Letter: Kosovo's future

Sir: What does the future hold for Kosovo? If the experience of Bosnia is anything to go by, it is unlikely to be a rosy one.

Kosovo, like Bosnia, will become a territory in which Nato, and not the Kosovo Albanians, will hold all the important economic, military and political levers of power. Some people call this a protectorate. But we should call a spade a spade: Kosovo, like Bosnia before it, will be a Nato colony.

It is not the Bosnian Parliament that runs Bosnia, but the High Representative Carlos Westendorp, a Swede, and his deputy Jacques Klein, an American, exercising their imperial powers under the Nato-imposed Dayton Agreement. It is not a Bosnian who runs Bosnia's Central Bank but an IMF banker from New Zealand, again imposed under the Dayton Agreement. And who runs Bosnia's international police force? An American, of course.

It is certain that Nato will dictate what will be done in Kosovo, too. In time, the euphoria of the Kosovo Albanians will give way to disenchantment as they realise that they have exchanged Serbian oppression for Nato oppression. Many of them will realise that Kosovo can only be truly free when it is free of Nato.

DRAGAN PLAVSIC

London W12