How
the UN was forced
out of Macedonia
PressInfo #
119
May
11, 2001
By Jan Oberg, TFF
director
PressInfo
118 offers an independent analysis of 11
reasons why Macedonia is at the brink of war. You may
summarise them: It's the international community, stupid!
Let's add some more and look at the sad fate of the
United Nations in Macedonia.
WHY THE UNITED
NATIONS WAS IN THE WAY
UN warnings were
ignored.
UNPREDEP's leadership repeatedly warned that if NATO
bombed Yugoslavia, they could not guarantee the lives of
UN personnel just at the other side of the
Yugoslav-Macedonian border. Western politicians,
Scandinavians from where the UN leadership came in
particular, did not understand that if their NATO allies
bombed Serbia it could provoke Serb retaliation against
the Extraction Force which was partly co-located with
their own nationals in the UN mission!
The UN was impartial and
fair.
UN peacekeepers respected and listened to all sides as
a matter of professionalism. They did not see the world
in black-and-white terms. They did not occupy territories
or bomb their way through. They tried to be role models
of more civilised behaviour. In today's Kosovo, NATO
troops implicitly tell the children that driving fancy
armoured cars, wearing boots and battle dress and
carrying guns is what works.
The excellent UN mission was
forced out.
The UNPREDEP Mission in Macedonia was one of the best
in the history of the UN. It was the most cherished
example ever of preventive diplomacy. The military and
civilian UN staff provided more stability than any other
single actor. It was forced out by diplomatic intrigue
(see next para), presumably because the United States,
NATO and EU countries wanted to bomb neighbouring
Yugoslavia .
The intrigue that killed
UNPREDEP.
Mr. Vasil Turpokovski had been a member for Macedonia
of the last Yugoslav collective Presidency and afterwards
lived in the United States. He suddenly went home to
Macedonia's Presidential election and promised that he
could get US$ 1 000 million as a gift for Macedonia, a
huge sum indeed for this poor country (and one sure to
boost corruption)! Allegedly that was what Taiwan had
promised in exchange for Macedonia recognising Taiwan.
China had been one of the first to recognise independent
Macedonia, a diplomatic victory for then President Kiro
Gligorov.
Macedonia's government at the time recognised Taiwan
and China, predictably, became furious. On February 25,
1999 China vetoed a renewal of UNPREDEP's mandate at the
UN Security Council and, thus, its mandate terminated on
February 28. The United States had already started
threatening Milosevic with bombing in the preceding
autumn. Everyone knew that the UN could not remain in an
area that might be bombed by some of the same (NATO)
countries that made up the mission. The U.S. ambassador
to the UN duly shed crocodile tears at China's decision
which, however, suited NATO excellently. US personnel
took part for the first time ever in a peacekeeping
mission in Macedonia. If the US would bomb Yugoslavia,
young Americans (and other UN staff) could be killed by
Yugoslav retaliation against the Extraction Force and the
UN.
Today Western politicians blame China for all this. It
is true that China officially argued against peacekeeping
in Macedonia and in favour of peacekeeping in Africa, but
the importance of the Taiwan question is only too
well-known. China's veto has been used as an argument
that "humanitarian intervention" ought not be dependent
on a UN Security Council mandate; that good deeds must
not be prevented by a single country's veto. But either
the diplomats know the background as described here and
twist the argument or they don't know - - which is
equally deplorable.
The relevant questions are: who engineered this plot
to get the UN out of Macedonia by using Mr. Turpokovski's
strange promise? Or, if it was his own mad invention: why
did no single government concerned about Macedonia's
future and the UN try to stop him? They must have known
the perfectly predictable result of Macedonia's
recognition of Taiwan. Whatever the answer, it was
extremely convenient for NATO to get rid of UNPREDEP in
time for it to evacuate the last barracks a few days
before NATO started bombing.
It remains only to be stated that Macedonia, of
course, saw only a fraction of money promised. But NATO
countries got what they wanted: the UN out, NATO in, and
China sour. There are no isolated events in the Balkans;
link structures and timelines and you will find that
there are interesting patterns - - and few
coincidences!
A UN mandate for both
Macedonia and Serbia/Kosovo was prevented.
A mandate covering the fundamentally inter-related
conflict zones of Kosovo and Macedonia would have been
the right thing to pursue. But the UN wasn't allowed to.
Information I personally collected at the time gives the
following at hand:
As UNPREDEP was tasked with dealing with the disputed
border areas between Serbia and Macedonia, leading
UNPREDEP personnel had routine meetings with Yugoslav
high-level military staff. Both parties of course knew
the significance of the channels and connections between
Kosovo-Albanians and Macedonian Albanians and about the
flow of arms and ammunition to Kosovo via Macedonian
territory. There would be different possible modalities
for an expansion of UNPREDEP which would enable it to be
present (either on-and off or permanently), gather
information and build trust on the Kosovo side of the
border too.
But would Serbia permit an expansion of the UN into
Kosovo? I think yes; Milosevic had accepted OSCE and
other international governmental missions as well as NGOs
and the United States Information Office in Kosovo and
elsewhere on Yugoslav territory.
I do not know the answer from Yugoslav sources but
Belgrade's attitude must have been open since UNPREDEP
felt it reasonable to raise the issue with New York.
However, within 24 hours it got the red light: Kosovo was
not and should not become part of UNPREDEP's mandate. In
plain language: Keep your hands off Kosovo!
I took particular interest in this hidden piece of
Balkan history since years before TFF had proposed and
discussed with Belgrade and Kosovo-Albanian leaders the
possibility of deploying a UN mission. (See "UNTANS.
Conflict-Mitigation for Kosovo. Memorandum of
Understanding between the UN and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia concerning a United Nations Temporary
Authority for a Negotiated Settlement in Kosovo,
UNTANS").
Today we may wonder why the excellent idea of
establishing the UN where it was politically feasible and
strategically most motivated remained stillborn. There
are reasons to believe that it could have prevented the
catastrophe of today's "Chaosovo" and the impending one
in Macedonia.
Continued in
PressInfo
120
This is what TFF wrote about
preventing war in Macedonia
Your ideas for peace in
Macedonia wanted (1999)
A bouquet of oeace ideas to
Macedonia...and Kosovo (1999)
© TFF 2001
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