(english - con brevissimi titoli in italiano)
Neverending pogroms in Kosmet (5)
SUMMARY:
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October / 230 AGGRESSIONI CONTRO NON-ALBANESI IN MENO DI UN ANNO
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear' / TADIC: I SERBI KOSOVARI VIVONO NEL
TERRORE
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman /
NOVE FERITI COMPRESI ALCUNI OCCIDENTALI IN UN ATTENTATO AD UN CAFFÈ
DI MITROVICA
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo / "MEDIATORE" ONU AHTISAARI DICHIARA CHE I SERBI SONO
"COLPEVOLI COME POPOLO"
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in the center of
Decani on August 21 have not been arrested yet, although the attack
took place before many eyewitnesses / IMPUNITÀ GARANTITA PER GLI
AGGRESSORI DI DANILOVIC
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of Violence in
Kosovo / IL GOVERNO DELLA SERBIA DENUNCIA LA TOLLERANZA DELLA
"COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE" NEI CONFRONTI DEI POGROM CHE PROSEGUONO IN
KOSOVO
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin / PUTIN: LA RUSSIA APPOGGIA
L'INTEGRITÀ DELLA SERBIA
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo / SEQUESTRATO
UN ARSENALE
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible / FERRERO-
WALDNER TEME NUOVA ESCALATION IN KOSOVO
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall / LA SERBIA DENUNCIA LE FRASI
RAZZISTE DEL "MEDIATORE" ONU E METTE IN QUESTIONE IL SUO MANDATO
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks / LA CINA SOSTIENE LA POSIZIONE
DELLA SERBIA SULLA QUESTIONE DEL KOSOVO
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution / LA
RUSSIA CONTRO I "DOPPI STANDARD" DELL'IMPERIALISMO STATUNITENSE
Contact Group on Kosovo / IL "GRUPPO DI CONTATTO" TORNA A RIUNIRSI A
VIENNA CON IL "MEDIATORE" ANTISERBO AHTISAARI
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence / DEMACI REDIVIVO
SPINGE L'ACCELERATORE SUL KOSOVO "INDIPENDENTE"
Displaced in Serbia / PIÙ DI 200MILA I PROFUGHI KOSOVARI REGISTRATI
IN SERBIA, DI CUI MOLTE CENTINAIA ALBANOFONI E MUSULMANI
Serbs are unhappy over pro-albanian position of new U.N. mission
head / IL TEDESCO RUECKEN, FILOALBANESE, ASSUMERÀ IL CONTROLLO CIVILE
DELLA PROVINCIA
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks / IL
GENERALE TEDESCO KATER ASSUME IL CONTROLLO MILITARE DELLA PROVINCIA
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up / I SERBI DEL KOSOVO SI
SENTONO ABBANDONATI DALLA "COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE"
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of Independence: Serbia’s
President / TADIC: I NOSTRI PADRONI USA VOGLIONO LA SECESSIONE DEL
KOSOVO
=== NEWS ===
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=93989&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 13, 2006
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October
Belgrade - Since October last year 230 attacks against
Serbs and other non-Albanians have been committed in
Kosovo.
This is what the Coordination Center for Kosovo
announced cited by Serbian news agency TANJUG.
3 people have been killed and 25 have been wounded in
the attacks.
21 of the attacks were committed with a firearm.
In 32 of the cases the perpetrators used explosive
devices and in other 32 cases they threw stones at
people, houses and cars.
Meanwhile, there were also 9 physical attacks, 113
thefts and 3 attacks against religious sites.
---
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/13/serbia.kosovo.ap/
Associated Press - August 13, 2006
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear'
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's president said Sunday that
Serbs in Kosovo live in fear, despite promises to
protect their rights as a minority from the U.N.
authorities and ethnic Albanian leaders in the
troubled province.
President Boris Tadic issued a statement to mark the
third anniversary of an attack on Serb teenagers in
Kosovo, when gunmen killed two and wounded four while
they were swimming in a river in the western village
of Gorazdevac.
"Serbs live in constant fear for their lives and the
lives of their families," Tadic said. "The
international community must find the perpetrators of
this crime and provide security for all."
Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but it has been an
international protectorate since 1999. Majority ethnic
Albanians want independence from Serbia, but Belgrade
opposes it. Kosovo's final status will be decided at
ongoing U.N.-brokered talks.
Tadic accused the international officials in Kosovo
and the local authorities of "doing nothing to solve
the murder of the children."
The Serbs in Kosovo - about 100,000 of them who
remained there after Serbia lost control over the
province after the 1999 NATO air war - live in
isolated enclaves, without freedom of movement and
fearing attacks from extremist ethnic Albanians.
Ethnic Albanian leaders recently have sought to dispel
Serb fears and promise more rights, but have been
unable to curb attacks from extremists who wish to
drive the remaining Serbs from Kosovo....
Tadic urged the ethnic Albanian leaders to "do
something against extremists and criminals in their
ranks." He insisted that "words are not good enough."
There was no immediate comment from Kosovo on Tadic's
statement.
The talks on Kosovo's final status started earlier
this year. The rights and the position of the Serbs in
Kosovo are a key issue at the negotiations.
---
http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w082637A
Associated Press - August 26, 2006
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman
PRISTINA, Serbia - An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's
tense north injured nine people Saturday night,
including a British policeman with UN forces in the
Serbian province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar
shortly before 7 p.m. local time in the ethnically
divided town Kosovska Mitrovica, UN police spokesman
Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect was
detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of
them is a police officer," Miller said, without giving
further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a
British citizen serving with the UN police in the
province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said
Milan Ivanovic, director of the hospital in Kosovska
Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes
between Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides
the town between its northern Serbian-controlled
sector and the Albanian south.
