The killing goes on

Having gone to war to protect Kosovo Albanians from Serb persecution, NATO is now trying to protect Serbs there from Albanian persecution, but it is an uphill task.

Since the conflict ended, a Serbian population of more than 200,000 has been reduced to 50,000 and falling, as murder, assault and intimidation cause more to flee. Many of those left behind are elderly people who took no role in the past fighting, but are nevertheless victimized by Albanians bent on revenge or Albanian criminal gangs bent on pillage.

Kosovo, like much of the Balkans, remains a territory of fierce tribal and ethnic loyalties, which all too often can lead to terrible violence. NATO thought it was fighting for a multiethnic province.

Instead, it seems about to inherit a long-term 100 percent Albanian protectorate, ethnically cleansed by the victims of ethnic cleansing, who can be as cruel as their former tormentors when given a chance.

While troops battle against revenge attacks and a mounting crime wave, NATO faces a greater dilemma: If it gives the territory up, Serbia seems sure to come back to assert claims over Kosovo. But independence is not an option because of the risk that Kosovo might try to join Albania proper and perhaps the Albanian portion of Macedonia to form a Greater Albania. That would not be acceptable because it would disrupt too many borders and political sensibilities.

So NATO is stuck with an area it cannot rule effectively but which it dare not surrender. At least, not unless member states grow so tired of the cost and trouble they simply go away, leaving Kosovo to fend for itself as best it can.

-- The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong