Independence of Kosovo begins to look like only solution

WASHINGTON, Jan 23: It is the policy shift that dare not speak its name in official Washington, but many US analysts and politicians believe it is time to consider an independent Kosovo as a way out of the latest Balkan crisis, reports Reuters.

Officials from the White House to the Pentagon shy away from any acknowledgment of that possibility, insisting the aim is a negotiated agreement for political autonomy for the ethnic Kosovo Albanian majority within the Yugoslav framework.

The argument, which is driving US policy, is that chipping Kosovo off the already shrunken Yugoslavia could threaten even wider disintegration in the Balkans and undermine the fragile Bosnia peace deal.

As international leaders seek a way forward after last week's massacre of 45 Kosovo villagers, White House spokesman David Leavy held tight to the accepted text when asked if independence was even being talked about.

"We're focused right now on getting an interim political settlement which would give the Kosovo Albanians a high degree of autonomy," he said, avoiding any mention of the "I" word.

But with NATO air forces reviving their warplanes once again in response to the latest atrocity in the smashed and impoverished land, many in Washington are asking whether that tenet of alliance policy can be sustained.

"Hope is triumphing over experience that there is a political settlement to be had here" said Ivo Daalder, a Balkan specialist at the independent Brookings Institution.

"Washington and its allies should begin to prepare to engage Kosovo's neighbours in an effort to manage the regional consequences of independence - be it de facto, de jure or somewhere in between," he said.

No less a figure than Gen Colin Powell, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and one of the country's most respected leaders, said independence must be on the table.

"The difficulty in this situation is what is the political option: will we continue to recognise Kosovo as a part of Serbia, should we push for autonomy, or push for independence," he said on NBC's Today Show this week.

"Whatever you do with respect to the use of a military force that underlying political question has to be dealt with and that's the most difficult question of all," he said.

Sen Mitch McConnell, a conservative republican form Kentucky, said in an article in the Washington Post the Clinton administration should "accept reality."

He wrote "Our policies must recognise the essential goal: independence for Kosovo."

The senator, influential as chairman of the senate committee that appropriates funds for foreign operations, also said it was time to start arming the Kosovo guerillas.

Analysts concede that there is very little support in Europe for such a move and that it is not likely to be a major factor in senior level meetings of NATO and the contact group on former Yugoslavia in coming days.

US leaders stress they are trying to be evenhanded, not encouraging or helping the pro-independence struggle that is now overwhelmingly backed by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.