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War in the Balkans: The Balkan Question - Key Issuse Behind the War Explained

Sunday 09 May 1999 23:02 BST
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Presumably, the West's intervention on behalf of the Muslim Kosovar Albanians is popular in the Arab world and the Middle East?

Less so than might be thought, although countries in the region, notably Turkey, are taking refugees. Several countries have troublesome ethnic or religious minorities of their own. If Nato is going to war for the Kosovars, they fear, then why not for the Kurds, present in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran? But the main reason for cynicism is double standards. The West, the Arabs note, is ready to use force to bring Slobodan Milosevic to heel. But it refuses to take serious action against Israel - a serial offender against UN resolutions - for its behaviour towards the Palestinians and a settlements policy which critics say amounts to a form of "ethnic cleansing".

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