The prism through which America views the world was invariably changed by the events of Sept. 11. As our battle against terrorism unfolds, we should pause to consider whether our new consciousness of suffering at home will lead us to a deeper concern for potential suffering and violence elsewhere.
A test case is fast approaching in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
Wednesday, a NATO disarmament program is due to run its course and, without a renewed NATO deployment and a U.N. mandate, will be forced to trim its presence in the nation.
The NATO force was slated for a 30-day mission in Macedonia to collect 3,300 arms from ethnic-Albanian rebels, upon which time they had promised a hasty withdrawal. In response, the Slav-majority controlled government was due by Thursday to pass 15 draft amendments to the nation's constitution, meant to give more legal and political protections to Albanians, who represent about one-third of Macedonia's population.
If another miserable conflict is to be avoided in a former republic of Yugoslavia, though, a U.N. mandate must be enacted and a substantial outside presence must be maintained.
The United States has a moral responsibility to help ensure this mandate and the protection of the Macedonian peoples'Albanian and Slav.
The violent problems in Macedonia began last March when an ethnic-Albanian guerilla group, the National Liberation Army, began incursions into Macedonia from areas of southern Serbia and Kosovo where the Serbian military was forbidden to patrol due to restrictions placed after the NATO-led bombing of Serbia in spring 1999.
This NLA was formed in part by remnants of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerilla force that operated in Kosovo until NATO decommissioned it following the air strikes.
The KLA's prominence, and thereby the NLA's, was the result of misguided American-led NATO policies in the region that hampered a democratic peace in Kosovo, eventually leading to NATO's bombing that destabilized Macedonia.
A brief history follows: After entering the horrific wars in Yugoslavia too late to be effective, we eventually turned to lauding Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for his assistance in brokering an end to the conflict, while downplaying his oppression of ethnic-Albanian Kosovars and the hate-mongering he sponsored before, during and after the original Yugoslav crisis. Then after we grew weary of Milosevic, we removed the KLA from our list of terrorist groups and began funneling them weapons'at the expense of moderate and popularly supported Kosovar groups.
Once Serbia's repression finally gave us pause, we began bombing Serbia and Kosovo, which'though eventually forcing Milosevic to capitulate'actually provided cover to Serbia's massacre of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and led to the flow of 300,000 refugees south into Macedonia.
The poorly designed protectorate system in Kosovo that followed the bombing helped ensure that tensions grew worse in Kosovo, as Albanians led reprisals on Serbians and vice versa, fueling the flames that eventually spread to Macedonia.
The NLA, with the same initials as the KLA in Albanian, arose out of the turmoil, riling up support for its cause among the refugees and through incursions in Macedonia and Kosovo. The result has been a destabilized Macedonia on the brink of civil war.
Though NATO and the United States have acted more quickly than in earlier Balkan disasters'allowing Serbian troops to remilitarize the border, valiantly trying diplomatic channels in Macedonia and bringing in the 3,500-strong NATO force to confiscate weapons'it hasn't been nearly enough.
Tensions in Macedonia have continued to rise, the violence has continued to spread and hardliners'in the government and among the Albanian guerilla and Slav paramilitary forces'are gaining increasing sway over the populations they feign to represent.
This is all the more troubling because Macedonia was the one former-Yugoslav republic that broke off peacefully, has espoused tolerance and has been run democratically.
Constitutional provisions giving Albanians greater language rights and increased political parity are necessary. Without international troop presence though, Macedonia could spiral into civil war like those in Bosnia and Croatia, where, six years after the violence ended, mass-graves of victims of ethnic cleansing are still being uncovered.
Another half-hearted presence will not be sufficient. The United States needs to lead the way for a U.N. sponsorship of a substantial NATO or Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe force in Macedonia, to collect more rebel weapons and demilitarize the paramilitaries that have been assaulting Albanians.
In this new era, as we strive to rid the world of terrorism, we would be wise not to forget the suffering of other people'especially when we have an opportunity to save so many from that fate.
