Informazione
VANDALISMO CONTRO LE CHIESE ORTODOSSE IN KOSMET:
LA KFOR SBADIGLIA, L'UNMIK RELATIVIZZA, I MEDIA MINIMIZZANO,
PREDRAG MATVEJEVIC ED ENZO BETTIZA SE NE FREGANO
(e certo, mica e' la biblioteca di Sarajevo!)
Per le immagini e l'elenco delle distruzioni operate finora:
http://www.decani.yunet.com/
http://www.decani.yunet.com/destroyedchurch.html
---
ANOTHER SERB ORTHODOX CHURCH DESTROYED IN KOSOVO
Gracanica, July 17 2000
Last night (July 16) around 23.30 the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Elias in Pomazatin, 12 km west from Pristina was completely destroyed in
a powerful explosion The church of St Elias was originally built in 1937
near the river Drenica. At the beginning of the WW2 it was destroyed by
Albanian Nazi troops called Balli Combetar. After the war the Serbs
rebuilt the church in 1965 and it served as a parish church since then.
Last year in summer, just after the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo the KLA
memebers damaged the entrance of the church by a hand grenade. Despite
this damage the church could be easily repaired and the Diocese
requested from KFOR to secure the church from further destruction. KFOR
only surrounded the church by barbed wire and from time to time patrols
would pass near by.
The church of St. Elias is only a few hundred meters from the nearest
British KFOR base. The attackers who are supposed again to be the
members of the former KLA brought large quantity of explosive and
informed the local population not to go out of their homes at the time
of explosion which was planned for 23.30.
Serbian Orthodox Church has condemned this latest barbarous attack and
has requested from KFOR and UN Mission to carry out the investigation.
There are very few reasons to believe that the perpertrators would ever
be arrested because so far not a single attacker on nearly 90 destroyed
Serb churches has been identified or arrested.
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Information Service
KFOR
Daily Press Release
Delivered by Major Scott A. Slaten
KFOR Spokesman
#07-10
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Monday, 17 July, 2000
Serb Church Destroyed
A ruined Serb Church in the village of Pomatetin/ Pomazatin (5
kilometers west of Fushe Kosove/ Kosovo Polje) was completely destroyed
in
an explosion last night.
Explosives were detonated at approximately 11.30 p.m. and UNMIK police
reported that two suspects were seen running from the scene towards
Fushe
Kosove / Kosovo Polje. Initial reports from explosive experts state that
up
to 30 kilograms of dynamite were used in the attack.
The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah has been out of use for the past
six years and was badly damaged during last year's conflict. As a result
it
was not one of the churches guarded by KFOR troops.
An investigation is ongoing in the destruction of the church. KFOR MNB
Centre is committed to removing the weapons used for these types of
extremist activities from general use. As a result, a search operation
has
begun in the municipality this morning.
Weapons Search Targets Extremists
Troops from MNB Centre began a search operation this morning which
centers on the village of Miradi e Eperme / Gornje Dobrevo in the Kosovo
Polje municipality.
The mission of the operation is to search for illegal weapons in the
area and remove them from the hands of extremists. Four hundred KFOR
Norwegian soldiers make up the core of the units participating in the
operation. Additional manpower and expertise is being provided by search
teams from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the
Swedish
Battalion and the Scots Dragoon Guards.
The village is located near the scene of a mine strike in early June
which killed three Serbs whose car drove over a mine which had been
planted
in the road. Although the village is in no way connected with last
night's
attack on the Serb Church, it is this type of extremism that the search
operation aims to prevent.
Incidents During the Past 24 Hours
Multinational Brigade North
Shots Reported
KFOR MNB North reported that shots were heard in the northern and
southern areas of Mitrovica for several hours last night. KFOR patrols
searched the areas. No reports of injuries or loss of life were reported
as
a result of the shootings.
Mass Held
KFOR soldiers secured the area around the southern Mitrovice/Mitrovica
Orthodox Church yesterday morning, in order to secure church goes
attending
mass. There were no reported incidents of violence or serious incidents
during the transport escort and mass of the attendees.
Multinational Brigade West
Weapons Seized, Men Arrested
KFOR soldiers near the village of Piskote stopped a vehicle driven by a
Kosovar Albanian man from the village of Skiviane. A search of the
vehicle
revealed an empty automatic machinegun magazine.
The driver was detained for questioning. KFOR Italian Military Police
then conducted a search of the man's home. One AK-47 Assault Rifle with
magazines and ammunition was discovered and confiscated. The man was
then
handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest. The investigation is still
ongoing.
Later in the evening, KFOR soldiers from Task Force Pegasus stopped a
car driven by a Kosovar Albanian man at the Zaimovo Bridge. A search of
the
vehicle revealed a Simonov Rifle. The weapon was confiscated and UNMIK
Police arrested a male passenger in the vehicle. The investigation is
still
ongoing.
Multinational Brigade Centre
See Lead Story
Multinational Brigade South
Commemoration Held
Yesterday morning, a commemoration for former UCK-fighters took place
in the village of Hoca Zagradska. The commemoration was announced
yesterday
evening. KFOR MNB South reinforced the area with additional soldiers. An
estimated 400 people participated in the commemoration. The
commemoration
was peaceful and ended without incidents at 11:45 a.m.
Multinational Brigade East
Weapons Seized
Yesterday morning, north of the village of Saraiste, soldiers from KFOR
US 501st Mechanized Infantry Battalion and UNMIK Police conducted a
house
search of a Kosovar Albanian man arrested for carrying a hand grenade. A
search of the house revealed one grenade, assorted ammunition, One MUP
uniform, two sets of binoculars, and two syringes. UNMIK Police held the
individual for questioning.
UXO Reported, Weapons Seized
In MNB East, yesterday evening in the town of Cernica, KFOR US Task
Force
1-187 headquarters reported that an item of unexploded ordinance was
found
in the backyard of a Kosovar Serb home.
An Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched to the scene and
discovered a hand grenade near the house. Assessing the situation, the
EOD
team determined that the grenade could not be safely moved. It was then
detonated in place. The resulting blast caused some damage to the house
and
revealed some 7.62 ammunition. A search of the house was then conducted
and
an AK-47 Assault Rifle and magazines were confiscated. The investigation
is
still ongoing.
KFOR Medical Assistance Provided
An 11-year-old Kosovar Serb boy was medically evacuated (MEDEVAC) to
the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital at Camp Bondsteel, and treated
for
appendicitis early this morning.
The boy was admitted to the hospital at 1:40 a.m. and had his appendix
removed. The youth was from the town of Strpce and escorted to Camp
Bondsteel by members of the 18th Polish Battalion. The boy's condition
is
currently listed as being stable.
The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital also provided medical support
to another Kosovar Serb citizen last night. A 64-year-old woman
requested a
MEDEVAC last night and was transported by ambulance to Camp Bondsteel
for
treatment of a possible heart attack. The woman was admitted just after
10
p.m. and by midnight was listed in stable condition. Medical tests were
conducted and are pending results to determine the severity of the
attack.
The woman will remain at the 212th MASH for further observation.
MEDIA INFORMATION
UNMIK and NATO
A Press Conference will be held Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Press
Conference Room of the UNMIK Government Building. NATO Secretary
General,
the Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen and SRSG, Dr. Bernard Kouchner
will
be speaking.
MNB Centre
Destroyed Serb Church
An MNB Centre media event will take place after the press conference
today. The schedule will include a visit the site of the destroyed
church
and then go on to the search operation being carried out in the local
area.
This operation highlights the KFOR activities being carried out to
prevent
any form of extremism threatening the people living in Kosovo.
Live Fire Ranges
The Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, will be
exercising and live firing their Warrior Armored Vehicles on the
Krivolak
ranges in the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) next
week.
This is part of an ongoing training operation that the KFOR British
troops carry out to ensure that British soldiers are continuously
trained on
their weapon systems in order to meet any threats.
MNB Centre will provide a media opportunity on the afternoon of Wed 19
July, 2000 to cover this event. Twelve places are currently available
for
interested journalist on a KFOR helicopter. Journalists should get in
contact with Flight Lieutenant Tim Serrell-Cooke, at the MNB Centre PIO
office.
MNB South
NATO Secretary General, Sir George Robertson and North Atlantic Council,
will visit MNB South to receive an overview of the current situation and
to
gain information on reconstruction projects in the town of Reshan
Mahala.
A media event is scheduled on Tuesday 18 July 2000 in Prizren.
Journalists are requested to be at the KFOR Main Headquarters VIP Gate
no
later than 9:10 a.m. for transportation to Prizren. For details please
see
the KFOR Media Event Flyer located in the main lobby of the KFOR Press
and
Information Center, Pristina.
KFOR Press and Information Center, Pristina, Kosovo
PTT phone: +389 91 68-6600
PTT fax: +389 91 68-6610
Sat phone : +871 382 060 323
Official KFOR homepage: http://kforonline.com
For specific information related to brigade-level operations, please
contact
Brigade Information Offices:
Multinational Brigade Centre
PPT phone: +44-7808946390 or +44-7801130055
PTT fax: +381-38-501 433-234
Sat phone: +870-762 103 839, +870-762 103 843 or +870-762 134 957
Sat fax: +870-762 134 991
Multinational Brigade East
http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/tffalconframe.htm
Sat phone: +871 762 069 495
E-mail: pao@...
Multinational Brigade North
PTT phone: +381-28-31024 or +381-28-31025
PTT fax: +381-28 - 31022
Sat phone: +871-762159078 or +871-761294148
Sat fax: +870-762134991
Multinational Brigade South
Satellite phone: +871-11 22 151 or +871-761 617 247 or +871-762069467
Satellite fax: +871-1122152
E-mail: piz_ge_kfor@...
Multinational Brigade West
Sat phone: +871-762 069 491
E-mail: martiref@...
Serbian Church Blown Up in Kosovo
.c The Associated Press
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - An explosion ripped through a medieval
Serbian
Orthodox Church in Kosovo, flattening the structure, U.N police said
Monday.
The church of the Holy Prophet Elijah was located in the village of
Pomazetin, just outside the Serb village of Kosovo Polje. The church was
leveled in the Sunday night explosion, said Oleg Rubezhov, a U.N. police
officer who patrols the area.
``It was destroyed to the basement,'' he said.
About 66 pounds of explosives were used in the 11:30 p.m. blast,
peacekeepers said. Two people were seen running from the site shortly
after
the explosion.
The church was not under guard by NATO-led peacekeepers, U.N. police
said.
They said it had already been severely damaged during the war between
ethnic
Albanian separatists and the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
However, the private Beta and FoNet news agencies in Belgrade said in
their
reports that the church was first damaged last August in a fire or by an
explosion.
The opposition Serbian Renewal Movement blamed the latest explosion on
the
peacekeeping force, called KFOR, saying its troops did nothing to
prevent it
in this heavily ethnic Albanian province.
``Members of KFOR know well enough that Albanian extremists
systematically
destroy Orthodox Christian churches, but they obviously do nothing to
prevent
them, which is proven by this latest crime,'' the party said.
Minority Serbs have faced daily attacks over the past year and Serb
Orthodox
monuments have been targeted by ethnic Albanian militants. The Beta news
agency said 86 religious objects have been destroyed.
Beta said Pomazetin was an ethnically mixed village before Kosovo's
1998-99
war. Since the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers in the province last
year,
Serb villagers have fled, fearing for their safety.
AP-NY-07-17-00 0948EDT
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS DESTROYED CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
KOSOVO POLJE, July 17 (Tanjug) A strong explosion echoed in
Pomazatin village near Kosovo Polje late Sunday, amateur radio operators
said early on Monday.
Unofficial sources said ethnic Albanian terrorists had razed
the
Serbian Orthodox church of St. Ilia in this village of Kosovo and
Metohija
province which had had a mixed Serbethnic Albanian population before
international forces KFOR arrived in June 1999. All Serbs have meanwhile
been forced to flee the village due to onslaughts by militant ethnic
Albanians.
There was a power failure a minute before the blast, which took
place at about 11.30 p.m., and electricity was turned on again a minute
after the explosion.
Local Serbs believe that this is a synchronized action by
ethnic
Albanian extremists and those employed in the Obilic electric power
plant
in order to make such attacks appear more frightening in total darkness.
======================================================================
>Orthodox Church on post-war Kosovo firing line
>
>SLOVINJE, Yugoslavia, June 13 (Reuters) - Three attacks over the
>space of 10 months have reduced a Serb Orthodox church in a Kosovo
>village to a mound of rubble.
>
>Children play in the ruins and ethnic Albanians smile when asked what
>happened. "The church stepped on a mine," said a bearded man with a
>laugh.
>
>Slovinje's Church of Saint Nicholas is just one of 87 Orthodox Serb
shrines,
>churches and monasteries that have been destroyed or damaged in the
>year since NATO-led peacekeepers entered Kosovo as Yugoslav Serb
>security forces withdrew.
>
>Father Sava Janjic, in the nearby 14th-century monastery of Gracanica,
>says Albanian extremists are systematically seeking to eradicate the
>church from Kosovo as part of a wider campaign to chase out the minority
>Serb population.
>
>"The Orthodox church is the anchor of the Serbian people here. If the
>churches are destroyed then the Serb people will not stay," said Father
>Sava, an Orthodox priest who acts as spokesman for the region's Serb
>moderates.
>
>An estimated 150,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999, leaving
>100,000 behind out of a total population of less than two million.
>The Albanian majority is nominally Moslem.
>
>Anxious to reassure the Serbs that they have their best interests at heart,
>KFOR peacekeepers now stand guard 24 hours a day outside many of
>Kosovo's remaining Orthodox shrines.
>
>CHURCH HAS LONG KOSOVO HISTORY
>
>Kosovo, which remains legally a part of Yugoslavia but has become a de
>facto international protectorate, is regularly described by Serbs as the
>cradle of their culture and the spiritual home of their Orthodox church.
>
>The seat of the Serb church was not actually founded in Kosovo, but
>moved there at the end of the 13th century after its original foundation in
>central Serbia burned down.
>
>Seven centuries later, many of Kosovo's most beautiful buildings are
>its Orthodox centres, including the monasteries at Pec, Decani and
>Gracanica.
>
>"I'd say that 95 percent of Kosovo's cultural heritage sites are Orthodox
>buildings. These need saving not just for the Serbs, but for all
Europeans,"
>said Father Sava.
>
>For ethnic Albanians, who suffered years of repression at the hands of
>Serbian troops and police, the Orthodox Church is inextricably linked
>to the notion of Serb national identity.
>
>A wave of Orthodox churches built over the past 10 years are described
>by locals as "political churches" and they have borne the brunt of the
>attacks. Some KFOR commanders openly question whether it is worth
>trying to save these buildings.
>
>"If a church has value as a historical place then clearly it should be
>guarded," said Finnish Colonel Arto Raty, head of KFOR operations in
>Slovinje, which lies just to the south of the regional capital Pristina.
>
>"But if it has no historical value and there is no chance of the Serbs
>returning anytime soon to the area, then it should be gently dismantled,"
>he told Reuters.
>
>A "CRUCIFIED" KOSOVO
>
>Slovinje's little domed church and adjacent belfry were built in 1996 on
>the site of a 16th-century church. It was attacked in June and July 1999
>and then again in May of this year, leaving just a pile of shattered
>concrete and red brick.
>
>KFOR troops later found the church's heavy iron bell hidden under an ethnic
>Albanian's haystack.
>
>Father Sava is angry that despite the presence of some 47,000 peacekeepers
>in Kosovo nobody has been caught or charged for the attacks on Orthodox
>property.
>
>The Church has published a book, "Crucified Kosovo", to highlight the
>plight of the Orthodox faith in the province, asking the world not to
>blame it for the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
>
>Father Sava, who admits to harbouring sometimes un- Christian feelings of
>hate for Milosevic, says his Church did what it could to protect the
>Albanians from Serbian forces.
>
>"There was no organised involvement of the Serb church in fighting for
>Albanian rights because we had our own problems with the Yugoslav
>regime. But we always insisted that all human beings should be treated in
the
>same way," he said.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Predrag Tosic" <p-tosic@...>
To: "yugoslaviainfo" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 4:54 PM
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] A reminder: God's houses in ruin [throughout
Kosovo]
[ A few basic questions for Mr Kouchner and UNMIK, as well as each and
every NATO country government:
- How many of the damaged or destroyed churches and monasteries have
been
rebuilt?
- In how many instances has the reconstruction at least started?
- In how many instances have the culprits - arsonists, bombers and other
attackers at Christian religious shrines in Kosovo - been arrested?
- How many of the arrested have been acquited? Is anybody
currently serving a prison term in Kosovo for vandalizing or destroying
a
church? If there is, how many people?
Between 85 and 100 Christian churches (mostly Serbian Orthodox, as
well
as some other) have been either severely damaged or destroyed in Kosovo
since mid-June of 1999. If our readers know of a single case where the
culprits were arrested - please let us know; thus far, I do not recall
reading or hearing a single news agency report to that effect. PT ]
Subject: God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of
peacekeepers
The Montreal Gazette
Sunday 27 February 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries
are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with
the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar, leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches
and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or destruction.
The
total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are located in remote
areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign last spring. They have happened since the return of
Kosovo's Albanian majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to
the
Kosovo Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of
destruction under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry. British and French media have paid some attention to the
attacks;
but the North American media have carried few reports. Dozens of
non-profit
groups are now working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the
past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska
and Prizren, charged that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians
"is
to expel all Serbs, the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses
that could serve as evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places.
So they set out to destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In
21Z2
months more than 70 monasteries and churches were burned or demolished.
Among them were the churches built by our illustrious and holy ancestors
in
the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The churches and monasteries, which
survived 500 years of Turkish occupation, did not endure two months in
the
presence of a 50,000-strong international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church
of
St. Nicholas. But in late January they withdrew, leaving the church
unprotected. It was soon blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from a
checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined
by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex. S
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height
of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have
manipulated concern for the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and
implement 'ethnic cleansing' and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb
artistic and religious monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following a path already trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja
Luka
and other Bosnian cities, the Serbs blew up historic mosques and Islamic
shrines, as well as burning the Oriental Institute and the National
Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia
and hundreds of thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking
foreign refuge, many buildings in Kosovo were subject to deliberate
Serbian
attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have
been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style during
the
long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana Milojevic Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy
in
Ottawa. "We have raised the issue at the United Nations and also
bilaterally, with the countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers
from Britain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The
international community has a lot at stake in the peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led brigade. The peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers
from
28 countries, in addition to a further 7,500 troops based in
neighbouring
countries. For each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs
remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of Orthodox churches, "and the response was always
diplomatic.
The Canadian government says it regrets all the damage, but at no time
will
it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this
barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups S establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety S (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than
what they could actually handle. We were told that they have many
responsibilities, and can't possibly station soldiers in front of every
monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido
said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites that
are
active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and it's up
to
the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity and the
level
of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada - a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time,
effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time. "That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks
and
mortar; we must also help rebuild the human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the
spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks of
their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended, the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives.
The
monastery had already been looted and burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become
an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York
and funded extensively by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings
on
its recent list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world.
The fund has given money for architectural restoration and preservation
to
165 projects in 51 countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site
includes
no mention of Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president,
Bonnie Burnham, was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named
group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about the
dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation
went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting
took place under the auspices of the Convention Concerning the
Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Member nations debated the
threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55 countries, including
Canada
(a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny);
but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November.
Yet Colin Kaiser, who led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not
tooled
to work quickly for emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available
for Kosovo. The agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with
a
Swedish group called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from
the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour that
unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials).
The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all damage to the
cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the war was over,
the
Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there
have been a lot of positive reactions and the appeal invoked much
discussion. S Sadly enough, there was no reaction from the parties
involved
in the fighting in Kosovo, neither from the official Serbian or Albanian
side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the
world's historic monuments and sites." The Web site of ICOMOS Canada
includes statements from 1997 onward. None mentions Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be
expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the
Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications
campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is of interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the
problem
is that ultimately, the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political will outside Kosovo to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so
fraught with beauty, so redolent of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
---
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=2958
19-May-2000 -- EWTN News Brief
KOSOVO PENTECOSTAL CHURCH ATTACKED BY ISLAMIC
MILITANTS
PRISTINA, Kosovo (CWNews.com/Keston) - The Fellowship
of the Lord's People, an Assemblies of God Church in
the Kosovo capital Pristina, was raided by
self-proclaimed Islamic militants in the early hours
of April 29.
The robbers, who claimed to represent the Kosovo
branch of an organization linked to Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden, threatened the occupants with guns
during a two-hour raid and stole a considerable sum of
money, a computer, and other valuable items of
equipment. They daubed the door and the walls of the
church building with Islamic slogans.
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police
force has primary responsibility for law and order in
the Pristina region and its officers visited the
incident, but an UNMIK representative said so far they
are only looking at the raid "from a criminal aspect."
However, he promised that all three raids the church
has endured over the past year would be reviewed.
The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Albanian
population is of Muslim background, though some
Albanians are Christians (mostly Catholic, with a
small number of Protestants). The vast majority of the
Serbs that remain in Kosovo are of Serbian Orthodox
background.
The Rev. Artur Krasniqi and his brother Driton
reported the bandits entered the church in the early
morning and tied up the two men and two others,
including an American and a 14-year-old boy, pointing
guns at them and ordering them to renounce
Christianity.
Krasniqi reported that UNMIK police arrived an hour
after the intruders had left and, according to
Krasniqi, did little to help them. However,
representatives from the peacekeeping Kosovo Force
(KFOR) have shown interest, and KFOR representatives
attended a meeting at the church on May 9. "The
British KFOR is trying to do something investigating
this crime," Artur Krasniqi declared. "There have been
no results yet, even though they have some information
already. From UN so far nothing. 'Defend yourself' was
the reply of some UNMIK policemen."
A spokesman for the UNMIK police in Pristina region,
Charley Johnson, confirmed that UNMIK had gone to the
church in the wake of the raid. "The incident has been
listed not as an ethnic crime, but one of robbery and
vandalism," Johnson said this week. "The UNMIK police
are looking at it from a criminal aspect. We have not
developed any suspects as yet."
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LA KFOR SBADIGLIA, L'UNMIK RELATIVIZZA, I MEDIA MINIMIZZANO,
PREDRAG MATVEJEVIC ED ENZO BETTIZA SE NE FREGANO
(e certo, mica e' la biblioteca di Sarajevo!)
Per le immagini e l'elenco delle distruzioni operate finora:
http://www.decani.yunet.com/
http://www.decani.yunet.com/destroyedchurch.html
---
ANOTHER SERB ORTHODOX CHURCH DESTROYED IN KOSOVO
Gracanica, July 17 2000
Last night (July 16) around 23.30 the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Elias in Pomazatin, 12 km west from Pristina was completely destroyed in
a powerful explosion The church of St Elias was originally built in 1937
near the river Drenica. At the beginning of the WW2 it was destroyed by
Albanian Nazi troops called Balli Combetar. After the war the Serbs
rebuilt the church in 1965 and it served as a parish church since then.
Last year in summer, just after the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo the KLA
memebers damaged the entrance of the church by a hand grenade. Despite
this damage the church could be easily repaired and the Diocese
requested from KFOR to secure the church from further destruction. KFOR
only surrounded the church by barbed wire and from time to time patrols
would pass near by.
The church of St. Elias is only a few hundred meters from the nearest
British KFOR base. The attackers who are supposed again to be the
members of the former KLA brought large quantity of explosive and
informed the local population not to go out of their homes at the time
of explosion which was planned for 23.30.
Serbian Orthodox Church has condemned this latest barbarous attack and
has requested from KFOR and UN Mission to carry out the investigation.
There are very few reasons to believe that the perpertrators would ever
be arrested because so far not a single attacker on nearly 90 destroyed
Serb churches has been identified or arrested.
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Information Service
KFOR
Daily Press Release
Delivered by Major Scott A. Slaten
KFOR Spokesman
#07-10
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Monday, 17 July, 2000
Serb Church Destroyed
A ruined Serb Church in the village of Pomatetin/ Pomazatin (5
kilometers west of Fushe Kosove/ Kosovo Polje) was completely destroyed
in
an explosion last night.
Explosives were detonated at approximately 11.30 p.m. and UNMIK police
reported that two suspects were seen running from the scene towards
Fushe
Kosove / Kosovo Polje. Initial reports from explosive experts state that
up
to 30 kilograms of dynamite were used in the attack.
The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah has been out of use for the past
six years and was badly damaged during last year's conflict. As a result
it
was not one of the churches guarded by KFOR troops.
An investigation is ongoing in the destruction of the church. KFOR MNB
Centre is committed to removing the weapons used for these types of
extremist activities from general use. As a result, a search operation
has
begun in the municipality this morning.
Weapons Search Targets Extremists
Troops from MNB Centre began a search operation this morning which
centers on the village of Miradi e Eperme / Gornje Dobrevo in the Kosovo
Polje municipality.
The mission of the operation is to search for illegal weapons in the
area and remove them from the hands of extremists. Four hundred KFOR
Norwegian soldiers make up the core of the units participating in the
operation. Additional manpower and expertise is being provided by search
teams from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the
Swedish
Battalion and the Scots Dragoon Guards.
The village is located near the scene of a mine strike in early June
which killed three Serbs whose car drove over a mine which had been
planted
in the road. Although the village is in no way connected with last
night's
attack on the Serb Church, it is this type of extremism that the search
operation aims to prevent.
Incidents During the Past 24 Hours
Multinational Brigade North
Shots Reported
KFOR MNB North reported that shots were heard in the northern and
southern areas of Mitrovica for several hours last night. KFOR patrols
searched the areas. No reports of injuries or loss of life were reported
as
a result of the shootings.
Mass Held
KFOR soldiers secured the area around the southern Mitrovice/Mitrovica
Orthodox Church yesterday morning, in order to secure church goes
attending
mass. There were no reported incidents of violence or serious incidents
during the transport escort and mass of the attendees.
Multinational Brigade West
Weapons Seized, Men Arrested
KFOR soldiers near the village of Piskote stopped a vehicle driven by a
Kosovar Albanian man from the village of Skiviane. A search of the
vehicle
revealed an empty automatic machinegun magazine.
The driver was detained for questioning. KFOR Italian Military Police
then conducted a search of the man's home. One AK-47 Assault Rifle with
magazines and ammunition was discovered and confiscated. The man was
then
handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest. The investigation is still
ongoing.
Later in the evening, KFOR soldiers from Task Force Pegasus stopped a
car driven by a Kosovar Albanian man at the Zaimovo Bridge. A search of
the
vehicle revealed a Simonov Rifle. The weapon was confiscated and UNMIK
Police arrested a male passenger in the vehicle. The investigation is
still
ongoing.
Multinational Brigade Centre
See Lead Story
Multinational Brigade South
Commemoration Held
Yesterday morning, a commemoration for former UCK-fighters took place
in the village of Hoca Zagradska. The commemoration was announced
yesterday
evening. KFOR MNB South reinforced the area with additional soldiers. An
estimated 400 people participated in the commemoration. The
commemoration
was peaceful and ended without incidents at 11:45 a.m.
Multinational Brigade East
Weapons Seized
Yesterday morning, north of the village of Saraiste, soldiers from KFOR
US 501st Mechanized Infantry Battalion and UNMIK Police conducted a
house
search of a Kosovar Albanian man arrested for carrying a hand grenade. A
search of the house revealed one grenade, assorted ammunition, One MUP
uniform, two sets of binoculars, and two syringes. UNMIK Police held the
individual for questioning.
UXO Reported, Weapons Seized
In MNB East, yesterday evening in the town of Cernica, KFOR US Task
Force
1-187 headquarters reported that an item of unexploded ordinance was
found
in the backyard of a Kosovar Serb home.
An Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched to the scene and
discovered a hand grenade near the house. Assessing the situation, the
EOD
team determined that the grenade could not be safely moved. It was then
detonated in place. The resulting blast caused some damage to the house
and
revealed some 7.62 ammunition. A search of the house was then conducted
and
an AK-47 Assault Rifle and magazines were confiscated. The investigation
is
still ongoing.
KFOR Medical Assistance Provided
An 11-year-old Kosovar Serb boy was medically evacuated (MEDEVAC) to
the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital at Camp Bondsteel, and treated
for
appendicitis early this morning.
The boy was admitted to the hospital at 1:40 a.m. and had his appendix
removed. The youth was from the town of Strpce and escorted to Camp
Bondsteel by members of the 18th Polish Battalion. The boy's condition
is
currently listed as being stable.
The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital also provided medical support
to another Kosovar Serb citizen last night. A 64-year-old woman
requested a
MEDEVAC last night and was transported by ambulance to Camp Bondsteel
for
treatment of a possible heart attack. The woman was admitted just after
10
p.m. and by midnight was listed in stable condition. Medical tests were
conducted and are pending results to determine the severity of the
attack.
The woman will remain at the 212th MASH for further observation.
MEDIA INFORMATION
UNMIK and NATO
A Press Conference will be held Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Press
Conference Room of the UNMIK Government Building. NATO Secretary
General,
the Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen and SRSG, Dr. Bernard Kouchner
will
be speaking.
MNB Centre
Destroyed Serb Church
An MNB Centre media event will take place after the press conference
today. The schedule will include a visit the site of the destroyed
church
and then go on to the search operation being carried out in the local
area.
This operation highlights the KFOR activities being carried out to
prevent
any form of extremism threatening the people living in Kosovo.
Live Fire Ranges
The Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, will be
exercising and live firing their Warrior Armored Vehicles on the
Krivolak
ranges in the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) next
week.
This is part of an ongoing training operation that the KFOR British
troops carry out to ensure that British soldiers are continuously
trained on
their weapon systems in order to meet any threats.
MNB Centre will provide a media opportunity on the afternoon of Wed 19
July, 2000 to cover this event. Twelve places are currently available
for
interested journalist on a KFOR helicopter. Journalists should get in
contact with Flight Lieutenant Tim Serrell-Cooke, at the MNB Centre PIO
office.
MNB South
NATO Secretary General, Sir George Robertson and North Atlantic Council,
will visit MNB South to receive an overview of the current situation and
to
gain information on reconstruction projects in the town of Reshan
Mahala.
