Just to begin the effort, NATO must overcome a host of political and logistical challenges. It must negotiate the timing and specifics of the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces as well as the rules governing activities by hundreds of government troops that can return to Kosovo. U.S. and Yugoslav military officers are slated to hold preliminary talks Saturday morning near the Blace border crossing between Kosovo and Macedonia where hundreds of thousands of refugees fled in terror. The next steps will be no easier.
Destruction is easier and more swift than rebuilding.
Renewal is rarely accomplished efficiently or completely. NATO forces, U.N. officials and aid workers must persuade more than 800,000 refugees that they will be safe if they return. Then the international workers must attempt to impose order and discipline on the refugees' yearnings to see what remains of their possessions, track down missing family members and friends and restart their lives. When NATO troops establish the first Western military beachhead in Kosovo, possibly within a few days, they will face peril from thousands of mines and a possible threat from Serb paramilitary units or armed civilians. The residents who come back weeks and months later may have to face booby traps and poisoned well water, or find their lives disrupted by inadequate public services and weak local government.