Features

By Philip Bowring International Herald Tribune. Paris, October 6, 1999 HONG KONG – Even assuming an optimistic evolution of the Timor crisis, fault lines have been opened up across East Asia and between it and the West which may take long to close. ASEAN and Australia are the most obvious losers so far. And if Indonesia sponsors a guerrilla campaign or defies the United Nations, the potential for disruption of international relationships is immense. The Association of South East Asian Nations has failed to keep outside intervention at bay by resolving its own conflicts. Its members failed either to give full backing to Indonesia to reject UN-sponsored armed intervention, or to persuade Indonesia to accept ASEAN-led mediation rather than risk an agenda written in New York. ASEAN’s paralysis may have been understandable; it was caught among alarm at what was happening in Timor, the political vacuum in Jakarta and distaste for...

European Council From the meeting in Luxembourg, 11 October 1999 14 Oct 1999 MEETING WITH DEMOCRATIC FORCES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA In the margins of the Council, Ministers held a meeting with representatives of Democratic Forces of the FRY (representatives of political parties, NGOs, national minorities). The purpose of this meeting was to strengthen the Union’s relations with these forces and to encourage them to work towards peace, democratic change and economic prosperity in the FRY. The Union underlined also its preparedness to give substantial assistance to a future democratic Yugoslavia and to support the full integration of the FRY into the international community. At the end of the meeting, the EU issued the following statement: EU-FRY – a new beginning The EU, and representatives of the democratic forces of the FRY met in Luxembourg on 11 October 1999. The meeting was convened in the interests of the...

Richard Norton-Taylor Washington warned the EU yesterday that Americans may no longer be prepared to carry most of the burden in future Nato military operations – but expressed concern about European plans for a body that might rival Nato. The US deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott, said increased security cooperation among Europeans must not be allowed to divide the alliance. Speaking at a London conference on Nato’s future – at which he also insisted that the US was opposed to a Kosovo independent of Yugoslavia – Mr Talbott expressed concern about some of Brussels’s plans for a European Security and Defence Identity. The US had a stake in a “strong, integrated, self-confident and military capable Europe”, he said. But he added: “We do not want to see an ESDI that comes into being first within Nato but then grows out of Nato and finally grows away from Nato.” Washington...

By Barbara Crossette New York Times September 21, 1999 UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan sounded a warning Monday to a frequently paralyzed Security Council, urging it to act faster and more effectively to meet the challenge of a world engulfed in civil wars that quickly descend into the slaughter of helpless civilian populations. In an address to world leaders at the opening day of debate in the General Assembly, Annan also said that countries which have resisted international intervention will no longer be able to hide behind protestations of national sovereignty when they flagrantly violate the rights of citizens. “Nothing in the charter precludes a recognition that there are rights beyond borders,” he said, on the day an Australian-led force landed in East Timor to help complete its separation from Indonesia. A Western diplomat called the speech “courageous and very important.” Annan did not single out the United States, the...

Leader Encourages Peacekeeping Work Special to The Washington Post UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 20 Secretary General Kofi Annan today issued a call to the world’s governments to be prepared for a new era of U.N. interventionism, just hours after an Australian-led multinational force touched down in East Timor to end weeks of violence. The remarks, made in a speech marking the opening of U.N. General Assembly debate, come as the United Nations expands its role in peacekeeping operations from Kosovo to East Timor. It set the tone for the debate, an annual diplomatic speechfest for world leaders. “There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community,” Annan said. “They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.” Annan was sharply critical, however, of the NATO-led air war...

Lack of Money Could Delay Force, Australia Fears By Michael Richardson International Herald Tribune MELBOURNE – Australian officials cautioned Wednesday that an ambitious UN military and civilian operation to prepare East Timor for independence within three years could be delayed by a shortage of money. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday proposed a plan to install nearly 9,000 UN peacekeeping troops who would take over from the Australian-led multinational force in the Indonesian territory. The Australian officials also warned that the plan could be upset by any sudden worsening in the security situation in East Timor – especially if pro-Indonesian fighters in West Timor undertook a guerrilla war against the Australian-led force, as they have threatened. Mr. Annan recommended to the Security Council in New York on Tuesday that it quickly approve a UN transitional administration that would include up to 8,950 soldiers ”with robust rules of engagement and a rapid-reaction capability,”...