The incident came a day after the UN's chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's post-war
status, Martti Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit
to the province. The envoy's latest trip was aimed at
pressing Albanians to grant more rights to minority
Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between
Kosovo's communities during the status talks, which
are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO troops reopened a military base in the
Serbian-dominated area in northern Kosovo and UN
police deployed about 500 police officers to boost
security after local Serbian officials said they would
sever ties with Albanian-dominated institutions
following a series of violent incidents they blamed on
Albanians.
26 August 2006 | 20:02 -> 22:30 | Source: Beta, reported by Radio B92
Bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Nine people were injured when a bomb exploded
in Kosovska Mitrovica around 19:00 tonight.
Beta agency named Adem Dibrani (16) from the southern end of the
ethnically divided town as the perpetrator of the incident.
Beta agency reports that the perpetrator has been put under arrest
and the Kosovo Police Service has confirmed that a person suspected
of throwing the explosive device at the café Dolce Vita is in
custody, but declined to reveal his identity or ethnic background.
Deputy Director of the Medical Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica Milan
Ivanović told B92 that nine people with injuries from the blast were
hospitalised tonight. He added that two people were discharged
immediately after receiving first aid.
“Seven people have been kept for further treatment. The injuries
were inflicted by shrapnel and one of the injured is an international
policeman from Great Britain. The other six are civilians, two of
them young women. One Dutch child-bearing woman was also hurt”,
Ivanović said.
Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica stated that “both the Albanian
terrorists and representatives of the international community were
equally to blame for tonight’s bomb attack on innocent Serbian
citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica because since their daily actions were
encouraging these kinds of incidents”.
“Albanian separatists were quick to react to [UN Envoy]Ahtisaari’s
statement that Serbs were guilty as a nation by tossing a bomb at
innocent Serbian citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica”, said
Koštunica’s communiqué to Beta news agency.
“Although [UN envoy] Ahtisaari has been entrusted with a mandate to
ensure negotiations that will lead to a compromise, a historically
just solution based on international legal norms, the UN special
envoy seems to be acting in complete contrast to such a goal”, the
Prime Minister added.
The leader of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija Oliver
Ivanović was sitting in the cafe Dolce Vita when the bomb exploded.
“This is horrible. I’m very upset. A man calmly approached the
café and just threw the bomb. Anyone could have done it and the
incident happened when a lot of young people were around”, Ivanović
told B92. Ivanović added he was concerned about the feeble reaction
by Kosovo Police Service and KFOR.
UNMIK forces blocked access to the café and are currently
investigating the scene. Several hundred citizens gathered in
discontent and started off towards the bridge that was currently
under a blockade.
Jakšić: The attacker should stand trial before a Serbian court
Member of the Belgrade team for negotiations Marko Jakšić told Beta
agency he would demand that the person who threw the bomb at the café
in Kosovska Mitrovica tonight be handed over to Serbian police and
should stand trial before a Serbian court.
“We will also demand the bridge over the Ibar River that divides the
two communities in Kosovska Mitrovica be closed down until the status
of Kosovo and Metohija is resolved. As of tonight, self-organised
citizens will keep watch at the bridge”, Jakšić announced.
He added that the bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica demonstrated that
the crime wave against Serbs has not come to an end.
“This is more proof of the policy of double standards lead by the
international community. Words do not mean anything anymore and we
now demand that the international community finally start doing its
job and protect those who are in danger, in this specific case the
Serb community in Kosovo”, Jakšić said.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 26, 2006 Saturday,
A2006082619-1223C-GNW, 268 words
Text of report by Serbian TV on 26 August - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1758 gmt 26 Aug 06
BELGRADE TV SHOWS KOSOVO CAFE BLAST AFTERMATH, SERBS WANT BRIDGE CLOSED
[Presenter] Let us recall the news from the beginning of Dnevnik [RTS
main news bulletin]. A hand grenade exploded in Dolce Vita cafe in
the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica around 1900 [1700 gmt]. As
our correspondent has reported six persons were injured, including a
Canadian policemen working with the United Nations. An ethnic
Albanian young man ran across the bridge from the southern [Albanian-
populated] part of town and lobbed the bomb into the cafe garden.
Eyewitnesses said that members of the Kosovo Police Service [KPS]
were on the bridge while the young man was running across it. Kfor
[NATO-led Kosovo Force] troops came to the scene as late as half an
hour after the explosion, and our correspondent reported that around
300 Serbs already gathered in protest in the area near the bridge in
whose vicinity Dolce Vita Cafe is located.
We have received first footage from the scene.
[Footage broadcast by Zvecan-based TV Most shown, smashed glass,
shrapnel, holes in the door]
[Nebojsa Jovic, captioned as the chairman of the SNV [Serb National
Council] for Kosovska Mitrovica] The Serb National Council will do
everything it can to keep the situation under control, because, as I
have said, we do not want any incidents, but I think that a decision
has already been made. It is clear that the bridge can no longer
remain open [for civilian traffic], at least not until that infamous
[Kosovo] status is solved, because it is evident that there is no
security on the bridge.
Agence France Presse -- English, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 7:26 PM
GMT, 238 words, MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 26 2006
Grenade attack injures nine in Kosovo
At least nine people, two of them foreigners, were injured Saturday
in a grenade attack in northern Kosovo, a local doctor said.
He said an international policeman and a Dutch woman along with six
Serb civilians, including two young women, were injured when an
unknown attacker threw a hand grenade at a cafe in the ethnically
divided town of Mitrovica.
Three of the nine were severely wounded, doctor Radomir Jankovic of
Mitrovica hospital said.
The cafe is near a bridge over the Ibar river, which divides the
ethnic Albanian south of the town from the Serb-controlled north.
"Police arrested a person suspected to have committed the attack," a
spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told AFP in Pristina,
refusing to reveal the nationality of the suspect.
