What price Kosovo?

After a 79-day air campaign against Yugoslavia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) suspended the bombing of the Balkan country on Thursday. The decision followed the acceptance of the Belgrade government to withdraw its troops from Kosovo and to let an international peacekeeping force enter the war-torn province to ensure the safe return of around one million refugees.

The air campaign claimed thousands of lives, of both military personnel and civilians, and caused extensive damage to Yugoslavia's infrastructure. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's intransigent policy, in which he refused to bow to international demands that he stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians, forced NATO to launch the air operation.

Despicable though Milosevic's policy was, people in many peace-loving countries nevertheless raised their eyebrows when NATO began its air campaign nearly three months ago. It was the first time after the end of World War II that a military alliance of great powers attacked a sovereign state such as Yugoslavia. It is true that Milosevic and his regime should be punished for the atrocities committed on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, but it is also true that the punitive measures should have been better carried out under the auspices of the United Nations, thereby eliminating the impression that NATO's campaign was just a show of the Western countries' military might. Besides, the bombings also forced nearly a million refugees from their homes and to live in tents with minimum health care and limited food supply.

Hence the agreement reached on Thursday by NATO and the Belgrade government is truly heartening. Causing more victims of war can be thus avoided and it can be hoped that peace will again prevail in the region.

But the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and Serbian police officers from the troubled province does not signal the completion of NATO's mission in Kosovo. Far from it, NATO, now empowered by a UN resolution, carries a greater responsibility to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed during the air campaign and restore the lives of the Yugoslav people, including the displaced Kosovar Albanians.

According to estimates by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as much as 50 percent of all Kosovo housing, along with its basic infrastructure, has been damaged or destroyed. UNHCR said that around half a billion dollars is needed to fund Kosovo refugees. This does not include the other billions of dollars spent on the war machines used during the campaign. The cost of rebuilding bridges, oil refineries, power stations and major roads that were damaged or destroyed during the past two and a half months in Yugoslavia, according to estimates by the European Union, amounts to some $30 billion.

A clear conclusion that can be drawn from the Kosovo crisis is that it has ruined much of the country's economy, claimed many human casualties as well as created strained relations between other nations. The accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and the fear of another Cold War between Russia and the United States are obvious examples.

All this can be avoided if only the leaders act prudently and in the interests of their people, resolve problems and disputes with other countries through dialog rather than by the use of force. In the case of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav people should not hesitate to replace the despotic leader who has brought them untold suffering with a better one who can lead them into the next millennium in more prosperous and peaceful way.