The New York Times

Tuesday, March 30, 1999

TERROR IN KOSOVO

Slobodan Milosevic has answered six days of NATO aerial attack with a vicious campaign of terror against the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, creating a military and refugees crisis of major proportions. The United States and its European allies must respond with alacrity on both fronts. While giving Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov of Russia a chance to seek a diplomatic settlement when he travels to Belgrade today. Since the end of the cold war, NATO has not faced a greater test of its unity or ability to react effectively to a rapidly developing threat to European stability.

Mr. Milosevic's butchery in Kosovo was not caused by the bombing. It began long before the air attacks commenced. It now calls for a sharp escalation in NATO bombing, a step that the alliance started to take yesterday as it turned its guns against Serbian army units in Kosovo. Though air defense systems, airfields and other military targets in northern and central Serbia must not be neglected, the alliance should concentrate its attacks against Serbian forces that are killing ethnic Albanians and burning their villages as they sweep across Kosovo. If that requires further reinforcement of NATO squadrons with additional American warplanes and helicopters, President Clinton should not hesitate to do so quickly.

Intensified air strikes may not bring the carnage to a halt, but they can slow the Serbian offensive by disrupting supply lines, knocking tanks and artillery out of service and scattering infantry units. Any effort at this point to send arms to ethnic Albanian guerrillas, an idea gaining support in Congress, would be unwise. These forces lack the training to deal with the Serbian army and it would take weeks to get the arms to them.

Pressure is building in Washington to dispatch NATO ground troops to Kosovo, including Americans. Mr. Clinton should resist this option. The NATO air campaign must be given time to work before other tactics are considered. Assembling a large enough ground force to seize control of Kosovo - as many as 200,000 troops might be required - would take several weeks or more, making the option unsuitable for the immediate crisis.

Much can be done to help care for the tens of thousands of refugees pouring across Kosovo's borders into neighboring Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. Washington has pledged an initial $8.5 million to international agencies working in the region and yesterday was scrambling to make additional resources available. Money, food and medicine are desperately needed. NATO military forces may be needed in Albania to build temporary shelters and to provide food and clothing.

Mr. Primakov's mission to Belgrade may yield nothing, but he should be given a chance to see if Mr. Milosevic is prepared to accept a diplomatic solution. There need be no bombing pause outside Belgrade while the Russian leader is there, but NATO forces will have to hold their fire over the Serbian capital itself while Mr. Primakov is visiting. NATO must either bend Mr. Milosevic to accept the international peace agreement or destroy his capacity to terrorize the people of Kosovo, kill their leaders and drive them from their land.