A chance in Kosovo

The first baby born in the United States to the recent wave of Kosovar refugees and a nascent plan to end the war arrived more or less simultaneously this week, both representing the hope of less-violent times for Yugoslavia. The final version of the plan is still several drafts away, but Russia’s decision to join Western leaders in a call for an international security force in Kosovo should be considered a real breakthrough in negotiations.

The baby was born fully formed Thursday in New Jersey; the agreement with Russia came the same day in Bonn considerably short of the requisite 10 fingers and 10 toes. But it is a beginning, an important start to stopping both the ethnic cleansing carried out by the government of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic and NATO’s slow annihilation of Yugoslavia. Congress should immediately consider the implications and role for U.S. troops within the proposed security force.

The economic leaders and Russia agreed that such a force would be international — that includes Russian troops — and would protect the establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo, to be chosen by the Security Council of the United Nations. All military, police and paramilitary forces would first be withdrawn from the region, and the Kosovo Liberation Army would be disarmed. Under the plan, a vigorous program of economic development to help bring stability would follow peace (or, at least, the absence of war).

None of this, of course, means that President Milosevic or, for that matter, the KLA, would be willing partners in the plan. Russia’s influence on the Yugoslavian president is uncertain. And the Kosovars have said that they are unwilling to disarm.

Nevertheless, last week NATO had no framework for ending the war, and now it does. That’s good news, even if it is not yet time to hand out cigars.