yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 3
was prepared to intervene militarily if Serbia attacked ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo. The threat was repeated by President Bill Clinton
on February 19, 1993, and again by u.s. ambassador Madeline Albright
at the un Security Council in August 1993. “President Bush’s message
was clear,” said Albright, “we are prepared to respond against Serbia
in the event of a conflict in Kosovo caused by Serbian action. Secretary
of State Christopher has firmly reiterated this message.” 369
The United States—and the West as a whole—was equally concerned
about the fate of Macedonia. The West believed that stabilization
of Macedonia was imperative to prevent further conflict in the
region. Responding to an invitation from Kiro Gligorov, president of
Macedonia, the United Nations dispatched several hundred peacekeeping
troops to Macedonia in late 1992 and early 1993, and these
were soon joined by 550 u.s. troops. This force was to prove an effective
deterrent to aggression in the region. Even the Yugoslav Army
withdrew from Macedonia, and Milošević refrained for four years
from an all-out military assault on Kosovo Albanians, content to use
repression instead.
The Badinter Commission claimed that Macedonia met all the
conditions for independence and Macedonia was admitted to the
United Nations in 1993 as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(fyrom), an action that speeded up its recognition by eu members,
Turkey, and Albania. The United States recognized Macedonia
in February 1994, while Russia recognized Macedonia as the Republic
of Macedonia in 1992.
When, in 1996, Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
chose to recognize each other, Serbian nationalists were outraged.
Historian Milan St. Protić, for instance, fumed that the “casualties
suffered in the liberation of Macedonia in two Balkan wars and one
world war were rendered meaningless by a stroke of the pen, all the
369 Security Council provisional verbatim record, August 9, 1993 (S/PV .3662,
9 August 1993), The Yugoslav Crisis in International Law, p .345