But another source within the UN mission said the suspect was a 16-
year old ethnic Albanian.
Several hundred angry Serbs gathered in front of the bridge to
protest against the attack, while police increased security.
Both international and local police are keeping the situation in the
town under control, the spokesman said.
The southern Serbian province of Kosovo has been run by the United
Nations and NATO since the end of a conflict between Serbian forces
and armed ethnic Albanian separatists in June 1999.
Ethnic tensions between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and
its Serb minority remain high despite the presence of thousands of
NATO peacekeepers.
Associated Press Worldstream, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 9:02 PM GMT,
INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 287 words, By NEBI QENA, Associated Press Writer,
PRISTINA Serbia
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9
An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's tense north injured nine people on
Saturday night, including a British policeman with U.N. forces in the
province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar shortly before 7
p.m. (1700GMT) in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica,
U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect
was detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of them is a police
officer," Miller said, without giving further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a British citizen
serving with the U.N police in the province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said Milan Ivanovic,
director of the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides the town between its
northern Serb-controlled sector and the ethnic Albanian south.
The incident comes a day after the U.N.'s chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's postwar status, Martti
Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit to the province. The envoy's
latest trip was aimed at pressing ethnic Albanians to grant more
rights to minority Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between Kosovo's communities
during the status talks, which are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO peacekeepers reopened a military base in the Serb-dominated area
in northern Kosovo and U.N. police deployed about 500 police officers
to boost security after local Serbian officials said they would sever
ties with ethnic Albanian-dominated institutions following a series
of violent incidents that they blamed on ethnic Albanians.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Bomb attack on a cafe in Mitrovica
Serbs requesting bridge to be closed
The health condition of nine people injured in a bomb
attack on a cafe in the northern part of Kosovska
Mitrovica is stable and their lives are not
threatened.
Six individuals have been hospitalized, two released
to home care, while international policeman David
Hoffey has been transferred to a KFOR military
hospital.
The attack took place on Saturday evening about 19.00.
A young Albanian man, aged 16, threw a bomb at the
entrance of the 'Dolce vita' cafe that is in close
vicinity to the city bridge over the Ibar River in the
northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
According to eyewitnesses, that young man entered the
cafe, looked around and while going out took out a
hand bomb and threw it at the entrance of the cafe.
He then moved away towards the bridge absolutely
relaxed. Only after Serbs started shouting at and
chasing him did police arrest him.
The Kosovo Protection Service announced that the name
of the attacker was Adem Dibrani, 16 years old. He is
now in a district prison in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Representatives of Serbian National Council of the
northern part of Kosovo and Metohija requested
yesterday from international authorities in the
province to close the bridge dividing the Albanian and
Serbian parts of the city until the end of
negotiations over Kosovo's status.
---
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo - Text of report by Serbian TV on 25 August
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide
Monitoring, August 25, 2006 Friday, 378 words - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1000 gmt 25 Aug 06
[Announcer] The Serbian negotiating team has sent a letter of protest
to Martti Ahtisaari, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for
talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija. The letter says that
Ahtisaari had said in talks with members of the Serbian delegation on
8 August in Vienna that the Serbs were guilty as a nation. The
Serbian negotiating team believes that this seriously brings into
question Ahtisaari's unbiasedness in the negotiations and warrants a
reply and clarification.
[Reporter Biljana Pekusic] That Ahtisaari had really told the
negotiating team that the Serbs were to blame as a nation was
confirmed by all members of the Serbian delegation taking part in the
Vienna talks. The letter of protest was sent on 10 August - 15 days
ago - but Ahtisaari has still not replied.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Slobodan Samardzic speaking at
presser] The second mistake he made was to ignore our fair offer to
clarify such important matters. As far as I personally am concerned,
this only made me even more suspicious about his good intentions.
[Reporter] In order for the talks to continue it is necessary for
Ahtisaari to clarify his statement. The Serbian negotiating team will
assess the reactions of Ahtisaari, the Contact Group and the overall
political public and decide on its future moves on this basis.
Speaking about Martti Ahtisaari's recent contacts with Serb
representatives in Kosmet, the negotiating team says that in these
talks Oliver Ivanovic was systematically manipulating the Serb List
for his own purposes.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Leon Kojen] What Oliver
Ivanovic is doing while submitting different proposals allegedly on
behalf of the Serb List, as well as when meeting [Kosovo Premier]
Agim Ceku, again allegedly on behalf of the Serb List, is pure
political manipulation.
[Reporter] By giving precedence to Oliver Ivanovic, Martti Ahtisaari
wishes to shift the focus of the negotiations from the state
negotiating team to someone else, Slobodan Samardzic says. However,
in the very next meeting his attention will be drawn to the fact that
the Belgrade team is the only authorized instance in the negotiations.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#1
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Government: Ahtisaari responsible
By the latest terrorist attacks in Northern Mitrovica,
Albanian separatists showed how they understood Marti
Ahtisaari's statement that 'Serbs as a nation are
guilty', an announcement issued by the Serbian
Government reads.
'This bomb attack should be the last alarm for the
international community to keep the peace in this part
of Europe', the Serbian Government pointed out.
President Boris Tadic, the Coordination Center for KiM
as well as leaders of Kosovo Serbs condemned the
attack.
....
'I am shocked and disappointed over the bomb attack',
Steven Shook, Deputy UNMIK's Chief said. He also
condemned the attack.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Attackers of Serbian professor still free
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in
the center of Decani on August 21 have not been
arrested yet, although the attack took place before
many eyewitnesses.
In the meantime the organization of war veterans [KLA]
Dukadjini accused Danilovic [of being] a war criminal,
threatening him that he would be treated 'as all other
Serbs'.
The police are said to have serious suspicions that
the attackers of professor Danilovic are members of
the abovementioned organization.
