NATO changes sides

The Kosovo war has been consigned to history and NATO is changing sides. The NATO is now attempting to forge a special relationship with the enemy of yesteryear. That old foe is Serbia, the common enemy Albanian militias.

The first indication of this sea-change is the decision taken by the group of NATO foreign ministers to embark on a gradual reduction in the size of the puffer zone on the Serb-Kosovo border. The new government in Belgrade has earned this carrot of encouragement, and the Albanian extremists deserve the stick.

The five-kilometer-long strip running along the border was demilitarized following the end of the war, a move intended to protect the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo from possible attack by the Serbs. However, the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medevedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) turned that strategy on its head and is using the zone as a safe haven from which to launch attacks against the Serbs.

The organization aims to use violence to force the inclusion of ethnic Albanian regions currently part of southern Serbia within Kosovo. Until now, the Serb authorities have been very level-headed in their response and NATO would like to reward their restraint.

But, as ever, the devil is in the detail. The immediate abandonment of the buffer zone and the Yugoslav advance into the area this would entail would lead to bloody clashes with the UCPMB. Therefore NATO has gone no further than issuing a declaration of intent and has purposefully left the fine print unclear.

This sends a signal to both sides. The Serbs should realize that non-violence will be rewarded and the Albanians have been left in no doubt as to where the West stands. They now have the chance to lay down their arms and come to the negotiating table, before it is too late.

-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany