A Call for NATO's Intervention

SALI BERISHA was a reluctant member of Albania's Communist Party, according to his friends.

As communism in Eastern Europe crumbled, Mr. Berisha became a leading spokesman of the pro-democracy student revolt in 1989 and helped engineer the subsequent triumph of the Democratic Party in Albania's first free elections. He was elected president in April 1992.

Would the Serbs ever allow NATO troops in Kosovo?

NATO doesn't need Serbs acceptance. It can be done as in Korea or Somalia. They will not be there to kill Serbs; they will be there to protect the area [against more ethnic cleansing].

Won't it encourage the Serbs to crack down even harder in Kosovo?

The Serbs are not going to declare war on NATO. They don't have the means. We have already seen that when put under pressure they make concessions. They know that the world so far has overestimated their strength.

Can the Serbs be made to relinquish their conquests?

They will not pull out. They will even continue to seize new land and, regrettably, the world is helping them in this, because not all Western states are convinced that a `Greater Serbia' must necessarily constitute a factor of instability.

But, step by step, it will be proved that that is what it undoubtedly must be. [Eventually], however, we will get back to the consensus we had before Bosnia. After all, what is `Greater Serbia'? It existed only for a couple of years in the Middle Ages, and even then it was a battlefield.

Should Kosovo be made a UN protectorate?

We are not now talking of solutions but of how we can stop the fighting. There can be a solution only if we can get a democratic Serbia or if the world punishes Serbia. The West has not been able to check Serbia in 15 months ... because of its lack of unity.

Can economic collapse drive Milosevic into a military dictatorship?

I see the reports on the state of the Serb economy, but am not over-impressed. Serbia is a rich agricultural country dominated by peasants. Time after time we have seen the city of Belgrade in revolt against Milosevic, but every time the city has failed.

Why? Because the countryside is not supporting the city. It is not affected by sanctions. There is no big dissatisfaction, and through nationalism Milosevic has been able to keep his support.

Kosovo is an occupied territory, and in today's Europe, that is untenable. NATO's presence will underline that. Milosevic thought he could finish with Bosnia in three to four weeks. If the West does not now find a solution for Bosnia, we will have a new mini-Balkan war between Serbia and Croatia.