'The announcement is an incorrect interpretation of
the event and is filled with hatred', an OSCE report
specified.
The president of Decani municipality Nazmi Selmanaj
also condemned the attack.
'It is well known to everybody that Danilovic has
always been a peaceful and respected citizen',
Selmanaj said.
Professor Danilovic is temporarily displaced in the
village of Berane.
When the attack occurred, he was in Decani with five
Serbian children within an OSCE project called
'Multiethnic Camp'.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94833
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of
Violence in Kosovo
Belgrade - With the latest terrorist attack in
Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday the Albanian
separatists showed how they have understood the
statement of UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Marti
Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as people” are to blame for
Kosovo’s fate.
If the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo can say such a
thing then any act of violence committed against the
Serbs is justified and rewarded, a statement of the
Serbian government says made with regard to the
terrorist attack at a café in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica, the Serbian newspaper Danas reads
today.
Nine people were wounded in the attack that took place
on Saturday.
The terror exerted over the Serbs in Kosovo in the
presence of the international community has been going
on for seven years now.
Instead of counteracting the Albanian separatist
violence the international community representatives
turn a blind eye and sometimes even tolerate the
violence just like Marti Ahtisaari did with his
statement, the Serbian government says.
The bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica should be the
last indicator for the international community that it
has to use decisive measures to preserve the peace in
this part of Europe, the statement reads.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94832
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
Serbian Parliament to Hold Special Session on Kosovo
Belgrade - After the sharp reaction of the Serbian
authorities with regard to the statement of UN Special
Envoy for Kosovo Marti Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as
people” are to blame for Kosovo’s fate and especially
after the explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday
it is becoming more and more certain that soon the
Serbian parliament will have the possibility to state
its position on the matter, the Serbian newspaper
Danas reads today.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica himself announced
last week that the government will request a special
session of the parliament which will be dedicated to
the talks on the region’s future status.
The Serbian negotiating team is expected to present a
report on the progress of the talks and the MPs to
confirm that Kosovo is an inseparable part of Serbia.
This would be yet another unity declaration on the eve
of the forthcoming meetings for Kosovo’s
decentralization, the newspaper comments.
---
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11578890
Interfax - August 28, 2006
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin
SOCHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin has
reiterated Russia's support of the territorial
integrity of Serbia in a meeting with Montenegrin
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on Monday,
The president confirmed Russia's support of Serbia's
territorial integrity, but noted that much depended on
Serbia itself, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told
reporters after the meeting.
Putin asked Djukanovic's opinion of the Kosovo
situation and his assessment of the prospects for
Serbian-Montenegrin relations, the aide said.
Putin repeated an earlier statement that Russia had
taken a cautious position on the creation of new
states due to the potential weakening of these states,
Prikhodko said.
---
http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?
story_id=w39824i20060828;story=Czech-KFOR-soldiers-seize-weapons-
ammunition-in-Kosovo
Czech News Agency - August 28, 2006
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo
Prague/Pristina - Czech, Finnish and Swedish soldiers
and Kosovo police seized an unspecified quantity of
illegally possessed weapons and ammunition in a search
in the area controlled by the Czech KFOR contingent in
Kosovo, Lieutenant Vit Rapan told CTK today.
The operation that lasted about eight hours was unique
by its extent.
[A]bout 10 houses and farm buildings were searched,
said Rapan, spokesman for the 9th KFOR contingent in
Kosovo.
The Czech KFOR contingent in Kosovo has about 500
soldiers.
It controls the whole central part of Kosovo in which
units from several other states also operate.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34665&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible
Vienna - The EU's external relations commissioner,
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, did not rule out the
possibility of fresh outbreak of violence in Kosovo.
"The Kosovo issue is very tough", she said.
After a standstill in the negotiations over the future
status of the province, she told the Austrian Agency
APA that the Kosovo issue is very tough, which is why
fresh escalation of the situation might take place.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34681&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall
Belgrade - The President of the Coordination Center
for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic, will
put forward a motion recommending to the Belgrade
negotiating team to urge the recall of Martti
Ahtisaari from the post of chief UN mediator in the
negotiations over Kosovo.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by his recent statement "Serbs as a nation
are guilty", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari "has debased and
insulted the Serbian nation", clearly taking the
Albanian side in the negotiating process.
A meeting of the Serbian negotiating team aimed at
reviewing the results of the current stage of Kosovo
status talks is taking place on Monday.
It is due to be attended also by the President Boris
Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign
Minister Vuk Draskovic. Simultaneously, the Serbian
Parliament convened for a session today to discuss the
same topic.
As announced, the Serbian negotiators are due to
decide on further steps, in the light of the recent
Ahtisaari statement that "Serbs as a nation are
guilty", i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be
taken into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past".
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.334408002&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy) - August 28, 2006
KOSOVO: CHIEF UN NEGOTIATOR STIRS UP SERB STORM
Belgrade - Chief United Nations negotiator for Kosovo
Martti Ahtisaari drew unprecedented criticism over the
weekend from Serbian politicians for allegedly saying
that "Serbs are guilty as people" and implying that
they would have to pay for it, possibly by losing
Kosovo, which is seeking independence.
The statement, allegedly made by Ahtisaari during
Kosovo talks in Vienna on 8 August, was made public
Friday by members of Belgrade's negotiating team and
immediately provoked a public shock.
A weekend bomb [was used] against a cafe in the
northern Serb area of the divided town of Kosovska
Mitrovica where ethnic Albanians live to the south of
a UN-guarded bridge.
Ahtisaari, winding up his four-day visit to Kosovo on
Friday, indirectly confirmed his earlier stance.
Asked by journalists for comment he said that "every
nation carries a burden for which it has to pay".
....
