Word: yugoslavs
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NATO remains flummoxed by the limp Serbian air defense. The Pentagon suggests it signifies allied success in taking down the Serbian air-defenses, by attacks, jamming and corrupting data, which the allies have fed into Yugoslav computers through microwave transmissions. Pentagon analyst Franklin Spinney says Serbia's plan echoes its World War II tactics. The Germans sent 700,000 troops into Serbia but were unable to root Serbian partisans out despite four years of fierce fighting. "The Serbs are using their air-defense system as a quasi guerrilla force to capture the attention and distract the focus of NATO...
...Yugoslav leadership has largely tried to repress the ethnic Albanians, but, according to Crawford, when the Kosovar Liberation Army arose a year ago, it gave Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic an excuse to use actual ethnic cleansing campaigns...
However, the U.N. proposal was officially turned down on April 16. Yugoslav diplomats said that the nation would not withdraw its troops until the bombing had ceased, in essence asking NATO to make the first move. In addition, Yugoslavia would allow only civilian observers, not military forces, into Kosovo. These conditions are unacceptable. The expulsion of the Albanians demonstrates that Milosevic cannot be relied on to obey international human rights conventions, so his compliance with international agreements may be unsteady. If the bombing stopped first, Yugoslavia could easily delay the withdrawal of troops long enough to continue its ethnic cleansing...
...intermittent basis, despite what NATO describes as the increasing effectiveness of the bombing campaign. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees now estimates that 670,000 of the 1.8 million Kosovar Albanians have been forced from their homes since March 1998, and it seems likely that the aim of the Yugoslav Army is to expel the entire civilian population...
...achieve its ends of protecting the Albanian population, NATO must be able to weaken Yugoslavia's will faster than the Yugoslav Army can expel civilians. Those far outside of the military cannot possibly estimate the true effectiveness of the bombing or by how much the expulsions have been slowed. However, if bombardment from the air can no longer work faster than the ethnic-cleansers on the ground, the strategy needs reexamination...