{"id":1998,"date":"2021-02-24T11:04:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T10:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?page_id=1998"},"modified":"2021-02-24T11:04:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T10:04:28","slug":"kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 – Jonathan Marshall, February 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ConsortiumNews.com<\/a>
\nFebruary 21, 2016
\nKosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019<\/div>\n
By Jonathan Marshall<\/div>\n
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Exclusive: <\/strong>President Bill Clinton\u2019s Kosovo war of 1999 was loved by neocons and liberal hawks \u2013 the forerunner for Iraq, Libya, Syria and other conflicts this century \u2013 but Kosovo\u2019s political violence and lawlessness today underscore the grim consequences of those strategies even when they \u201csucceed,\u201d writes Jonathan Marshall.<\/p>\n

The insatiable appetite of America\u2019s bipartisan foreign policy elites for military intervention \u2014 despite its record of creating failing states in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen \u2014 traces back to the marriage of liberal and neoconservative interventionists during the Clinton administration\u2019s 78-day bombing of Serbia to create the break-away state of Kosovo in 1999.<\/p>\n

One scholar-advocate has called NATO\u2019s campaign \u201cThe most important precedent supporting the legitimacy of unilateral\u00a0humanitarian intervention.\u201d Even Sen. Bernie Sanders was proud to support that use of American power, ostensibly \u201cto prevent further genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kosovo<\/a><\/p>\n

Kosovo Foreign Minister (and former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army) Hashim Thaci.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But Kosovo, which is still not recognized as an independent state by nearly half of all UN members, and which still relies on 4,600 NATO troops to maintain order, is hardly a showcase for the benefits of military intervention. With an unemployment rate of 35 percent, Kosovo is wracked by persistent outbreaks of terrorism, crime, and political violence.<\/p>\n

Following a series of violent street protests and wild disruptions of parliament, the leader of the radical nationalist party, Vet\u00ebvendosje, announced on Feb. 19, \u201cThis regime is now is in its final days. They will not last long.\u201d<\/p>\n

That day, members of Vet\u00ebvendosje set off tear gas cannisters in parliament and tussled with police in the latest of their many protests against an agreement reached by the government last summer to grant limited powers to the country\u2019s Serbian minority, in return for Serbia\u2019s recognition of Kosovo. Opposition lawmakers also rail against endemic corruption and the country\u2019s under-performing economy.<\/p>\n

Two days earlier, at least 15,000 Kosovars gathered in the central square of Pristina, the country\u2019s capital, to demand the government\u2019s resignation. In January, thousands of protesters clashed with police, hurling Molotov cocktails, setting a major government building and armored police cars on fire, and wounding 24 police officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim of this protest was to overthrow the government with violence,\u201d the government said in a statement. The U.S. ambassador chimed in, \u201cPolitical violence threatens democracy and all that Kosovo has achieved since independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

This violence gets little attention from the American media in part because, unlike the Ukrainian demonstrators who overthrew their democratically elected government in 2014, Kosovo\u2019s protesters are targeting a pro-Western government that eagerly seeks membership in the European Union.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s no wonder that Kosovo\u2019s political fabric is so rent by violent confrontations. The rump state was created by a violent secessionist movement led by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). That guerrilla band of Albanian nationalists was covertly backed by the German secret service to weaken Serbia. Its terrorist attacks on Serbian villages and government personnel in the mid-1990s prompted a brutal military crackdown by Serbia, followed by NATO\u2019s decisive intervention in 1999.<\/p>\n

During the fighting the KLA drove tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs from Kosovo as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign to promote independence for the majority Albanian population. It recruited Islamist militants \u2014 including followers of Osama Bin Laden \u2014 from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries.<\/p>\n

President Bill Clinton\u2019s special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, called the KLA \u201cwithout any question, a terrorist group,\u201d and a Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder added, \u201cmost of its activities were funded by drug running.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of that, however, stopped Washington from embracing the KLA\u2019s cause against Serbia, a policy spearheaded by the liberal interventionist First Lady Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Without authorization from the United Nations, NATO began bombing Serbia in March 1999, killing some 500 civilians, demolishing billions of dollars\u2019 worth of industrial plants, bridges, schools, libraries and hospitals, and even hitting the Chinese embassy. (\u201cIt should be lights out in Belgrade,\u201d demanded New York Times<\/em> columnist Thomas Friedman. \u201cEvery power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted. Like it or not, we are at war with the Serbian nation.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Following Serbia\u2019s capitulation, according to Human Rights Watch, \u201celements of the KLA\u201d engaged in \u201cwidespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries. This destruction was combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities. By late-2000 more than 210,000 Serbs had fled the province . . . The desire for revenge provides a partial explanation, but there is also a clear political goal in many of these attacks: the removal from Kosovo of non-ethnic Albanians in order to better justify an independent state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former KLA leaders, including its political head Hashim Tha\u00e7i, went on to dominate the new Kosovo state. A 2010 report by the Council of Europe declared that Tha\u00e7i, who was then Kosovo\u2019s prime minister, headed a \u201cmafia-like\u201d group that smuggled drugs, guns and human organs on a grand scale through Eastern Europe. The report\u2019s author accused the international community of turning a blind eye while Tha\u00e7i\u2019s group of KLA veterans engaged in \u201cassassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations\u201d to maintain power and profit from their criminal activities.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Tha\u00e7i and the Kosovo government strenuously denied the allegations and succeeded for years in resisting accountability. Their American friends were eager to put the past behind as well. In 2012, Madeleine Albright and a former Clinton special envoy to the Balkans bid to take control of the country\u2019s state-owned telecommunications company despite widespread allegations of corruption, the attempted assassination of the telecommunications regulatory chief, and the murder of the state privatization agency\u2019s chief.<\/p>\n