The statement further enraged Belgrade, which opposes
Kosovo's independence, and some politicians even
called for Ahtisaari’s resignation.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in a statement
that while the UN was seeking "a just and tenable
solution for the status of Kosovo" Ahtisaari seemed
"determined to do just the opposite."
Ahtisaari has been creating the impression that the
negotiations were unnecessary, he said, "because the
solution already exists and has only to be implemented
- and that is Kosovo independence".
Spokesman for Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia,
Andreja Mladenovic, said that "before Ahtisaari only
Hitler had dared to say that an entire people was
guilty”, slamming Ahtisaari’s statement as
"scandalous, shameful and racist."
Tension was heightened after an attack late Saturday
on a Serbian cafe in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica,
in which nine people, including a UN policemen and a
pregnant Dutch woman, were injured.
The Serbian government said in a statement the
“terrorist act” was encouraged by Ahtisaari’s
statement that “Serbs were guilty as a people”.
"If something like that is said by a special envoy of
the UN Secretary-general in the talks on the Kosovo
status, then any violence against Serbs in justified
and awarded,” the government statement said.
The cafe in the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica on
Saturday, which injured nine people, has fuelled fears
of a fresh wave of violence in the UN-run province,
where nearly two million ethnic Albanians are pushing
for independence from Serbia.
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34711&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia questions Ahtisaari's position
Belgrade - Serbia has officially condemned the UN
Envoy in Kosovo status talks Martti Ahtisaari,
announcing that "resolving of the situation following
his statement" will be demanded.
The Serbian negotiating team has unanimously condemned
the latest Ahtisaari's statements, describing them as
diametrically opposing to his mandate granted by the
Un Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"It was agreed that it is necessary to take all
diplomatic and other steps in order to prevent any
damages that might incur as a result of the recent
Ahtisaari's statements", says the statement released
after today's session of the negotiating team,
attended also by the President Boris Tadic, Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
Earlier today, the President of the Coordination
Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by stating "Serbs as a nation are guilty",
i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be taken
into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari
"has debased and insulted the Serbian nation", clearly
taking the Albanian side in the negotiating process.
---
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060828-104955-4896r
United Press International - August 28, 2006
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks
BELGRADE, Serbia - China's state envoy says his
country supports Serbia in safeguarding its
sovereignty in U.N.-led talks on Kosovo's future,
Belgrade media said.
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Monday told
Serbian President Boris Tadic that Beijing advocates a
compromise, just and peaceful solution to the future
status of Serbia's predominantly ethnic-Albanian
Kosovo province, Belgrade' s Beta news agency
reported.
In a separate meeting with Serbian Prime Minister
Vojislav Kostunica, Tang said the respect of
sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states is
the basis of international order, the premier's office
said in a statement.
Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo's 1.8 million
population is 90-percent ethnic-Albanian and their
leaders insist on independence from the Serbian
government in Belgrade.
But, Serbia's leaders, who represent Kosovo's 100,000
Serbs, will accept any solution except a Kosovo
independent of Belgrade.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#3
Blic (Serbia) - August 28, 2006
Support to Serbia
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said during
yesterday's meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadic
that 'China is respecting Serbia's stances over the
preservation of sovereignty and territorial
integrity', the President's cabinet announced.
Djasuien yesterday also met with Serbian Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/28/eng20060828_297481.html
Xinhua News Agency - August 28, 2006
China willing to promote Sino-Serbian ties to new level: senior official
Visiting Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said on
Sunday that China is willing to work together with
Serbia to promote the bilateral ties to a new level.
Tang made the comments during a meeting with Serbian
Deputy Prime Minister Ivana Dulich Markovich.
Tang told Markovich that China is devoted to the
development of bilateral relations and that it
respects the path of development taken by the Serbian
people as well as the domestic and foreign policies
pursued by the Serbian government.
China will join efforts with Serbia to promote the
bilateral relationship to a new level, Tang stressed.
---
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=13414
Civil Georgia - August 30, 2006
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution
Tbilisi - Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said
in an interview with Interfax news agency that
international community should work out universal
approach in respect of conflict resolution issues.
“There should be no “double standards.”
It is of principle importance not to let use of one
approach in respect of Kosovo problems and another in
respect of similar situations in other regions.
It is clear for us that even now “Kosovo factor” is
already influencing on those processes which take
place in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdnestria, and
in other regions of Europe and of world,” Titov said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060830/53312897.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 30, 2006
Russia wants common approach over Kosovo, frozen conflicts
MOSCOW - Russia insists that a common approach be
taken to resolving the problem of Kosovo and other
regional, "frozen" conflicts, a deputy foreign
minister said Wednesday.
Russia has repeatedly said that sovereignty for the
UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo, which is
sought by the ethnic Albanian majority but opposed by
Belgrade, could have negative consequences for
conflicts in the former Soviet Union that erupted in
the early 1990s.
"It is extremely important to avoid a situation when
one approach is taken to the Kosovo problem and
another one to similar conflicts in other regions,"
Vladimir Titov said.
Russia has peacekeepers stationed in the zones of
three conflicts in the former Soviet Union.
Two of them are in Georgia, where the self-proclaimed
republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia refuse to
recognize Tbilisi's rule, and the other is in Moldova,
where the unrecognized Transdnestr has sought to break
away from the central authorities.
"For us it is obvious that the Kosovo factor has
influenced processes in Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
Transdnestr, and other regions in Europe and the
world," Titov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in July
against any double standards with regard to the
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova and said
there had always been contradictions in the principles
of international law.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on decisions to be
based on a universal principle to prevent cases when
approaches to the regions like Kosovo are different
from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, as it is
incorrect," the president said during a Web cast.
Titov said status for Kosov was still to be defined
and added that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the
UN Security Council and one of the six-nation Kosovo
Contact Group, would continue efforts to help find a
solution that would be approved by the UN, but
insisted a solution should not be imposed by one of
the countries involved.
http://www.vor.ru/index_eng.phtml?view=news_eng&id=11630
Voice of Russia - August 30, 2006
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world.
