PRESS RELEASE

10 June 1999

Kosovo Peace Plan Leaves Weapons Behind

The current peace plans for Kosovo shirk the need to disarm the KLA, effectively delaying decision on the future of the 30,000-strong rebel group. Under the proposed agreement, comprehensive and complete disarmament will be sacrificed for KLA support, leaving hundreds of thousands of small arms in circulation.

The draft UN Security Council resolution refers vaguely to "demilitarizing of the Kosovo Liberation Army and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups." Even in its strongest reading, this will only refer to heavy weapons. However, the KLA is armed not with tanks and fighter planes, but with light weapons funneled in from Albanian arsenals and through the black market trade.

Although the Rambouillet agreement provided a concrete timeline for KLA disarmament, in the current rush to solve the crisis the allies have dropped these details. Troubling questions remain about NATO’s plans for the KLA. Will the KLA just disperse and keep its arms? Or will it turn into the army/police force of Kosovo? Either choice spells disaster for sustainable peace in the Balkans.

Weapons collection is necessary for peace: Past experience shows that peacekeeping without disarmament is a recipe for failure. In Somalia, incomplete disarmament endangered the lives of peacekeepers and brought an end to the entire mission. In El Salvador, the failure to seize and destroy weapons led to an increase in gun deaths after the conflict ended.

Kosovo weapons come from organized crime: Various mafias have made a business out of trading arms for drugs in the troubled Balkan region. Profits, not political goals, will ensure that these activities continue. A concrete plan to mop up current gun supplies and halt the flow of new weapons is essential to avoid the spiraling crime that is often a feature of post-conflict societies.

NATO allies must live up to small arms commitments: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently praised African states for addressing small arms control, and said, "All of us whose nations sell such weapons, or through whose nations the traffic flows, bear some responsibility for turning a blind eye to the destruction they cause. And all of us have it in our power to do something in response."

BASIC Analyst Kate Joseph noted: "It’s time the US and its allies started taking their commitment to small arms control seriously. The KLA should only keep its weapons if it becomes the army of an independent Kosovo. But we’ve been told over and over again that Kosovo won’t become independent. NATO doesn’t seem to know what it wants."

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