Kosovo's road to war

Abstract

More than a decade after Slobodan Milosevic rode the Kosovo issue to the pinnacle of state power, the Yugoslav president remains more powerful than ever. The cost has included the destruction of the old Yugoslavia, the destruction of ancient Serbian, Croat, Bosnian and Albanian communities and, since March 1999, the progressive destruction of Serbia's infrastructure and the looming loss of Kosovo itself. Meanwhile, the remaining liberal dissenters in Serbia fear that once the bombing ends, or even before then, they might all become targets for revenge. In any event, with their country under attack from the air, it has hardly seemed the time for them to speak out against the man who led Serbia into such unparalleled disaster. Much of their anger, now directed against the West, results from their fear that out of this catastrophe Serbia will be left as an impoverished and embittered pariah state - with little hope of genuine democracy or a return to the European mainstream.