DRUGS AND THE FEROCIOUS ACTIVITIES OF THE KOSOVO LIBERATION

President Clinton is eloquent in his call for sanity and peace in
Kosovo, and until he gets it, he seems quite determined to continue
bombing what he calls the Serbian ``war machine.''

What he doesn't talk about is the KLA, or Kosovo Liberation Army,
actively fighting the Serb forces that NATO insists must retreat from
the beleaguered province. The rebel guerrillas have appealed for
weapons, but Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has firmly
supported the U.N. arms embargo.

Now, with support growing for sending the U.S. infantry and other NATO
troops to Kosovo to do what the ragtag KLA could not, the question
looms: What happens to the KLA? Will its heroic leaders, like Fidel
Castro, march down from the mountains to claim political power? Will
they refuse to remove their fatigues?

THE MORE MODERATE, nonmilitant leaders have lost credibility as the
Serbs began hitting the civilian population of ethnic Albanians, so
when the fighting does stop, the problems won't be over for whatever
international force is sent in to police the peace.

Facing an arms embargo, the KLA has found other ways to equip itself,
and European police say it plays a big role in the European drug
trade. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a kilogram of heroin
costs $8,300 in KLA territory, but it is worth $30,000 in nearby
Greece. Interpol has reported that ``Kosovo Albanians hold the largest
share of the heroin market in Switzerland, in Austria, in Belgium, in
Germany, in Hungary, in the Czech Republic, in Norway and in Sweden.''

Last July, Tribune wire reports noted that the KLA was gaining
popularity at the expense of politicians who favor a gradual, peaceful
transition to independence for Kosovo. Serbs accused the KLA of
attacking Serb civilians, and the KLA was widely regarded as a
terrorist group.

Richard Gelbard, a U.S. envoy trying to resolve the Kosovo conflict
last summer, was blunt in his disregard for the KLA. If the rebels
continue to reject a peaceful solution, he said, ``we will try to
interrupt their ability to sustain themselves through the full chain
of supply.''

Last October, the United States thought it had negotiated a deal to
stop the bloodshed in Kosovo. U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke
said that Serb troops would back down and negotiations with ethnic
Albanians would resume. Two thousand diplomatic observers were to be
sent in as monitors.

The KLA refused to go along, saying, ``We cannot live with Serbia.''
As Serb troops were reportedly withdrawing, the KLA attacked and
harassed them. Belgrade responded that it would not tolerate the
assaults, no matter what price was extracted by NATO. Serb police and
storm troopers began ferocious attacks on the civilian population that
increasingly supported the guerrillas.

In one incident reported four months ago, 45 ethnic Albanians were
found assassinated, some with eyes gouged out. The pile of bodies
included a young woman and a 12-year-old boy. U.S. officials correctly
termed it ``an unspeakable atrocity.''

Instead of backing down, both the Serbs and the KLA escalated the
killing. Serbs began aiming their mortars and tanks at refugee camps.
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole was dispatched to try to find a settlement,
and he promised the Serbs that ``the KLA will be demilitarized.'' It
was not.

The rebels continued their sniper attacks on Serb police officers. One
officer was wounded as he was picking up his child from a day-care
center. The Boston Globe accused the KLA of a ``willingness to
sacrifice Kosovo's civilian population to their delusional belief in
the talisman of armed struggle.''

But whether the KLA is made up of organized criminals, patriots or
both, most Kosovo refugees no longer care. At least the KLA is doing
something to protect them. Recent reports say Serbs are now trying to
seal the borders, and only Serb businesses remain open. Stores that
have food the Serbs looted from Mother Teresa's aid agency refuse to
sell to starving ethnic Albanians. There are further reports of armed
Serb civilians hunting down and shooting at their fleeing Albanian
countrymen the way sportsmen hunt wild game.

Clinton's position is that this incredible violence can end with a
word from Serb President Slobodan Milosevic.

``AS LONG AS PEOPLE have existed, there have been problems among
people who are different from one another, and there probably always
will be,'' Clinton told a veterans group. ``But you do not have
systematic slaughter and an effort to eradicate the religion, the
culture, the heritage, the very record of presence of the people in
any area unless some politician thinks it is in his interest to foment
that sort of hatred.''

Unfortunately for the prospects of a peaceful, diverse democracy in
Kosovo, there are more than a few such leaders on both sides.