Last week, it looked as if the West had the upper hand in the ongoing military and diplomatic campaigns against Yugoslavia. Meetings with Russian officials had yielded agreement on terms for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Albanian Kosovar leader, had been released from house arrest and had traveled to Italy to meet with Western representatives in what seemed like a bid to forge terms for an eventual settlement. At the same time, U.S. congressional representatives were holding talks with Serb businessmen reportedly close to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. All suggested that the Yugoslav leadership was ready to explore any avenue to sue for peace.
Last weekend, the balance of forces seems to have been reversed. Concerns about the number of civilian casualties have been growing; the argument that NATO airstrikes worsened the ethnic cleansing has also won supporters. In Germany, in particular, the coalition government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has come under increasing strain. The Greens -- junior partners in the government and the party of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer -- last week held a conference on the crisis, and a majority of its regional groupings voted against the military campaign.
The accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade further complicates the diplomatic dynamic. NATO planners have admitted that the building was indeed targeted, but they claim that the maps they used were outdated; the intended target was the Yugoslav Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement, which was located until two years ago in the same building. Cynics ask if the "mistake" was deliberate, since the Chinese are suspected of sharing intelligence with the Yugoslavs.