In the whole of the former Yugoslavia Serbia under Milosevic was by far the most ethnically diverse and tolerant republic, with over 20 ethnic groups. There are particularly large groups of Serbs, Albanians and Hungarians.

At the biggest ever Serbian national event, on 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Mr Milosevic made a rousing speech to a crowd estimated at one million, celebrating the ethnic diversity of Serbia. He said,“Yugoslavia is a multinational community and it can survive only under the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it.”

But toleration is not always a two way process. Referring to the province of Kosovo David Binder reported in the New York Times, 1 November 1987, “Ethnic Albanians in the government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. . . Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops and burned. . . As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ‘ethnically pure’ Albanian region, a ‘Republic of Kosovo’ in all but name.”

Less than four years before the civil war in Kosovo, 25,000 Serbs had been murdered in the Krajina region of Yugoslavia by Croat ethnic cleansers and over 250,000 Serbs had been driven from their homes in a period of a few days. The Croatian Army had been led by an Albanian, Agim Ceku, who became the commander of the KLA in Kosovo. The Croatians, too, had been backed by NATO air power.

In 1998 and 1999 the 250,000 Serbs in Kosovo feared the same fate. Was passive resistance an option? We know precisely the consequences of Serbs in Kosovo trying to survive without the protection of the Yugoslav police and army. When the bombing stopped in June 1999 Serb troops moved out. 45,000 NATO “peacekeepers” moved in to protect all residents of Kosovo. They failed in their prime task. Over 1,000 Serbs were killed and 220,000 Serbs and other minorities were driven out of Kosovo (without western media attention, in marked contrast to the spring of 1999) within the first six months of NATO occupation.

Serbs had been fighting to protect their people from ethnic cleansing. When they were stopped, the ethnic cleansing took place.