THE 2004 KOSOVO POGROMS ONE YEAR LATER
1. Marking of the anniversary of the March pogrom against Serbs in
Kosovo-Metohija in Italy
2. Flashback: KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
3. Flashback: NATO peacekeepers 'unable' to keep lid on violence in
Kosovo ?!
MORE DOCUMENTS:
Pro Memoria: Pogrom on Kosovo – a year after
Do you remember this event?
(APIS Group - Kosovo & Metohija)
http://www.apisgroup.org/article.html?id=2400
One year after March pogrom dark shaddow still hovers above Kosovo
(ERP KiM Newsletter 17-03-05)
GO TO THE SITE TO SEE MANY IMPRESSIVE IMAGES:
http://www.kosovo.com/news/archive/2005/March_17/1.html
=== 1 ===
[ Sulla iniziativa di Bari, descritta qui sotto, vedi:
https://www.cnj.it/INIZIATIVE/soskosovo.htm ]
http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/dogadjaji.php?id=1608#9809
Serbia Info - March 17, 2005
Marking of the anniversary of the March pogrom against
Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija in Italy
An exhibition of posters and photographs about the
condition of the Serb cultural heritage in
Kosovo-Metohija entitled “Endangered European Heritage
– Serb Cultural Heritage in Kosovo-Metohija, March
Pogrom 2004-2005” will be organised in Bari starting
on the anniversary of the tragic March events, running
in total from March 17-31.
The exhibition has been organised by ADIRT
(Association for the protection of monuments and rural
areas), Bari; Bridge for Belgrade, Bari; the Centre
for the preservation of the heritage in
Kosovo-Metohija – MNEMOSYNE, Belgrade; as well as
under the auspices of the University in Bari, the
Italian Ministry of Culture, the Puglia Archaeology
Department and the province and municipality of Bari.
A team of experts and representatives from the Serbian
side will be headed by Advisor to the Prime Minister
Aleksandar Simic, former long-time consul of
Serbia-Montenegro in Bari Dragan Mraovic, Director of
the Pristina Museum Branko Jokic and President of the
MNEMOSYNE Centre Mirjana Menkovic.
=== 2 ===
Da: Predrag Tosic
Data: Gio 25 Mar 2004 06:30:24 Europe/Rome
A: yugoslaviainfo @ yahoogroups.com
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] More on eradication of a people and its
history in Kosovo: KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
Subject: [srbija_medjusljivama] KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
Kosovo Polje Burned
"They burned my house after the houses of my three brothers were
already in flames. Then, while firing from machine guns and with
torches in their hands, they headed to burn the homes of brothers Dr.
Zoran and Ljubo Grujic, Milosevic and the other neighbors. When they
saw that the police could not stop them, they went to the nearby Health
Center and hospital where Russian physicians worked until a year ago
and razed them to the ground" -- stresses Bora Velickovic, the director
of the Medical School, adding that the nearby St. Sava Secondary School
was also burned to the ground, as well as the post office.
VECERNJE NOVOSTI daily, Belgrade
3/20/2004 1:24:30 PM
Novosti Team 3/19/2004, 7:07:38 PM
KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
A powerful explosion was heard in the afternoon hours in the center of
Kosovska Mitrovica. A mortar shell was fired from the southern,
Albanian part of the city but fortunately no one was injured. Only a
few minutes later, from the Three High-rises, where a sniper was
shooting at KFOR soldiers during the night - on that occasion a Danish
soldier was seriously wounded and according to unofficial information
has died of his wounds - a powerful detonation could be heard.
French soldiers used dynamite to break down the bulletproof door of the
apartment of one Albanian suspected of harboring the sniper. This was
followed by several powerful explosions in this part of the city. Only
hours earlier, rounds of gunfire could be heard coming from the
Albanian part of the city.
