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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A bomb too far?
By Hoda TawfikIn the midst of negotiations for a peaceful settlement, NATO jets struck and bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade Friday, believing it to be a Serb government building. Angry protests promptly erupted against the United States in China and elsewhere.
Despite apologies from both the US and NATO, the fury of the Chinese government and people was beyond anything Washington had foreseen. The US explanation -- a breakdown in intelligence provided by the CIA -- has been rejected out of hand by China.
As the Chinese ambassador to Washington asked furiously, "How would you explain that three precision-controlled missiles hit the Chinese Embassy from different angles? How could you explain that?"
The United States is struggling to contain the damage to both their diplomatic efforts and their air campaign. It now has to proceed vigorously on both fronts, if it is to find a suitably dignified exit from the crisis.
At this stage, almost everybody wants to end the war, each for his own reasons. NATO has conceded that the air raids have failed to protect the Kosovars from Serb forces. Since the bombing began, an estimated 1.5 million Kosovar Albanians have been uprooted from their homes, despite NATO pledges at the outset to protect them.
The Russians, meanwhile, have effectively been left to run the diplomatic show on their own, thus turning the war into a major public relations coup for Yeltsin's administration. Since signing a G-8 joint resolution on ending the conflict in Yugoslavia, Russia has provided the US with a much-needed partner, and the only channel through which negotiations with President Milosevic can presently proceed.
FOLLOWING angry demonstrations in Beijing over the NATO missile bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade that killed three and left 20 wounded, the Chinese government began calling for calm late on Sunday. Apparently fearing that the demonstrations would spill over and turn against them, Chinese authorities attempted to keep the lid on the protests by deploying their security forces all over the city as an estimated 100,000 protesters pelted the US Embassy with stones and bricks, denouncing the embassy bombing and the US-led NATO war against Yugoslavia.
Worldwide, Chinese youths led protest marches and chanted anti-US slogans in front of American embassies. In Cairo, the US Embassy closed its doors as a group of Chinese students demonstrated on Sunday.
Although American President Bill Clinton sent a letter of apology to his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin, many political analysts in Beijing remained convinced the action was intentional and further evidence of the US containment policy against China. Zhao Changqing, an analyst at the State Council Research Centre said, "The Americans know that China is in the middle of a sensitive period and they want to see domestic chaos in China."
Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan demanded that the US formally apologise, carry out a thorough investigation of the missile attack and severely punish those responsible for the carnage.
(photo: AFP)
Milosevic, for his part, is looking for a way to end the campaign that will let him continue to have his own way. This should not be too difficult: already, the air strikes have failed to achieve their objective. With the bombing of the Chinese Embassy, NATO may still win the real war, but the propaganda war now seems certain to be lost.
Supreme Commander of NATO General Wesley Clark, however, was unfazed. He told journalists, "We are not going to let one incident like bombing the Chinese Embassy by mistake deter us from doing what we think is right, and we will intensify this air campaign." According to US officials, "At this point in time, you cannot stop the campaign without the real winner of it being Mr Milosevic, and the real loser the ethnic Albanian Kosovars who have fled or have died already at his hands."
A US delegation is currently having talks in Moscow with the Russian government and in particular Russia's envoy to the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin. The West and Russia want to turn the bare bones of the G-8 statement into a UN Security Council resolution in order to bring the conflict to an end as quickly as possible.
In this context, Russia and NATO have agreed to a very general and vague framework. The Russians have said that they would favour at least some sort of a force being sent into Kosovo, but have not allowed NATO to be explicitly mentioned.
The US, meanwhile, insists that NATO participation is necessary if the expelled Kosovars are to be enabled to come back.
There is still some hard bargaining to come over key questions concerning the communiqué's seven "general principles", including whether Yugoslavia will be permitted to maintain a token military presence in Kosovo, whether the air campaign will be halted as the diplomatic machinery gears up, and whether the Russians will insist that Milosevic approve any final cease-fire deal. Moreover, the principles adopted by the G-8 are open to a range of different interpretations by different parties. The US is using its influence to try and flesh out the Security Council resolution with concrete wording confirming NATO's post-war role.
"The US view is that there needs to be NATO participation in an international military force," said Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering. "We believe and hope that we can have Mr Milosevic's consent," he added. "The G-8 statement originally represented a common denominator between NATO and the Russians. The Russians haven't yet agreed to the NATO demands, but they have agreed with the principle of withdrawal, just as they have agreed with the principle of an international military force."
The framework adopted by the G-8 called for an immediate and verifiable end of violence and repression in Kosovo; the withdrawal from the province of military and para-military forces; the deployment of an effective international civil and security presence, endorsed by the United Nations; the establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo; and the safe and free return of all refugees.
