By Volodymyr SKACHKO
The Friday before last, the Western vector of Ukrainian foreign policy
again failed to turn in the required direction. Verkhovna Rada did not
consent to sending a Ukrainian peacekeeping force to the Yugoslav province
of Kosovo. Some Deputies spoke about "insufficient preparedness of documents
the President submitted to justify the Ukrainian peacekeeping mission in
Kosovo." The Left blocked permission because their ideology still rejects
the now victorious NATO as "the mercenary of world imperialism." Others
"voted" against the required resolution by feet, i.e., they did not turn
up in the session hall before the weekend.
As a result, Parliament ignored the UN Security Council official invitation
of June 10, 1999, to take part in the postwar settlement of the Kosovo
problem. Many observers are certain the problem will be solved once there
are more Deputies in the hall. But even if this happens, Ukraine has still
suffered irreparable losses as a state.
First, because part of the Ukrainian political elite has showed to the
whole civilized world the "crassness" of their ideology" by actually taking
sides with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's regime and opposing
world public opinion which now condemns this regime's actions, in particular,
the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo that NATO announced as the main cause of
the war.
A group of Ukrainian journalists, which visited the camps of Kosovar
refugees in Albania, saw with their own eyes that ethnic cleansing and
forcible deportations of Albanians from Kosovo by the army and police was
not a concoction of NATO ideologists. Tens of thousands - men, women, and
children - had really lost everything under pain of physical violence and
death well before the NATO bombings started. In a camp near the Albanian
city of DurrСs, we spoke to a mother of six, who told us that her husband
had been arrested in the spring of 1998 on suspicion of terrorism and their
house was bulldozed to the ground. That family had been making its way
to the camp for almost a year, migrating from one village to another and
knowing nothing about the father's fate.
That family lost their property in a matter of minutes - a house, property,
and equipment worth DM 300,000. But this is not the main thing. French
medical psychologist Monique Le Goff from Doctors of the World, who deals
with the psychological rehabilitation of refugees, told us that the essence
of the humanitarian disaster in Kosovo is that tens and hundreds of thousands
of Kosovars will have to get used again to living among people without
fearing for their life, honor, and dignity. "There is nothing more horrible
than to look at a person and suspect that he not only wishes you death
but also kills. The Kosovar refugees trust no one, and it will take a lot
of time to cure this trauma. And even returning to their destroyed homes
in Kosovo will be taken by many as a new trauma overlapping the old one,"
Madame Le Hof is convinced.
NATO now maintains that it fought against the Milosevic regime to forestall
the advent of his followers in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasus. The position of some Ukrainian
Deputies has only confirmed that NATO's preoccupation with Ukraine, the
Crimea, and the problem of the Crimean Tatars, are not so groundless. What
if some Ukrainian leftists indeed try to solve the Crimean Tatar problem
by the well-known principle of Stalin and Milosevic: "people create problems,
no people no problems"?
Secondly, Ukraine, which ignored the invitation once, may not be invited
a second time. And this will inflict not only diplomatic and political
losses but also purely pragmatic ones. NATO began to lose its servicemen
only after stopping the bombings. Peacekeepers get blown up by land mines,
while the military operation came off without a single loss of human life.
It was a true third-millennium war with high-precision state-of-the art
technologies, weapons, and equipment. For the Ukrainian military, it would
mean invaluable experience in the guidance of military units in modern
conditions, on-the-spot familiarization with sophisticated military hardware,
etc. And moreover, they would not be outcasts at the world feast of the
victors. Ukrainian peacekeepers have been known very well since the events
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, they can lose the opportunity to confirm
their reputation as good soldiers and the reputation of their country as
civilized and democratic.
Thirdly, Ukraine was virtually the first to speak about its material
losses caused by the Yugoslav war. It estimates at $220 million its losses
from the disruption of shipping on the Danube alone. And experts think
that restoration of the ruined Yugoslav economy will need an estimated
50 to 180 billion dollars in investment. Many international companies and
concerns will try to get a piece the coveted pie of the Yugoslav revival.
And Ukraine would also have plenty of work to do in the Balkans, but it
may happen if it is not let in. The leadership of the US and a series of
its European satellites are known to have taken a firm stand on economic
aid to Yugoslavia: not a cent while Milosevic remains in power. And what
if NATO takes the same firm stand with respect to Milosevic's allies which
may also include Ukraine, against its will, through the fault of the over-politicized
Deputies? A pragmatic West does not tolerate rivals. The West most often
renders technical aid, that is, it invests money but then allows its own
companies and specialists to work off and utilize it. The NATO countries
are in no hurry to give promised aid to Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro,
which carried the main burden of keeping the hundreds of thousands of refugees,
let alone sharing any probable dividends with anybody.
But I repeat, there is work to do in the Balkans. For example, today's
Albania is a deeply impoverished country strewn with 700,000 reinforced-concrete
bunkers built back in the times of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha but critically
short of good roads. So even the sometimes-one-lane highway connecting
the capital Tirana with the main airport of Rinos is now being widened
and paved by the US military. Soon often, civilian Americans, Germans,
or Italians will come around. And the Ukrainians could also do so...
There is another disquieting general conclusion: Ukrainian foreign policy
has again fallen hostage to domestic politics conditioned by the presidential
campaign. Even President Leonid Kuchma, who seemed to initiate the sending
of peacekeepers to Kosovo, also backed out after Parliament's refusal,
saying that issues like this cannot be resolved "off the cuff:" one must
think over all pros and cons, you know... Of course, he as a candidate
needs to win the votes of the anti-NATO Ukrainian electorate. It is also
clear that Mr. Kuchma as a man with a hot temper could have taken offense
at NATO turning a cold shoulder to his previous peacemaking efforts.
But what has it got to do with Ukraine, when its President takes offense?!
For it is now obvious that even Russia, which without a thought dropped
its paratroopers into Pristina, deserves a more respect. The stupidity
of the brave is not always praised in song. But it is to be reckoned with,
for everyone wants to forestall any new surprises from Moscow. And a country,
which always takes one step forward and two steps back, could simply be
excluded from all calculations.
INCIDENTALLY
The US State Department has offered a $5 million reward for information
leading to the detention and prosecution of Yugoslav war criminals, including
President Slobodan Milosevic. The Hague-based International War Crimes
Tribunal earlier indicted President Milosevic and other top officials,
including Serbian President Milo Milutinovic, as personally responsible
for the murder, deportation, and persecution of Albanians in Kosovo. However,
the State Department stressed that bounty hunters need not personally apprehend
the accused but should get in touch with the US government and provide
the relevant information.
Kyiv - Tirana - Durrёs - Kyiv






