In other words, the Serbs were looking for trouble. And they couldn’t have picked a more sensitive time–right in the middle of a major international push to resolve the Kosovo crisis. Last Friday, the day of the killings, the six-nation ““Contact Group’’ monitoring the former Yugoslavia ordered the Serbs and Albanians to start peace talks near Paris before Feb. 6 or face the possibility that NATO ground forces will move into the province. The Contact Group also declared that the combatants should quickly reach a peace agreement that includes ““elements of a substantial autonomy for Kosovo.’’ NATO issued its own ultimatum, warning that it ““stands ready to act and rules out no option’’ if the two sides continue fighting. Those options include bombing Serbian military positions and blockading Albanian arms-smuggling routes. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the time had come for brass tacks. ““We have sent the parties an unmistakable message: “Get serious.’ Showing up [in Paris] is not going to be enough.''
But given the hard-line attitudes of both the Serbs and the Albanians, showing up may be an achievement. In fact, as Rogovo makes clear, war may be closer at hand than peace. Although both sides in Kosovo are supposedly observing a ceasefire, more than 100 ethnic Albanians have died in the last two weeks. As skeptics predicted last October, when the current ceasefire was negotiated, the Serbs and Albanians have simply used it as a pretext for marshaling weapons and materiel for new confrontations. Says a senior OSCE official: ““Despite these ultimatums, I have not seen one bit of difference on the ground.''
The killings in Rogovo culminated an especially tense week. Serb forces besieged several areas in Kosovo thought to be KLA havens. And as always, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic displayed his contempt for diplomacy. The day that America’s chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, was meeting with ethnic Albanian leaders in Pristina, Milosevic ordered a major shelling of Albanian villages only 25 kilometers away. In addition, Yugoslav border guards intercepted a column of KLA soldiers infiltrating Kosovo from Albania proper, and killed three of them.
Despite the setbacks, the KLA is not shying away from the prospect of more bloodshed. ““We will have a war whenever it’s necessary,’’ says Gani Koci, a senior KLA commander from the hard-line area of Drenica. ““The [fighting] will be over only when we get our freedom.’’ The KLA certainly seems much stronger than the ragtag collection of militias that fled from a massive Serb offensive last summer. Thanks to extensive funding from the Kosovar diaspora, the rebels are now well armed. American and German assault rifles have replaced old hunting guns. And the KLA now owns sundry antitank weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, bazookas and, according to reports, shoulder-launched guided missiles. But the KLA has yet to prove itself in a sustained fight, and the rout at Rogovo only reinforces the doubts. Most rebel gains have come not from assaults, but because the Serbs cannot blanket the countryside.
The combatants reacted cautiously to the international proposals. ““We are not rejecting the Contact Group statement, but we can’t say anything positive about it,’’ said the KLA’s London-based representative, Pleurat Sejdiu. ““The fighting has to stop [first].’’ The Serbs welcomed talks, but said they would oppose an effort to enforce the ceasefire. Even if peace talks occur, the KLA seems in no mood for compromise. ““Our strategy is national independence,’’ Sahit Yeshari, head of the KLA’s military police, told NEWSWEEK. ““It is better to be killed than to fall into Serbian hands.’’ His compatriots seem to be taking that credo to heart.