Before dawn the UNMIK administration withdrew from the UNMIK building
into the nearby military base of the French battalion. According to
spokesman Gyorgy Kakuk, this was done without explanation but judging
from events it was not unexpected. This administration had been located
in the southern part of the city, close to the bridge, the location
from where Albanians have been attacking in recent days. During the
course of the night, five morter shells were launched from that
direction which fell close to the Health Center where wounded Serbs
from other Kosovo enclaves are located.
EVERYING BURNED
In Kosovo Polje, the largest Serb settlement in Kosovo before the war,
there are no Serbs remaining - or Serb houses. During the night
everything was burned along with the grand Herzegovina Hotel used until
recently by officials of the UN civil mission. Kosovo Polje Serbs,
mainly old people, escaped to neighboring Bresje and Ugljare villages.
- They burned my house after the houses of my three brothers were
already in flames. Then, while firing from machine guns and with
torches in their hands, they headed to burn the homes of brothers Dr.
Zoran and Ljubo Grujic, Milosevic and the other neighbors. When they
saw that the police could not stop them, they went to the nearby Health
Center and hospital where Russian physicians worked until a year ago
and razed them to the ground - stresses Bora Velickovic, the director
of the Medical School, adding that the nearby St. Sava Secondary School
was also burned to the ground, as well as the post office.
- We had several patients in the hospital whom we barely managed to
pull out on stretchers. Armed men with masks attacked our staff. We
were lucky because at that exact moment a KFOR armored vehicle showed
up.
Despite everything that has happened we are determined to continue our
humanitarian work. We have moved to two Serb houses in the nearby
village of Ugljare - emphasizes Dr. Gradimir Lazic.
On the same night 20 Serb houses in the village of Milosevo, across the
way from Obilic, were burned and another 20 in Lazarevo near Gazimestan.
Thick smoke could be seen from the village of Svinjare where, according
to the latest information, all Serb houses have been burned and there
were more than 100 in the village.
The Serb village of Berisavce in Kosovsko Pomoravlje has also been
burned. Albanian terrorists did this under the cover of night, after a
part of KFOR withdrew to its base. It can be observed that they do not
dare launch bigger attacks on areas where U.S. marines are deployed
because they, along with the Greek and French soldiers, are offering
the greatest resistance.
U.S. marines stopped the movement of raging terrorists moving toward
Babin Most with the obvious intent of cleansing all Serb villages as
far as the administrative line with Serbia, having already finished
with Pristina, Obilic, Milosevo and Lazarevo.
HELPLESS EVACUATED
The attack of the Albanian extremists was also directed at Janina and
Crkvena Voda near Obilic. Before twilight the heads of household had
evacuated children, women and old people to Plemetina and Priluzje,
Serb villages near Obilic not protected by either soldiers or police
where locals have organized defense.
The attacks of Albanian extremists did not stop against many other
settlements in Kosovo and Metohija, either.
- Several hundred armed Albanians, under cover of night, headed toward
Gornja Bitinja, a village of 80 Serb houses near Strpce, under Mt. Sara.
The Serbs are resisting but there is still shooting going on. In the
meanwhile, yesterday morning, UNMIK police stopped seven armed
Albanians who were rushing toward the village - reported Jovica
Buduric, a member of the Crisis Headquarters.
While Albanian extremists were attacking the remaining Serbs in
Kosovska Vitina, who were evacuated around midnight to the villages of
Vrbovac and Klokot, the village of Kololec, with about 200 Serb houses,
remained completely besieged.
- In Vitina all Serb houses and shops have been destroyed, as well as
houses in the southern part of town. Here in Klokot Banja, KFOR
reinforcements have arrived and we have their promise that they will
protect us - said Stanko Stolic.|
At the same time the Diocese of Raska and Prizren reported that two
more Orthodox churches, located in Donja Slapasnica near Kosovska
Kamenica and Brnjak near Orahovac, were burned.
D. DAMJANOVIC
ATTACKED
Svinjare near Kosovska Mitrovica, Gojbulja, Plemetina, Janjine Vode and
Obilic, Bresje and Kosovo Polje, Lipljan, Staro Gracko, Dobrotin,
Kosovska Vitina, Kosovska Kamenica, Donja Bitinja near Strpce, Pristina
quarters inhabited by Serbs.