BRUSSELS – When Javier Solana took over as secretary-general of NATO four years ago, some of his harshest critics were American congressmen who recalled how the Spanish Socialist fought hard – if unsuccessfully – to prevent his country from entering the Western military alliance.But Mr. Solana quickly disarmed his antagonists by claiming his anti-NATO stand was a mild case of juvenile delinquency. The former physics professor said he had revised his thinking over the years and become a stout proponent of the alliance’s system of collective defense, observing that ”only idiots never change their mind.” As he prepares to leave NATO headquarters this week to become the European Union’s new czar for foreign and defense policy, Mr. Solana observed Tuesday that the alliance, too, has experienced a dramatic transformation to stay abreast of the rapidly evolving security environment in the post Cold War era. ”The changes have come incredibly fast,” Mr....

By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Service Paris, Wednesday, October 6, 1999 CAMP BONDSTEEL, Yugoslavia – The United States is building a bunker community here in south-central Kosovo, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, to house its peacekeeping troops in a little bit of home – complete with fast food and American candy bars. The purpose of the installation is to safeguard the bulk of the U.S. military stationed in Kosovo in a sealed environment with as much comfort as possible and maximum protection against terrorist attack. The scale of the 775-acre (314-hectare) site and the substantial construction under way, which raises immense clouds of dust over the war-damaged surroundings, suggest that the United States plans to have its troops hunkered down in Kosovo for a long time. The base, east of Urosevac, seems to do justice to the American military’s reputation for ”going in heavy and making...

By James Carroll The Boston Globe When Americans read an Associated Press report last week of No Gun Ri, where hundreds of Korean civilians may have been massacred by GIs during the Korean War, first comparisons were drawn with My Lai, where GIs killed something like 500 Vietnamese civilians. But a difference quickly became evident. The Americans at My Lai were regarded as berserk. However much their actions resulted from the inherent stresses of that war, their brutal targeting of noncombatants was said to be an exceptional deviation from orders. But according to documents found by the AP, the GIs at No Gun Ri may have been acting under orders. Shooting civilians was seen to be necessary because enemy soldiers used flows of refugees as cover, and it was thought the only way to kill the soldiers was to kill the civilians. The rush with which the Pentagon announced an...

NATO Notes is a new publication of the Centre for European Security and Disarmament. NATO Notes will regularly report on and highlight timely NATO-related issues, gathering information from interviews and briefings in Brussels. CESD will also provide information to interrelated activities in other fora where possible. Information from NATO Notes may be used or reproduced, provided proper citation is given. Brussels, 5 October 1999 Written by Christopher Bollinghaus Annual Informal Meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Toronto, 21-22 September, 1999 BRIEFING The informal Defence Ministerial in Toronto primarily served to indicate in which direction NATO is headed in the next few months. Most major decisions were taken at the Washington Summit in April and therefore few new policy initiatives were expected in Toronto, especially given the informal nature of the meeting. On the agenda, according to NATO officials, were the lessons to be learned from Kosovo, the emerging gap in...

By Laura Rozen in Pristina Days of dispute slowed progress towards Monday night’s agreement on the demilitarisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army and highlighted a profound disagreement between the Kosovars and the international community on the nature of the force that will replace it. The KLA made no secret of its intention to transform itself from a rebel army into a real army that will serve to defend a future independent Kosovo. The internationals have tried to compromise by agreeing to the formation of a 5,000 person ‘Kosovo Protection Corps’, which they see as a civilian national guard type force that they intended to be as harmless as the Boy Scouts. Sunday’s scheduled high-profile ceremony to mark the official end of the Kosovo Liberation Army failed to come to pass and another day of talks was needed to close the deal. The creation of the Corps was finally agreed on Monday...

14. september 1999 INTRODUCTION This is the Executive Summary of a proposal for AID AND RECOSTRUCTION IN YUGOSLAVIA – NEED AND NECESSiTY, which was prepared by the expert teams of five Belgrade independent, think tanks and NGOs: CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES (coordinating body focused on social and political part of the project);GROUP 17 (reformist economists focused on economic aspects);PALGO CENTER (Center for Public Administration and Local Government: in depth analysis of case studies of several Serbian cities);EUROPEAN MOVEMENT (working on developing concepts and relations with neighboring countries);AAEN (Alternative Academic Educational Network: preparation of maps and data bases);ECOLOGICAL CENTER (ecological research and mapping). Work on this complex project was initiated while NATO bombing was ongoing. In difficult conditions, the authors found this task as the best way to give some sense to their professional responsibility and to contribute to the efforts of a regional future looking approach. This is work in...