My abiding image of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is of a Belgian soldier armed with an automatic rifle standing by while a young Tutsi woman was dragged past him by the hair of her head on her way to be killed. I have never been able to get that picture out of my mind. It epitomised the international community's failure to act to prevent the deaths of 800,000 people. Later, the Canadian general in charge of UN forces said if he had been given even one brigade of 5,000 men, he could have saved many lives.
Last week, at the border crossing point at Morini in Albania, I came face to face with the results of unrestrained racist aggression. I met three young women, two in their early 20s, the other only 15. All three had been brutally raped. The weals and bruises on the faces of the two older girls were plain for all to see. The child, for that is all she was, had been beaten on the legs with rifle butts. She was sobbing uncontrollably. It is hard to see how her life can be pieced together again.
It would be wrong to demonise all Serbs on the basis of the atrocities we know of. There is no reason to believe that as a nation they are any better or worse than the rest of the world. Likewise, all Hutus cannot be blamed for what happened in Rwanda. In the course of time it may emerge that individual Serbs took risks to help their ethnic Albanian neighbours, but it cannot be denied that the regime of Slobodan Milosevic is guilty of the most heinous human rights abuses. The difference between this situation and Rwanda is that the international community is trying to end repression in Kosovo.
For humanitarians, the series of ethnic conflicts since the end of the Cold War has posed many moral dilemmas. Not least is the desire to relieve suffering while remaining impartial in relation to the conflict causing the suffering.
On the other hand, aid agencies must strive to defend human rights and uphold international humanitarian law. Who can deny Milosevic's capacity for serial barbarity? His forces have driven hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes, executed large numbers of Kosovo's menfolk, systematically raped the women in front of their families and used the plight of the refugee flood he has created as a weapon of war.
The NATO intervention in the Balkans has many flaws. It was poorly planned and, so far, has arguably worsened the plight of the Kosovans. I acknowledge also that it is a poor substitute for the United Nations but the inability of that body to agree on effective intervention has emasculated it in this present context. Neither am I sanguine about the aspirations of the military/ industrial nexus behind NATO to convince the West of the continuing need for high-tech weaponry in the post-Cold War age.
Having acknowledged all this, I assert that the war objectives of NATO, i.e., to return the refugees to Kosovo, are morally correct and should be supported by humanitarians.
Consider the alternatives:
Create a safe haven within Kosovo. In the past, as in the case of Srebrenica, these proved anything but safe and are meaningless without the military resources to maintain them. It would also, of course, reward the "ethnic cleansing" policy.
Resettle refugees in other countries as in the case of the Vietnamese boat people who eventually found homes in the US. This might not be too bad an option. However, it is still one which deprives people of their homeland and way of life and would be acceptable only if there was a willingness to give the refugees citizenship in their adopted country.
Refugee camps in neighbouring countries. This would be a very bad option. Apart from the poor quality of life, it is only a matter of time before the KLA would start organising in the camps and launching guerrilla attacks into Kosovo. Undoubtedly there would be Serb reprisals on the refugee camps with more instability and suffering. Today, many Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war still languish in miserable conditions in camps in Lebanon and elsewhere without citizenship of any state.
While in Albania, I spoke to many of the refugees to ascertain their attitude to NATO intervention. While I am loath to generalise, all the views expressed to me were in support. Equally, some were fearful of being press-ganged into the KLA.
A ground force attack by NATO into Kosovo would have many difficulties. It could pose a huge risk to the 500,000-plus people who are internally displaced and who are virtual hostages. The region is a logistics nightmare. Serb forces have had plenty of time to dig in and mines and booby traps would no doubt extract a heavy toll from an invading force.
Moreover, a ground force invasion could result in large-scale civilian conscription into the Serb army, with more people being forced to defend Milosevic's evil regime. Likewise, the impoverishment of Serbia through continuous bombing of its economic infrastructure may lead to more widespread humanitarian crises.
I do not have the solution to these problems. I do not have the military knowledge to assert that one course is better than another. I am convinced about two things, though: if we allow a culture of impunity where people are never likely to be forced to answer for the atrocities they commit, then we have no chance of upholding human rights and international humanitarian law.
Secondly, unless the Kosovan refugees can be returned to their homes, their long-term future will be very bleak.
If circumstances were such that it became necessary for aid agencies to work in Serbia, I would support that effort with all means available. I believe relief must be delivered impartially but I am not neutral between those who abuse human rights and those who, however maladroit their actions, seek to uphold them.
I last saw the young girl who had been raped walk with her family away from the border post at Morini and towards the town of Kukes. She held one handle of a shopping bag as her grandmother held the other and tears were still streaming down her face. It made it easier for me to make up my mind as to where I stood on the issues discussed above.
David Begg is chief executive of Concern Worldwide