A Tragedy of Apathy

For years we have listened to lofty rhetoric promising a global community tied together by the international economy and the wonders of the Internet. But the example of a small province in the Balkans has revealed the impotence of our advances at a moment of significant crisis.

The world has stood by silently for the past year while the Serbian army has massacred Albanian civilians in the province of Kosovo. Detailed accounts of the horrific bloodshed, accompanied by graphic photographs, have been proliferated over the Web. Daily news reports from the region have been bounced off satellites and beamed into our living rooms. But, like countless generations before us facing similar tragedies, we have not answered the cry of a persecuted people.

The lack of attention to the disaster of Kosovo is particularly unsettling among students, a group that once prided itself on its awareness of world events and its sensitivity to questions of justice. But on this campus, where Ethernet cables connect every dorm room to countless media outlets, there has hardly been a peep about Kosovo--no letter writing campaign, no Institute of Politics protest, not even heated conversations in the dining halls.

Those in positions of national leadership have hardly been more responsible. The Clinton administration, distracted by its own survival, has not granted the escalating conflict its fair share of attention. Only recently has the president found the time to make decisions that, if made a few weeks earlier, might have saved hundreds of lives.

The situation in Kosovo is admittedly complex. The struggle of the Albanian rebels against the governing Serb regime raises difficult questions about claims to self-determination and the integrity of nation-states. But one thing is clear: the brutal nature of the Serb crackdown under the leadership of President Slobodan Milosevic ought to be recorded as one more count on Milosevic's already existing war crime indictment.

Thankfully, the administration has moved closer to the launch of air-strikes against Serb positions. In 1995, similar strikes helped bring about the lull in hostilities that allowed the negotiation of the Dayton Peace Accords. We hope that Milosevic yields to diplomatic pressure, but if military force is necessary to halt the bloodshed, so be it.

We urge the Clinton administration to seek a quick and fair resolution that prevents the spread of conflict into neighboring regions of Albania and Macedonia. However, in its arbitration, we hope the United States does not forget that Milosevic is a war criminal who ought to stand trial for his offenses. Any decision regarding the Balkans must take this into account.

Kosovo represents one more failure of the world community to protect the victimized and maintain international stability. While the conflict is finally getting some deserved attention, the recent progress may be too little and is most certainly too late.