In the past two days, in addition to Kosovska Mitrovica, also attacked
were Vucitrnska Slatina, the Serb returnee villages near Pec - Belo
Polje, Bicha, Grabac - Prizren, where all six Serbian churches have
been burned along with the Seminary, Djakovica... On the first day
Caglavica and Kosovo Polje were attacked.
More than 7,000 Serbs have been expelled from more than 30 Serb
settlements in the last three days. [our emphasis]
HOLY SHRINES
Twenty churches and monasteries have been burned and more than 20 monks
and nuns expelled.
RELOCATED
In KFOR bases throughout Kosovo and Metohija there are presently more
than 1,500 Serbs expelled from all enclaves.
DEAD
In the last three days in Kosovo and Metohija eight members of KFOR
have been killed.
DON'T CRY, ANA!
Women, old people, children... These are the Serbs from the Kosovo
enclaves and today is the third day of their drama. They found
themselves in northern Kosovska Mitrovica on Wednesday morning, some
buying things, some at work, many seeking medical treatment. As of
today they have not managed to go back to their homes, if they still
exist.
They do not know what happened to their families and this worries them.
In the meanwhile, many of the villages from where they arrived by UN
convoy have already been evacuated.
ONLY TREPIDATION
- Five of my children stayed with my wife. Who knows what has happened
to them - says Milan Cerovac of Babin Most, barely ten kilometers away
from Pristina.
Veljko Nastic of Suvi Do came to Mitrovica for humanitarian aid;
someone had promised him flour. His eight children and wife stayed at
home. The youngest child is one year old, the oldest a 13 year-old boy.
- No one will answer our question what will become of us. And what will
become of them? No one wants to take the risk to return us to our homes.
There are five hundred people waiting to return to Gracanica,
Caglavica, Laplje Selo, Preoce, Strpce, Kosovo Polje, Lipljan,
Gusterica... Many do not know whether they have a place to go back to.
One cannot help but wonder if those who brought them here and left them
know.
- I came to work at the Kosovo-Metohija Bank - says Verica Bojkovic - I
have been travelling for five years. If only I had known. But who could
have known...
People are huddled, waiting for anyone to say anything comforting. Not
far from here is the command of the Kosovo police for northern
Mitrovica. From there they are bringing them coffee, offering milk for
the children. They ask what else is needed. People remain silent.
Perhaps these foreigners do not know that these people have their
dignity. Stojanka Mitrovic, Stana Adjanic, Stojanka Mihajlovic, Srdjan
Milic, Bogdan Bogdanovic say they do not want anything except to know
where their children are.
BROKEN PHONE LINES
Telephone lines have been broken. No word from anywhere how long these
people in Mitrovica will wait for news so they can rejoin their
families.
For Marija Petrovic, another night in Mitrovica will be her fourth
without sleep. A toddler girl presses close to her. We met this woman
in the summer of last year with a baby in her arms. Now Marija had
brought her little daughter, Milijana, for her first visit to the
pediatrician.
We asked her last year about her decision to have children. She said
she hoped for better days. She also said that the Albanians had
attacked their house eight times, and shot at her father-in-law in
front of the children.
- My son was so frightened he stopped talking - she says today - I
always hoped that things could not get any worse. Everyone thought,
things have to get better. Now I cannot even get to my children.
Milijana is still a baby; she's still in diapers...
The toddler girl with Marija is her three year-old daughter. She
presses her head against her mother's arm. Her little shoulders begin
shaking.
- Don't cry, Ana - Marija tells her.
The child's crying seems to infect everyone else present. The old
people begin to cry, too.
It is horrible when children and old people cry together.
NO WORD
Zorica Staniskovic had brought her husband's brother's child to the
doctor.
- Oh, we did not expect this misfortune - she says.
Her words seem to stick in her throat.
Mladen Lazic came to Mitrovica with his wife to buy food and brought
his father to see the doctor. In Babin Most, exactly ten kilometers
from Pristina, they left their four children. Alone. No news from there
at all.
