Brig. Gen. William H. Wade, left, incoming commander of the U.S. peacekeeping force in Kosovo, the Multinational Brigade (East), addresses troops at a transfer of authority ceremony Sunday at Camp Bondsteel. (Ben Murray / S&S)
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — Once a bloody battle ground, Kosovo has become a refuge of restraint for its fiercely divided population, the outgoing commander of the U.S. peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Saturday.
Since September, when National Guard reservists of the 38th Infantry Brigade began patrolling villages around Camp Bondsteel, there has been little to report in the way of civil unrest, the departing unit’s commander, Brig. Gen. Tod Carmony, said.
But as Carmony prepared to hand off command of Multinational Brigade (East), or MNB(E), to Brig. Gen. William Wade II of the 40th Infantry Division, both commanders agreed the transfer would take place in an atmosphere of change for the disputed province. Change that could mean eventual independence for Kosovo or renewed violence or both.
On Sunday, Wade officially began the U.S. military’s first yearlong rotation in the MNB(E), almost exactly a year after the last major flare-up of violence between ethnic Serbs and Albanians, and just months before pivotal international conferences on what is referred to as the “final status” of Kosovo.
The day before the transfer of authority ceremony, both generals sat down with Stars and Stripes to talk about the American mission in the Balkan province, where the U.S. military has held a presence since the 1999 NATO bombing campaign to push back Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Since then, Kosovo has lingered in a political limbo, where the area’s 90 percent Albanian population is still legally part of Serbia, but governed by U.N. resolutions from afar.
Whatever recommendation the panel makes, ethnic tension will have a greater potential to increase as a conclusion draws closer, a top U.N. envoy to the area said in late February.
“One or the other group is not going to be happy with [the panel’s decision],” Wade said Saturday.
But Carmony said something has to happen to break a political status quo that has yet to defeat widespread unemployment and a disturbing human trafficking problem. Just weeks before the change of command ceremony, 13 arrests for human trafficking were made in 10 days, and four women found in forced prostitution — one in a town just outside Bondsteel’s gates — were freed, according to U.N. reports.
“The situation just can’t stay the way it is now,” Carmony said. “The economy is kind of waiting for some kind of status so we can move forward, otherwise it’s kind of painful.”
As Wade took the helm, the U.S. assessment of the stability of Kosovo was “calm, but fragile” — a phrase used by both generals.
If political change does mean unrest, Wade said, his 1,700 troops are fully prepared to back up the local Kosovo security forces.
Both Wade and Carmony said Saturday the long period of calm that has settled in since last March is cause for optimism, and that the 40th ID extended stay in the province will be a boon for relations between Americans and the local population.
In the long run, Carmony said, a reduced American presence in Kosovo — originally scheduled before the March 2004 violence — is still a possibility, but an international presence will likely remain in the province for the foreseeable future.
“When you get this kind of destruction … it takes a while for everybody to start focusing on the future [rather] than on the past,” he said. “I’m starting to see people be more focused on the future. They want something more for their children and they know the way to get that is to work to move forward.”
