Monitor: All The News Of The World - Liberation Of Kosovo: Call this a victory?

World reaction to the situation in Kosovo as Nato moves in and the deadline for Serbian troop withdrawal approaches

St Petersburg Times

Russia

AN ISOLATED and embittered Yugoslavia, its infrastructure and economy ruined by bombing, seems an even better medium for cultivating the poisonous nationalism represented by Milosevic. Nato and the US may find that the Pandora's box they opened by resorting to force may contain surprises every bit as hard to deal with as Milosevic. But that is the consequence of choosing the risk inherent in war. While the bombs have stopped falling, the peace deal is not the end of the effort to find a settlement in Kosovo, but the beginning.

The Florida

Daily News

US

SURVEYING THE wreckage, we see a destabilised region, a resurgent Russian nationalism and an angry China. The surprise arrival of Russian troops offered a quick illustration of how US-Russian relations went from cordial to chaotic. And now that the war has ended, a long "peace" must begin, in which the US and other Nato countries must disarm the KLA, rebuild a nation devastated by our bombs, and embrace an open-ended commitment to police an armistice. This is victory?

Mainichi Shimbun

Japan

WE MUST remember that the peace plan was not achieved by the air campaign alone. The authority of the UN was required to avoid a ground war. Ethnic conflicts are likely to crop up again and we should try to revive the functions of the United Nations so that it may play a more effective role in the future in intervening on humanitarian grounds.

ABC

Spain

THE FEDERAL Yugoslav army is withdrawing from Kosovo but its withdrawal is not sufficient to guarantee the security of the province. The Albanian guerrillas have to be disarmed now. The unequal combat with the Yugoslav army during the Allied attacks could have given it a certain aura of heroism, but in substance nothing has changed. The KLA, which has not been a military arm of the Alliance during the campaign, can not now be its political partner. As simply one of the parts of the conflict, the KLA should subject itself to the authority of K-For and disarm itself.

Tagesspiegel

Germany

IT IS understandable that the KLA wants to remain armed in case of possible Serb attacks in the future. But Nato in its military movements can't consider that during these critical days, as they work to prevent a security vacuum with the Serbs withdrawal. Added to that is the fact of important evidence that Nato obtains from the KLA on mass graves and refugees. If the principles of the G8 states are to be believably achieved and the chance of a multiethnic Kosovo, at least at the starting point, is to be retained, then the KLA must also let itself be disarmed.

Izvestia

Russia

A CONFRONTATION with Nato is an elaborate way of committing suicide. It will inevitably end in defeat, humiliation, and loss of all results of the victory scored by our troops. The open bias of our military is also alarming. They do not even try to pretend they are neutral. The stakes we are gambling for are frighteningly high. Moscow's relations with Europe and America notwithstanding, the future of Russia's economy is at stake. (Maxim Yusin)

Sydney Morning

Herald

Australia

NATO WILL not want it said that it waged war in Yugoslavia to destroy it. Yet once Milosevic embraced a policy of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, his government itself put the province's future status under question. The restoration of harmony between the Kosovars and their neighbours is a noble goal. But the reality is that for many of the people of Kosovo, Serbs and Kosovars alike, there can be no going back.

Le Monde

France

JACQUES CHIRAC never misses an opportunity to proclaim "We must not humiliate the Russians." Bill Clinton doesn't shout it so loud - it's not too good electorally - but he thinks like the French President. We always find a compromise with Moscow. The current negotiations could determine the success, or derailment, of the K-For operations. Also dependent on these results is the answer to the question of who humiliates whom in the relations between Russia and the West. The answer unfortunately is not guaranteed.