EVEN IF YOU DIE LIKE ANIMALS
- I asked the police commander if he could do anything for us to get us
back to our homes - says elderly Trojan Kovacevic from Priluzje. - He
answered, I cannot do anything even if you die here like animals. All
this was translated by a fellow Serb. And then I said to him: If that's
the case, you should not have even come.
Milena MARKOVIC
ERP KiM Newsletter 20-03-04c
=== 3 ===
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1028692004
The Scotsman - September 2, 2004
NATO peacekeepers 'unable' to keep lid on violence in Kosovo
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS
Ethnic violence in Kosovo this spring overwhelmed the
United Nations’ mission and NATO peacekeepers to the
point of near-collapse, says a damning high-level
internal UN report leaked to The Scotsman.
The report, by a five-man team sent from UN
headquarters in New York, paints a picture of a
mission in crisis.
It says the 18,000-strong NATO force cannot currently
maintain safety and security in Kosovo, adding that
the UN administration is even incapable of providing
security for foreign diplomats and for itself.
The findings have wide- spread implications for the
UN’s so-called "nation-building programmes", from East
Timor to Haiti.
The report focused on the response of the UN’s mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) to an outbreak of ethnic violence
that engulfed the province in March this year, the
worst such outbreak in the former Yugoslav province
since NATO and the UN arrived in June 1999.
"Many [of those interviewed] believe that UNMIK and
K-FOR (NATO’s peacekeeping mission) would have
collapsed had the riots gone on for another day or
two," says the internal audit.
It continues: "Both UNMIK and K-FOR were overwhelmed
by the events. K-FOR currently has neither the
strength nor the posture required to maintain a ‘safe
and secure environment’ within a civilian population."
The report is damning, and would be a blistering
indictment of any UN mission anywhere in the world.
The huge difference with Kosovo is that the UN
administration is the de facto government, and when
crisis strikes the UN cannot simply evacuate.
The province has been under international
administration since a 78-day NATO bombing campaign
ended in June 1999, and ex-president Slobodan
Milosevic went to the negotiating table with NATO and
the international community.
On 17 and 18 March this year, after months of
comparative peace, a concerted and orchestrated
Albanian ethnic cleansing operation went into action
in Kosovo, targeting Serbs and other ethnic
minorities. It took NATO and the UN by surprise.
"[UNMIK] appears to have developed a habit of closing
its eyes to the facts on the ground ... the leadership
was not interested in what goes on in the province,"
says the report.
The UN mission was at that stage led by a timid
Finnish politician, Harri Holkeri. As the violence
spread, the UN’s command and control structures proved
inadequate in the face of large-scale civic disorder.
Nineteen Serbs and Albanians were killed, some 900
wounded, and 550 Serb and minority homes burnt along
with 27 Orthodox churches and monasteries, as an
estimated 50,000 Albanians went on a rampage in the
province.
The NATO-led force, known as Kosovo Force, or K-FOR,
"failed catastrophically" to protect ethnic
minorities, said Human Rights Watch [which egged on
the 1999 war and all that has followed] in a report
released this June.
UNMIK carried out a series of performance assessments
shortly after the violence, but so bad was the
leadership and tactical co-ordination of the mission
during the rioting that in late May a five-man
internal affairs team arrived from New York
headquarters to report back directly to Jean-Marie
Guehenno, under-secretary-general for UN peacekeeping
operations. They spent ten days in Kosovo.
"UNMIK is in a funk," their report says. "After five
years on the ground, progress towards UNMIK’s
objectives remains elusive and the mission seems to be
nearing the point of overstaying its welcome. There
are obstacles on all fronts, and the outlook for the
medium term is worse.
"The [UNMIK] line staff reflected a sense of futility,
compounded by a sense of deep frustration over what
they experience as an operation adrift, with an
organisational culture that inhibits communication,
frowns on candour and stymies initiative.
"UNMIK is seen as aloof and are strangers in the
society they govern."
