Advertisement

Panelists Criticize NATO Actions in Kosovo

Panelists Criticize Aggression

"The theory is great--let's stop human rights violations--but when you try to do that, it's hard to do," he said.

Schuster used his eight minutes to talk passionately about the war, which he called an "unsuccessful bombing campaign" and an "open-ended engagement."

"The real exodus [of ethnic Albanians] occurred after the beginning of NATO bombing," he said.

Advertisement

At the beginning of the question-and-answer session, Hannum asked the audience to remember that the Albanians were oppressed. "Serbians killed women and children, villages were burned, massacres occurred," he said, "we shouldn't sit here and forget that these are the facts."

When an audience member criticized the speakers for denouncing NATO's actions without offering a solution to the current situation, Hannum said the first step must be to reevaluate the NATO bombings.

"The first thing we need to do--at least privately--is to admit that what we've done was a mistake," Hannum said. "When acting on our universal sense of outrage and we make things worse, then we've done the wrong thing," he said.

Burg, however, gave more concrete suggestions.

"The solution begins by responding constructively to the other side," said Burg, referring to the side of Slobodan Milosevic, the current president of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. "The solution is extensive autonomy of Kosovo inside Serbia," he added.

Recommended Articles

Advertisement