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Elie Wiesel, who is in a position to know, has argued this very point (see, for example, his essay in the April 12 issue of Newsweek, found electronically at http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/issue/15_99a/printed/us/in/in0815_1.htm <http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/issue/15_99a/printed/us/in/in0815_1.htm> ), but nevertheless concludes, "The Serbs' inhuman treatment of their Albanian countrymen, horrifying as it may be, is not the Holocaust. Still, it is evil enough." <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><><> Becky Kennison [log in to unmask] Production Coordinator Tel.: 781-388-0433 Blackwell Publishers FAX: 781-388-0533 350 Main Street Blackwell home page: Malden, Massachusetts 02148 www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: Paul Redfern [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 12:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Kosovo - genocide or pogrom? Apologies for clogging up inboxes with yet another posting on the Kosovan crisis. It seems to me that positions on whether NATO intervention in Kosovo is justified or not depend on whether it is believed that a genocide is occurring in Kosovo or not. If this intuition is correct, then it would be worth moving the debate onto this issue. For what it's worth, I do not believe that what the Serbs having been doing in Kosovo, nasty and vicious as it is, does constitute a genocide. Taking my cue from Baumann's >Modernity & the Holocaust<, it seems to me more like a pogrom. The point of a pogrom is not to exterminate, but to intimidate, and intimidation of the local Albanian population certainly appeared to the object of the pre-intervention Serb activities in Kosovo. Since the intervention, Serb objectives have shifted from intimidation to expulsion, but in neither case, do the Serbs appear to have had as their principal objective the extermination of a population, and it seems to me that this is the principal objective of a genocide. For instance, Baumann notes that during the German retreat from the USSR in 1944/45, significant resources were diverted from the Wehrmacht to the SS in order that the Nazi programme of extermination be promoted more vigorously before imminent defeat actually arrived. If this is the behaviour of a genocidal regime, I don't see any evidence of this in the current Serb regime's behaviour. To repeat, I find the Serb actions in Kosovo to be reprehensible and unjustifiable, but, having said that, so are Indonesian actions in East Timor, Chinese actions in Tibet, Turkish actions in Kurdistan, etc, etc. If the Serbian action in Kosovo really were genocide, then the current intervention, which, let me remind colleagues, is in complete contravention of the basic principles of international law and of the United Nations, and which is ultra vires in terms of the NATO Charter (NATO is a strictly defensive alliance), and which is causing great strains in the stability of regimes in neighbouring states, especially Macedonia, might be justified in terms of a higher morality. If it is not, then it is hard to see how the intervention can be justified, especially when consequential rather than deontological morality is the basic currency of international relations. To conclude, I appreciate that this is an issue that excites great passions, I offer these thoughts in the spirit of David Crouch's posting. We need to be sure that we are witnessing a genocide. I am not sure that we are: others may care to convince me (& others). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%