....
1. Marking of the anniversary of the March pogrom against Serbs in
Kosovo-Metohija in Italy
2. Flashback: KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
3. Flashback: NATO peacekeepers 'unable' to keep lid on violence in
Kosovo ?!
MORE DOCUMENTS:
Pro Memoria: Pogrom on Kosovo – a year after
Do you remember this event?
(APIS Group - Kosovo & Metohija)
http://www.apisgroup.org/article.html?id=2400
One year after March pogrom dark shaddow still hovers above Kosovo
(ERP KiM Newsletter 17-03-05)
GO TO THE SITE TO SEE MANY IMPRESSIVE IMAGES:
http://www.kosovo.com/news/archive/2005/March_17/1.html
=== 1 ===
[ Sulla iniziativa di Bari, descritta qui sotto, vedi:
https://www.cnj.it/INIZIATIVE/soskosovo.htm ]
http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/dogadjaji.php?id=1608#9809
Serbia Info - March 17, 2005
Marking of the anniversary of the March pogrom against
Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija in Italy
An exhibition of posters and photographs about the
condition of the Serb cultural heritage in
Kosovo-Metohija entitled “Endangered European Heritage
– Serb Cultural Heritage in Kosovo-Metohija, March
Pogrom 2004-2005” will be organised in Bari starting
on the anniversary of the tragic March events, running
in total from March 17-31.
The exhibition has been organised by ADIRT
(Association for the protection of monuments and rural
areas), Bari; Bridge for Belgrade, Bari; the Centre
for the preservation of the heritage in
Kosovo-Metohija – MNEMOSYNE, Belgrade; as well as
under the auspices of the University in Bari, the
Italian Ministry of Culture, the Puglia Archaeology
Department and the province and municipality of Bari.
A team of experts and representatives from the Serbian
side will be headed by Advisor to the Prime Minister
Aleksandar Simic, former long-time consul of
Serbia-Montenegro in Bari Dragan Mraovic, Director of
the Pristina Museum Branko Jokic and President of the
MNEMOSYNE Centre Mirjana Menkovic.
=== 2 ===
Da: Predrag Tosic
Data: Gio 25 Mar 2004 06:30:24 Europe/Rome
A: yugoslaviainfo @ yahoogroups.com
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] More on eradication of a people and its
history in Kosovo: KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
Subject: [srbija_medjusljivama] KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
Kosovo Polje Burned
"They burned my house after the houses of my three brothers were
already in flames. Then, while firing from machine guns and with
torches in their hands, they headed to burn the homes of brothers Dr.
Zoran and Ljubo Grujic, Milosevic and the other neighbors. When they
saw that the police could not stop them, they went to the nearby Health
Center and hospital where Russian physicians worked until a year ago
and razed them to the ground" -- stresses Bora Velickovic, the director
of the Medical School, adding that the nearby St. Sava Secondary School
was also burned to the ground, as well as the post office.
VECERNJE NOVOSTI daily, Belgrade
3/20/2004 1:24:30 PM
Novosti Team 3/19/2004, 7:07:38 PM
KOSOVO POLJE BURNED
A powerful explosion was heard in the afternoon hours in the center of
Kosovska Mitrovica. A mortar shell was fired from the southern,
Albanian part of the city but fortunately no one was injured. Only a
few minutes later, from the Three High-rises, where a sniper was
shooting at KFOR soldiers during the night - on that occasion a Danish
soldier was seriously wounded and according to unofficial information
has died of his wounds - a powerful detonation could be heard.
French soldiers used dynamite to break down the bulletproof door of the
apartment of one Albanian suspected of harboring the sniper. This was
followed by several powerful explosions in this part of the city. Only
hours earlier, rounds of gunfire could be heard coming from the
Albanian part of the city.
Before dawn the UNMIK administration withdrew from the UNMIK building
into the nearby military base of the French battalion. According to
spokesman Gyorgy Kakuk, this was done without explanation but judging
from events it was not unexpected. This administration had been located
in the southern part of the city, close to the bridge, the location
from where Albanians have been attacking in recent days. During the
course of the night, five morter shells were launched from that
direction which fell close to the Health Center where wounded Serbs
from other Kosovo enclaves are located.
