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NATO: No Plans to Change Strategy in Kosovo,
but Forced to Act To Contain Conflict
23 April 1998
By Martin Butcher, Tanya Padberg, and Julie
Smith
NATO leaders in Washington DC held an emergency
Summit session on Kosovo Friday morning, but came up with
no initiatives to end the war against former Yugoslavia. A
"Statement on Kosovo" was issued following the meeting, but
despite the evident lack of success in the bombing campaign
for the last five weeks, NATO offered only more of the same.
Furthermore, in a dramatic sign that NATO's failure in Serbia
is destabilizing the region, NATO has been obliged to extend
Article V-style security guarantees to all of Serbia's neighbors
in an attempt to contain the conflict.
Beyond this, the Statement simply reaffirms
the conditions previously laid out for an end to the bombing
campaign. The one positive note on the peace process is the
recognition of the important role that Russia could play in
the United Nations to help bring about a settlement.
Speaking earlier at a press conference at the
NATO summit in Washington this morning, NATO spokesperson
Jamie Shea confirmed NATO's belief that there is "no need
to change strategy" concerning the current air campaign in
Kosovo. For NATO, the "winning strategy is the air campaign."
Shea repeatedly stated that the current strategy is working
and outlined three courses of action that NATO still needs
to undertake: 1) increase NATO's capabilities to strike Kosovo
2) strike directly at the nerve centers of Slobodan Milosevic's
regime; and, 3) strengthen the isolation of Milosevic in the
world community, through, for example cutting off supplies
of refined oil and through screening deliveries of humanitarian
aid.
When asked if striking the "nerve centers of
Milosevic's regime" would increase the likelihood of injuring
or killing civilians, Shea responded, "We don't target civilians,
we target the instruments of repression." NATO's recent direct
strike on a Yugoslav television station was explained as a
hit on Milosevic's instrument of war. However, Shea did not
explain how the bombing campaign would eliminate Milosevic's
primary instrument of war: the expulsion of ethnic Albanians
from Kosovo. Furthermore, Shea reiterated that NATO is not
targeting Milosevic himself, but his instruments of war.
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