Lessons of Balkan Peninsula

Lessons of Balkan Peninsula

When socialism collapsed in East Europe and Yugoslavia fell into confusion between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the U.S. began to intervene in the Kosovo dispute.

The U.S. did not want to see an independent Kosovo, but to use Albanian extremists in its moves to justify its intervention in Yugoslavia, expand its military influence in the Balkan region and split Yugoslavia. The U.S. also schemed to intercept Russia's influence on that country.

Seeing the Kosovo crisis as a factor of instability of the region, the U.S. and other western countries expanded the internal issue of Yugoslavia into an international issue.

They slapped Yugoslavia with ban on export of weapons and other international sanctions and made public a package step of sanctions for the settlement of the Kosovo crisis.

The U.S. threatened that if Yugoslavia refuses to pull out its special unit from Kosovo, it would strike major points of military importance of the latter.

Meanwhile, the U.S. let the UN adopt a resolution on withdrawing special units of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia pulled out its troops from Kosovo.

The situation seemed to be eased.

On February 6, 1999, however, the U.S. held talks on the Kosovo issue and demanded Yugoslavia grant Kosovo the right of self-government and accept 30 000-strong NATO ground force for the surveillance of ceasefire.

The talks came to a rupture.

The U.S. shifted all responsibilities for it to Yugoslavia and launched outrageous military attack on Yugoslavia, a full-fledged sovereign state under the signboard of "protection of human rights and minority race".

The U.S.-led NATO hurled large armed forces into Yugoslavia and devastated it.

The tragedy was caused by Yugoslavia’s failure to build up its own strength.

In fact, Yugoslavia and some big nations had agreed to cooperate militarily if the U.S. and NATO began to attack.

But it was an empty talk.

The situation taught that if a country does not boost its own strength while depending on big nations, it can neither safeguard its sovereignty and security, nor defend the lives of people and, in the end, would be reduced to a colonial slave.

All the anti-imperialist independent countries should see through the aggressive methods of the imperialists and build up their own strength for self-defense. Only then, can they check the U.S. highhandedness and prevent a miserable occurrence.

Ra Myong Song