Last week’s inauguration of Boris Tadic as president of Serbia offers a window of opportunity for the former Yugoslavia. The Bush administration should seize the moment to reverse its policy of disengagement from the Balkans and resume America’s indispensable role in the region as a proponent of human rights and democracy.
Mr. Tadic, a psychologist and former colleague of assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, is a rare politician in that part of the world: a genuine democrat, untainted by association either with Josip Broz Tito’s communists or with post-Tito ultranationalists. As defense minister, Mr. Tadic courageously undertook reform of the Serbian military, an essential task as yet uncompleted.
In contrast to current Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and other leading figures, and at personal risk to himself, Mr. Tadic has publicly called for full cooperation with the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague. Nonetheless, he was criticized by some for going ahead with his planned inauguration on the anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs.
Instead, Mr. Tadic deftly used his nationally televised inauguration speech to drive home responsibility to a Serbian public often in denial about war crimes by mentioning Srebrenica in the same breath as Jasenovac, the World War II death camp run by the Croatian Ustasha fascists.
Ratko Mladic, the “Butcher of Srebrenica,” remains at large, as do four former Serbian generals indicted by the war crimes tribunal for their actions in Kosovo. Until they are delivered to The Hague, Serbia will be denied membership in NATO’s Partnership for Peace, the country’s primary short-term foreign policy goal.
Now the small human-rights community in Belgrade is abuzz with rumors the U.S. may settle for a deal whereby, if Mr. Mladic is handed over, the four generals could be tried by Serbian courts.
Such a concession would be a serious mistake. First, it would undercut The Hague war crimes tribunal. Second, it would be totally impractical. Despite recent courtroom security improvements, many Kosovar Albanian witnesses would be afraid to testify in Belgrade. Moreover, Serbian law does not prohibit a chain-of-command defense, which the defendants would clearly use.
Although President Tadic has advocated return of Serbian sovereignty to Kosovo, no serious observer believes the province will ever again be ruled from Belgrade. The violent anti-Serb riots that claimed nearly 20 lives last March and destroyed hundreds of homes and churches showed that resolution of Kosovo’s final status can not be postponed much longer.
The U.N. Mission in Kosovo has done a poor job and lost credibility in the province. It must be reformed under its newly appointed Danish director who will probably have an experienced American diplomat as his deputy.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force, also showed grave weaknesses in the March riots, with the U.S. troops providing the only major example of professionalism.
The international community should give the Kosovo Provincial Assembly the maximum authority possible, so it can prove to the world the ethnic Albanian leadership is capable of governing and can guarantee basic human rights for all ethnic groups. Just as victims of Serbian war crimes have a right to expect the perpetrators will be brought to justice, the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, and Serbian refugees who wish to return, have a right to expect personal security.
These and related questions provide a lengthy agenda for good faith negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, which must resume promptly. The new Serbian foreign minister is Vuk Draskovic, the flamboyant anti-Milosevic politician from the 1990s who has gained Western respect as a thoughtful diplomat. The Kosovar leadership would do well to test Mr. Draskovic’s seriousness.
The U.S. is in a unique position to facilitate negotiations. Bolstered by the image of American troops who protected Kosovo Serbs in the March riots, U.S. credibility has never been higher in Belgrade, which for the first time has a democratic president with cordial ties to Washington. The Kosovar Albanians remain deeply suspicious of other Europeans but still trust the U.S., whom they thank for overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic’s tyranny.
Instead of ceding the leadership of Balkan affairs to the European Union, as we are about to do in Bosnia, President Bush should take advantage of this fortuitous constellation to re-engage in the Kosovo question by appointing a special envoy to the Balkans, a position that proved effective in the 1990s.
The special envoy, working with Serbs and Kosovars, with our European allies, and with the United Nations, could make a full-court press to resolve Europe’s most volatile dispute. The stakes are too high to wait any longer.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware is the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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