EVERYING BURNED
In Kosovo Polje, the largest Serb settlement in Kosovo before the war,
there are no Serbs remaining - or Serb houses. During the night
everything was burned along with the grand Herzegovina Hotel used until
recently by officials of the UN civil mission. Kosovo Polje Serbs,
mainly old people, escaped to neighboring Bresje and Ugljare villages.
- They burned my house after the houses of my three brothers were
already in flames. Then, while firing from machine guns and with
torches in their hands, they headed to burn the homes of brothers Dr.
Zoran and Ljubo Grujic, Milosevic and the other neighbors. When they
saw that the police could not stop them, they went to the nearby Health
Center and hospital where Russian physicians worked until a year ago
and razed them to the ground - stresses Bora Velickovic, the director
of the Medical School, adding that the nearby St. Sava Secondary School
was also burned to the ground, as well as the post office.
- We had several patients in the hospital whom we barely managed to
pull out on stretchers. Armed men with masks attacked our staff. We
were lucky because at that exact moment a KFOR armored vehicle showed
up.
Despite everything that has happened we are determined to continue our
humanitarian work. We have moved to two Serb houses in the nearby
village of Ugljare - emphasizes Dr. Gradimir Lazic.
On the same night 20 Serb houses in the village of Milosevo, across the
way from Obilic, were burned and another 20 in Lazarevo near Gazimestan.
Thick smoke could be seen from the village of Svinjare where, according
to the latest information, all Serb houses have been burned and there
were more than 100 in the village.
The Serb village of Berisavce in Kosovsko Pomoravlje has also been
burned. Albanian terrorists did this under the cover of night, after a
part of KFOR withdrew to its base. It can be observed that they do not
dare launch bigger attacks on areas where U.S. marines are deployed
because they, along with the Greek and French soldiers, are offering
the greatest resistance.
U.S. marines stopped the movement of raging terrorists moving toward
Babin Most with the obvious intent of cleansing all Serb villages as
far as the administrative line with Serbia, having already finished
with Pristina, Obilic, Milosevo and Lazarevo.
HELPLESS EVACUATED
The attack of the Albanian extremists was also directed at Janina and
Crkvena Voda near Obilic. Before twilight the heads of household had
evacuated children, women and old people to Plemetina and Priluzje,
Serb villages near Obilic not protected by either soldiers or police
where locals have organized defense.
The attacks of Albanian extremists did not stop against many other
settlements in Kosovo and Metohija, either.
- Several hundred armed Albanians, under cover of night, headed toward
Gornja Bitinja, a village of 80 Serb houses near Strpce, under Mt. Sara.
The Serbs are resisting but there is still shooting going on. In the
meanwhile, yesterday morning, UNMIK police stopped seven armed
Albanians who were rushing toward the village - reported Jovica
Buduric, a member of the Crisis Headquarters.
While Albanian extremists were attacking the remaining Serbs in
Kosovska Vitina, who were evacuated around midnight to the villages of
Vrbovac and Klokot, the village of Kololec, with about 200 Serb houses,
remained completely besieged.
- In Vitina all Serb houses and shops have been destroyed, as well as
houses in the southern part of town. Here in Klokot Banja, KFOR
reinforcements have arrived and we have their promise that they will
protect us - said Stanko Stolic.|
At the same time the Diocese of Raska and Prizren reported that two
more Orthodox churches, located in Donja Slapasnica near Kosovska
Kamenica and Brnjak near Orahovac, were burned.
D. DAMJANOVIC
ATTACKED
Svinjare near Kosovska Mitrovica, Gojbulja, Plemetina, Janjine Vode and
Obilic, Bresje and Kosovo Polje, Lipljan, Staro Gracko, Dobrotin,
Kosovska Vitina, Kosovska Kamenica, Donja Bitinja near Strpce, Pristina
quarters inhabited by Serbs.
