Introduction

For ten years the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic terrorized the southern Balkans-invading and occupying Kosova, and fighting wars against Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia while the world watched and waited.

Even though the warning signs were evident everywhere in 1996 that Milosevic would next attack Kosova, the United States and Western Europe kept the status of Kosova off the table at the Dayton Peace Accords and excluded Albanians from the negotiations. The Dayton Accords, established to bring an end to the war in Bosnia, reflected a decade-long strategy of appeasement and containment in the face of Milosevic's region-wide aggression, based on the erroneous belief that this would avert the spread of the Bosnian war to the south.

In February 1998, the consequences of Dayton and of allowing Milosevic to tighten his police-state grip on Kosova for a decade came home to roost, when the Serbian military and paramilitary forces launched a fullscale genocidal war against the Kosovar Albanians. In the face of irrational slaughter and untold human suffering, the United States and Western Europe were finally forced to show the resolve that they had been lacking. Under the auspices of NATO, a bombing campaign was launched to drive the Serbian military out of Kosova.

With Kosova under the protection of NATO and the UN administration, Albanians no longer live daily at risk of death. However, with Kosova still technically under Serbian sovereignty, the longterm survival of the Albanian people is still under threat, both from without and from within. The purpose of this declaration is to focus world attention on the internal and external factors that stand in the way of creating a free and independent Kosova and therefore of bringing a just and lasting peace to the Balkans. The Albanian American Civic League believes that there will be no peace in the region until Slobodan Milosevic's barbaric regime is defeated, a century of anti-Albanian racism is eradicated, and the Albanian national question is finally resolved.

Kosovar Albanian Political Prisoners Must Be Released

NATO's failure to make the release of more than 5,000 Albanian political prisoners in jails inside Serbia a condition of the war-ending agreement with Slobodan Milosevic was a reckless omission. The identification of these individuals and their whereabouts, followed by their speedy release, is essential to creating a bona fide peace in Kosova. Also, many of these prisoners are intellectuals, professionals, and political activists, whose participation in the economic and political reconstruction of Kosova is urgently needed. The Milosevic regime should be told that the Serbian people will not receive any kind of aid, including humanitarian assistance, until the incarceration of these prisoners, in violation of international law, is ended.

Serbian War Criminals Must Be Arrested and Convicted

Although the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has indicted Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, Bosnian Serb commanders Radovan Karazdjic and Ratko Mladic, the paramilitary leader Zelijko Raznjatovic known as "Arkan," the architect of the Racak massacre, Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, Colonel Dragoljub Ojdanic, Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Vlajko Stojilkovic, and several other Serbian military officials, the international community has yet to make a serious attempt to apprehend them. Unless the perpetrators of the worst genocide in the heart of Europe since the Nazi era-first in Bosnia and then in Kosova--are brought to trial, brutal dictators throughout the world will believe that they can oppress their populations with impunity.

In the short term, compromise with any of the perpetrators, including the many Serbian paramilitary troops and civilians yet to be indicted for their atrocities, will not only place Albanian survivors at further risk, but will amount to collusion in mass expulsion and mass extermination. Leading NATO countries should direct UN member states to make every effort to enforce the warrants issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. If NATO does not act to bring indicted and suspected Serbian war criminals to The Hague, then Albanians and Bosnians throughout the world should follow the example of their Jewish brothers and sisters after the Holocaust by mounting an international campaign to arrest and try these individuals.

The De Facto Partitioning of Mitrovice and the Future of the Trepca Mines Must Be Resolved.

The Albanian American Civic League considers the de facto partitioning of Mitrovice by NATO forces under French command into Albanian and Serb sections to be one of the most misguided and dangerous developments in "postwar" Kosova. It is the source, not the result, of the current violence in Mitrovice. The Trepca mines in Mitrovice, one of the largest mining and metallurgical complexes in Europe, form the core of Kosova's economy. The mines should be wrested from Serbian control and placed in the hands of the Kosovar governing council and the UN administration immediately.

Although the U.S. government insists that the Trepca mines will not remain in the hands of Milosevic and his family, France, more than any other Western power, has colluded openly with Serbia and therefore should not be left in charge of Mitrovice. In addition,

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