The New York Times

Thursday, June 10, 1999

Constructing Peace in Kosovo

Now that NATO and Serbian military commanders have agreed on a plan to cease hostilities in Kosovo, the war is rapidly coming to an end. The latest round of diplomacy and military talks was difficult, but leaves NATO's core goals intact. Though Kosovo has been devastated by the brutal Serbian assault, the peace plan effectively strips administration of the province from Slobodan Milosevic and opens the way for the safe resettlement of the ethnic Albanian refugees.

If there are no further hitches, Serbian troops should begin to leave Kosovo early today, and, once this is verified, NATO will suspend bombing. After that, the United Nations Security Council can approve a resolution that sets a framework for peace in Yugoslavia and NATO peacekeeping forces can start to move into areas of Kosovo as they are vacated by Serbian soldiers and paramilitary units over the next week and a half. Though China is still smarting from the mistaken bombing of its embassy in Belgrade last month, it should not use its Security Council veto power to block the pivotal U.N. resolution on Kosovo that was drafted this week by the United States, its allies and Russia.

Some pieces of this complex diplomatic and military puzzle are imperfect. The U.N. resolution is vague about the NATO peacekeeping role and command of foreign forces in Kosovo. Russia has yet to agree to dispatch its own troops to help preserve the peace. If it does, coordination with NATO operations will be a delicate issue, requiring further talks between Moscow and Washington. The repatriation of hundreds of thousands of displaced ethnic Albanians, the centerpiece of the peace plan, is likely to take months and a monumental rebuilding program in Kosovo. The disarming of ethnic Albanian guerrillas, no less essential to peace, will not be easy. At any time, Slobodan Milosevic can disrupt the exercise by breaking the agreements.

But none of these potential problems should disable the restoration of peace in Kosovo. Nearly 50,000 NATO peacekeepers, including 7,000 Americans, will shortly take up position in the province under NATO command. Though the composition and leadership of the force is not specified in the U.N. resolution, all parties to the conflict, including Mr. Milosevic, well understand that this will be primarily a NATO show under a U.N. mandate. Arrangements for adding Russian troops can be similar to those devised for Bosnia, where Russians do not take orders directly from NATO. To avoid the informal partition of Kosovo into Serbian and ethnic Albanian zones, Russian peacekeepers should not be given exclusive control of the northern area with the largest concentration of Serbian citizens.

Making the villages of Kosovo habitable again, and convincing the refugees that it is safe to return, may be the greatest challenges facing the West. Many villages were looted and burned by Serbian forces. Communication and transportation systems were damaged by NATO bombing. Thousands of land mines planted by Serbian troops must be removed. Food and medical care have to be provided. The bill for all this is likely to be at least several billion dollars, nearly all of it paid by the United States, Europe and Japan.

The peace plan gives Belgrade the right to send a small security force back into Kosovo after it has first withdrawn all its troops, paramilitary groups and police. This should not turn into an opportunity for Mr. Milosevic to intimidate returning refugees. Kosovo's border checkpoints with Albania and Macedonia must be controlled by foreigners, not Serbian soldiers, working under U.N. authority.

After a decade of Serbian repression and months of ethnic cleansing, Kosovo is gravely wounded. It will take months, if not years, to rebuild and repopulate the province and restore some sense of harmony between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. The high level of autonomy Kosovo will enjoy while temporarily under U.N. administration will need to be preserved after the international presence fades. With the war ending, that difficult work can now begin.