KosovoNATO Intervention

1999

Emergence of struggle• Kosovo – a state in (past) Yugoslavia• Was under authoritarian control of president Milosevic • Impoverished, 90% ethnic-Albanian 10% Serbian• Milosevic promoted a new proud chauvinistic Kosovo, used

ethnic Albanians in Kosovo as scapegoats for Serbia’s economic and political problems.

• Sparked Kosovo opposition and revolution in struggle for self determination and independence through the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)

• Serbia responded by a ‘ethnic cleansing” -> to purge Serbia of the ethnic Albanians

The actions that NATO took in Kosovo were necessary to force the Serbian government to ensure peace.

NATO gave the Serbs many warnings:

Feb. 10 1999 - Serbia rejected foreign peacekeepers in Kosovo

Feb. 20 1999 - NATO warned Serbia, if no peace deal, they’d attack

Mar. 15 1999 - Serbs launched massive attack on KLA, farms, homes,

Mar. 16 1999 - Nato offered 28,000 peacekeepers

Mar. 19 1999 - Milosevic denied peacekeepers

Mar. 24 - NATO goes to war with Serbia

There were 78 days of continual bombing, Milosevic stayed defiant until finally agreed to Kosovo NATO peacekeeping plan

June 9 1999 - NATO ceased bombing

Serbs blamed NATO for many deaths from the bombings…

“…cargoes of death which NATO has been unloading”

Approx. death toll of:

NATO bombings – 1,500

Serbian “ethnic cleansing” – 11,500– Mass graves, torture chambers,

concentration camps, mass rapes

NATO’s intervention was unnecessary the issue was over exaggerated, NATO only caused more havoc in Kosovo.

From: The Case Against Intervention in Kosovo by BENJAMIN SCHWARZ and CHRISTOPHER LAYNE

• Clinton's explanation of the Kosovo conflict's background was misleading. He glossed over the fact that the province of Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia's sovereign territory.

• Clinton was misleading in placing sole blame for the breakdown of the peace plans on the Serbs. The ethnic Albanians also refused at first to sign the NATO peace deal, because it failed to guarantee their eventual independence from Serbia. The United States finally induced them to sign by threatening to cut off the KLA’s arms.

• NATO was concerned that if President Milosovic continued his onslaught on the Kosovars, that over time, extra regional Muslim  influence may grow and a  Greater Albanian Muslim state may emerge in the heart of Europe - a Greater Albania which may have found support from Albanians in Macedonia as well.

• The NATO intervention did not cure Kosovo of what ails it. Serbs and Albanians still disagree on what is to be done with Kosovo. Albanians will not give up their struggle for independence, and Serbs insist that Kosovo remain an integral part of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Stop the bombing

Audio/Visual

Controversial Kosovo music video

CBC News in review clip, April 1999

“NATO Hits Kosovo”

Next Country

Sudan

International Involvement

What is the Conflict about…?

• Conflict between the Janjaweed (militia supported by the Arabic government) and the non-Arabs

• Began from when the government was predominantly Arab in 1956

• The non-Arabs are farmers, and the Arabs nomadic herdsmen, which has brought them into conflict over access to land and water resources.

• Two wars, one in 1955 and the other in 1983 erupted, based on disappointment of the government

• In early 2003 two local rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) — accused the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favour of Arabs and war began

Quick Facts about the Darfur Conflict…• United Nations estimates:

– 180,000 have died in 18 months of conflict– 1.8 million people had been displaced – 200,000 have fled to neighboring Chad– 6,000–10,000 people were dying each mnth– Most significant cause of death was violent

death for those aged 15–49.