This came in a statement by the deputy Russian Foreign
Minister Vladimir Titov.
According to him, the Kosovo factor affects the
processes under way in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Trans-Dniestria.
The diplomat pointed out that Albanians press for
Kosovo’s independence at a time when Belgrade comes up
with an offer of broad autonomy for the province
within Serbia.
Meanwhile settlement standards have been set down in
the UN Charter and also, in relation to Kosovo, in the
relevant UN Security Council resolution and other
documents.
These claim that Serbia is indivisible and that Kosovo
is part thereof.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?
yyyy=2006&mm=08&dd=31&nav_category=92&nav_id=36405
B92/Beta (Serbia) - August 31, 2006
Contact Group on Kosovo [Excerpt]
BELGRADE - The Contact Group will meet in Vienna to
determine the next steps in the Kosovo status
negotiations. Belgrade-Ahtisaari feud continues.
The meeting will be attended by the chief UN
negotiator Martti Ahtisaari.
His spokeswoman told B92 that the Contact Group will
analyze the negotiations’ achievements so far. The
meeting will take place in the midst of a war of words
between official Belgrade and Martti Ahtisaari on his
alleged statement on Serbs being guilty as a nation.
Ahtisaari’s chief spokesperson Hua Jiang told B92 that
Ahtisaari will not apologise for his statements
because he never mentioned the collective guilt of the
Serbian people.
“The statement was taken out of context and poorly
presented. He never mentioned the collective guilt of
the Serbian people. Ahtisaari spoke of the historical
legacy, that every nation should have the courage to
face its own past. There is no reason for Ahtisaari to
offer an apology and that is not going to happen.”
Jiang said.
The Serbian Government responded by publishing a
document which the Serbian Kosovo status negotiation
team had sent to Ahtisaari in early August. The letter
states that Ahtisaari literally said that the Serbian
people are to blame for the Kosovo crisis and that all
members of the negotiation delegation can confirm
that.
Regardless of the recent bickering, UN officials are
continuing to prepare the continuation of the
discussions. In light of these preparations, the
Serbian discussion team met with UNOSEK
decentralisation experts this morning.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Serbian
government will demand the clarification of the UN
Kosovo Envoy’s statement on the Serbs’ collective
guilt from the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman Sanda
Raškoviæ-Iviæ held a press conference after the
government session, and expressed her expectation that
Annan, “renowned for fighting racism and
discrimination”, would not support the statement
accusing an entire people of being guilty.
“To say that Serbs are guilty as a nation, that any
nation is guilty as such, is one of the basic
assumptions of fascism and it cannot be overlooked”,
she said and added that the entire negotiating team is
demanding Ahtisaari’s apology.
....
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95069
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 1, 2006
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence:
Serbia Wants Kosovo to Turn into Embers
Pristina - “The solution of the Kosovo issue has been
predetermined long ago. Now, dramas are being played
in Kosovo and Serbia, which are staged by the
international community”, Adem Demaci, the most
popular political prisoner of former Yugoslavia and an
ideologist of Kosovo’s independence since 1958, said
in an interview with the Serbian newspaper Glas
Javnosti.
Currently, Demaci is a chairman of the Union of
Writers in Kosovo.
According to him, the international community is
trying to draw the two countries’ stands closer so
that the UN Security Council could solve the issue at
once when the time is appropriate.
He added that the Serbian and Kosovo politicians were
the same – they all aim to preserve their power.
“The world accepts an independent Kosovo, which will
exist within the EU. Under the EU shelter, the
Albanian people will be united. Serbia wants Kosovo.
But neither the Serbs, nor the Albanians will accept
that. So Serbia wants a division, which would mean a
Palestinization of Kosovo. Serbia wants Kosovo to turn
into embers”, Demaci stated.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - September 1, 2006
Displaced in Serbia
In the territory of Serbia, seven years after the end
of conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija, there are more
than 200,000 people displaced from that province, the
new UNHCR report specifies.
Among 207,000 refugees there are 155,000 Serbs, 22,000
Gypsies, 8,000 Montenegrins, slightly more than 5,000
Bosniacs and about 500 Albanians.
---
http://www.vor.ru/Exclusive/excl_next8234_eng.html
Voice of Russia - September 1, 2006
SERBS ARE UNHAPPY OVER PRO-ALBANIAN POSITION OF NEW U.N MISSION HEAD
Pyotr Iskenderov
The new U.N mission head in Kosovo, 55-year old German
diplomat, Joachim Ruecker, has today, September 1,
taken up his new post and simultaneously a German
general, Roland Kather, has taken over command of KFOR
in Kosovo.
The changes in the administration and KFOR have been
effected on the eve of crucial events in the
settlement in Kosovo.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on September 18
to listen to a progress report by the U.N special
envoy to talks on Kosovo future, Marti Ahtisaari.
But before September 18, diplomats of the Contact
Group will review the report.
Ahtisaari has promised to present to the diplomats a
preliminary version of Kosovo’s new status.
The new U.N mission head has let it be known that he
hopes to be the last person to occupy the post since
he believes that shortly a solution of the final
status of Kosovo will be found, a statement seen by
knowledgeable experts as a an attempt to prepare world
public opinion to accept a fait accompli - Kosovo
independence.
In the meantime, Serbs are unhappy over the
appointment of Joachim Ruecker as the new head of the
U.N mission in Kosovo.
Until his new appointment he supervised the process of
privatization in the province and he encouraged the
buying at give-away prices of Serbian enterprises and
property by local Albanians.
The chief of the economic council for Kosovo and
Metohia plus southern Serbia in the Serbian
government, Nenada Popovica, has disclosed that about
250 enterprises have already changed ownership and 99
per cent of their new owners are Albanians living
either in Kosovo or outside its border.
