A GAME OF SOLDIERS
The British Army can't be expected to go on protecting the Kosovar Albanians
`HOW long do you expect KFor and the British Army to stay with you in Kosovo?' I asked. A few Albanians replied, 'Twenty years at least.' Rather more, thinking my question somewhat superfluous, respond- ed, 'For ever!'
I owe it to readers to explain the circum- stances of the exchanges. Half a century ago, as Trooper 22424588 Dalyell T., Royal Scots Greys, I was a tank-crew National Serviceman in Liineburg, Rhine Army. Ever since, I have maintained warm rela- tions with the regiment, metamorphosed, by virtue of merger with the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Carabineers, into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. When they were in Bosnia in 1998, they invited me to stay with them for an eye-opening three days. This year, I spent from 3 to 6 July 2000 with them at their camp near Podujevo, from where I visited many points in the British sector. It would have been foolhardy of me to ask direct questions of Albanians, other than in the presence of well-armed, highly professional soldiers of the regiment.
Why do Albanians in Kosovo assume that we will protect them from the hated Serbs until doomsday? A heavy share of the responsibility lies with the British Prime Minister. I was horrified to see pic- tures of Tony and Cherie Blair, on 4 May 1999, grandstanding in Kosovo to the enraptured plaudits of Kosovar Albanian refugees. The Blairs are heroes and the British welcome. But this is, alas, based on the delusion of everlasting protection.
How long can a situation be allowed to continue whereby a desperately over- stretched British Army mounts a round-the- clock guard on two Serbian grandmothers, aged 85 and 78, one living in a first-floor apartment, the second in a house half a mile across town? On Wednesday 5 July, the women told me that they had tried to live together, but, within 24 hours, neither of them could stand the other. To be fair, they are like chalk and cheese: one a shop- keeper's widow, the other a coalminer's widow. But to see a Norwegian guard polic- ing the outer entrance of a tun-down block of flats, and an armed NCO of the Scots Dragoon Guards sitting outside her door, was simply surreal. The troops who were guarding the coalminer's widow in her bun- galow were a little better off. She would bake scones for the guards she liked; those whom she did not fancy went hungry. They were the ones who beat her at dominoes, or caught her cheating.
The horror is that these two sickly, thrawn old women are all that remains of the erstwhile thriving Serb population of Podujevo. Nato allegedly went to war to bring an end to ethnic cleansing by Serbs; what has occurred, with a vengeance, is ethnic cleansing of Serbs by Albanians.
British ministers think that Operation Trojan — the generic name for operations conducted by the Multi-National Brigade (Centre) to provide security to the Serb population in and around Pristina, and to enable Serbs to go about their normal daily business — has made a big impact on the Serb quality of life. I fear such minis- ters are dwelling in cloud-cuckoo land.
I found one glimmer of hope in the Slivo- vo area, where a Serb paediatrician and his family had managed to return to the aban- doned village where he was mayor. By night, however, his house was under the protection of 'C' Squadron of the Scots Dragoon GUards, and every day he had to be escorted to work under their protection. Neither he nor I had the slightest doubt as to what would become of him were it not for the ever-present British Army.
But for how long can KFor be present? I understood from the Swedes that they had little intention of being in Kosovo beyond 2001. The Czech presence is unlikely to be renewed, unless someone — which means the United States — pays Prague to con- tinue their deployment. Other countries have let it be known that they are likely to peel off. This places an ever-increasing responsibili- ty on the British. And we have one heck of a problem. Like other units, the Scots Dra- goon Guards are on a six-month tour of duty. This year, they can cope — just. But the prospect of going back for four months next year and six months the year after is `autre chose'. The families of soldiers are not based at the Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, or in the UK at all; for eight years they have been living in Fallingbostel, Germany. Wives find it difficult to get work there, and this kind of separation puts strain on marriages: there is a soaring divorce rate in the services. The service retention problem is bad enough already; it will be further aggravated by the prospect of endless unaccompanied tours of duty in Kosovo and Bosnia.
NCOs, the core of the British Army, will up and leave at the prospect of repeated separation. Moreover, the NCOs of the Armoured Corps and support arms, such as the Sappers, REME, and the Logistics Corps, are in a position to command lucra- tive posts in technical industries in civilian life. It is deeply unsatisfactory that an armoured regiment should be asked to per- form an infantry role — or, more accurately, a police role. Skilled Challenger II crews are not properly utilised as unskilled policemen.
There is, too, another cloud on the hori- zon. When the Labour MP Alice Mahon and I went to Serbia in September 1999, we met people, some of whom used to be oppo- nents of Milosevic, who vowed that the Serbs would one day win Kosovo back. A rematch will certainly occur, maybe later rather than sooner, perhaps when Western taxpayers and charities have rebuilt Kosovo's infrastructure, and Nato has lost interest.
The truth is that most ministers and shad- ow ministers, and almost all the British press, have walked away and distanced themselves from the Kosovo mess. In one of his three perceptive articles in The Spectator (30 Octo- ber 1999, 20 November 1999 and 18 Decem- ber 1999), John Laughland wrote: `Meanwhile the ethnic cleansing and racial murder of Kosovo Serbs and gypsies by Albanians has been quietly proceeding under its very nose."If, of course, is the Interna- tional Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. The process Laughland so presciently identified eight long months ago continues unabated. Law, as we know it, has evaporated. Power accrues to the KLA and their accomplices.
Do I exaggerate? Hardly. Remember how 67 tons — yes, 67 tons — of arms were found in one cache by the Royal Scots Dra- goon Guards. How was it paid for? The drug-trading of the Albanian diaspora? Trafficking in wretched women who eke out a living through prostitution? And the Army believes there are many other arms caches.
The Army also thinks — justifiably in my view — that the Blair–Hague comedy act that they see on PM Questions is an insult to people in their position, in sweltering or freezing Kosovo. Politicians who embark on military action have a duty to sustain their concern.
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