• “Amnesty International has very recently released a new and powerful indictment ("Rape as a Weapon of War [in Darfur]," July 18, 2004), a report that once again reveals the extraordinary brutality of Khartoum's Janjaweed militia allies ---a brutality that includes the raping of eight-year-old girls as well as unspeakable accompanying violence against female victims.” [http://www.darfurgenocide.org/news2.php?article=Reeves/july21.htm]

• “Women told MSF that they were beaten with sticks, whips or axes before, during or after the act of rape. Some of the raped women were visibly pregnant, as much as five to eight months, at the time of the assault.” [http://www.sudanreeves.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=496&page=1]

• “Rather than receiving appropriate medical and psychosocial care, women and child survivors of rape and sexual violence in Darfur often face rejection and stigma. In some cases, victims of rape have even been imprisoned while the perpetrators of the crime go unpunished, adding to an appalling pattern of neglect and abuse. (MSF, “Rape And Sexual Violence Ongoing in Darfur, March 78, 2005)[http://www.msf.org/countries/page.cfm?articleid=87E5F426-8A66-407E-B6E33C9E577F54CF]

NO, Intervention was not effective…

• Setting up No-Fly Zones is logistically difficult considering the remoteness of Darfur, the lack of infrastructure in potential airbase neighbors, and the issue of airspace rights for flyovers to Darfur from other neighbors.

• However, intervention by the UN is unlikely as the governments of key members of the Security Council are constrained in their ability to react to the conflict both pragmatically and ideologically: – Russian government, with its weakened economy, struggles to

meet its internal security dilemmas in light of its persistent border conflicts

– United States force deployments in Iraq and elsewhere

Darfur Movie FILM: IRIN release: Darfur Under Fire (20 May

2004)

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/108504954881.htm

Rwanda• 1919 to 1962, Rwanda was a colony of Belgium. Is fertile but

overpopulated country that consist of hills, huts, and banana groves.• Rwanda is made up of Tutsi’s 9% , Hutu’s 90%.• Belgians believed Tutsi and the Hutu’s are entirely separate peoples

and the Tutsi’s should rule over Hutu’s - froze the two people into distinct roles and created hostility, followed by a want of independence.

Quote:“ The Tutsi were meant to reign. Their fine presence is in itself enough to give them. It is not surprising that those good Hutu, less intelligent, more simple, more spontaneous more trusting, have let themselves be enslaved without daring to revolt.”View of a Belgian administrator of the 1920’s Pierre Rykman

• 1930’s introduced identity cards for all Rwandans and was stated whether the person was Tutsi or Hutu

The rise of the genocide

• Wednesday, April 6th, 1994 Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was a passenger of an airplane approaching the airport of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. The plane was attacked by missiles fired from the Masaka Hill, a piece of high ground on the airport perimeter. Two of them hit the plane, which exploded and crashed in the grounds. Everyone on board was killed. The Rwandan government claimed that it was the Tutsi’s as part of the plan to get rid of all the Hutu’s. Instead the finger was pointed in the other direction.

• Habyarimana’s government had secretly been recruiting and training young Hutu’s in groups known as “ those who stand together.” These groups were armed and taught that the Tutsi’s was their enemies.

• An estimated 1 million dead in the span of a hundred days.

International Intervention• -UN Peacekeeping forces face particular problems in war zones.

Can Peacekeepers actually force themselves, to protect civilians against attack? Do they not risk as one more group using violence becoming part of the problem they sent to solve?

• 1993, 2500 of the UN Assistance Mission to Rwanda to oversee the transition to multiparty democracy and the integration of RPF soldiers of the Rwandan army.

• In 1994 the UN was still in Rwanda when genocide began. – On April 21st, a decision was made to withdraw all but 270 men of the force.

• Showed International community and Africans that the UN did not care about what was happening.

• When the genocide became known, UN tried to build up 5,500 troops - never took flight. If US had provided a large part of the force to Somalia and had been horrified of the problems it had faced there. It would give no help for the Rwandan force.

The Failure Of The UN

• Secretary- General of the UN, Boutras-Ghali tried but failed to raise another peacekeeping force in Rwanda. On may 31st, 1994 he said:

• “ We must all recognize that we have failed in our response to the agony of Rwanda and thus have acquiesced in the continued loss of human life. Our readiness and our capacity for action has been demonstrated to be inadequate at least and deplorable at worst, owing to an absence of collective political will.”

Speaking Out against The UN

• Jean Paul Biramvu, a survivor of the massacres and a human rights activist, remarked:

“ We wonder what UNAMIR was doing in Rwanda. They could not even lift a finger to intervene and prevent the deaths of ten of thousands of innocent people who were being killed under their very noses…… An institution must have the capacity to be effective. But the UN protects no one. They had been sent to Kigali to assure the security of Kigali. How can they protect the security of Kigali when they are doing nothing to protect its people?”

