The Dangers of "Safe Havens" for Kosovo

Safe havens have heen suggested as ameans of providing protection and humanitarian assistance inside Kosovo.The track record on safe havens, however, suggests that they might not be as effective as they are touted to be. In fact, safe havens in Northern Iraq, Bosnia, andRwanda lured displaced people into areaswith a false sense of security, withoutactually keeping them from harm's way. Thus, the author concludes that in theabsence of truly neutral safe havens createdwith the consent of all parties to aconflict, so called safe havens represent ahalf-measure that serve to precludewould-be refugees from seeking asylumoutside their country, while holdingthem in areas where the sovereignty of thegovernment seeking to persecute themhas not fundamentally been challenged.