A media event is scheduled on Tuesday 18 July 2000 in Prizren.
Journalists are requested to be at the KFOR Main Headquarters VIP Gate
no
later than 9:10 a.m. for transportation to Prizren. For details please
see
the KFOR Media Event Flyer located in the main lobby of the KFOR Press
and
Information Center, Pristina.
KFOR Press and Information Center, Pristina, Kosovo
PTT phone: +389 91 68-6600
PTT fax: +389 91 68-6610
Sat phone : +871 382 060 323
Official KFOR homepage: http://kforonline.com
For specific information related to brigade-level operations, please
contact
Brigade Information Offices:
Multinational Brigade Centre
PPT phone: +44-7808946390 or +44-7801130055
PTT fax: +381-38-501 433-234
Sat phone: +870-762 103 839, +870-762 103 843 or +870-762 134 957
Sat fax: +870-762 134 991
Multinational Brigade East
http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/tffalconframe.htm
Sat phone: +871 762 069 495
E-mail: pao@...
Multinational Brigade North
PTT phone: +381-28-31024 or +381-28-31025
PTT fax: +381-28 - 31022
Sat phone: +871-762159078 or +871-761294148
Sat fax: +870-762134991
Multinational Brigade South
Satellite phone: +871-11 22 151 or +871-761 617 247 or +871-762069467
Satellite fax: +871-1122152
E-mail: piz_ge_kfor@...
Multinational Brigade West
Sat phone: +871-762 069 491
E-mail: martiref@...
Serbian Church Blown Up in Kosovo
.c The Associated Press
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - An explosion ripped through a medieval
Serbian
Orthodox Church in Kosovo, flattening the structure, U.N police said
Monday.
The church of the Holy Prophet Elijah was located in the village of
Pomazetin, just outside the Serb village of Kosovo Polje. The church was
leveled in the Sunday night explosion, said Oleg Rubezhov, a U.N. police
officer who patrols the area.
``It was destroyed to the basement,'' he said.
About 66 pounds of explosives were used in the 11:30 p.m. blast,
peacekeepers said. Two people were seen running from the site shortly
after
the explosion.
The church was not under guard by NATO-led peacekeepers, U.N. police
said.
They said it had already been severely damaged during the war between
ethnic
Albanian separatists and the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
However, the private Beta and FoNet news agencies in Belgrade said in
their
reports that the church was first damaged last August in a fire or by an
explosion.
The opposition Serbian Renewal Movement blamed the latest explosion on
the
peacekeeping force, called KFOR, saying its troops did nothing to
prevent it
in this heavily ethnic Albanian province.
``Members of KFOR know well enough that Albanian extremists
systematically
destroy Orthodox Christian churches, but they obviously do nothing to
prevent
them, which is proven by this latest crime,'' the party said.
Minority Serbs have faced daily attacks over the past year and Serb
Orthodox
monuments have been targeted by ethnic Albanian militants. The Beta news
agency said 86 religious objects have been destroyed.
Beta said Pomazetin was an ethnically mixed village before Kosovo's
1998-99
war. Since the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers in the province last
year,
Serb villagers have fled, fearing for their safety.
AP-NY-07-17-00 0948EDT
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS DESTROYED CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
KOSOVO POLJE, July 17 (Tanjug) A strong explosion echoed in
Pomazatin village near Kosovo Polje late Sunday, amateur radio operators
said early on Monday.
Unofficial sources said ethnic Albanian terrorists had razed
the
Serbian Orthodox church of St. Ilia in this village of Kosovo and
Metohija
province which had had a mixed Serbethnic Albanian population before
international forces KFOR arrived in June 1999. All Serbs have meanwhile
been forced to flee the village due to onslaughts by militant ethnic
Albanians.
There was a power failure a minute before the blast, which took
place at about 11.30 p.m., and electricity was turned on again a minute
after the explosion.
Local Serbs believe that this is a synchronized action by
ethnic
Albanian extremists and those employed in the Obilic electric power
plant
in order to make such attacks appear more frightening in total darkness.
======================================================================
>Orthodox Church on post-war Kosovo firing line
>
>SLOVINJE, Yugoslavia, June 13 (Reuters) - Three attacks over the
>space of 10 months have reduced a Serb Orthodox church in a Kosovo
>village to a mound of rubble.
>
>Children play in the ruins and ethnic Albanians smile when asked what
>happened. "The church stepped on a mine," said a bearded man with a
>laugh.
>
>Slovinje's Church of Saint Nicholas is just one of 87 Orthodox Serb
shrines,
>churches and monasteries that have been destroyed or damaged in the
>year since NATO-led peacekeepers entered Kosovo as Yugoslav Serb
>security forces withdrew.
>
>Father Sava Janjic, in the nearby 14th-century monastery of Gracanica,
>says Albanian extremists are systematically seeking to eradicate the
>church from Kosovo as part of a wider campaign to chase out the minority
>Serb population.
>
>"The Orthodox church is the anchor of the Serbian people here. If the
>churches are destroyed then the Serb people will not stay," said Father
>Sava, an Orthodox priest who acts as spokesman for the region's Serb
>moderates.
>
>An estimated 150,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999, leaving
>100,000 behind out of a total population of less than two million.
>The Albanian majority is nominally Moslem.
>
>Anxious to reassure the Serbs that they have their best interests at heart,
>KFOR peacekeepers now stand guard 24 hours a day outside many of
>Kosovo's remaining Orthodox shrines.
>
>CHURCH HAS LONG KOSOVO HISTORY
>
>Kosovo, which remains legally a part of Yugoslavia but has become a de
>facto international protectorate, is regularly described by Serbs as the
>cradle of their culture and the spiritual home of their Orthodox church.
>
>The seat of the Serb church was not actually founded in Kosovo, but
>moved there at the end of the 13th century after its original foundation in
>central Serbia burned down.
>
>Seven centuries later, many of Kosovo's most beautiful buildings are
>its Orthodox centres, including the monasteries at Pec, Decani and
>Gracanica.
>
>"I'd say that 95 percent of Kosovo's cultural heritage sites are Orthodox
>buildings. These need saving not just for the Serbs, but for all
Europeans,"
>said Father Sava.
>
>For ethnic Albanians, who suffered years of repression at the hands of
>Serbian troops and police, the Orthodox Church is inextricably linked
>to the notion of Serb national identity.
>
>A wave of Orthodox churches built over the past 10 years are described
>by locals as "political churches" and they have borne the brunt of the
>attacks. Some KFOR commanders openly question whether it is worth
>trying to save these buildings.
>
>"If a church has value as a historical place then clearly it should be
>guarded," said Finnish Colonel Arto Raty, head of KFOR operations in
>Slovinje, which lies just to the south of the regional capital Pristina.
>
>"But if it has no historical value and there is no chance of the Serbs
>returning anytime soon to the area, then it should be gently dismantled,"
>he told Reuters.
>
>A "CRUCIFIED" KOSOVO
>
>Slovinje's little domed church and adjacent belfry were built in 1996 on
>the site of a 16th-century church. It was attacked in June and July 1999
>and then again in May of this year, leaving just a pile of shattered
>concrete and red brick.
>
>KFOR troops later found the church's heavy iron bell hidden under an ethnic
>Albanian's haystack.
>
>Father Sava is angry that despite the presence of some 47,000 peacekeepers
>in Kosovo nobody has been caught or charged for the attacks on Orthodox
>property.
>
>The Church has published a book, "Crucified Kosovo", to highlight the
>plight of the Orthodox faith in the province, asking the world not to
>blame it for the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
>
>Father Sava, who admits to harbouring sometimes un- Christian feelings of
>hate for Milosevic, says his Church did what it could to protect the
>Albanians from Serbian forces.
>
>"There was no organised involvement of the Serb church in fighting for
>Albanian rights because we had our own problems with the Yugoslav
>regime. But we always insisted that all human beings should be treated in
the
>same way," he said.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Predrag Tosic" <p-tosic@...>
To: "yugoslaviainfo" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 4:54 PM
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] A reminder: God's houses in ruin [throughout
Kosovo]
[ A few basic questions for Mr Kouchner and UNMIK, as well as each and
every NATO country government:
- How many of the damaged or destroyed churches and monasteries have
been
rebuilt?
- In how many instances has the reconstruction at least started?
- In how many instances have the culprits - arsonists, bombers and other
attackers at Christian religious shrines in Kosovo - been arrested?
- How many of the arrested have been acquited? Is anybody
currently serving a prison term in Kosovo for vandalizing or destroying
a
church? If there is, how many people?
Between 85 and 100 Christian churches (mostly Serbian Orthodox, as
well
as some other) have been either severely damaged or destroyed in Kosovo
since mid-June of 1999. If our readers know of a single case where the
culprits were arrested - please let us know; thus far, I do not recall
reading or hearing a single news agency report to that effect. PT ]
Subject: God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of
peacekeepers
The Montreal Gazette
Sunday 27 February 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries
are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with
the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar, leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches
and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or destruction.
The
total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are located in remote
areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign last spring. They have happened since the return of
Kosovo's Albanian majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to
the
Kosovo Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of
destruction under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry. British and French media have paid some attention to the
attacks;
but the North American media have carried few reports. Dozens of
non-profit
groups are now working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the
past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska
and Prizren, charged that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians
"is
to expel all Serbs, the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses
that could serve as evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places.
So they set out to destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In
21Z2
months more than 70 monasteries and churches were burned or demolished.
Among them were the churches built by our illustrious and holy ancestors
in
the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The churches and monasteries, which
survived 500 years of Turkish occupation, did not endure two months in
the
presence of a 50,000-strong international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church
of
St. Nicholas. But in late January they withdrew, leaving the church
unprotected. It was soon blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from a
checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined
by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex. S
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height
of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have
manipulated concern for the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and
implement 'ethnic cleansing' and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb
artistic and religious monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following a path already trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja
Luka
and other Bosnian cities, the Serbs blew up historic mosques and Islamic
shrines, as well as burning the Oriental Institute and the National
Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia
and hundreds of thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking
foreign refuge, many buildings in Kosovo were subject to deliberate
Serbian
attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have
been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style during
the
long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana Milojevic Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy
in
Ottawa. "We have raised the issue at the United Nations and also
bilaterally, with the countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers
from Britain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The
international community has a lot at stake in the peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led brigade. The peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers
from
28 countries, in addition to a further 7,500 troops based in
neighbouring
countries. For each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs
remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of Orthodox churches, "and the response was always
diplomatic.
The Canadian government says it regrets all the damage, but at no time
will
it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this
barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups S establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety S (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than
what they could actually handle. We were told that they have many
responsibilities, and can't possibly station soldiers in front of every
monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido
said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites that
are
active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and it's up
to
the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity and the
level
of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada - a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time,
effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time. "That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks
and
mortar; we must also help rebuild the human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the
spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks of
their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended, the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives.
The
monastery had already been looted and burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become
an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York
and funded extensively by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings
on
its recent list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world.
The fund has given money for architectural restoration and preservation
to
165 projects in 51 countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site
includes
no mention of Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president,
Bonnie Burnham, was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named
group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about the
dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation
went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting
took place under the auspices of the Convention Concerning the
Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Member nations debated the
threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55 countries, including
Canada
(a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny);
but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November.
Yet Colin Kaiser, who led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not
tooled
to work quickly for emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available
for Kosovo. The agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with
a
Swedish group called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from
the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour that
unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials).
The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all damage to the
cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the war was over,
the
Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there
have been a lot of positive reactions and the appeal invoked much
discussion. S Sadly enough, there was no reaction from the parties
involved
in the fighting in Kosovo, neither from the official Serbian or Albanian
side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the
world's historic monuments and sites." The Web site of ICOMOS Canada
includes statements from 1997 onward. None mentions Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be
expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the
Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications
campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is of interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the
problem
is that ultimately, the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political will outside Kosovo to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so
fraught with beauty, so redolent of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
---
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=2958
19-May-2000 -- EWTN News Brief
KOSOVO PENTECOSTAL CHURCH ATTACKED BY ISLAMIC
MILITANTS
PRISTINA, Kosovo (CWNews.com/Keston) - The Fellowship
of the Lord's People, an Assemblies of God Church in
the Kosovo capital Pristina, was raided by
self-proclaimed Islamic militants in the early hours
of April 29.
The robbers, who claimed to represent the Kosovo
branch of an organization linked to Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden, threatened the occupants with guns
during a two-hour raid and stole a considerable sum of
money, a computer, and other valuable items of
equipment. They daubed the door and the walls of the
church building with Islamic slogans.
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police
force has primary responsibility for law and order in
the Pristina region and its officers visited the
incident, but an UNMIK representative said so far they
are only looking at the raid "from a criminal aspect."
However, he promised that all three raids the church
has endured over the past year would be reviewed.
The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Albanian
population is of Muslim background, though some
Albanians are Christians (mostly Catholic, with a
small number of Protestants). The vast majority of the
Serbs that remain in Kosovo are of Serbian Orthodox
background.
The Rev. Artur Krasniqi and his brother Driton
reported the bandits entered the church in the early
morning and tied up the two men and two others,
including an American and a 14-year-old boy, pointing
guns at them and ordering them to renounce
Christianity.
Krasniqi reported that UNMIK police arrived an hour
after the intruders had left and, according to
Krasniqi, did little to help them. However,
representatives from the peacekeeping Kosovo Force
(KFOR) have shown interest, and KFOR representatives
attended a meeting at the church on May 9. "The
British KFOR is trying to do something investigating
this crime," Artur Krasniqi declared. "There have been
no results yet, even though they have some information
already. From UN so far nothing. 'Defend yourself' was
the reply of some UNMIK policemen."
A spokesman for the UNMIK police in Pristina region,
Charley Johnson, confirmed that UNMIK had gone to the
church in the wake of the raid. "The incident has been
listed not as an ethnic crime, but one of robbery and
vandalism," Johnson said this week. "The UNMIK police
are looking at it from a criminal aspect. We have not
developed any suspects as yet."
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
A PROFESSIONAL LIAR
Il signor Jamie Shea sta per compiere un salto di carriera: da mera
voce-senza-cervello della NATO, diventera' uno dei responsabili della
strategia di propaganda della stessa organizzazione terroristica.
Prossimo tema-chiave: l'espansione ad Est; prossimi "target":
Bielorussia e Russia; prossimi cervelli da candeggiare: sempre i nostri.
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
>
> http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
>
> The Times (London)
> July 18 2000 EUROPE
>
> Promotion for the voice of Nato
>
> BY RICHARD BEESTON, DIPLOMATIC EDITOR
>
>
> JAMIE SHEA, the sharp-tongued Nato spokesman who led
> the alliance's propaganda campaign during the Kosovo
> conflict, has been promoted from his frontline media
> job.
> In a move similar to the changes recently announced
> for Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press
> secretary, Mr Shea said yesterday that he was moving
> on after seven years as Nato's most distinctive face
> and voice.
>
> The academic and francophile, who grew up in East
> London, has become the alliance's acting director of
> information, responsible for "selling Nato to a new
> audience".
>
> "I have been spokesman for several years and worked
> for four Secretary-Generals of Nato," he said. "I have
> now moved on to the job that I have always wanted to
> do." The post, which he will probably take up after
> the summer, involves preparing an information strategy
> for Nato's eastward expansion.
