|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
| News | Business | Feature | Opinion | Sports |
Tourist Info |
Classifieds |
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
A year after attacks, Dienstbier blasts NATO but faces strong dissent By Laura T. Coffey Jiri Dienstbier, 62, a former dissident and Czechoslovak foreign minister who is now the United Nations' special human-rights envoy to the Balkans, recently returned to Prague from a 10-day tour of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. From the moment he stepped off the plane, he began harshly criticizing what he describes as the "total failure" of the UN and NATO in managing the Kosovo crisis. "Their image is being constantly damaged by their inability to fulfill their obligations," Dienstbier told The Prague Post. "They came to Kosovo with the goal of guaranteeing security for all people, the return of all people to their homes, freedom of movement and the gradual creation of conditions for democratic institutions. It is exactly what didn't happen. ... Even worse, there is no clear goal to this operation." Dienstbier characterized the NATO presence in Kosovo as ineffectual because the mission lacks sufficient funding and a mandate to fight the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a nationalist group that he says has maintained its grip on power in the region after changing its name to the tamer "Kosovo Protection Corps." He said Kosovo Albanians have "ethnically cleansed" between 250,000 and 350,000 Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Romanies despite the heavy NATO and UN presence. "And because there is no judicial system and not a lot of police, it's a fantastic playground for the Mafia," Dienstbier said, citing recent reports estimating that 40 percent of Europe's heroin supply is being smuggled through Kosovo. U.S. criticism Dienstbier was scheduled to present the findings from his trip in a report to the UN's Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on March 27-28. His rebukes unsettled Western leaders as they marked the March 24 anniversary of the NATO raids, which lasted nearly three months. "Jiri Dienstbier is a good friend of mine, and, frankly, Jiri Dienstbier is fundamentally wrong," said John Shattuck, U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, at a speaking engagement coordinated by Amnesty International. "I disagree with every element of his report." As an assistant secretary of state from 1993 to 1998, Shattuck was a frequent visitor to the region and helped negotiate the Dayton peace accords. He also helped establish the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia. "The people of Kosovo were under assault from their own government for years before NATO intervened," Shattuck said. "If NATO had not intervened at that point ... the Serb offensive would have continued until all ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were either expelled or killed." Shattuck also said the power of the Kosovo Liberation Army has been severely curtailed since it was made to hand over more than 12,000 weapons. U.S. General Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, echoed Shattuck's points during a one-day visit to Prague March 21. "The level of violence [in Kosovo] has come down remarkably," Clark said. "More than 1 million refugees have returned to their homes. ... [We're] trying to work through the United Nations to reconstruct the economy and trying to establish democratic and Western values." Jan Urban, a Czech political writer and journalist who spent several years in the Balkans, also weighed in on Dienstbier's report. "When you read my good old friend Jiri Dienstbier, you think Kosovo is full of crime gangs killing each other and killing everybody," Urban said. "Well, the figures are different. There was a murder rate, excuse the expression, of 50 a week immediately after KFOR [peacekeepers] came in. It is five a week today. ... "When [Dienstbier] gets involved in human rights, he is perfect. ... But the minute he starts talking politics or geopolitics, he is fundamentally wrong." Dienstbier says he remains unfazed by the conflicting reports and the criticism. "The argument that the NATO operation allowed ... 1 million to return to their homes is very nice, but remember that those people left their homes after the bombing started," he said. Dienstbier has a long history in Czech public life. As a dissident and Charter 77 signatory, he was imprisoned along with President Vaclav Havel in the late '70s and early '80s. In 1989 he became Czechoslovakia's first post-communist foreign minister, and in 1998 he was appointed Czech ambassador-at-large. He recently announced his plans to run for the Senate this fall for the ruling Social Democratic Party (CSSD) in central Bohemia's Mlada Boleslav region. "I understand the viewpoints of Jiri Dienstbier," Czech Minister of Agriculture Jan Fencl said. "I also appreciate that his opinions have not changed and that he is not easily influenced. ... We cannot just reject Dienstbier's reactions. We must listen to them." -- Adam B. Ellick and Jana Janovska contributed to this report. The text of Jiri Dienstbier's report on his recent 10-day tour of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro will be posted on the Web site of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights www.unhchr.ch Laura T. Coffey's e-mail address is ltcoffey@praguepost.cz
|
Back to Top
Home