Editorials
Friday, June 4, 1999

Milosevic must pull
troops from Kosovo

The issue: The Yugoslav parliament has agreed to a plan to bring peace to kosovo.
Our view: NATO leaders are wise to await verification of Serb withdrawal from Kosovo before ending air attacks on Yugoslavia.

WESTERN leaders reacted with prudent skepticism to news that the Yugoslavia government had agreed to terms of an international plan to end the Kosovo conflict.

Peace will look more promising when the words of agreement turn into deeds -- the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, allowing the entrance of NATO peacekeepers and the return of more than 850,000 ethnic Albanian refugees to Kosovo. Until that happens, NATO air operations should continue.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic says he is willing to accept a peace plan brought to him by Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and Russian emissary Viktor Chernomyrdin. The plan was crafted by Russia and the seven leading industrialized democracies.

It provides for an end to the fighting in Kosovo, a verified withdrawal of Serb forces, a subsequent halt to NATO air attacks, deployment in Kosovo of an "efficient" -- diplomatic jargon for well-armed -- force with essential NATO participation under "unified control," and the return of all ethnic Albanians to Kosovo, which is to be granted "substantial autonomy." NATO is planning for a force of 50,000, including Russian troops.

Implementation of the plan would amount to total capitulation by Milosevic. His rejection of essentially the same proposal at talks in Rambouillet, France, triggered the NATO bombing campaign in March.

The Rambouillet plan similarly called for Kosovo's autonomy while honoring Yugoslavia's borders. It rejected independence for Kosovo, the goal of the Kosovar rebel forces. Unlike the new agreement, the Rambouillet plan would have allowed 11,000 Serb security troops to remain in Kosovo.

The State Department cautioned that the agreement will require "verifiable deeds, not seductive words." Said U.N. special envoy Carl Bildt: "We know from bitter Balkan experiences that there are devils hidden in every detail."

The most promising sign that peace may be near is the fact that Milosevic turned to his country's legislature to accept the plan, allowing him to deny personal defeat.

Much as an end to this frustrating conflict is desired, it is too soon to celebrate. Milosevic has repeatedly demonstrated that he cannot be trusted. The crucial question is whether he will in fact withdraw his forces from Kosovo. Deeds, not words, are required.

Passing the torch
in South Africa

The issue: Nelson Mandela's African National Congress won an overwhelming victory in the second elections since the abolition of apartheid.
Our view: Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki, has a hard act to follow.

With the renewal of the mandate of his African National Congress in this week's elections, Nelson Mandela is about to relinquish the leadership of South Africa to his chosen successor, Thabo Mbeki.

The elections amounted to a vote of confidence in the first South African administration since the historic abolition of apartheid. The ANC won an estimated two-thirds of the seats in the parliamentary elections, with 85 percent of the 18 million registered voters casting ballots.

From this point the government must move beyond the aftermath of the epic struggle against apartheid to confront massive problems of crime and poverty.

Mandela achieved the status of a world-class statesman with his remarkable engineering of a peaceful transition from apartheid. As a young lawyer, he soon became a leader of resistance to the hated system of white supremacy, employing the tactics of nonviolence.

He spent 27 years in prison, 18 years in a penal colony on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, and nine years in mainland prisons. Released in 1990, he immediately reassumed the leadership of the anti-apartheid movement and led the negotiations that resulted in the country's first all-race elections in 1994.

He preached reconciliation and forgiveness, thereby averting a bloodbath of vengeance and winning confidence of whites and other minorities in the new black government.

Now 80, he is turning over the government to a younger leader who is little known, either in South Africa or abroad. This will not be an easy act to follow, especially in view of the formidable problems that Mandela leaves unsolved.

One-third of the work force is unemployed. The nation's currency, the rand, has lost nearly half its value since the 1994 elections. The best and brightest professionals are leaving the country in alarming numbers.

South Africa is the world's most violent country outside a war zone. The murder rate is 58 per 100,000 of population, compared to seven per 100,000 in the United States.

Still, South Africa under Mandela's leadership has become a beacon of hope for stability and democracy in black Africa. It will be up to a new generation of leaders to fulfill that promise.

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Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor