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March 28, 1998
NBC: Negligible Balkan Coverage ? We're back on the trail of international news... ...with the team from Fast Forward Films, our London-based production company. First stop: Bonn, the capital of Germany, where U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and five of her European counterparts are trying to prevent a repeat performance of genocide in the former Yugoslavia. Sad to report that instead of firm action against Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosovic over his brutal crackdown on the 90% ethnic Albanian majority of Kosovo province, all the foreign ministers of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia could summon up this past week was a moveable threat. The same kind of slip-sliding diplomatic drift that greased the path to disaster in Bosnia. Just two weeks ago in London, you may recall, the so-called Contact Group were pretty clear. Either Milosovic withdrew his special police and entered into genuine autonomy talks with the Kosovan Albanians, or the Belgrade government would be slapped with an arms embargo, a freeze on assets abroad, and end to the granting of official travel visas and a suspension of trade and investment credits. The result ? A lot of posturing on the part of the Milosovic regime. But Serbian artillery usually speaks louder than words and Kosovo is no exception. A fierce exchange of fire between Serbian forces and suspected gunmen of the Kosovo Liberation Army last Monday, and the refugees photographed fleeing the battle, left Ms. Albright, for one, in a very dark mood. She accused Milosovic of responding with "half measures," and charged that he and his Belgrade regime are "trying to get away with as much as possible." In the face of this, what did the Contact Group decide to do ? Basically, they've given the man another four weeks to think it over. In a faint-hearted attempt to prove they mean business, the embargo on the sale of arms to Belgrade will be put to the Security Council for passage by next week. Now, given Mr. Milosovic's bulging armouries, that's like telling hockey players that unless there's less slashing, spearing and high-sticking, the NHL's supply of hockey sticks will be cut off in the year 2015. This soft response from Bonn has less to do with skilled manoeuvring on the part of the Belgrade government than it does with that chronic ill that has plagued the civilized world's handling of the crises in the former Yugoslavia since the first shot was fired in 1991: disunity. In other words, misunderstanding and wrangling among nations that are usually close friends, allies, or at least partners of convenience. From one end to the other of the long, white linen-draped table at which they sat, the fractures dividing the Contact Group foreign ministers were clearly visible. Which is not to say that each of these six capable diplomats do not display stellar qualities of their own -- they are all standouts, to a fault. But like many all-star teams, they spend most of their time trying, and failing, to get the chemistry right. Take a look down the conference table. Washington's Madeleine Albright wears the most daunting game face since Margaret Thatcher. Beside her, Britain's scrappy and articulate Robin Cook can just about manage to conceal the group's differences with his words, while Italy's Lamberto Dini listens with an imperious countenance -- a veteran delegate on the world stage, equal parts ego and diplomatic chic. Meantime the earnest Klaus Kinkel of Germany (who hosts Europe's largest Albanian immigrant population, with up to 2,000 new refugees arriving each month) and a rather dapper Monsieur Vedrine of France add intellect and gravity to the proceedings. Which leaves Yevgeny Primakov, the stone-faced, gruff-voiced, scarcely-concealed ally of, guess who, the Belgrade regime, to add angst and, very frequently, outright strife. An arms embargo, he grumbles, must also cover the Kosovan "terrorists" the Serbian special police units are suppressing. This assemblage is not exactly an impervious shield to a wily and determined gamesman like Slobodan Milosovic. True, he is viewed by most seasoned European diplomats as inept and deceitful. Over the past decade, his violent adventures in Croatia, Bosnia and now Kosovo have left the economy of his own remaining patch of Yugolavia at a standstill. But he knows the contest of diplomatic stroke and counter-stroke. "He is a master," says one NATO official concerned with the region, "at appearing to adjust his position just sufficiently to defuse threats made by the international community. Then you look around and realize that nothing's really changed -- he's still on his own course, unchecked." The Contact Group realizes this. More than one foreign minister told reporters that President Milosovic's pledge to talk with Kosovan leaders was really just a ploy. Ordering his special police to stay in their barracks falls far short of withdrawing them from Kosovo altogether. And his promise to let ethnic Albanians resume attending school and universities for the first time since he dissolved autonomy eight years ago is simply that -- a promise, and one that is so far unfulfilled. But while countering and often ignoring these demands, Milosovic has shown enough cunning not to trigger any greater reaction from western nations. He has refrained from deploying elements of his large standing army in Kosovo, an escalation which would invite the kind of attentions from NATO forces that finally proved decisive in halting genocide in Bosnia. "It's really not possible for us to even plan air strikes or deployments against him," a NATO planner concedes, "until a significant mechanized or infantry force trips the wire." That "wire" is the border marking off Kosovo province from Serbia and Montenegro, the last pieces of Yugoslavia under Belgrade's control. Even the much more sensitive international borders separating Kosovo from Albania and Macedonia are something of a headache rather than an opportunity for NATO. A huge force would be required to guard the rugged and remote Albanian frontier -- unthinkable at a time when German and French forces, among others, are under-equipped and strapped by budget cuts. And although both the Contact Group and U.N. wish to expand the monitoring force already in place in Macedonia, there is not yet a tangible enough military threat from Serbia to warrant a quickening of that initiative. So, the atmosphere was notably glum as the Contact Group broke up until its next meeting in one month's time. Once again the world's star diplomats have discovered that keeping contact with a rogue regime is one thing, quite another to craft and sustain measures to change that regime's course. "It's not encouraging," says one top aide to the group, "when you consider that Yugoslavia's history shows us that communities or groups only get the land and rights they fight for, and that the outside world responds effectively only to sudden and substantial bloodshed." That leaves us with the question of exactly how in the world of broadcast news the planet will be made aware of the deadly game being played in Kosovo. At the height of the emergency, March 5th through 8th, CBS News worked effectively to inform Americans of the unrest -- turmoil, after all, which is just a stone's throw from the 8,500 U.S. troops serving in the NATO SFOR corps supervising the Dayton peace accords in Bosnia. ABC News was close behind: over the four days, our survey shows, CBS Evening News broadcast 6 minutes 25 seconds of Kosovo coverage, while ABC followed with just over 5 minutes. As for NBC News, the total was 2 minutes 10 seconds, with no NBC reporter on location. Once again, the GE-owned and managed network displayed the greatest tendancy away from genuine news gathering and toward tabloid programming. And once again, NBC News viewers were least informed about an issue that could very soon require the deployment of tens of thousands of additional combat troops -- the sons and daughters of the viewing audience -- to a Balkan war zone. By anyone's standards, a shameful performance. |
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