GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
New Gallup polls conducted in Britain and Hungary show support for the NATO air strikes in Kosovo, mirroring similar Gallup polls conducted in the United States.
Britain
In the British poll conducted from March 24-28 for London's Daily
Telegraph newspaper, 58% of those polled believe the NATO
intervention was appropriate, while 33% disapproved of the air
strikes targeting Serbian military and police installations. More
than two out of three (69%) believe the allegations of "ethnic
cleansing" and atrocities on the part of Serb forces gave NATO the
right to intervene. However, 23% believe the Kosovo crisis is an
internal matter for Yugoslavia to resolve on its own.
The survey also found that 70% of British citizens believe NATO will eventually have to use ground troops in Kosovo, but only 52% support such a move and 40% oppose it altogether.
Sixty percent of those polled believed there had not been enough public debate and discussion before the start of the mission, and 73% believe there is a serious danger that fighting could spread into neighboring countries.
Hungary
One of those neighboring countries is Hungary, which joined the
NATO alliance earlier this month and has been drawn into the Kosovo
mission. A Gallup poll conducted in the capital city of Budapest on
March 25 found 60% support for the NATO mission, with 31% opposing
the air strikes and 9% giving no opinion. Broken down by gender,
72% of men support the mission, compared to 52% of women.
Hungary has its own stake in the Yugoslavian crisis. While Kosovo's population has been dominated by ethnic Albanians, Yugoslavia's Vojvodina province contains a large number of ethnic Hungarians. Vojvodina also held autonomous status similar to Kosovo until 1989, when Yugoslavian authorities revoked the status for both provinces. In Budapest, the Gallup poll found 70% support for political autonomy in Kosovo, up from 61% in a similar poll last year. Likewise, 64% of those polled support autonomous status for Vojvodina as well.
The NATO mission has included air strikes on Serb military targets in Vojvodina, and 54% of those polled in Budapest fear a spillover of the conflict into Hungary. Again, the data shows a clear breakdown by gender, with 67% of women fearing a possible spillover compared to 37% of men.
Methodology
The Gallup/Daily Telegraph poll is based on telephone interviews
with 700 adults across Great Britain conducted between March 24 and
28 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent. In Hungary,
the Gallup poll was based in telephone interviews with 501 adults
in Budapest on March 25, and has a sampling error of 5 percent.
Interviews conducted in a single-day poll may be subject to
additional sampling errors based on the limitations of a one-day
poll.
Robert Manchin is Vice President of The Gallup Organization in Budapest.