>
> One of the leading contenders for the spokesman's old
> job is likely to be Mark Laity, the BBC's former
> defence correspondent, who joined Nato after the
> conflict in Kosovo.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Il signor Jamie Shea sta per compiere un salto di carriera: da mera
voce-senza-cervello della NATO, diventera' uno dei responsabili della
strategia di propaganda della stessa organizzazione terroristica.
Prossimo tema-chiave: l'espansione ad Est; prossimi "target":
Bielorussia e Russia; prossimi cervelli da candeggiare: sempre i nostri.
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
>
> http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
>
> The Times (London)
> July 18 2000 EUROPE
>
> Promotion for the voice of Nato
>
> BY RICHARD BEESTON, DIPLOMATIC EDITOR
>
>
> JAMIE SHEA, the sharp-tongued Nato spokesman who led
> the alliance's propaganda campaign during the Kosovo
> conflict, has been promoted from his frontline media
> job.
> In a move similar to the changes recently announced
> for Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press
> secretary, Mr Shea said yesterday that he was moving
> on after seven years as Nato's most distinctive face
> and voice.
>
> The academic and francophile, who grew up in East
> London, has become the alliance's acting director of
> information, responsible for "selling Nato to a new
> audience".
>
> "I have been spokesman for several years and worked
> for four Secretary-Generals of Nato," he said. "I have
> now moved on to the job that I have always wanted to
> do." The post, which he will probably take up after
> the summer, involves preparing an information strategy
> for Nato's eastward expansion.
>
> One of the leading contenders for the spokesman's old
> job is likely to be Mark Laity, the BBC's former
> defence correspondent, who joined Nato after the
> conflict in Kosovo.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
George Tenet, attuale capo della CIA, e' di origine
albanese: sua madre "ha lasciato l'Albania meridionale alla fine della
Seconda guerra mondiale, a bordo di un sottomarino britannico,
per sfuggire al comunismo... Lei e' un vero eroe. E' con queste
esperienze di vita e di valori in mente
che io spero di guidare la nostra comunita' di intelligence..."
(Fonte: "Il manifesto" 24/2/1999).
---
LOTTA INTESTINA NELL'UCK:
FERITO IN UNO SCONTRO A FUOCO TRA FAZIONI TERRORISTICHE,
IL CAPOBANDA RAMUSH HARADINAJ PROTETTO DALLE TRUPPE USA VIENE
TRASFERITO IN UN OSPEDALE MILITARE AMERICANO
---
> Zëri, Kosovo Albanian daily, on page five carried the story of Sadik
> Musaj, who claims to have thrown a grenade at the Haradinaj brothers,
> who he said came with about 40 people to attack his family.
>
> MUSA FAMILY: WE WERE ATTACKED
>
> July 11, 2000
>
> Zëri on page five carried the story of Sadik Musaj, who claims to have
> thrown a grenade at the Haradinaj brothers, who he said came with about
> 40 people to attack his family.
>
> "It was about 0100 hours, I was at that moment in the bathroom. One
> brother was awake, while the other part of the family was asleep. They
> came with 10-15 vehicles, there were 7-8 jeeps and other vehicles. One
> jeep had Tirana license plates; there was also a red Audi. There were
> about 40 people. They came from all directions through both gates and
> over the wall. Ramush Haradinaj was the first, accompanied by Daut,
> Lieutenant Idriz Balaj, Faton Mehmetaj, the self-proclaimed chief of
> security for Dukagjin area. A brother saw them from inside and told us
> to wake up because we are
> surrounded by the KPC. I was only half-dressed and I came out the door.
> Ramush directed the laser weapon at me and told me: 'Don't move or you
> and your family will be liquidated,' then Daut and the Lieutenant
> reacted and together with Faton Mehmetaj and Bekim Zekaj, they
> surrounded me."
>
> "I considered myself dead, but I knew that someone from my family was
> killed, because the automatic weapons hit the windows. At the moment I
> had revolvers and automatic weapons on my head. I took the grenade the
> Lieutenant held in his hand, and he was left with the ring. I quickly
> went backwards, Bekim Zeka (Daut's bodyguard) directed his weapon at me.
> I removed his hand quickly; the bullets hit the wall and I jumped
> quickly on the other side, I hided behind the car and threw the bomb. It
> was a matter of seconds. The bomb exploded near the chair and from its
> explosion Ramush, Daut and others were wounded, who are probably being
> treated privately. Then there was a lot of firing from automatic weapons
> and different arms, and another bomb exploded. All this lasted two
> hours. My brother jumped from the stairs and scuffled with one of them,
> took his automatic weapon. He had a revolver in his hand and after a
> scuffle he luckily escaped. Then they started to withdraw. Later they
> withdrew the wounded with much difficulty. During all this time, the
> firing never stopped from both sides. Then, I came to the street to stop
> somebody to inform KFOR and UNMIK. First came UNMIK and later KFOR. This
> lasted from 0100 to 0300 hours. When people from UNMIK came, they
> verified the event, saw the blood of the wounded and somewhere they
> found the official permit of Ramush. After the search, they verified the
> blood was theirs and that we were attacked in our yard," said Musaj.
>
> As for the reasons of this attack, Musaj explained: "My brother, Sinan
> Musaj, was a member of the Bukoshi Army. KLA members abducted him
> together with Rexhe Osaj, Bashkim Balaj, Rame Idrizi and Vesel Muriqi on
> 24 June of last year. Only Vesel managed to escape from Ratish. He made
> detailed statements to UNMIK and KFOR on who made the 'arrest'. After
> the event, we immediately informed the Italian Carabinieris, KFOR,
> UNMIK, and political parties. KFOR investigated, for example in Ratish.
> They checked a couple of wells, even experts of The Hague were there.
> After the 'arrest' of these soldiers, among them our brother, these
> families went to Ramush's father, including our father and uncles, but
> Ramush's father said he was not
> interested, and that 'if you have any business, you should address my
> sons'. He said that nobody asked him for these things. We were at
> Ramush's family two days before the event, and he didn't want to speak
> about this case. Our elders told Ramush's father that our sons were
> fighting against the Serbs and it is not important whose soldiers they
> were. Our brother, Ismet Musaj, was in Dubrava prison, where he was
> wounded during the Serb massacre when 160 people were killed, and then
> he was in Pozarevac prison, from where he returned a month and a half
> ago. We were all in Switzerland and contributed with money and other
> things. During the war our father and one brother were here. At this
> time, when we could hardly wait to be liberated, Ramush Haradinaj comes
> and attacks us at one in the morning, in the presence of ten women and
> children".
---
> Transcript of an article published in yesterday's Bota Sot, taken from
> the Albanian magazine Tema, which claims to uncover secret documents of
> the KLA Secret Service. The paper also provides facsimiles of some
> documents
>
> BOTA SOT - Kosovo Albanian Daily
>
> July 11, 2000
>
> KLA SECRET SERVICE PERSECUTED ALBANIAN POLITICIANS
>
> The so-called secret service of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) seems
> to have persecuted a list of politicians and renowned names from Albania
> and Kosovo, who were regarded as an impediment to its takeover of the
> armed movement in Kosovo. A series of documents discovered a few months
> ago in the house of one of the heads of the former secret service of the
> KLA, provide evidences of execution lists and a scheme of persecution of
> Albanian opposition politicians in Tirana and people close to Rugova in
> Pristina.
>
> The list contains names of 15 principle authorities of the opposition in
> Albania, politicians, journalists and people with influence in the
> Democratic League of Kosovo, headed by Ibrahim Rugova.
>
> The coded list is compiled according to precise rules of a secret
> service. First, the list is compiled in one copy and the following
> subject has a code which corresponds to pseudonyms of the monitors who
> are coded with the name "eagle". On the other side, the coded names of
> subsequent persons have a corresponding pseudonym in Albanian with a
> word determined by the KLA Secret Service.
>
> List no. 7, for example, is a list joining the pseudonym of a person to
> combinations of people who follow him. List no. 8, has only the code of
> the followed person, which is explained in the list no. 7. On the other
> side, different persons kept both lists and it as very difficult for
> different persons to know everything about the list.
>
> In the list coded as "List no. 7", the pseudonyms of the persons of the
> subjects are given. For example, Ibrahim Rugova "the scarf", Sali
> Berisha "Zani", Azem Hajdari "the democrat" etc. This list was given to
> people who were following them, but not the complete one (?) The
> complete facsimile was signed by Bislim Zyrapi, chief of KLA Secret
> Service.
>
> At least three persons from that list were executed, while another was
> heavily wounded. The reasons might not be directly linked to this
> activity, but at least in two cases, in the murder of Enver Maloku and
> journalist Ali Ukaj, it seems that this mysterious illegal organization
> is involved. Documents which came to our office from sources close to
> persons who on behalf of KFOR confiscated a house of a senior KLA
> official in Pristina, make believable the assumptions that this
> organization was getting even with its political opponents in Kosovo,
> where Enver Maloku and Sabri Hamiti were the main ones. In addition, the
> murder case of Ali Ukaj, one of the first KLA activists who didn't
> accept the KLA to be taken under the control of the Albanian Secret
> Services (SHIK) in Tirana, is also clear. Consequences of this policy
> were very grave. The Albanian resistance was weakened and the risk of an
> eventual civil conflict as present. The armed people, on behalf of the
> KLA, used military might against their political opponents, by
> preventing in a way, a perfect military organization in Kosovo and a
> serious, dignified preparation for war.
>
>
> -----------------------
> ANNEX:
> -----------------------
>
> June 25, 1999
> NEWS YORK TIMES
>
> Kosovo's Rebels Accused of Executions in the Ranks
>
> By CHRIS HEDGES
>
>
> he senior commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who have a signed
> agreement with NATO to disarm, carried out assassinations, arrests and
> purges within their ranks to thwart potential rivals, say current and
> former commanders in the rebel army and some Western diplomats.
>
> The campaign, in which as many as half a dozen top rebel commanders were
> shot dead, was directed by Hashim Thaci and two of his lieutenants, Azem
> Syla and Xhavit Haliti, these officials said. Thaci denied through a
> spokesman that he had been responsible for any killings.
>
> Although the United States has long been wary of the KLA, the rebel
> group has become the main ethnic Albanian power in Kosovo. Rebel
> commanders supplied NATO with target information during the bombing
> campaign. Now, after the war, the United States and other NATO powers
> have effectively made Thaci and the KLA partners in rebuilding Kosovo.
> The agreement NATO signed with Thaci, for example, envisions turning the
> KLA into a civilian police force and leaves open the possibility that
> the KLA could become a provisional army modeled on the U.S. National
> Guard.
>
> While none of the KLA officials interviewed saw Thaci or his aides
> execute anyone, they recounted, and in some cases said they had
> witnessed, incidents in which Thaci's rivals had been killed shortly
> after he or one of his aides had threatened them with death.
>
> "When the war started, everyone wanted to be the chief," said Rifat
> Haxhijaj, 30, a former lieutenant in the Yugoslav army who left the
> rebel movement last September and now lives in Switzerland. "For the
> leadership, this was never just a war against Serbs -- it was also a
> struggle for power."
>
> Thaci's representative in Switzerland, Jashae Salihu, denied accounts of
> assassinations. "These kind of reports are untrue," he said. "Neither
> Thaci nor anyone else from the KLA is involved in this kind of activity.
> Our goal has been to establish a free Kosovo and nothing more."
>
> The accusations of assassinations and purges were made in interviews
> with about a dozen former and current Kosovo Liberation Army officials,
> two of whom said they had witnessed executions of Thaci's rivals; a
> former senior diplomat for the Albanian government; a former police
> official in the Albanian government who worked with the rebel group, and
> several Western diplomats.
>
> But the State Department Wednesday challenged some aspects of these
> accounts. "We simply don't have information to substantiate allegations
> that there was a KLA-leadership-directed program of assassinations or
> executions," James Rubin, the State Department spokesman, said.
>
> Rubin said he could not exclude the possibility that the rebel leaders
> were somehow tied to the killings. But he said department officials had
> checked a wide range of sources in the past 24 hours and could not
> confirm the accusations.
>
> A senior State Department official and a Western diplomat in the
> Balkans, citing intelligence reports and extensive contacts with KLA
> officials inside and outside Kosovo, said they were aware of executions
> of middle-grade officers suspected of collaborating with the Serbs, but
> said they had no evidence to link those killings with Thaci.
>
> The Western diplomat in the Balkans said, however, that Thaci is
> legendary in the region for ruthless tactics.
>
> "Thaci has engaged in some pretty rough intimidation" of officials in a
> rival party, the diplomat said, "but none of them have been killed." He
> added: "There have been detentions, and the victims allege beatings. We
> cannot prove that. Thaci, according to them, was in charge of the team
> that detained them and was in charge of the interrogation and personally
> threatened them.
>
> "Thaci has a reputation for being pretty tough," the diplomat continued.
> "Haliti and Syla are not known for their sweet tempers. This is a rough
> neighborhood, and intimidation and assassinations happen."
>
> Former and current KLA officials also charge that a campaign of
> assassinations was carried out in close cooperation with the Albanian
> government, which often placed agents from the Albanian secret police at
> the disposal of the rebel commanders.
>
> Rubin said the State Department did not have any information to suggest
> that the KLA leadership directed an execution program in conjunction
> with the Albanian security services.
>
> The Western diplomat in the Balkans said he knew of at least two
> Albanian secret police officers who were fighting with the KLA. "The two
> officers are brigade or battalion commanders, and they've been in the
> field fighting," the diplomat said. "They're volunteers from Albania."
>
> Albania has long waged a campaign to unite with Kosovo, a Serbian
> province where Albanians are in the majority. Such unification was
> briefly achieved during Fascist occupation in World War II and was held
> out as a goal by radical groups financed and backed by Tirana in the
> later part of the century.
>
> Indeed, the close relationship between Thaci and the Tirana government,
> which has a reputation for corruption and has been linked by Western
> diplomats to drug trafficking, is one of the factors that disillusioned
> many former fighters who were interviewed in Germany, Switzerland and
> Albania. The fighters said they had fought to create a more Western,
> democratic state, free from Albanian influence and control.
>
> The Albanian minister of information, Musa Ulqini, said that there was
> "never any violation of our constitutional law." He added: "The Albanian
> government has relations with all of the political and military forces
> in Kosovo, but it insists that these forces unite and speak with one
> voice."
>
> Two former rebel leaders and a former Albanian police official,
> interviewed in Tirana, said that Haliti, who is officially Thaci's
> ambassador to Albania, was working in Kosovo with 10 secret police
> agents from Albania to form an internal security network that would be
> used to silence dissenters in Kosovo.
>
> Thaci, 30, has named a government, with himself as prime minister, and
> denounced Ibrahim Rugova, who for nearly a decade was the self-styled
> president of Kosovo and ran a successful campaign of nonviolent protest
> after the Serbs stripped Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989.
>
> Thaci has long ties to radical groups that called for the violent
> overthrow of the government in Belgrade. He joined a clandestine
> organization known as the Kosovo Popular Movement that existed on the
> fringes of Pristina University.
>
> The group was financed and backed by the Stalinist dictator of Albania,
> Enver Hoxha, until his death in 1985. Its members, including Syla, whom
> Thaci appointed his defense minister, and Haliti have become the core of
> the leadership that dominates the Kosovo Liberation Army.
>
> Violence has long swirled around Thaci, whose nom de guerre was Snake.
>
> In June 1997, in an incident that many in the underground guerrilla
> movement found ominous, a Kosovar Albanian reporter who had close links
> with the movement was found dead in his apartment in Tirana, his face
> disfigured by repeated stabbings with a screwdriver and the butt end of
> a broken bottle.
>
> The reporter, Ali Uka, was supportive of the rebel movement, but he was
> also independent enough to criticize it. At the time of his death, he
> was sharing his apartment with Thaci.
>
> Thaci inspired fear and respect in his home base of the central Drenica
> region in Kosovo as he organized armed units and carried out ambushes
> against Serbian policemen. In the early days of the rebel uprising, in
> March 1998, Thaci moved about from his hometown of Broja in a small
> compact car with a few bodyguards and wore an unadorned camouflage
> uniform.
>
> There were persistent reports at the time that he personally carried out
> executions of Kosovar Albanians whom he had branded as traitors or
> collaborators, but no witnesses have surfaced.
>
> Thaci was involved, along with Haliti, in arms smuggling from
> Switzerland in the years before the 1998 uprising, say current and
> former senior rebel commanders.
>
> Thaci and Haliti both have wives and children in Switzerland, although
> Haliti has formed a new family in Tirana, where he has a large villa and
> close links with senior government leaders, say former and current rebel
> officials in Albania.
>
> When the uprising began, and money and volunteers flooded into Albania
> from the 700,000 Kosovar Albanians living in Europe, Thaci and Haliti
> found themselves in charge of thousands of fighters and tens of millions
> of dollars.
>
> The arms smuggling mushroomed into a huge operation that saw trucks
> loaded with weapons, most bought from Albanian officials, headed for KLA
> camps on the border. By the war's end, former and current KLA officials
> estimate, the KLA. paid $50 million to Albanian officials for weapons
> and ammunition.
>
> In April 1998, a KLA commander who transported many of the weapons, Ilir
> Konushevci, was ambushed and killed on the road outside Tropoja in
> northern Albania. A few days earlier, in a heated meeting with senior
> commanders, he had accused Haliti of misusing funds, according to
> commanders who were present.
>
> The commander had charged that Haliti was buying boxes of grenades at $2
> apiece and charging the movement $7 for each grenade. The killing,
> although it took place in a rebel-controlled region in northern Albania,
> was blamed on the Serbs.
>
> Other killings of rebel commanders and political rivals ascribed to
> Thaci are attributed to a struggle to consolidate control and eliminate
> potential challengers.
>
> "Cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci's career," said Bujar
> Bukoshi, the prime minister in exile in Rugova's administration, which
> is often at odds with the KLA. One Western diplomat, citing intelligence
> reports, said that Thaci planned an unsuccessful assassination attempt
> on Bukoshi last May. "Thaci has a single goal and that is to promote
> himself, to be No. 1," Bukoshi said.
>
> As the rebels suffered reverses on the battlefield in the summer and
> fall of 1998, in large part due to inexperience and a lack of central
> command, they turned to Kosovar Albanians who had served in the former
> Yugoslav army.
>
> The most experienced was a former colonel named Ahmet Krasniqi who had
> organized some 600 former officers, most living in Switzerland and
> Germany, to join the fight. Krasniqi had surrendered his garrison in
> Gospic, Croatia, in 1991 rather than defend Slobodan Milosevic's regime
> in Belgrade.
>
> Krasniqi had the blessing of Bukoshi, who allowed him to pass on $4.5
> million to the KLA raised by Rugova's administration. He swiftly set up
> training camps in the border region and formed special units. Bukoshi
> named him commander of a rival military structure known as the Armed
> Forces of the Kosovo Republic. The effort to join the armed struggle was
> a belated attempt by the Rugova administration, which had swiftly lost
> political support in Kosovo, to regain credibility by playing a role in
> the "liberation" of the Serbian province.
>
> Thaci and Haliti accepted the money and the trained volunteers,
> integrating them into KLA units, but began to thwart Krasniqi's attempt
> to build an independent military force. In June 1998 the KLA, which
> controlled the border, began to divert or block arms being taken over
> the mountain to these rival units fighting around Pec and Decane. As
> tensions rose, Thaci and the Albanian authorities decided to eliminate
> Krasniqi, according to former rebel commanders and two former Albanian
> officials interviewed in Tirana.
>
> They said that in the middle of September 1998, Albanian police stopped
> Krasniqi and several aides and confiscated their weapons. Krasniqi's
> office in Tirana was raided by about 50 policemen and emptied of guns
> and munitions. On Sept. 21 at 11 p.m. on the way back from a restaurant
> in Tirana, Krasniqi ran into a police checkpoint about 300 yards from
> his office, according to a former KLA commander who was with Krasniqi.
> Krasniqi and his two companions were again frisked for weapons, and
> their vehicle was searched. The two cars behind Krasniqi, which carried
> aides, were not allowed through the checkpoint.
>
> When Krasniqi and his two companions got out of their gray Opal jeep
> they saw three men emerge from the shadows with black hoods over their
> faces. The men, speaking in an Albanian accent that distinguished them
> from Kosovar Albanians, ordered the two men with Krasniqi down on the
> ground.
>
> "Which one is it?" asked one of the gunmen, according to one of the
> commanders who was prone on the asphalt.
>
> "The one in the middle," said another. The gunmen, who held a pistol a
> few inches from Krasniqi's head, fired a shot. He then fired two more
> shots into Krasniqi's head once he fell onto the pavement.
>
> American officials also had reports that the KLA killed Krasniqi, but
> said there were also subsequent, conflicting reports from the region
> that he was killed by disaffected members of his own unit.
>
> After Krasniqi's death, former KLA commanders said, the killings, purges
> and arrests accelerated. KLA police, dressed in distinctive black
> fatigues, threw into detention anyone who appeared hostile to Thaci.
> Many of these people were beaten.
>
> One commander, Blerim Kuci, was taken away in October 1998 to a KLA jail
> and hauled before a revolutionary court. He was held for weeks on
> charges that he was a Serb collaborator and then suddenly released in
> the face of a large Serb offensive and allowed to rejoin the fight.
>
> "I saw an accused collaborator tried before a revolutionary court and
> then tied to the back of a car in Glodjane and dragged through the
> streets until he died," said a former KLA officer in Albania, who asked
> not to be identified. A senior State Department official and a Western
> diplomat in the Balkans confirmed this account.
>
> As NATO bombs fell on Kosovo this April, two more outspoken commanders,
> Agim Ramadani, a captain in the former Yugoslav army, and Sali Ceku,
> were killed, each in an alleged Serb ambush.
>
> Although a former senior rebel officer in Tirana said that Thaci was
> responsible, a Western diplomat contends that that Ceku was killed by a
> Serb sniper. He said that his contacts indicated that Ramadani was
> killed in battle, but those contacts did not mention an ambush, or
> politically related killing, in either case.
>
> The former KLA officer said, however, that rebel officials had told Ceku
> that he and his lieutenant Tahir Zemaj should leave the movement, but
> the stubborn Ceku had refused to depart. Zemaj, however, fled to
> Germany. "Tahir knew they were serious, and he got out," said the
> officer said. "Sali stayed, and he was killed."
>
---
INTRAETHNIC ALBANIAN CONFLICT BEGINS
PRISTINA, July 10 (Tanjug) Ramush Haradinaj, who has been
wounded
and transfered to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, is the third most
important figure in the ethnic Albanian terrorist organization, the
socalled Kosovo Liberation Army, after Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku, and
he
is the leader of the thirdbiggest party of Kosovo Albanians.
Representatives of the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK in Pristina
and
the international force KFOR on Monday again failed to give any details
about this latest incident, in which Haradinaj was wounded, but the
facts
are gradually being revealed to the Pristina public.
The general conclusion here is that Haradinaj was wounded in a
conflict among Kosovo Albanians with a definite political and criminal
background.
Regarding political reasons, experts on the situation in
Pristina
and elsewhere in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province claim it is a
wellknown fact that there is rivalry between Thaci and Haradinaj. Both
men
are trying to impose themselves as leaders of Kosovo Albanians. It was
just
a matter of time when their dislike of each other would culminate.
The sources said the criminal background was the rivalry
between
certain bands of Kosovo Albanians not only concerning a division of the
spoils from smuggling drugs, weaponry, automobiles and many other
things,
but also concerning control over smuggling routes into and through this
province.
Intraethnic Albanian conflicts are something new in Kosovo and
Metohija, in addition to ethnic Albanian terrorist actions against the
KFOR.
It is evident that the announced elections are a good
opportunity
for ethnic Albanian extremists and terrorists to legalize even further
their criminal activities in the province. And in all the chaos,
everyone
is trying to get something for themselves.
---
UCK-Gangster als Volksheld und großer Politiker
(von Rainer Rupp)
Am Dienstag eröffeneten UCK-Terroristen im amerikanischen Sektor des
Kosovo mit automatischen Waffen aus einem vorbeifahrenden Auto das Feuer
auf einen orthodoxen serbischen Priester und zwei Seminaristen, die ihn
begleiteten. Alle drei wurden später schwer verletzt am Straßenrand
gefunden. Pflichtgemäß zeigte sich der umstrittene UNMIK-Chef und
Serbophobe Bernard Kouchner von dem Mordanschlag "auf den religiösen
Mann" geschockt wobei er jedoch sofort wieder Worte fand um die Aktion
der UCK "moralisch" zu relativieren: Es sei nicht hinnehmbar, daß "diese
Art von Rachemord ein Ersatz für die Gerechtigkeit ist". ("Serb priest
wounded in Kosovo drive-by shooting", PRISTINA, Yugoslavia Reuters Jul
12 2000 1:56PM ET)
Für Kuchner scheint es jedoch nicht mehr erwähnenswert, wenn - wie am
Montag geschehen - einer der letzten, im albanischen Teil Mitrovicas
verbliebenen Serben vor seinem Haus halb tot geschlagen aufgefunden
wurde. Vier Albaner waren bei im eingedrungen, hatten ihn nach draußen
geschleift und als abschreckendes Beispiel für alle anderen Serben
schwer verletzt liegen gelassen. Mit Schädelbasisbruch wurde er
schließlich ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert. ("Serb Severely Beaten in
Albanian Area of Divided Kosovo Town", BELGRADE, Jul 12, 2000 - Agence
France Presse. Wen wundert es da, wenn sich die serbische Minderheit im
Norden der geteilten Stadt vehement gegen die von den Albanern verlangte
"Freizügigkeit in der ganzen Stadt" zur Wehr setzt.
Inzwischen gibt der Mord von Sadri Xhekaj, einem bekannten
UCK-Terrorist, Anlaß zu neuen Spekulationen über einen Bandenkampf
innerhalb der UCK. Der Bericht der UNO-Polizei im Kosovo vom Mittwoch
dieser Woche liest sich wie folgt: "Ein albanischer Mann wurde von einem
anderen, der Polizei bekannten albanischen Mann mit einem AK-47
Sturmgewehr ermordet, als er auf der Terrasse eines Restaurants saß. Der
Verdächtige näherte sich dem Opfer und stellte ihm eine Frage. Dann
feuerte er drei Schüsse auf das Opfer ab. Niemand sonst wurde verletzt."
Sadri Xhekaj, der mit dem ehemaligen stellvertretenden Kommandeur des
Kosovo-Schutz-Korps und Bandenchef Ramush Haradinaj eng befreundet war,
war sofort tot.
Der Zwischenfall geschah um die Mittagszeit in Decani, im Südwesten des
Kosovo. In der als Schmuggel- und Banditenzentrum bekannten Region ist
anscheinend ein offener Krieg zwischen unterschiedlichen UCK-Klans um
die kriminelle Vorherrschaft und ihre Pfründe ausgebrochen. Ramush
Haradinaj, der im Mai die Partei "Allianz für die Zukunft des Kosovo"
gegründet hatte, liegt zur Zeit im US-Army-Krankenhaus im bayerischen
Landshut, wohin ihn seine fürsorglichen amerikanischen Freunden zu einer
schwierigen Operation ausgeflogen hatten. Letztes Wochenende war er bei
einem Versuch, mit Hilfe seiner Bande ein Mitglied eines rivalisierenden
Klans zu kidnappen, bei einer Schießerei verwundet worden war. Der
Überfall auf das Haus von Sadik Musaj, Anführer des befeindeten
Familienklans, fand letzten Freitag in Streoc statt, etwa fünf Kilometer
nördlich von Decani, wo am Dienstag Haradinajs Freund auf der
Restaurantterrasse erschossen wurde.
Bezeichnend für den respektvollen Umgang der NATO und UNMIK mit den
UCK-Gangstern und Terroristen sind die Berichte westliche
Nachrichtenagenturen, die den Gangsterboß Ramush Haradinaj als
"Volksheld" beschreiben. AFP behauptet sogar, daß "westliche Beobachter
ihm (Haradinaj) eine große Zukunft in der Kosovo-Politik vorausgesagt"
hätten. ("Ally of injured political leader shot dead in Kosovo",
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Thursday, July 13 2:20 AM SGT , original Source,
AFP, 12 2000, AFP) Die Tatsache, daß Haradinaj im Mai in mehrere
Auseinandersetzungen und Kämpfe mit russischen Kosovo-Truppen verwickelt
war, in deren Folge es zu einer Reihe von Gewehrfeuer-, Granaten- und
Raketenangriffen auf russische Basen kam, scheint dabei nicht zu zählen.
("Kosovo Leader Flown to Germany As Plot Thickens", by Andrew Gray,
STREOC, Yugoslavia, Reuters, Sunday July 9 10:31 AM ET
Der Fall ist für die NATO besonders brisant, weil er für die
bevorstehenden lokalen Wahlen das Gespenst bewaffneter
Auseinandersetzungen zwischen verschiedenen ethnisch-albanischen Gruppen
heraufbeschwört. Allerdings ist es unwahrscheinlich, daß die K-FOR
Ramush Haradinaj wegen des bewaffneten Überfalls und des
Kidnappingversuchs von Sadik Musaj verhaften wird. Die Gefahr, dadurch
womöglich einen lokalen Aufstand der UCK gegen die NATO zu provozieren,
ist zu groß.
Saarbrücken den 13.7.00
---
SULLA PROTEZIONE OFFERTA DALL'ESERCITO USA AL TERRORISTA HARADINAJ:
http://www.hq.c5.army.mil/News/archives99/sep99/bondsteel.htm
Subject: [stopnato] [TW] The 67th Combat Support Hospital to
have new page soon!
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 20:54:59 -0400
From: "ES LaPorte - Abolish NATO! Webmaster"
Dear friends :
I am pleased to announce that the 67th Combat Support Hospital and its
star patient, Ramush
Haradinaj, will soon have a new home page.
The 67th Combat Support Hospital, as of now, does not have it's own web
page and neither does
Ramush Haradinaj.
But that will change. . .
In the next week you can watch their homepage - which will have its own
guestbook soon, go up
at the URL below.
I feel that as an American, it is important that the public see just how
their tax money is being
spent funding the Kosovo mission and helping poor unfortunates like
Kosovo Albanian "leader"
Ramush Haradinaj .
There are millions of Americans without access to basic heath care, but
the 67th Combat Support
Hospital's efforts at helping poor unfortunate Mr. Haradinaj, should
show the American people
that there are some more important things, like helping Kosovo mobsters
recover from the results
of their criminal behaviors.
http://www.abolishnato.com/medical.care.for.KLA.mobsters.htm
Watch this page go up and KFOR, NATO, the United States Army and mostly
the 67th Combat
Support Hospital, will be proud!!!
Perhaps Americans and "our NATO allies" would want to donate more for
this cause!
-
http://www.abolishnato.com/KLA.mobsters.care.htm
http://www.abolishnato.com/PAIN,and.OUTRAGE.htm
http://nettoilet/users.com/bondsteelmed/
http://nettoilet.com/users/bondsteelmed/poor.mobster.htm
-
Article from the Bondsteel Med site - spoof of real article from Army
News Service!
Have a good laugh!
Combat Support Hospital accomplishes mission of cleaning up KLA members
after feuds, not
guilty about it.
by Cpl. Chris DeHart
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (Army News Service, Aug. 30, 1999) -- While the
67th Combat
Support Hospital here relies on medical evacuation units to transport
anyone in a state of medical
emergency, they are a means to an end, with the end being decided on the
trauma tables of the
CSH emergency room. This is what make the mission of NATO's KFOR proud.
Americans,
although some have no access to basic health, can feel proud that their
US government and
military is expending money and manpower providing scott-free health to
KLA mobsters like
Ramush Haradinaj, under the KFOR mission.
"Our main goal is saving lives, especially those of good natured, KLA
mobsters, like Ramush
Haradinaj. We try to get the patient stable enough, in the case of
international patients, to have
the host nation facilities take care of them until they are well again.
The majority of patients we've
seen have been Kosovar, as they have more favor than even our own
American citizens back
home, under orders of Secretary General Lord Robertson," said Maj.
Jimmie Keenan, chief nurse,
after a not-so-typical busy morning. The workload that morning included
four trauma patients,
two being closed head injuries, as well as sick call patients. Even the
sick call patients must wait
until the staff is through attending to Kosovar Albanians patients.
Keenan explained that although they can handle a lot of different
trauma, such as chest or
abdomen, head injuries are beyond their current ability and are referred
to either Pristina or Skopje.
Recently, the Camp Bondsteel facility saved and gave free aid to Ramush
Haradinaj, a KLA
mobster who's criminal activity got him quite beat up.
"We average one to two trauma patients a day. We are approaching our
50th trauma patient since
the hospital opened July 14. A lot of this is due to Kosovo simply not
having the level of care for
dealing with trauma patients in this sector. Also, the civilian
hospitals in Gnjilane, Urosevac, and
in some other areas (of Kosovo) have trouble getting the supplies
necessary to handle the number
of patients requiring treatment," Keenan said. "We know that there are
many Americans without
access to basic health care, but we here at KFOR, as well as our
Secretary General Lord
Robertson and the 67th Support Combat Hospital feel that the Kosovar
Albanians come first, so
they do."
"So what," she went on to state. " I would rather be here than in
America. If some Americans
cannot get care and suffer in pain, Ramush Haradinaj is a nice talkative
fellow and is more
deserving of free health care than most Americans. After all, HE is
liberating his country, and it is
NATO, KFOR's and the 67th's mission to aid them if - well - they get
hurt. So - the best doctors
nedd - no must - be part of the KFOR mission, not wasted in Germany or
America."
The team can't rest after the emergency room is clear of patients,
according to Keenan. Whether
they get sent to the operating room or transferred to another facility,
the trauma teams must
immediately prepare for whoever may come through the door next. There is
triage, but preference
is given to Kosovo "Liberation Army" members over civilian Ablanians,
and over Serbs. "The KLA
members are even given preference over our own American citizens,"
Keenan said, with a smile.
"Although we haven't had to work on many of our own soldiers, you never
know if the next patient
coming in will be one of ours, and we have to be ready," she said.
According to Keenan, there are four trauma bays within the ER fully
equipped and staffed with
trauma teams. Each team consists of a physician, a registered nurse, a
licensed practical nurse, a
medic and either a nurse anesthetist or a respiratory therapy
technician. All for the benefit of our
KLA allies, espically cleaning up after the blood feuds. This is NATO
ans KFOR's policy."
Medic Spc. Jacob Rusk said this is drastically different from what he
did in the rear -- an
instructor for setting up deployable hospitals.
"I went from setting up hospitals to helping run a trauma table for the
our KLA mobster allies. It is
a very drastic change but good experience," Rusk said. "I used to be
just a front-line medic, but
now I hold my own with the doctors, nurses and technicians and mobsters.
I have seen more and
done more than any other (medic) has, for being in a non-combat
situation. I really did like serving
Mr. Haradinaj, he was so nice and talkative." As far as America's - and
NATO's -concern with
putting Kosovar Albanians, giving them free treatment while some
American suffer without
access to any health care, Spc. Rusk replied with a grim, "So what,
screw 'em, the Kosovar
Albanians come first, that is NATO's policy and it is a good one."
(Editor's note: DeHart is a propagandist with the Task Force Falcon
Public Affairs Office.)
Bondsteel Med.
The one, only and official homepage of the
Camp Bondsteel Medical Facility!
www.abolishnato.com/KLA.mobsters.care.htm
-
Dear friends :
I have just gotten off the phone with the Senate Relations Committee
in International Relations.
When I asked why US military personal were being used to treat KLA
narcoterrorists
for their injuries, when there are a lot of medical charities that could
take care of these scumb -bags, I was "blown off!"
This was even after I pointed out that I had served in the US military -
and that I - an American citizen - have NO access
to the same medical care!
The Committee headed by Jessie Helms.
450 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel. (1) 202 - 224-4651
Fax. (1) 202 - 228-1339
And if anybody has can dig up the e-mails on Mr. Helms.
ES LaPorte
"Abolish NATO!" Webmaster
www.abolishnato.com
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
-
Mr. Ramush Haradinaj injured during Incident
in Pec Region
Mr. Ramush Haradinaj, a KLA narcoterrorist, was injured during
an blood feuding brawl in Pec region last night. Details of
the incident are still sketchy at this time, But what is know is
that this criminal is recieving FREE medical care from the
smokin' - jokin' - tokin' bunch of cigar-loving Harvard grads at
the 67th CSH.
Mr. Haradinaj requested medical assistance earlier in the day.
The man was intoxicated and fell and hurt his poor head. A
KFOR Italian helicopter was dispatched to bring Haradinaj to
Camp Bondsteel.
He arrived around 2:30 p.m. and is currently receiving a medical
evaluation at the Combat Support hospital, this despite
the fact that American citizens have NO access to the same level
of care as this narcoterrorist! As of 4 p.m. KFOR US
Medical officials reported that Haradinaj is being treated for a
two-inch (2") laceration that is not considered life
threatening.
These same KFOR US medical doctors, if here in the US, in a US
hospital, would refuse to give the same to their own
citizens. Narcopimps DOES pay.
KFOR Online Editorial Note: Mr. Ramush Haradinaj is a former
narcoterrorist of the Kosovo "Liberation Army" (KLA) of
the Rrafshi i Dukagjinit area, and the current leader of the
"AAK" - a political party in Kosovo., another gang of outlaw
blood feuding scumb. Also Mr. Ramush Haradinaj has been warned,
through a supporter living in England, to stay on the
Eastern side of the stupid Atlantic, as he would be safer in
Kosovo than in America!
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
albanese: sua madre "ha lasciato l'Albania meridionale alla fine della
Seconda guerra mondiale, a bordo di un sottomarino britannico,
per sfuggire al comunismo... Lei e' un vero eroe. E' con queste
esperienze di vita e di valori in mente
che io spero di guidare la nostra comunita' di intelligence..."
(Fonte: "Il manifesto" 24/2/1999).
---
LOTTA INTESTINA NELL'UCK:
FERITO IN UNO SCONTRO A FUOCO TRA FAZIONI TERRORISTICHE,
IL CAPOBANDA RAMUSH HARADINAJ PROTETTO DALLE TRUPPE USA VIENE
TRASFERITO IN UN OSPEDALE MILITARE AMERICANO
---
> Zëri, Kosovo Albanian daily, on page five carried the story of Sadik
> Musaj, who claims to have thrown a grenade at the Haradinaj brothers,
> who he said came with about 40 people to attack his family.
>
> MUSA FAMILY: WE WERE ATTACKED
>
> July 11, 2000
>
> Zëri on page five carried the story of Sadik Musaj, who claims to have
> thrown a grenade at the Haradinaj brothers, who he said came with about
> 40 people to attack his family.
>
> "It was about 0100 hours, I was at that moment in the bathroom. One
> brother was awake, while the other part of the family was asleep. They
> came with 10-15 vehicles, there were 7-8 jeeps and other vehicles. One
> jeep had Tirana license plates; there was also a red Audi. There were
> about 40 people. They came from all directions through both gates and
> over the wall. Ramush Haradinaj was the first, accompanied by Daut,
> Lieutenant Idriz Balaj, Faton Mehmetaj, the self-proclaimed chief of
> security for Dukagjin area. A brother saw them from inside and told us
> to wake up because we are
> surrounded by the KPC. I was only half-dressed and I came out the door.
> Ramush directed the laser weapon at me and told me: 'Don't move or you
> and your family will be liquidated,' then Daut and the Lieutenant
> reacted and together with Faton Mehmetaj and Bekim Zekaj, they
> surrounded me."
>
> "I considered myself dead, but I knew that someone from my family was
> killed, because the automatic weapons hit the windows. At the moment I
> had revolvers and automatic weapons on my head. I took the grenade the
> Lieutenant held in his hand, and he was left with the ring. I quickly
> went backwards, Bekim Zeka (Daut's bodyguard) directed his weapon at me.
> I removed his hand quickly; the bullets hit the wall and I jumped
> quickly on the other side, I hided behind the car and threw the bomb. It
> was a matter of seconds. The bomb exploded near the chair and from its
> explosion Ramush, Daut and others were wounded, who are probably being
> treated privately. Then there was a lot of firing from automatic weapons
> and different arms, and another bomb exploded. All this lasted two
> hours. My brother jumped from the stairs and scuffled with one of them,
> took his automatic weapon. He had a revolver in his hand and after a
> scuffle he luckily escaped. Then they started to withdraw. Later they
> withdrew the wounded with much difficulty. During all this time, the
> firing never stopped from both sides. Then, I came to the street to stop
> somebody to inform KFOR and UNMIK. First came UNMIK and later KFOR. This
> lasted from 0100 to 0300 hours. When people from UNMIK came, they
> verified the event, saw the blood of the wounded and somewhere they
> found the official permit of Ramush. After the search, they verified the
> blood was theirs and that we were attacked in our yard," said Musaj.
>
> As for the reasons of this attack, Musaj explained: "My brother, Sinan
> Musaj, was a member of the Bukoshi Army. KLA members abducted him
> together with Rexhe Osaj, Bashkim Balaj, Rame Idrizi and Vesel Muriqi on
> 24 June of last year. Only Vesel managed to escape from Ratish. He made
> detailed statements to UNMIK and KFOR on who made the 'arrest'. After
> the event, we immediately informed the Italian Carabinieris, KFOR,
> UNMIK, and political parties. KFOR investigated, for example in Ratish.
> They checked a couple of wells, even experts of The Hague were there.
> After the 'arrest' of these soldiers, among them our brother, these
> families went to Ramush's father, including our father and uncles, but
> Ramush's father said he was not
> interested, and that 'if you have any business, you should address my
> sons'. He said that nobody asked him for these things. We were at
> Ramush's family two days before the event, and he didn't want to speak
> about this case. Our elders told Ramush's father that our sons were
> fighting against the Serbs and it is not important whose soldiers they
> were. Our brother, Ismet Musaj, was in Dubrava prison, where he was
> wounded during the Serb massacre when 160 people were killed, and then
> he was in Pozarevac prison, from where he returned a month and a half
> ago. We were all in Switzerland and contributed with money and other
> things. During the war our father and one brother were here. At this
> time, when we could hardly wait to be liberated, Ramush Haradinaj comes
> and attacks us at one in the morning, in the presence of ten women and
> children".
---
> Transcript of an article published in yesterday's Bota Sot, taken from
> the Albanian magazine Tema, which claims to uncover secret documents of
> the KLA Secret Service. The paper also provides facsimiles of some
> documents
>
> BOTA SOT - Kosovo Albanian Daily
>
> July 11, 2000
>
> KLA SECRET SERVICE PERSECUTED ALBANIAN POLITICIANS
>
> The so-called secret service of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) seems
> to have persecuted a list of politicians and renowned names from Albania
> and Kosovo, who were regarded as an impediment to its takeover of the
> armed movement in Kosovo. A series of documents discovered a few months
> ago in the house of one of the heads of the former secret service of the
> KLA, provide evidences of execution lists and a scheme of persecution of
> Albanian opposition politicians in Tirana and people close to Rugova in
> Pristina.
>
> The list contains names of 15 principle authorities of the opposition in
> Albania, politicians, journalists and people with influence in the
> Democratic League of Kosovo, headed by Ibrahim Rugova.
>
> The coded list is compiled according to precise rules of a secret
> service. First, the list is compiled in one copy and the following
> subject has a code which corresponds to pseudonyms of the monitors who
> are coded with the name "eagle". On the other side, the coded names of
> subsequent persons have a corresponding pseudonym in Albanian with a
> word determined by the KLA Secret Service.
>
> List no. 7, for example, is a list joining the pseudonym of a person to
> combinations of people who follow him. List no. 8, has only the code of
> the followed person, which is explained in the list no. 7. On the other
> side, different persons kept both lists and it as very difficult for
> different persons to know everything about the list.
>
> In the list coded as "List no. 7", the pseudonyms of the persons of the
> subjects are given. For example, Ibrahim Rugova "the scarf", Sali
> Berisha "Zani", Azem Hajdari "the democrat" etc. This list was given to
> people who were following them, but not the complete one (?) The
> complete facsimile was signed by Bislim Zyrapi, chief of KLA Secret
> Service.
>
> At least three persons from that list were executed, while another was
> heavily wounded. The reasons might not be directly linked to this
> activity, but at least in two cases, in the murder of Enver Maloku and
> journalist Ali Ukaj, it seems that this mysterious illegal organization
> is involved. Documents which came to our office from sources close to
> persons who on behalf of KFOR confiscated a house of a senior KLA
> official in Pristina, make believable the assumptions that this
> organization was getting even with its political opponents in Kosovo,
> where Enver Maloku and Sabri Hamiti were the main ones. In addition, the
> murder case of Ali Ukaj, one of the first KLA activists who didn't
> accept the KLA to be taken under the control of the Albanian Secret
> Services (SHIK) in Tirana, is also clear. Consequences of this policy
> were very grave. The Albanian resistance was weakened and the risk of an
> eventual civil conflict as present. The armed people, on behalf of the
> KLA, used military might against their political opponents, by
> preventing in a way, a perfect military organization in Kosovo and a
> serious, dignified preparation for war.
