Novicki: World Fails to Stop Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo

WARSAW, Aug. 30, 2005 (BETA) - The international community did nothing to stop the ethnic cleansing of non-Albanians in Kosovo, Kosovo Ombudsman Marek Anthony Nowicki told a conference devoted to the 25th anniversary of the "Solidarnosc" trade union in Warsaw on Aug. 30.

"NATO stabilization forces were left to themselves and failed to stop killings, revenge and the large-scale destruction of property by the Kosovo Albanians, which led to a huge ethnic-cleansing of the non-Albanian population, mostly Kosovo Serbs and Roma," Nowicki said in a debate on human rights.

Referring to Kosovo, Nowicki said that the main problem of military interventions, as a way of globally enforcing human rights, was the lack of exit strategies and strategies of rebuilding.

"It is easy to bomb, but harder to build a civilian society," the Kosovo ombudsman warned, pointing to the problems of civilian casualties in military interventions and "collateral damage" as in the 1999 NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia.

"The euphemism 'collateral damage' is a cover for a specific legal act, negligence or simply mistakes. Last year, when I asked the NATO secretary general about this he answered that he deeply regretted the civilian casualties caused by the bombing. He stressed, however, that NATO could not take any responsibility. Can this claim cut off any further debate on this topic?" Nowicki asked.