending ground troops into Serbia
to salvage the situation is, quite simply, insane.
"The
air strikes against Serbia and Serb targets in Kosovo are wrong. They
are counterproductive. The bombing has backfired and should stop immediately.
Far from saving lives, the air war and the intensified ground war between
Serbs and the KLA are causing more people, including innocent civilians
on both sides, to die. Far from preventing a mass exodus of refugees,
the bombing and shelling have created a new flood of displaced women,
children and elderly, who are escaping to neighboring Albania, Macedonia
and Montenegro. NATO itself has reported on this massive tide of refugees,
but its response has been to step up the air attacks, apparently in the
false hope that doing so will persuade Serbian authorities to allow the
families left homeless to return unmolested. In the administration's misguided
use of violence to end what it calls a 'humanitarian crisis' in Kosovo,
it has succeeded in producing another, even greater catastrophe; and it
runs the risk of spreading the war.
"It
is imperative that the major regional powers devise a strategy for bringing
all parties back to the negotiating table. While negotiations are underway,
the refugees must be allowed to return to their homes and we must mount
whatever humanitarian effort is necessary. One thing is very clear however:
the West cannot insist that foreign troops be stationed on sovereign Serbian
territory as a condition for negotiations to be undertaken. Peace is not
contingent on American-lead NATO forces, neither in the air over Yugoslavia
nor on the ground in Kosovo. We cannot bomb people into making peace with
one another. Nor can an occupying NATO army bring peace to this troubled
region. Peace is dependent on the Serbian people and the Kosovar Albanians.
"President
Clinton miscalculated. Rather than sink deeper into a quagmire by continuing
to bomb or sending in helicopters and ground troops, our leaders must
rethink their strategy and their purpose, not only in the Balkans but
also around the world. Just as there will be no peace in Iraq as long
as we continue routinely bombing Saddam Hussein, there will be no peace
in Serbia as long as we continue to drop bombs on Slobodan Milosevic.
If we persist in this misguided foreign policy, we could find ourselves
engaged in a perpetual two-front war, the flames of which Russia and China
may feel compelled to stoke in seeking to restore a geo-political balance
of power at our expense."
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