>
>
> -----------------------
> ANNEX:
> -----------------------
>
> June 25, 1999
> NEWS YORK TIMES
>
> Kosovo's Rebels Accused of Executions in the Ranks
>
> By CHRIS HEDGES
>
>
> he senior commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who have a signed
> agreement with NATO to disarm, carried out assassinations, arrests and
> purges within their ranks to thwart potential rivals, say current and
> former commanders in the rebel army and some Western diplomats.
>
> The campaign, in which as many as half a dozen top rebel commanders were
> shot dead, was directed by Hashim Thaci and two of his lieutenants, Azem
> Syla and Xhavit Haliti, these officials said. Thaci denied through a
> spokesman that he had been responsible for any killings.
>
> Although the United States has long been wary of the KLA, the rebel
> group has become the main ethnic Albanian power in Kosovo. Rebel
> commanders supplied NATO with target information during the bombing
> campaign. Now, after the war, the United States and other NATO powers
> have effectively made Thaci and the KLA partners in rebuilding Kosovo.
> The agreement NATO signed with Thaci, for example, envisions turning the
> KLA into a civilian police force and leaves open the possibility that
> the KLA could become a provisional army modeled on the U.S. National
> Guard.
>
> While none of the KLA officials interviewed saw Thaci or his aides
> execute anyone, they recounted, and in some cases said they had
> witnessed, incidents in which Thaci's rivals had been killed shortly
> after he or one of his aides had threatened them with death.
>
> "When the war started, everyone wanted to be the chief," said Rifat
> Haxhijaj, 30, a former lieutenant in the Yugoslav army who left the
> rebel movement last September and now lives in Switzerland. "For the
> leadership, this was never just a war against Serbs -- it was also a
> struggle for power."
>
> Thaci's representative in Switzerland, Jashae Salihu, denied accounts of
> assassinations. "These kind of reports are untrue," he said. "Neither
> Thaci nor anyone else from the KLA is involved in this kind of activity.
> Our goal has been to establish a free Kosovo and nothing more."
>
> The accusations of assassinations and purges were made in interviews
> with about a dozen former and current Kosovo Liberation Army officials,
> two of whom said they had witnessed executions of Thaci's rivals; a
> former senior diplomat for the Albanian government; a former police
> official in the Albanian government who worked with the rebel group, and
> several Western diplomats.
>
> But the State Department Wednesday challenged some aspects of these
> accounts. "We simply don't have information to substantiate allegations
> that there was a KLA-leadership-directed program of assassinations or
> executions," James Rubin, the State Department spokesman, said.
>
> Rubin said he could not exclude the possibility that the rebel leaders
> were somehow tied to the killings. But he said department officials had
> checked a wide range of sources in the past 24 hours and could not
> confirm the accusations.
>
> A senior State Department official and a Western diplomat in the
> Balkans, citing intelligence reports and extensive contacts with KLA
> officials inside and outside Kosovo, said they were aware of executions
> of middle-grade officers suspected of collaborating with the Serbs, but
> said they had no evidence to link those killings with Thaci.
>
> The Western diplomat in the Balkans said, however, that Thaci is
> legendary in the region for ruthless tactics.
>
> "Thaci has engaged in some pretty rough intimidation" of officials in a
> rival party, the diplomat said, "but none of them have been killed." He
> added: "There have been detentions, and the victims allege beatings. We
> cannot prove that. Thaci, according to them, was in charge of the team
> that detained them and was in charge of the interrogation and personally
> threatened them.
>
> "Thaci has a reputation for being pretty tough," the diplomat continued.
> "Haliti and Syla are not known for their sweet tempers. This is a rough
> neighborhood, and intimidation and assassinations happen."
>
> Former and current KLA officials also charge that a campaign of
> assassinations was carried out in close cooperation with the Albanian
> government, which often placed agents from the Albanian secret police at
> the disposal of the rebel commanders.
>
> Rubin said the State Department did not have any information to suggest
> that the KLA leadership directed an execution program in conjunction
> with the Albanian security services.
>
> The Western diplomat in the Balkans said he knew of at least two
> Albanian secret police officers who were fighting with the KLA. "The two
> officers are brigade or battalion commanders, and they've been in the
> field fighting," the diplomat said. "They're volunteers from Albania."
>
> Albania has long waged a campaign to unite with Kosovo, a Serbian
> province where Albanians are in the majority. Such unification was
> briefly achieved during Fascist occupation in World War II and was held
> out as a goal by radical groups financed and backed by Tirana in the
> later part of the century.
>
> Indeed, the close relationship between Thaci and the Tirana government,
> which has a reputation for corruption and has been linked by Western
> diplomats to drug trafficking, is one of the factors that disillusioned
> many former fighters who were interviewed in Germany, Switzerland and
> Albania. The fighters said they had fought to create a more Western,
> democratic state, free from Albanian influence and control.
>
> The Albanian minister of information, Musa Ulqini, said that there was
> "never any violation of our constitutional law." He added: "The Albanian
> government has relations with all of the political and military forces
> in Kosovo, but it insists that these forces unite and speak with one
> voice."
>
> Two former rebel leaders and a former Albanian police official,
> interviewed in Tirana, said that Haliti, who is officially Thaci's
> ambassador to Albania, was working in Kosovo with 10 secret police
> agents from Albania to form an internal security network that would be
> used to silence dissenters in Kosovo.
>
> Thaci, 30, has named a government, with himself as prime minister, and
> denounced Ibrahim Rugova, who for nearly a decade was the self-styled
> president of Kosovo and ran a successful campaign of nonviolent protest
> after the Serbs stripped Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989.
>
> Thaci has long ties to radical groups that called for the violent
> overthrow of the government in Belgrade. He joined a clandestine
> organization known as the Kosovo Popular Movement that existed on the
> fringes of Pristina University.
>
> The group was financed and backed by the Stalinist dictator of Albania,
> Enver Hoxha, until his death in 1985. Its members, including Syla, whom
> Thaci appointed his defense minister, and Haliti have become the core of
> the leadership that dominates the Kosovo Liberation Army.
>
> Violence has long swirled around Thaci, whose nom de guerre was Snake.
>
> In June 1997, in an incident that many in the underground guerrilla
> movement found ominous, a Kosovar Albanian reporter who had close links
> with the movement was found dead in his apartment in Tirana, his face
> disfigured by repeated stabbings with a screwdriver and the butt end of
> a broken bottle.
>
> The reporter, Ali Uka, was supportive of the rebel movement, but he was
> also independent enough to criticize it. At the time of his death, he
> was sharing his apartment with Thaci.
>
> Thaci inspired fear and respect in his home base of the central Drenica
> region in Kosovo as he organized armed units and carried out ambushes
> against Serbian policemen. In the early days of the rebel uprising, in
> March 1998, Thaci moved about from his hometown of Broja in a small
> compact car with a few bodyguards and wore an unadorned camouflage
> uniform.
>
> There were persistent reports at the time that he personally carried out
> executions of Kosovar Albanians whom he had branded as traitors or
> collaborators, but no witnesses have surfaced.
>
> Thaci was involved, along with Haliti, in arms smuggling from
> Switzerland in the years before the 1998 uprising, say current and
> former senior rebel commanders.
>
> Thaci and Haliti both have wives and children in Switzerland, although
> Haliti has formed a new family in Tirana, where he has a large villa and
> close links with senior government leaders, say former and current rebel
> officials in Albania.
>
> When the uprising began, and money and volunteers flooded into Albania
> from the 700,000 Kosovar Albanians living in Europe, Thaci and Haliti
> found themselves in charge of thousands of fighters and tens of millions
> of dollars.
>
> The arms smuggling mushroomed into a huge operation that saw trucks
> loaded with weapons, most bought from Albanian officials, headed for KLA
> camps on the border. By the war's end, former and current KLA officials
> estimate, the KLA. paid $50 million to Albanian officials for weapons
> and ammunition.
>
> In April 1998, a KLA commander who transported many of the weapons, Ilir
> Konushevci, was ambushed and killed on the road outside Tropoja in
> northern Albania. A few days earlier, in a heated meeting with senior
> commanders, he had accused Haliti of misusing funds, according to
> commanders who were present.
>
> The commander had charged that Haliti was buying boxes of grenades at $2
> apiece and charging the movement $7 for each grenade. The killing,
> although it took place in a rebel-controlled region in northern Albania,
> was blamed on the Serbs.
>
> Other killings of rebel commanders and political rivals ascribed to
> Thaci are attributed to a struggle to consolidate control and eliminate
> potential challengers.
>
> "Cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci's career," said Bujar
> Bukoshi, the prime minister in exile in Rugova's administration, which
> is often at odds with the KLA. One Western diplomat, citing intelligence
> reports, said that Thaci planned an unsuccessful assassination attempt
> on Bukoshi last May. "Thaci has a single goal and that is to promote
> himself, to be No. 1," Bukoshi said.
>
> As the rebels suffered reverses on the battlefield in the summer and
> fall of 1998, in large part due to inexperience and a lack of central
> command, they turned to Kosovar Albanians who had served in the former
> Yugoslav army.
>
> The most experienced was a former colonel named Ahmet Krasniqi who had
> organized some 600 former officers, most living in Switzerland and
> Germany, to join the fight. Krasniqi had surrendered his garrison in
> Gospic, Croatia, in 1991 rather than defend Slobodan Milosevic's regime
> in Belgrade.
>
> Krasniqi had the blessing of Bukoshi, who allowed him to pass on $4.5
> million to the KLA raised by Rugova's administration. He swiftly set up
> training camps in the border region and formed special units. Bukoshi
> named him commander of a rival military structure known as the Armed
> Forces of the Kosovo Republic. The effort to join the armed struggle was
> a belated attempt by the Rugova administration, which had swiftly lost
> political support in Kosovo, to regain credibility by playing a role in
> the "liberation" of the Serbian province.
>
> Thaci and Haliti accepted the money and the trained volunteers,
> integrating them into KLA units, but began to thwart Krasniqi's attempt
> to build an independent military force. In June 1998 the KLA, which
> controlled the border, began to divert or block arms being taken over
> the mountain to these rival units fighting around Pec and Decane. As
> tensions rose, Thaci and the Albanian authorities decided to eliminate
> Krasniqi, according to former rebel commanders and two former Albanian
> officials interviewed in Tirana.
>
> They said that in the middle of September 1998, Albanian police stopped
> Krasniqi and several aides and confiscated their weapons. Krasniqi's
> office in Tirana was raided by about 50 policemen and emptied of guns
> and munitions. On Sept. 21 at 11 p.m. on the way back from a restaurant
> in Tirana, Krasniqi ran into a police checkpoint about 300 yards from
> his office, according to a former KLA commander who was with Krasniqi.
> Krasniqi and his two companions were again frisked for weapons, and
> their vehicle was searched. The two cars behind Krasniqi, which carried
> aides, were not allowed through the checkpoint.
>
> When Krasniqi and his two companions got out of their gray Opal jeep
> they saw three men emerge from the shadows with black hoods over their
> faces. The men, speaking in an Albanian accent that distinguished them
> from Kosovar Albanians, ordered the two men with Krasniqi down on the
> ground.
>
> "Which one is it?" asked one of the gunmen, according to one of the
> commanders who was prone on the asphalt.
>
> "The one in the middle," said another. The gunmen, who held a pistol a
> few inches from Krasniqi's head, fired a shot. He then fired two more
> shots into Krasniqi's head once he fell onto the pavement.
>
> American officials also had reports that the KLA killed Krasniqi, but
> said there were also subsequent, conflicting reports from the region
> that he was killed by disaffected members of his own unit.
>
> After Krasniqi's death, former KLA commanders said, the killings, purges
> and arrests accelerated. KLA police, dressed in distinctive black
> fatigues, threw into detention anyone who appeared hostile to Thaci.
> Many of these people were beaten.
>
> One commander, Blerim Kuci, was taken away in October 1998 to a KLA jail
> and hauled before a revolutionary court. He was held for weeks on
> charges that he was a Serb collaborator and then suddenly released in
> the face of a large Serb offensive and allowed to rejoin the fight.
>
> "I saw an accused collaborator tried before a revolutionary court and
> then tied to the back of a car in Glodjane and dragged through the
> streets until he died," said a former KLA officer in Albania, who asked
> not to be identified. A senior State Department official and a Western
> diplomat in the Balkans confirmed this account.
>
> As NATO bombs fell on Kosovo this April, two more outspoken commanders,
> Agim Ramadani, a captain in the former Yugoslav army, and Sali Ceku,
> were killed, each in an alleged Serb ambush.
>
> Although a former senior rebel officer in Tirana said that Thaci was
> responsible, a Western diplomat contends that that Ceku was killed by a
> Serb sniper. He said that his contacts indicated that Ramadani was
> killed in battle, but those contacts did not mention an ambush, or
> politically related killing, in either case.
>
> The former KLA officer said, however, that rebel officials had told Ceku
> that he and his lieutenant Tahir Zemaj should leave the movement, but
> the stubborn Ceku had refused to depart. Zemaj, however, fled to
> Germany. "Tahir knew they were serious, and he got out," said the
> officer said. "Sali stayed, and he was killed."
>
---
INTRAETHNIC ALBANIAN CONFLICT BEGINS
PRISTINA, July 10 (Tanjug) Ramush Haradinaj, who has been
wounded
and transfered to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, is the third most
important figure in the ethnic Albanian terrorist organization, the
socalled Kosovo Liberation Army, after Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku, and
he
is the leader of the thirdbiggest party of Kosovo Albanians.
Representatives of the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK in Pristina
and
the international force KFOR on Monday again failed to give any details
about this latest incident, in which Haradinaj was wounded, but the
facts
are gradually being revealed to the Pristina public.
The general conclusion here is that Haradinaj was wounded in a
conflict among Kosovo Albanians with a definite political and criminal
background.
Regarding political reasons, experts on the situation in
Pristina
and elsewhere in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province claim it is a
wellknown fact that there is rivalry between Thaci and Haradinaj. Both
men
are trying to impose themselves as leaders of Kosovo Albanians. It was
just
a matter of time when their dislike of each other would culminate.
The sources said the criminal background was the rivalry
between
certain bands of Kosovo Albanians not only concerning a division of the
spoils from smuggling drugs, weaponry, automobiles and many other
things,
but also concerning control over smuggling routes into and through this
province.
Intraethnic Albanian conflicts are something new in Kosovo and
Metohija, in addition to ethnic Albanian terrorist actions against the
KFOR.
It is evident that the announced elections are a good
opportunity
for ethnic Albanian extremists and terrorists to legalize even further
their criminal activities in the province. And in all the chaos,
everyone
is trying to get something for themselves.