In the past two days, in addition to Kosovska Mitrovica, also attacked
were Vucitrnska Slatina, the Serb returnee villages near Pec - Belo
Polje, Bicha, Grabac - Prizren, where all six Serbian churches have
been burned along with the Seminary, Djakovica... On the first day
Caglavica and Kosovo Polje were attacked.
More than 7,000 Serbs have been expelled from more than 30 Serb
settlements in the last three days. [our emphasis]
HOLY SHRINES
Twenty churches and monasteries have been burned and more than 20 monks
and nuns expelled.
RELOCATED
In KFOR bases throughout Kosovo and Metohija there are presently more
than 1,500 Serbs expelled from all enclaves.
DEAD
In the last three days in Kosovo and Metohija eight members of KFOR
have been killed.
DON'T CRY, ANA!
Women, old people, children... These are the Serbs from the Kosovo
enclaves and today is the third day of their drama. They found
themselves in northern Kosovska Mitrovica on Wednesday morning, some
buying things, some at work, many seeking medical treatment. As of
today they have not managed to go back to their homes, if they still
exist.
They do not know what happened to their families and this worries them.
In the meanwhile, many of the villages from where they arrived by UN
convoy have already been evacuated.
ONLY TREPIDATION
- Five of my children stayed with my wife. Who knows what has happened
to them - says Milan Cerovac of Babin Most, barely ten kilometers away
from Pristina.
Veljko Nastic of Suvi Do came to Mitrovica for humanitarian aid;
someone had promised him flour. His eight children and wife stayed at
home. The youngest child is one year old, the oldest a 13 year-old boy.
- No one will answer our question what will become of us. And what will
become of them? No one wants to take the risk to return us to our homes.
There are five hundred people waiting to return to Gracanica,
Caglavica, Laplje Selo, Preoce, Strpce, Kosovo Polje, Lipljan,
Gusterica... Many do not know whether they have a place to go back to.
One cannot help but wonder if those who brought them here and left them
know.
- I came to work at the Kosovo-Metohija Bank - says Verica Bojkovic - I
have been travelling for five years. If only I had known. But who could
have known...
People are huddled, waiting for anyone to say anything comforting. Not
far from here is the command of the Kosovo police for northern
Mitrovica. From there they are bringing them coffee, offering milk for
the children. They ask what else is needed. People remain silent.
Perhaps these foreigners do not know that these people have their
dignity. Stojanka Mitrovic, Stana Adjanic, Stojanka Mihajlovic, Srdjan
Milic, Bogdan Bogdanovic say they do not want anything except to know
where their children are.
BROKEN PHONE LINES
Telephone lines have been broken. No word from anywhere how long these
people in Mitrovica will wait for news so they can rejoin their
families.
For Marija Petrovic, another night in Mitrovica will be her fourth
without sleep. A toddler girl presses close to her. We met this woman
in the summer of last year with a baby in her arms. Now Marija had
brought her little daughter, Milijana, for her first visit to the
pediatrician.
We asked her last year about her decision to have children. She said
she hoped for better days. She also said that the Albanians had
attacked their house eight times, and shot at her father-in-law in
front of the children.
- My son was so frightened he stopped talking - she says today - I
always hoped that things could not get any worse. Everyone thought,
things have to get better. Now I cannot even get to my children.
Milijana is still a baby; she's still in diapers...
The toddler girl with Marija is her three year-old daughter. She
presses her head against her mother's arm. Her little shoulders begin
shaking.
- Don't cry, Ana - Marija tells her.
The child's crying seems to infect everyone else present. The old
people begin to cry, too.
It is horrible when children and old people cry together.
NO WORD
Zorica Staniskovic had brought her husband's brother's child to the
doctor.
- Oh, we did not expect this misfortune - she says.
Her words seem to stick in her throat.
Mladen Lazic came to Mitrovica with his wife to buy food and brought
his father to see the doctor. In Babin Most, exactly ten kilometers
from Pristina, they left their four children. Alone. No news from there
at all.