With such a dented reputation Joachim Ruecker can
hardly expect to easily win the trust of Serbs.
---
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/europe/EU_GEN_Kosovo_NATO.php
Associated Press - September 2, 2006
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks
PRISTINA - Serbia NATO's new commander in Kosovo
pledged Friday that the force would deal swiftly with
security threats in the province as it enters the
endgame in resolving its political status.
In what he said was a year of shaping the future,
German Lt. Gen. Roland Kather said the peacekeeping
force was set on overcoming obstacles in providing
stability in the volatile province.
"If there are some, we will push them away, you can be
sure," Kather said.
Kather is the 11th commander of the force of some
16,000 peacekeepers and replaces Italian Lt. Gen.
Giuseppe Valotto, who led the force for nearly a year.
The ceremony for the transfer of command was attended
by Italian Defense Minister Arturo Parisi and his
German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, as well as the
commander of NATO's Joint Force Command based in
Naples, Italy, Adm. Harry Ulrich.
The move comes as Germany takes a more prominent
political and military role in the region. Another
German, Joachim Ruecker officially took over as the
head of the U.N. mission in the province on Friday.
Germany is the largest contributor to the peacekeeping
force in Kosovo with some 2,500 soldiers. A battalion
was deployed recently into Kosovo to reinforce the
NATO-led peacekeepers.
Talks to determine Kosovo's future — whether it
becomes an independent state, as the ethnic Albanians
demand, or remains attached to Serbia, as the
province's minority Serbs insist — are under way and
are aimed at steering the two sides toward settling
the province's status by the end of the year.
Kather said his new duty was to ensure "everything
remains under control" during the status talks.
International authorities fear tensions between the
communities might spill over as the talks become more
intensive. So far there has been little progress
between the delegations that have been meeting in
Vienna, Austria in U.N.-run negotiations.
In a recent incident in Kosovo's north, nine people
were injured when an explosive device was thrown in a
bar frequented by Serbs. Police arrested an
ethnic-Albanian suspect.
Kather said the force would concentrate on the
northern part of the province, where most of Kosovo's
Serbs are.
"We all know that the presence of minorities in the
north is in numbers more numerous than in other parts,
therefore for us it will be a big challenge. For the
time being, I believe that the situation in the north
is quiet. But will it remain stable? Time will show,"
Kather said through a translator.
This is Kather's second tour of duty in Kosovo. He
previously commanded the troops in Kosovo's southern
German-controlled sector in 1999 and 2000, soon after
the province came under U.N. and NATO control.
The alliance's peacekeepers are in charge of the
overall security of the province.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/insight/opinions.php?nav_id=36489
Balkan Insight - September 4, 2006
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up
Zeljko Tvrdišiæ
International forces in Kosovo have stepped up their
police presence in northern Kosovo, saying local Serbs
need more protection from attacks.
But local Serb population and officials as well as
some Albanian analysts fear the real goal is to ensure
the Serb enclave does not unite with Serbia in the
event of Kosovo being declared independent.
Tensions are running high in northern Kosovo after a
bomb went off on August 27 in the Dolce Vita café, a
popular hang-out for Serbs in divided Mitrovica.
Local Serbs say if the international police were
serious about protecting them, the bombing, which
injured nine people, would not have happened in the
first place.
Serbs nerves are on edge over the likely outcome of
status talks on the future of the bitterly disputed
territory.
In 1999, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 declared
Kosovo a UN protectorate, although it formally
remained a part of Serbia.
The majority Albanian population insists on an
independent state, while Belgrade and most Kosovo
Serbs staunchly oppose the idea.
Talks on Kosovo's final status started in February in
Vienna but have yielded no results.
While the representatives of Pristina and Belgrade are
at loggerheads, the mediators in the process - the UN
and the so-called Contact Group of countries the
Balkans - insist negotiations must wrap up this year.
The Contact Group has already established ten
principles for Kosovo`s future status. Among them are
the decrees that Kosovo will not be divided, will not
unite with any other country and will never return to
the status it held before 1999.
Serbia fears the international community may then
impose its own solution, which will involve some form
of independent statehood for Kosovo.
The UN's human rights arm, UNHCR, supports the claim
of official sources in Serbia and Montenegro that
around 223,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma and other
minorities have fled Kosovo since 1999.
Serbs remaining in Kosovo, meanwhile, have been on the
receiving end of frequent attacks by Albanians who
especially target the isolated enclaves Serb south of
the Ibar River, which runs through Mitrovica.
Nor has the mainly Serb north of Kosovo escaped
attack. Early in July a Serb youth, Miljan Veskovic,
was murdered in Zveèan, in northern Kosovo.
In protest, three northern Serb municipalities
suspended all cooperation with Albanian controlled
institutions in the Kosovo capital, Priština.
The international forces in Kosovo, known as KFOR,
have now established a military base in the northern
town of Leposaviæ, deploying about 300 soldiers. The
UN administration, meanwhile, is planning to send an
additional 500 international police to the area.
UNMIK police commissioner Vein Hissong said on August
9 that the extra police were coming at the request of
the local Serb authorities.
A KFOR representative, Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand
Fayet, said the two companies of a German battalion,
now stationed near Leposaviæ, would remain till the
end of September when units from other tactical KFOR
forces will replace them.
Fayet told Balkan Insight that the beefed-up military
presence was meant to "reassure and calm down the
local population".
But Slaviša Ristiæ, mayor of Zubin Potok, a
municipality in northern Kosovo, told Balkan Insight
that Serbs suspected the real intention was to prevent
the area from uniting with Serbia. "Otherwise, I see
no reason to beef up the presence of police forces,"
said Ristiæ.
Some Albanians agree. A local political analyst,
Nedzmedin Spahiu, told Balkan Insight he also thought
the increased presence signalled the international
community's determination to prevent Kosovo's
partition.
