Dr. Gazmend Pula: "We, the Albanians pay the price so that NATO may salvage
its power"
[Interview in the French weekly "Marianne" (26/4/99), translated by GHM]
Marianne: Are you supporitng NATO air strikes?
Dr. Gasmend Pula: We appreciate the fact that Western democracies engaged
the lives of their soldiers for Kosovo. (…) The operation had three
objectives:
- Stop violence in Kosovo. But it was transformed into a humanitarian
catastrophe in retaliation to the NATO air strikes, which the Serbs carried
out with medieval brutality.
- Prevent the destabilization of the region. Destabilization is widespread
in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro and indirectly in Bosnia, while
tension rises between the USA, Russia and the European Union.
- Diminish Milosevic's war capacity. It was diminished, but at an
intolerable price. Half of Kosovo's population was driven away without
knowing when its return will be possible (…). I hate to see the Albanians
paying the price so that NATO to salvage its power. I am afraid that the
worst is yet to come, since Kosovars are held hostages.
Marianne: What should be done? Negotiations with Milosevic?
G.P.: Anyway, everywhere in the world negotiations have never stopped with
dictators and criminals. It is necessary to stop the genocide that is going
on through all means - military, political and diplomatic. Before NATO air
strikes, all efforts should have been exhausted to organize a serious peace
conference. Today, only a conference about the whole region could help
solve the crisis. (…) An international protectorate is needed to assure the
return and the security of the population. I am against the partition of
Kosovo, which will an unbearable attack to its integrity. Today we cannot
avoid negotiating with the Russians because NATO, though its crazy
operation, ended up imposing them.
Marianne: The Albanian leaders who signed the Rambouillet agreement and
called for a NATO intervention were they wrong?
G.P.: Many of the Albanian leaders are neophytes in politics, without any
experience in international politics, and partially they are responsible
for this tragedy which they should have anticipated, knowing the nature of
the Serbian regime. (…)
Marianne: How do you see a ground intervention of NATO?
G.P.: All possibilities must be considered taking into account the
potential risks for the population held hostage. If a terrestrial
intervention must take place, let's hope it will be better prepared than
the air strikes.
Anne Dastakian took the interview. (…) signify passages not clear in the
photocopy GHM received.
Gazmend Pula is an academic and President of the Kosovo Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights.
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