---
UCK-Gangster als Volksheld und großer Politiker
(von Rainer Rupp)
Am Dienstag eröffeneten UCK-Terroristen im amerikanischen Sektor des
Kosovo mit automatischen Waffen aus einem vorbeifahrenden Auto das Feuer
auf einen orthodoxen serbischen Priester und zwei Seminaristen, die ihn
begleiteten. Alle drei wurden später schwer verletzt am Straßenrand
gefunden. Pflichtgemäß zeigte sich der umstrittene UNMIK-Chef und
Serbophobe Bernard Kouchner von dem Mordanschlag "auf den religiösen
Mann" geschockt wobei er jedoch sofort wieder Worte fand um die Aktion
der UCK "moralisch" zu relativieren: Es sei nicht hinnehmbar, daß "diese
Art von Rachemord ein Ersatz für die Gerechtigkeit ist". ("Serb priest
wounded in Kosovo drive-by shooting", PRISTINA, Yugoslavia Reuters Jul
12 2000 1:56PM ET)
Für Kuchner scheint es jedoch nicht mehr erwähnenswert, wenn - wie am
Montag geschehen - einer der letzten, im albanischen Teil Mitrovicas
verbliebenen Serben vor seinem Haus halb tot geschlagen aufgefunden
wurde. Vier Albaner waren bei im eingedrungen, hatten ihn nach draußen
geschleift und als abschreckendes Beispiel für alle anderen Serben
schwer verletzt liegen gelassen. Mit Schädelbasisbruch wurde er
schließlich ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert. ("Serb Severely Beaten in
Albanian Area of Divided Kosovo Town", BELGRADE, Jul 12, 2000 - Agence
France Presse. Wen wundert es da, wenn sich die serbische Minderheit im
Norden der geteilten Stadt vehement gegen die von den Albanern verlangte
"Freizügigkeit in der ganzen Stadt" zur Wehr setzt.
Inzwischen gibt der Mord von Sadri Xhekaj, einem bekannten
UCK-Terrorist, Anlaß zu neuen Spekulationen über einen Bandenkampf
innerhalb der UCK. Der Bericht der UNO-Polizei im Kosovo vom Mittwoch
dieser Woche liest sich wie folgt: "Ein albanischer Mann wurde von einem
anderen, der Polizei bekannten albanischen Mann mit einem AK-47
Sturmgewehr ermordet, als er auf der Terrasse eines Restaurants saß. Der
Verdächtige näherte sich dem Opfer und stellte ihm eine Frage. Dann
feuerte er drei Schüsse auf das Opfer ab. Niemand sonst wurde verletzt."
Sadri Xhekaj, der mit dem ehemaligen stellvertretenden Kommandeur des
Kosovo-Schutz-Korps und Bandenchef Ramush Haradinaj eng befreundet war,
war sofort tot.
Der Zwischenfall geschah um die Mittagszeit in Decani, im Südwesten des
Kosovo. In der als Schmuggel- und Banditenzentrum bekannten Region ist
anscheinend ein offener Krieg zwischen unterschiedlichen UCK-Klans um
die kriminelle Vorherrschaft und ihre Pfründe ausgebrochen. Ramush
Haradinaj, der im Mai die Partei "Allianz für die Zukunft des Kosovo"
gegründet hatte, liegt zur Zeit im US-Army-Krankenhaus im bayerischen
Landshut, wohin ihn seine fürsorglichen amerikanischen Freunden zu einer
schwierigen Operation ausgeflogen hatten. Letztes Wochenende war er bei
einem Versuch, mit Hilfe seiner Bande ein Mitglied eines rivalisierenden
Klans zu kidnappen, bei einer Schießerei verwundet worden war. Der
Überfall auf das Haus von Sadik Musaj, Anführer des befeindeten
Familienklans, fand letzten Freitag in Streoc statt, etwa fünf Kilometer
nördlich von Decani, wo am Dienstag Haradinajs Freund auf der
Restaurantterrasse erschossen wurde.
Bezeichnend für den respektvollen Umgang der NATO und UNMIK mit den
UCK-Gangstern und Terroristen sind die Berichte westliche
Nachrichtenagenturen, die den Gangsterboß Ramush Haradinaj als
"Volksheld" beschreiben. AFP behauptet sogar, daß "westliche Beobachter
ihm (Haradinaj) eine große Zukunft in der Kosovo-Politik vorausgesagt"
hätten. ("Ally of injured political leader shot dead in Kosovo",
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Thursday, July 13 2:20 AM SGT , original Source,
AFP, 12 2000, AFP) Die Tatsache, daß Haradinaj im Mai in mehrere
Auseinandersetzungen und Kämpfe mit russischen Kosovo-Truppen verwickelt
war, in deren Folge es zu einer Reihe von Gewehrfeuer-, Granaten- und
Raketenangriffen auf russische Basen kam, scheint dabei nicht zu zählen.
("Kosovo Leader Flown to Germany As Plot Thickens", by Andrew Gray,
STREOC, Yugoslavia, Reuters, Sunday July 9 10:31 AM ET
Der Fall ist für die NATO besonders brisant, weil er für die
bevorstehenden lokalen Wahlen das Gespenst bewaffneter
Auseinandersetzungen zwischen verschiedenen ethnisch-albanischen Gruppen
heraufbeschwört. Allerdings ist es unwahrscheinlich, daß die K-FOR
Ramush Haradinaj wegen des bewaffneten Überfalls und des
Kidnappingversuchs von Sadik Musaj verhaften wird. Die Gefahr, dadurch
womöglich einen lokalen Aufstand der UCK gegen die NATO zu provozieren,
ist zu groß.
Saarbrücken den 13.7.00
---
SULLA PROTEZIONE OFFERTA DALL'ESERCITO USA AL TERRORISTA HARADINAJ:
http://www.hq.c5.army.mil/News/archives99/sep99/bondsteel.htm
Subject: [stopnato] [TW] The 67th Combat Support Hospital to
have new page soon!
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 20:54:59 -0400
From: "ES LaPorte - Abolish NATO! Webmaster"
Dear friends :
I am pleased to announce that the 67th Combat Support Hospital and its
star patient, Ramush
Haradinaj, will soon have a new home page.
The 67th Combat Support Hospital, as of now, does not have it's own web
page and neither does
Ramush Haradinaj.
But that will change. . .
In the next week you can watch their homepage - which will have its own
guestbook soon, go up
at the URL below.
I feel that as an American, it is important that the public see just how
their tax money is being
spent funding the Kosovo mission and helping poor unfortunates like
Kosovo Albanian "leader"
Ramush Haradinaj .
There are millions of Americans without access to basic heath care, but
the 67th Combat Support
Hospital's efforts at helping poor unfortunate Mr. Haradinaj, should
show the American people
that there are some more important things, like helping Kosovo mobsters
recover from the results
of their criminal behaviors.
http://www.abolishnato.com/medical.care.for.KLA.mobsters.htm
Watch this page go up and KFOR, NATO, the United States Army and mostly
the 67th Combat
Support Hospital, will be proud!!!
Perhaps Americans and "our NATO allies" would want to donate more for
this cause!
-
http://www.abolishnato.com/KLA.mobsters.care.htm
http://www.abolishnato.com/PAIN,and.OUTRAGE.htm
http://nettoilet/users.com/bondsteelmed/
http://nettoilet.com/users/bondsteelmed/poor.mobster.htm
-
Article from the Bondsteel Med site - spoof of real article from Army
News Service!
Have a good laugh!
Combat Support Hospital accomplishes mission of cleaning up KLA members
after feuds, not
guilty about it.
by Cpl. Chris DeHart
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (Army News Service, Aug. 30, 1999) -- While the
67th Combat
Support Hospital here relies on medical evacuation units to transport
anyone in a state of medical
emergency, they are a means to an end, with the end being decided on the
trauma tables of the
CSH emergency room. This is what make the mission of NATO's KFOR proud.
Americans,
although some have no access to basic health, can feel proud that their
US government and
military is expending money and manpower providing scott-free health to
KLA mobsters like
Ramush Haradinaj, under the KFOR mission.
"Our main goal is saving lives, especially those of good natured, KLA
mobsters, like Ramush
Haradinaj. We try to get the patient stable enough, in the case of
international patients, to have
the host nation facilities take care of them until they are well again.
The majority of patients we've
seen have been Kosovar, as they have more favor than even our own
American citizens back
home, under orders of Secretary General Lord Robertson," said Maj.
Jimmie Keenan, chief nurse,
after a not-so-typical busy morning. The workload that morning included
four trauma patients,
two being closed head injuries, as well as sick call patients. Even the
sick call patients must wait
until the staff is through attending to Kosovar Albanians patients.
Keenan explained that although they can handle a lot of different
trauma, such as chest or
abdomen, head injuries are beyond their current ability and are referred
to either Pristina or Skopje.
Recently, the Camp Bondsteel facility saved and gave free aid to Ramush
Haradinaj, a KLA
mobster who's criminal activity got him quite beat up.
"We average one to two trauma patients a day. We are approaching our
50th trauma patient since
the hospital opened July 14. A lot of this is due to Kosovo simply not
having the level of care for
dealing with trauma patients in this sector. Also, the civilian
hospitals in Gnjilane, Urosevac, and
in some other areas (of Kosovo) have trouble getting the supplies
necessary to handle the number
of patients requiring treatment," Keenan said. "We know that there are
many Americans without
access to basic health care, but we here at KFOR, as well as our
Secretary General Lord
Robertson and the 67th Support Combat Hospital feel that the Kosovar
Albanians come first, so
they do."
"So what," she went on to state. " I would rather be here than in
America. If some Americans
cannot get care and suffer in pain, Ramush Haradinaj is a nice talkative
fellow and is more
deserving of free health care than most Americans. After all, HE is
liberating his country, and it is
NATO, KFOR's and the 67th's mission to aid them if - well - they get
hurt. So - the best doctors
nedd - no must - be part of the KFOR mission, not wasted in Germany or
America."
The team can't rest after the emergency room is clear of patients,
according to Keenan. Whether
they get sent to the operating room or transferred to another facility,
the trauma teams must
immediately prepare for whoever may come through the door next. There is
triage, but preference
is given to Kosovo "Liberation Army" members over civilian Ablanians,
and over Serbs. "The KLA
members are even given preference over our own American citizens,"
Keenan said, with a smile.
"Although we haven't had to work on many of our own soldiers, you never
know if the next patient
coming in will be one of ours, and we have to be ready," she said.
According to Keenan, there are four trauma bays within the ER fully
equipped and staffed with
trauma teams. Each team consists of a physician, a registered nurse, a
licensed practical nurse, a
medic and either a nurse anesthetist or a respiratory therapy
technician. All for the benefit of our
KLA allies, espically cleaning up after the blood feuds. This is NATO
ans KFOR's policy."
Medic Spc. Jacob Rusk said this is drastically different from what he
did in the rear -- an
instructor for setting up deployable hospitals.
"I went from setting up hospitals to helping run a trauma table for the
our KLA mobster allies. It is
a very drastic change but good experience," Rusk said. "I used to be
just a front-line medic, but
now I hold my own with the doctors, nurses and technicians and mobsters.
I have seen more and
done more than any other (medic) has, for being in a non-combat
situation. I really did like serving
Mr. Haradinaj, he was so nice and talkative." As far as America's - and
NATO's -concern with
putting Kosovar Albanians, giving them free treatment while some
American suffer without
access to any health care, Spc. Rusk replied with a grim, "So what,
screw 'em, the Kosovar
Albanians come first, that is NATO's policy and it is a good one."
(Editor's note: DeHart is a propagandist with the Task Force Falcon
Public Affairs Office.)
Bondsteel Med.
The one, only and official homepage of the
Camp Bondsteel Medical Facility!
www.abolishnato.com/KLA.mobsters.care.htm
-
Dear friends :
I have just gotten off the phone with the Senate Relations Committee
in International Relations.
When I asked why US military personal were being used to treat KLA
narcoterrorists
for their injuries, when there are a lot of medical charities that could
take care of these scumb -bags, I was "blown off!"
This was even after I pointed out that I had served in the US military -
and that I - an American citizen - have NO access
to the same medical care!
The Committee headed by Jessie Helms.
450 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel. (1) 202 - 224-4651
Fax. (1) 202 - 228-1339
And if anybody has can dig up the e-mails on Mr. Helms.
ES LaPorte
"Abolish NATO!" Webmaster
www.abolishnato.com
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
-
Mr. Ramush Haradinaj injured during Incident
in Pec Region
Mr. Ramush Haradinaj, a KLA narcoterrorist, was injured during
an blood feuding brawl in Pec region last night. Details of
the incident are still sketchy at this time, But what is know is
that this criminal is recieving FREE medical care from the
smokin' - jokin' - tokin' bunch of cigar-loving Harvard grads at
the 67th CSH.
Mr. Haradinaj requested medical assistance earlier in the day.
The man was intoxicated and fell and hurt his poor head. A
KFOR Italian helicopter was dispatched to bring Haradinaj to
Camp Bondsteel.
He arrived around 2:30 p.m. and is currently receiving a medical
evaluation at the Combat Support hospital, this despite
the fact that American citizens have NO access to the same level
of care as this narcoterrorist! As of 4 p.m. KFOR US
Medical officials reported that Haradinaj is being treated for a
two-inch (2") laceration that is not considered life
threatening.
These same KFOR US medical doctors, if here in the US, in a US
hospital, would refuse to give the same to their own
citizens. Narcopimps DOES pay.
KFOR Online Editorial Note: Mr. Ramush Haradinaj is a former
narcoterrorist of the Kosovo "Liberation Army" (KLA) of
the Rrafshi i Dukagjinit area, and the current leader of the
"AAK" - a political party in Kosovo., another gang of outlaw
blood feuding scumb. Also Mr. Ramush Haradinaj has been warned,
through a supporter living in England, to stay on the
Eastern side of the stupid Atlantic, as he would be safer in
Kosovo than in America!
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
"CHI E' PIU' OPPORTUNISTA DI ME?"
Il signor Ismail Kadare, ex-comunista sotto Hoxha, ex-dissidente,
ex-socialista democratico dopo "la svolta", ex-liberista sostenitore di
Berisha, sempre e comunque considerato "voce" rappresentativa
dell'Albania e di tutti gli albanesi nel carosello mediatico
occidentale, si presenta adesso ufficialmente come sostenitore della
occupazione coloniale della sua terra. Sull'intervento straniero nei
Balcani dice: "Noi albanesi lo vogliamo e lo riteniamo una possibilita'
per noi. L'arbitrato internazionale nei Balcani per noi non rappresenta
un problema."
E cosa potra' mai rappresentare un problema per il signor Kadare, che
vive da tempo immemorabile in esilio dorato a Parigi? Mica deve andare
dal dottore o mandare i figli a scuola in qualche disastrato borgo
agricolo dei Balcani meridionali, lui!
(fonte: intervista alla Reuters, 9/7/2000)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Il signor Ismail Kadare, ex-comunista sotto Hoxha, ex-dissidente,
ex-socialista democratico dopo "la svolta", ex-liberista sostenitore di
Berisha, sempre e comunque considerato "voce" rappresentativa
dell'Albania e di tutti gli albanesi nel carosello mediatico
occidentale, si presenta adesso ufficialmente come sostenitore della
occupazione coloniale della sua terra. Sull'intervento straniero nei
Balcani dice: "Noi albanesi lo vogliamo e lo riteniamo una possibilita'
per noi. L'arbitrato internazionale nei Balcani per noi non rappresenta
un problema."
E cosa potra' mai rappresentare un problema per il signor Kadare, che
vive da tempo immemorabile in esilio dorato a Parigi? Mica deve andare
dal dottore o mandare i figli a scuola in qualche disastrato borgo
agricolo dei Balcani meridionali, lui!
(fonte: intervista alla Reuters, 9/7/2000)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
