***Bosnia very nearly became the graveyard of the western world's moral reputation. Today, three years after that war, the US and its NATO allies are marching toward the same graveyard, acting as though they have seen nothing and learned nothing.***

POLITICIANS, of all shades and ideological beliefs, love to make speeches about human rights and freedom. Such speeches give them an opportunity to deliver idealistic phrases about the dignity of the human species, heaving oaths about the evil of war and to invoke the Almighty in the context of making solemn promises to peace, justice aiid freedom.

Human rights speeches may occur more frequently in coming months, with the approach of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by. the United Nations in December. 1948.

Only two reactions would be suitable if any such speech should be made now by the leaders of the so-called free world* — Bill Clinton. Tony Blair. Kofi Annan, or any other leader of the West. Listeners may either gag or indulge in sardonic laughter. After what has been happening in the Balkans for the last seven months, no one can be blamed for cynicism when it comes to the rhetoric of the Western leaders.

In the name of wiping out the Muslim members of the separatists Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the Yugoslav President. Slobodan Milosevic has unleashed a terror campaign by cracking down on the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo.

Since the beginning of this year. Milosevic has tried to wipe out the ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo by conducting a village-to-village attrition war. He seems determined to punish the civilian population. More than a thousand people have been killed while another half of a million have been forced to flee from their homes. They have limited access to food and shelter and mostly live in the open. Facing the onset of a Balkan winter, the plight of these refugees signal a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Images of Serbian police rampaging through the Muslim homes in an orgy of destruction has been flashed on TV screens around the world. Busloads of Albanian women, dragging their tattered belongings and holding on to their innocent children have fled Kosovo. Rather than confront the ethnic cleansing and genocide, the western leaders initially pretended that it wasn't happening. This gave Milosevic and his security forces enough time and opportunity to burn and bomb their way through the ethic Albanian Muslim-dominated province of Kosovo.

Only in the face of universal outrage, the western leaders

were forced to confroui reality and demand that Milosevic cease all military action against the civilian's or face grave consequences.

However. Milosevic is any thing but naive. He called the western bluff and continued with his heinous act. From time to time he would make a verbal commitment to agree to a cease-

international pressure on him was softened.

Although the atrocities perpetrated in Kosovo doesn t yet match the horror unleashed in Bosnia, the latest episodes of civilian massacres point out to the potential for another catastrophe in the region. Last week, the Serbian police killed more than a dozen men in a mass execution near the town of Kijevo. a former stronghold of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. Reports of this mass execution followed accounts of a

massacre of at least sixteen civilians, including women and children in a nearby village Human rights activists have reported the death of over sixty people in a single weekend.

Members of the Serbian police and Yugoslav army murdered innocent Albanians in particularly sadistic fashion, Almost all the victims were

women, children or older adults, who had been shot at close range or had been slashed.

Atrocities in the Balkans are not new. of course: they occurred during the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia until 1995. Now, similar atrocities are occurring in Kosovo, committed by the same Serbs. It seems like the repeat of the same game plan, only at a different venue.

The international community needs to be galvanised to face up to Milosevic and ratchet up the pressure on him. How-

ever, the reaction that we see from the NATO and other international leaders can only be described as timid and toothless. Now. as before, the outside world is fretting and doing little more. The government of the United States urged "a strong and decisive end to what is happening," and Britain has called for an emergency meetfn^of the UN Security Council. Kofi Annan has reported to the Security Council that the Yugoslav forces had increased their attacks on Kosovo's ethnic Albanians even after a UN resolution demanding a cease-fire.

President Clinton has called on Milosevic to honour the UN resolution and has sent Richard Holbrooke to drive home to the Yugoslav leadership the gravity of the situation. NATO has threatened imminent air strikes if Milosevic doesn't comply.

But it seems that Milosevic has called the bluff of the western leaders and is playing the classic game of making false promises in order to come out from the tight situation. He has done this before and knows that lie can get away with it.

Why has NAiO stepped up its verbal rhetoric and is calling for air strikes? I can think of only two reasons. First, the shame and guilt of not acting

earlier in saving the lives ot many innocent victims is finally getting to them. Second, the Kosovo episode gives NATO an opportunity to redeem some of its diminished credibility. As someone pointed out. "What is the point of extending security to peaceful parts of Europe, while leaving other parts burning?"

It is possible that their delayed reaction may be due to the fact that the victims of the atrocities are primarily Muslims. We could only imagine the speed at which they would have acted if only the perpetrators were Muslims! If this is not hypocracy among the western leaders, I don't know what is!

Despite the rhetoric, the possibility of NATO air strikes are remote. Russia is making a last ditch effort to save its traditional ally — the Serbs. Given the already cool relations between the West afid Russia due to the financial chaos in the Russian economy, it is unlikely that the West would want to antagonise Russia any further.

Hence it is time to say to the western leaders that please spare us — above all. spare the victims of Kosovo — the talk. The time for action, for rescue, is now. Bosnia very nearly became the graveyard of the western world's moral reputation. Today, three years after that war. the US and its NATO allies are marching toward the same graveyard, acting as though I hey have seen nothing and learned nothing.