• However, one nation did, France. The French was involved with the Rwanda before the genocide and supports President Habyarimana. They declared for humanitarian forces to the Rwandans. 2500 troops occupied South West Rwanda offering some protection for refugees arrived in June and stayed until August.

Intervention within Rwanda•The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda was a relief mission

instituted by the United Nations to aid the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed August 4, 1993 in order to ease tensions between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi rebels

• In an April 1995 PIPA poll, 62% expressed support for such a peacekeeping operation, while in June 1996 PIPA poll 57% expressed support for contributing US troops to such an operation.

•The UN had worked together to effect positive systemic change in the context of the UN reform, whereby they had created a more efficient, streamlined, coordinated UN system within Rwanda.

•The 2,548 military personnel given to the mission were in place, backed up by local military and civilian authorities.

•A large portion of the UN team consisted of Belgian soldiers, as Rwanda had formerly been a Belgian colony.the UN continued to place pressure on the RPF to return to the ideas set forth in the former Accords

Next Country

Intervention within Intervention within SomaliaSomalia • Battle of Mogadishu was fought

between forces of the United States against Somalian fighters being loyal to war lord Mohamed Farrah Aided on October 3rd and, 1993 in the Black Sea district of Mogadishu Somalia.

•January 1991, the leader of Somalia, Mohammed Siad Barre, was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans, called the United Somalia Congress.

•After the revolution, each coalition divided into two groups, One was led by Ali Mahdi, who became president, and the other by Mohammed Farah Aidid.

•September, 1991, severe fighting broke out in Mogadishu, where the wars led to the destruction of the agriculture of Somalia, which in turn led to starvation in large parts of Somalia.

Mohamed Farrah AidedMohamed Farrah Aided

The international community began to send food supplies to resist the starvation, but large amounts of food were taken and brought to the local leaders, who continuoulsy exchanged it with other countries for weapons cause of currption where an estimated 80 percent of the food was stolen.

 Deteriorating security prevents the UN mission from delivering food and supplies to the starving Somalis.

Relief flights are looted upon landing, food convoys are hijacked and aid workers assaulted.

The UN appeals to its members to provide military forces to assist the humanitarian operation.

The assault force was composed of nineteen aircraft, twelve vehicles and 160 men.

18 American soldiers also died, and 73 were wounded

  

Intervention Within Somalia Was justified

U.N. Security Council authorized UNITAF to establish a secure environment throughout Somalia, to achieve national reconciliation so as to create a democratic state.

In December 1995, a CBS poll asked if the US had made a mistake by going into Somalia, and 66% said it had not.

PIPA found that an overwhelming 82% thought that, in attempting to deliver humanitarian aid in Somalia "was the right thing to do," while 14% saw it as a "mistake.”

46% thought it had been a mistake to try to end the civil war, while 43% approved of the effort.

American intervention in Somalia began as a peacekeeping mission to ensure that food donated by goodwill organizations got into the hands of the civilians who were starving; since the theft of these donations by Somali soldiers was widely reported internationally

International Intervention was not justified

• Although various international relief groups tried delivering food and other humanitarian aid, their efforts were thwarted by continued fighting among the clans, many of which used food as a weapon by stealing, hoarding, and denying it to the people.

• Pressure was building for someone to do something. The UN tried sending in 500 ill-equipped and ill-trained UN peace-keepers in accordance with a previously passed Security Council resolution.

• In one incident, US troops took a family hostage. When one of them began to scream, she was shot dead. In another incident, a Somali hostage was murdered when he refused to stop praying out loud. Another was clubbed into silence. The troops murdered wounded Somalis and used their bodies as barricades.

• On October 3, 1993, US forces got word that leaders of Aideed's group were meeting in a central Mogadishu house. A squad of 115 elite US special forces troops set off to ambush the leaders. Seventeen helicopter gun ships also attacked houses thought to contain the leaders. The operation was not approved by UN commanders.