No one seemed immune from corruption. A study<\/a> of the European Union\u2019s own legal mission to Kosovo suggested that its members may have taken bribes to drop investigations of senior Kosovo politicians for rampant criminal activity.<\/p>\n

In 2014, a three-year E.U. investigation concluded that \u201csenior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army\u201d should be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including \u201cunlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements of individuals from their homes and communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and other religious sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under tough pressure from the United States and E.U., Kosovo\u2019s parliament finally agreed<\/a> last summer to permit a special court to prosecute former KLA leaders for war crimes. The court will begin operating this year in The Hague.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sad thing is that the United States and European countries knew 10 years ago that Tha\u00e7i and his men were engaged in drug smuggling and creating a mafia state,\u201d said one European ambassador last year. \u201cThe attitude was, \u2018He\u2019s a bastard, but he\u2019s our bastard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether delayed justice will clean up Kosovo\u2019s \u201cmafia state,\u201d and whether belated granting of rights to the Serbian minority will ease or aggravate Kosovo\u2019s explosive ethnic tensions, remain to be seen. One thing\u2019s for sure: a great many people have died in the name of this great \u201chumanitarian intervention,\u201d and many more are still suffering for it. Kosovo is no Libya or Syria, but neither is it any kind of showcase for the benefits of U.S. armed intervention.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Marshall is author or co-author of five books on international affairs, including\u00a0The Lebanese Connection: Corruption, Civil War and the International Drug Traffic<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Stanford University Press, 2012). Some of his previous articles for Consortiumnews were \u201cRisky Blowback from Russian Sanctions<\/a>\u201d; \u201cNeocons Want Regime Change in Iran<\/a>\u201d; \u201cSaudi Cash Wins France\u2019s Favor<\/a>\u201d; \u201cThe Saudis\u2019 Hurt Feelings<\/a>\u201d; \u201cSaudi Arabia\u2019s Nuclear Bluster<\/a>\u201d; \u201cThe US Hand in the Syrian Mess<\/a>\u201d; and<\/strong> \u201cHidden Origins of Syria\u2019s Civil War.<\/a>\u201d ]<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ConsortiumNews.com February 21, 2016 Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 By Jonathan Marshall   Exclusive: President Bill Clinton\u2019s Kosovo war of 1999 was loved by neocons and liberal hawks \u2013 the forerunner for Iraq, Libya, Syria and other conflicts this century \u2013 but Kosovo\u2019s political violence and lawlessness today underscore the grim consequences of those strategies … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 – Jonathan Marshall, February 2016”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nKosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 - Jonathan Marshall, February 2016 - Balkan Conflicts Research Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 - Jonathan Marshall, February 2016 - Balkan Conflicts Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ConsortiumNews.com February 21, 2016 Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 By Jonathan Marshall   Exclusive: President Bill Clinton\u2019s Kosovo war of 1999 was loved by neocons and liberal hawks \u2013 the forerunner for Iraq, Libya, Syria and other conflicts this century \u2013 but Kosovo\u2019s political violence and lawlessness today underscore the grim consequences of those strategies … Continue reading "Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 – Jonathan Marshall, February 2016"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Balkan Conflicts Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/hasim-taci-1348516289-211920-650x3481-300x161.jpg?82332e\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Balkan Conflicts Research Team\",\"description\":\"Information on recent conflicts in the Balkans\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/hasim-taci-1348516289-211920-650x3481-300x161.jpg?82332e\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/hasim-taci-1348516289-211920-650x3481-300x161.jpg?82332e\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kosovo-chaos-undercuts-clinton-success-jonathan-marshall-february-2016\/\",\"name\":\"Kosovo Chaos Undercuts Clinton \u2018Success\u2019 - 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