Fear of Bombing
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6.
The Times of London reported
Monday from Belgrade that a boa constrictor named Madeleine Albright in the
city's zoo has been impregnated by another boa constrictor named Warren
Christopher. Otherwise there was mostly gloom in Europe, about the prospect of
NATO strikes on Serbia. In Italy, the front-line European country into which
Albanian refugees will pour if attempts to resolve the Kosovo crisis fail--and
the country most exposed to Serbian military retaliation--La Repubblica published a
front-page comment Monday that was deeply skeptical of the use of force. It
said that Italy and its NATO allies are about to enter a war against Yugoslavia
"without anybody, on either side of the Atlantic, having clear ideas about the
objectives or the consequences of a military intervention unprecedented in
Europe in this second half of the century."
Signed by
Lucio Caracciolo, the article said it is impossible to see how NATO action will
help Albanians suffering in the woods of Kosovo. Instead, it might turn
President Slobodan Milosevic into a Serbian martyr and permit him to repress
the Albanians even more ferociously after the bombing stops. The only way to
help the refugees is to open Italy's border to them while simultaneously
putting large numbers of U.N. troops on the ground in Kosovo.
Caracciolo described U.S. policies as so contradictory that
"many believe Washington supports Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia without
wanting to say so." "There is no grand plan for the Balkans, neither in America
nor anywhere else," he said. "If we bomb, it won't be to impose a solution, as
we don't have one, but because of a need for Clinton to show signs of
international political life after his many setbacks, because of the CNN effect
that renders intolerable humanitarian tragedies shown on television at the
expense of all other ones, and in order to save what little credibility remains
to NATO in the Balkans." La
Stampa of Turin, however, supported the idea of airstrikes against Serbia
as "a symbolic act" against Milosevic's intransigence. It said Richard
Holbrooke gave the impression that he fully understood that "the obstacle to
overcome is not in Pristina but in Belgrade."
On the
forthcoming Middle East summit at Wye Plantation outside Washington, Ha'aretz of Israel reported
Sunday as its main story that Ariel Sharon, Israel's new hard-line foreign
minister-designate, will act as a "watchdog" over Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to ensure he doesn't make too many concessions to the Palestinians.
The same paper said in an editorial
that the summit is "not the be-all and end-all, because even if the sides sign
some sort of agreement, it will not be able to reverse in one fell swoop the
feeling of alienation that prevails between them." It added, "After all, it is
not the absence of an agreement, but the failure to implement it, that brought
about the need to meet at Wye Plantation."
In an editorial Monday, the Times of India commended
Amnesty International for strongly criticizing the U.S. human rights record in
a recent report. "It accuses the US of refusing to recognise the primacy of
international law, reserving the right to use the death penalty against
juveniles and of being the only country, apart from Somalia, to have failed to
ratify the UN convention on the rights of the child," the paper said. But it
went on to note "that India's own record on human rights has been appalling,
with the complaints registered with the National Human Rights Commission
exceeding 30,000 last year."
Corriere della Sera of Milan reported an opinion poll finding that 52
percent of Italian women between 16 and 24 do not want to have children.
Forty-three percent favor the artificial insemination method Jodie Foster is
rumored to have used. Only 19 percent said they definitely want to have a
child. The principal reason cited for this reluctance: Maternity is seen as
impeding a professional career.
