Salon News | First as tragedy, then as farce


Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body Media Mothers Who Think News People Politics2000 Technology - Free Software Travel & Food Columnists Current News Wire Stories Click here to read the latest stories from the wires. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon Advanced Search \| Help - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon News Search for a boogeyman With Clinton and Gingrich out of the picture come Election Day 2000, how will Democrats and Republicans scare the voters? Hint: Imagine Dick Gephardt with horns. By Jake Tapper [06/11/99] Crying wolf Ellis Cose's Newsweek cover story set out to celebrate America's racial good news. So why did it wind up singing the same old despairing song? By Joan Walsh [06/11/99] A stunning victory The United Nations has learned some valuable lessons from a decade of dealing with Slobodan Milosevic. By Ian Williams [06/10/99] The tide turns Serbian troops begin to leave Kosovo and refugees plan their return as a welcome but uncertain peace takes hold in the region. By Laura Rozen [06/10/99] Capitol Hill's odd couple Guess what happens when a white conservative and a black liberal join forces? By Jake Tapper [06/10/99] Complete archives for News - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -		First as tragedy, then as farce Russia engages NATO in a game of chicken, threatening to send its own troops to Kosovo. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Laura Rozen June 11, 1999 \| SKOPJE, Macedonia -- The chill of Cold War geopolitics blew through the Balkans Friday, as some 200 Russian troops stationed as peacekeepers in Bosnia crossed over the Drina River in a convoy of armored personnel carriers flying the Russian flag and headed, to the shock of NATO allies, toward the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and then south toward Kosovo. Meanwhile, NATO peacekeepers on an hour's standby to enter Kosovo from Macedonia got a series of conflicting signals from their own commanders, about whether their entrance into Kosovo would be accelerated by the arrival of Russian troops, or delayed, in order to avoid a confrontation with them. While recalling competition between the Allies for postwar Berlin and the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the turn of events in Yugoslavia Friday had more of a whiff of "Hogan's Heroes" than the Cold War. Indeed, the words of Karl Marx prove prophetic, that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. Video footage of the Russian troops showed them stopped at a Belgrade tollbooth, peeking out of the hatches of their armored personnel carriers, which had been carefully stenciled and freshly painted with the white "KFOR" insignia indicating the new Kosovo peacekeeping force, to cover over the "SFOR" which had signaled participation in the NATO-led Bosnia stabilization force. The independent Serbian news agency Beta reported that the Russian convoy consisted of 50 vehicles and as many as 1,000 Russian soldiers, and was escorted by a Yugoslav police car, indicating the Yugoslav government was aware of the Russian move into Serbia. Serbia considers Russia its main ally. Leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army weren't laughing. They threatened to attack the Russians if they moved into Kosovo as anything other than part of a peacekeeping force under NATO command. "I know for sure the Russians have never experienced Vietnam, but they do know what it is to be in Afghanistan," warned KLA spokesman Pleurat Sejdiu by telephone from London. "They will experience another Afghanistan if they go into Kosovo this way. They are not welcome if they are not under the joint command of NATO forces and the U.N. when they go into Kosova." Sejdiu added that he had information that paramilitary forces loyal to hard-line Serbian nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj were moving into the Russian-controlled sector of northeastern Bosnia, mixing in with the Russian troops, and moving with the Russians back into Serbia. Next page \| Confusion reigns among NATO peacekeepers


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