EVEN IF YOU DIE LIKE ANIMALS
- I asked the police commander if he could do anything for us to get us
back to our homes - says elderly Trojan Kovacevic from Priluzje. - He
answered, I cannot do anything even if you die here like animals. All
this was translated by a fellow Serb. And then I said to him: If that's
the case, you should not have even come.
Milena MARKOVIC
ERP KiM Newsletter 20-03-04c
=== 3 ===
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1028692004
The Scotsman - September 2, 2004
NATO peacekeepers 'unable' to keep lid on violence in Kosovo
CHRISTIAN JENNINGS
Ethnic violence in Kosovo this spring overwhelmed the
United Nations’ mission and NATO peacekeepers to the
point of near-collapse, says a damning high-level
internal UN report leaked to The Scotsman.
The report, by a five-man team sent from UN
headquarters in New York, paints a picture of a
mission in crisis.
It says the 18,000-strong NATO force cannot currently
maintain safety and security in Kosovo, adding that
the UN administration is even incapable of providing
security for foreign diplomats and for itself.
The findings have wide- spread implications for the
UN’s so-called "nation-building programmes", from East
Timor to Haiti.
The report focused on the response of the UN’s mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) to an outbreak of ethnic violence
that engulfed the province in March this year, the
worst such outbreak in the former Yugoslav province
since NATO and the UN arrived in June 1999.
"Many [of those interviewed] believe that UNMIK and
K-FOR (NATO’s peacekeeping mission) would have
collapsed had the riots gone on for another day or
two," says the internal audit.
It continues: "Both UNMIK and K-FOR were overwhelmed
by the events. K-FOR currently has neither the
strength nor the posture required to maintain a ‘safe
and secure environment’ within a civilian population."
The report is damning, and would be a blistering
indictment of any UN mission anywhere in the world.
The huge difference with Kosovo is that the UN
administration is the de facto government, and when
crisis strikes the UN cannot simply evacuate.
The province has been under international
administration since a 78-day NATO bombing campaign
ended in June 1999, and ex-president Slobodan
Milosevic went to the negotiating table with NATO and
the international community.
On 17 and 18 March this year, after months of
comparative peace, a concerted and orchestrated
Albanian ethnic cleansing operation went into action
in Kosovo, targeting Serbs and other ethnic
minorities. It took NATO and the UN by surprise.
"[UNMIK] appears to have developed a habit of closing
its eyes to the facts on the ground ... the leadership
was not interested in what goes on in the province,"
says the report.
The UN mission was at that stage led by a timid
Finnish politician, Harri Holkeri. As the violence
spread, the UN’s command and control structures proved
inadequate in the face of large-scale civic disorder.
Nineteen Serbs and Albanians were killed, some 900
wounded, and 550 Serb and minority homes burnt along
with 27 Orthodox churches and monasteries, as an
estimated 50,000 Albanians went on a rampage in the
province.
The NATO-led force, known as Kosovo Force, or K-FOR,
"failed catastrophically" to protect ethnic
minorities, said Human Rights Watch [which egged on
the 1999 war and all that has followed] in a report
released this June.
UNMIK carried out a series of performance assessments
shortly after the violence, but so bad was the
leadership and tactical co-ordination of the mission
during the rioting that in late May a five-man
internal affairs team arrived from New York
headquarters to report back directly to Jean-Marie
Guehenno, under-secretary-general for UN peacekeeping
operations. They spent ten days in Kosovo.
"UNMIK is in a funk," their report says. "After five
years on the ground, progress towards UNMIK’s
objectives remains elusive and the mission seems to be
nearing the point of overstaying its welcome. There
are obstacles on all fronts, and the outlook for the
medium term is worse.
"The [UNMIK] line staff reflected a sense of futility,
compounded by a sense of deep frustration over what
they experience as an operation adrift, with an
organisational culture that inhibits communication,
frowns on candour and stymies initiative.
"UNMIK is seen as aloof and are strangers in the
society they govern."
....