Position Paper

Committee: Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 1999

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Background

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia comprising Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro started to disintegrate in 1991 with Slovenia
and Croatia declaring independence. Eventually most of the states declared their
independence and Serbia and Montenegro came together to term themselves as the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.

Within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was declared as an autonomous
province within Serbia by the Yugoslav Constitution. In accordance with the provisions of
the fourth constitution of Yugoslavia, Kosovo got its own constitution and a larger degree of
autonomy before.

Kosovo, an Albanian ethnic Muslim majority province in the Orthodox Christian majority
Serbia was given the status of an autonomous province in accordance with the 1963
Constitution of Yugoslavia. The cause of the current conflict lies here as the Serbs look upon
Kosovo as essential to Orthodox Christianity as well as their statehood. In 1989, the
autonomous status of Kosovo was revoked due to politics played out by the aggressive
Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic.

As a result, ethnic Albanians staged violent protests over the revocation of Kosovo’s
autonomous status, Milošević sent Yugoslav military units to Kosovo in 1990 and dissolved
the province’s assembly. After this, Kosovars adopted a policy of non-violent resistance to
the Yugoslav authorities.

However soon enough, a group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army cropped up. They
sought to resist the Serbian repression against the ethnic Albanians and Kosovar
independence from Serbia. The KLA was involved in jointly coordinated attacks on Serbian
police and by 1998, these grew manifold in scale. In 1998, Serbia sent its special police along
with paramilitary groups and army in order to supress the Kosovar uprising. These groups
committed numerous atrocities in Kosovo and eventually led to large scale displacement of
Kosovars throughout the neighbouring state. On March 31st, 1998 United Nations Security
Council adopted resolution number 1160 which imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia
until it withdrew its special police force from Kosovo and accepted outside mediation along
with beginning a substantive dialogue with the ethnic Albanians.

NATO declared the possibility of military intervention in June, if the situation did not
improve and a report submitted by the UN Secretary General to the UNSC, blamed the
Yugoslav security forces for a majority of the civilian atrocities in Kosovo. Later on UNSC
passed UNSC resolution 1199, called for a ceasefire between the two parties and this resulted
in the Clark-Naumann agreement between NATO and FR Yugoslavia (FRY) which led to a
partial withdrawal of troops from Kosovo and the deployment of Kosovo Verification
Mission under the OSCE. The UNSC passed resolution 1203 which endorsed the verification
mission as well as an aerial surveillance mission by NATO.

However, tensions flared up in 1999 and Serbian violence escalated against the Kosovars and
on 29th January, the Contact Group (United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and
Russia) decided to convene negotiations between the parties, in accordance with the principle
of mediation. A day later, NATO agreed to air strikes, if necessary, and issued a warning to
the parties concerned. As a result, initial negotiations were held at Rambouillet, near Paris,
from February 6 to February 23, and then in Paris, from March 15 to March 18. The
framework thus produced is known as Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in
Kosovo. However, after the Kosovar delegation signed, the Yugoslavian delegation withdrew
and the talks broke down.

In the aftermath of this, Serbia intensified its campaign of repression against the Kosovars
causing an flux of refugees and internally displaced persons, all this was in clear violation of
the 1998 agreements. On March 20, the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission was withdrawn
from the region as a result of non-cooperation and obstruction by Serbian authorities.

Still believing in diplomatic efforts, the United States Ambassador Holbrooke tried to
persuade Milosevic to stop the aggression or face NATO air strikes. After Milosevic’s
refusal, air strikes were initiated against Yugoslavia.

Current Situation

Currently, NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia continue and the world opinion keeps turning
against them. However, Russia in retaliation against the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s
humanitarian intervention in the Kosovo crisis, has stalled the ratification of the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty – II, which is a grave concern. The air strikes are aimed at putting an
end to the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar ethnic Albanians by Serbia and in order to have
Yugoslavia withdraw its troops from Kosovo’s territory.

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POLICY:

Yugoslavia:

As stated by the American President, the NATO operation in Yugoslavia is not aimed against
the people of Serbia. The air strikes by NATO with US help, have been adopted only after all
diplomatic avenues were closed and cooperation was withdrawn from Yugoslavia’s end.
Diplomatic avenues were pursued time and time again by the United States in order to stop
the situation from escalating into what it has become now. The US after consulting with its
allies in NATO, issued a warning that air strikes would be conducted, if deemed necessary to
the parties concerned. After the Kosovo Verification Mission withdrew, the USA sent
Ambassador Holbrooke to the President, Milosevic, in order to try and persuade him that to
withdraw his forces from Kosovo and put an end to the unwanted aggression. However, when
Milosevic refused to even do this, the United States was left with no choice but to launch air
strikes against Yugoslavia , after consultation with and approval from all the NATO
members.

Humanitarian Intervention:

As Bill Cliton stated a few days earlier, the NATO air strikes are not the declaration of a
“war” by any of the NATO members but it is a humanitarian intervention on behalf of the
helpless Kosovars. The air strikes have been launched to compel the Milosevic to order his
forces to withdraw, as if it is not done, there will be a great human catastrophe. This great
human catastrophe will be the loss of millions of innocent lives of people of Albanian
ethnicity and this is the reason that this humanitarian intervention is being undertaken by
NATO. As the President of the USA, Bill Clinton said, “By acting now, we are upholding our
values, protecting our interests, and advancing the cause of peace.”

Kosovo:

As stated by the President of the USA, the United States is only fighting for the justice of the
people of Kosovo. The people of Kosovo are subject to an ethnic cleansing only because they
are ethnic Albanian Muslims. The autonomous status of Kosovo must be restored and this
morally unjust ethnic cleansing of the Kosovars must stop so that the neighbouring countries
do not face a refugee crisis. The incidents in Kosovo are unjust as after being stripped of their
constitutional autonomy, when they were peacefully protesting it, Milosevic sent in troops to
oppress the masses into compliance.

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Solutions:
a. The Yugoslavian Government and its President, Milosevic must stop the aggression
against the innocent citizens of Kosovo.
b. Yugoslavia must also withdraw all of its forces stationed in Kosovo.
c. Kosovo’s constitutional status as an autonomous province must be reinstated.
d. The conflict must come to a stop so that Europe does not face another major refugee
crisis.
e. The Russian Federation must not use international treaties as bargaining chips and
should ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty – II, at once.
f. A peace keeping force should be stationed in Kosovo, once the Yugoslavian troops
have withdrawn from Kosovo.

Bibliography:

a. [Link]
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f. [Link]