There was no forced expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo prior to the bombing except for KLA terrorists who were under attack by the Yugoslav security forces. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which studies armed conflicts, reports the number of deaths in the fighting in Kosovo in 1998 was 1,000 to 2,000. The State Department says 2,000. These figures cover deaths on both sides. They have been given almost no publicity.
Most people are surprised, even shocked, when told how low the numbers are.
I have heard guesses as high as 400,000. NATO and U.S. officials often spoke of fighting to halt mass slaughter and genocide, but they never gave the number of deaths in the year preceding the bombing. Another tactic was to claim that Mr. Milosevic was personally responsible for the deaths of 260,000 in the Bosnian war. That was a wartime claim, but subsequent research has reduced the estimate to 70,000 to 90,000. It is tragic that our bombing set off a wave of killing, looting, arson and forced expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo.