War And The Pity Of War

As the Kosovo war intensifies, more and more horrifying examples of its barbarities accumulate

As the Kosovo war intensifies, more and more horrifying examples of its barbarities accumulate. Yesterday, there came compelling details of the single worst war crime reported so far against civilians as refugees spoke of a field filled with the bodies of young men in the Djakorica district of south-west Kosovo. From south-east Serbia, there came shocking reportage from a misdirected NATO bomb which killed 17 civilians in Surdulica. Both atrocities must cause a redoubling of the diplomatic efforts to find a settlement. These have also intensified - however uncertainly and tentatively, as was demonstrated by the sacking of the Serb deputy prime minister, Mr Vuk Drascovic. This week he supported a negotiated outcome involving a United Nations force in Kosovo.

As the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, put it yesterday in Berlin: "We must be bold and imaginative in the search for a lasting political solution, which cannot be won on the battlefield". But he went on to say that "the search for a political solution is going to be a long, complex and drawn-out process. We are at the early stages. I wouldn't want anyone to have unrealistic expectations as to immediate or instant success". Such a note of realism is well-judged, along with the call for longer-term vision. It is high time Mr Annan took a more prominent role in the crisis.

Mr Drascovic was sacked for expressing views contrary to those of the Milosevic regime. The more he articulated them at international press conferences this week in Belgrade, the more conviction they carried. They are difficult to interpret, given his record as a political maverick prone to opportunist gestures; but his remarks undoubtedly opened a window of access to opposition thinking, which has so far closed ranks with President Milosevic under the impact of the bombing.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says the stories of the Djakorica massacre are credible. They confirm many other reports of similar atrocities in Kosovo told by the hundreds of thousands of refugees. They are being collected and collated by international agencies and must form the basis for prosecution by the international war crimes court when this dreadful conflict is over. They also reinforce the determination to see the refugees return to their homes as part of a settlement which would reverse the foul ethnic cleansing and tackle the humanitarian catastrophe head on.

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The coincidence of these events in Djakorica and Surdulica will polarise European opinion further about the war and the means by which it is being prosecuted. That civilian casualties are regrettable but inevitable has become a sickening cliche of NATO's spokesmen. In fact they underline the grave shortcomings of air power on its own as a means of prosecuting the war. Opinion is polarising for and against the use of ground troops as a means of securing the objectives set out by Mr Annan for a ceasefire: Serb troop withdrawal from Kosovo, the return of refugees, positioning an international implementation force there and finding a political solution on Kosovo's future. Yesterday's events demonstrate the extreme urgency and political necessity of bringing this agenda forward by diplomatic negotiation involving the United Nations.