"The Serbian government wants the partition of Kosovo,
and this move on the part of the international
community is intended to preclude such a development,"
said Spahiu.
Živojin Rakoèeviæ, a Kosovo Serb media editor from
Graèanica, in central Kosovo, said the move was a
warning to officials from Priština and Belgrade who
have discussed the possibility of partition.
"This is why the international community has
strengthened its presence, sending a clear message
that the partition is not a viable option - for the
time being," said Rakoèeviæ.
The local Serbs share the views of the analysts and
Serb representatives. Most are suspicious of the
international community's intentions, pointing out
that incidents have continued to occur, despite the
increased international presence. The bombing on
August 27 in Mitrovica bolstered their suspicions.
"I used to think safety concerns were the reason to
increase the international military and police
presence here, but after this incident in Mitrovica I
doubt it," said law student Jelena Dabetiæ from
Mitrovica.
She said the UNMIK police were probably preparing for
"something much bigger and more sinister", meaning the
imposition of Kosovo's final status as an independent
state.
Nebojša Markoviæ, another Serb from Mitrovica, agreed.
"They are not here to protect us but the
administrative border with Serbia," he said, referring
to the international forces, "since the international
community fears the Serb reaction in case Kosovo's
independence is declared".
Markoviæ said the UN police was acting under pressure
of the Albanians, who insist on creating their own
state.
However, Larry Miller, Mitrovica region's police press
officer, said such talk was nonsense.
"The increased presence of international officers in
the Northern Mitrovica region is to provide security
for all citizens and ensure that rule of law
prevails," he said.
"These officers have been assigned to Mitrovica,
partially in response to requests from local political
leaders for increase security.
"Everything else would be pure speculation."
Zeljko Tvrdisic is the editor-in-chief of Kontakt Plus
Radio in Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo correspondent
of Tanjug press agency. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s
online publication.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95476
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 8, 2006
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of
Independence: Serbia’s President
Washington - Serbia’s President Boris Tadic stated
yesterday evening that during all his conversations
with US officials, including with US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, he felt there was an overall
opinion that Kosovo should receive some kind of
independence, Serbian online edition Mondo informs.
“Such an opinion is felt in all Washington
conversations and Serbia should know this.
"On the other hand Serbia is defending its position –
of opposing Kosovo’s independence and of preserving
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the
country - with legal means,” Mr. Tadic told RTS.
He pointed out that he had expressed his opinion
openly and at the same time had pointed out that
“Serbia is more than interested in a strategic
partnership with the US”.
Neverending pogroms in Kosmet (5)
SUMMARY:
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October / 230 AGGRESSIONI CONTRO NON-ALBANESI IN MENO DI UN ANNO
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear' / TADIC: I SERBI KOSOVARI VIVONO NEL
TERRORE
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman /
NOVE FERITI COMPRESI ALCUNI OCCIDENTALI IN UN ATTENTATO AD UN CAFFÈ
DI MITROVICA
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo / "MEDIATORE" ONU AHTISAARI DICHIARA CHE I SERBI SONO
"COLPEVOLI COME POPOLO"
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in the center of
Decani on August 21 have not been arrested yet, although the attack
took place before many eyewitnesses / IMPUNITÀ GARANTITA PER GLI
AGGRESSORI DI DANILOVIC
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of Violence in
Kosovo / IL GOVERNO DELLA SERBIA DENUNCIA LA TOLLERANZA DELLA
"COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE" NEI CONFRONTI DEI POGROM CHE PROSEGUONO IN
KOSOVO
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin / PUTIN: LA RUSSIA APPOGGIA
L'INTEGRITÀ DELLA SERBIA
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo / SEQUESTRATO
UN ARSENALE
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible / FERRERO-
WALDNER TEME NUOVA ESCALATION IN KOSOVO
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall / LA SERBIA DENUNCIA LE FRASI
RAZZISTE DEL "MEDIATORE" ONU E METTE IN QUESTIONE IL SUO MANDATO
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks / LA CINA SOSTIENE LA POSIZIONE
DELLA SERBIA SULLA QUESTIONE DEL KOSOVO
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution / LA
RUSSIA CONTRO I "DOPPI STANDARD" DELL'IMPERIALISMO STATUNITENSE
Contact Group on Kosovo / IL "GRUPPO DI CONTATTO" TORNA A RIUNIRSI A
VIENNA CON IL "MEDIATORE" ANTISERBO AHTISAARI
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence / DEMACI REDIVIVO
SPINGE L'ACCELERATORE SUL KOSOVO "INDIPENDENTE"
Displaced in Serbia / PIÙ DI 200MILA I PROFUGHI KOSOVARI REGISTRATI
IN SERBIA, DI CUI MOLTE CENTINAIA ALBANOFONI E MUSULMANI
Serbs are unhappy over pro-albanian position of new U.N. mission
head / IL TEDESCO RUECKEN, FILOALBANESE, ASSUMERÀ IL CONTROLLO CIVILE
DELLA PROVINCIA
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks / IL
GENERALE TEDESCO KATER ASSUME IL CONTROLLO MILITARE DELLA PROVINCIA
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up / I SERBI DEL KOSOVO SI
SENTONO ABBANDONATI DALLA "COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE"
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of Independence: Serbia’s
President / TADIC: I NOSTRI PADRONI USA VOGLIONO LA SECESSIONE DEL
KOSOVO
=== NEWS ===
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=93989&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 13, 2006
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October
Belgrade - Since October last year 230 attacks against
Serbs and other non-Albanians have been committed in
Kosovo.
This is what the Coordination Center for Kosovo
announced cited by Serbian news agency TANJUG.
3 people have been killed and 25 have been wounded in
the attacks.
21 of the attacks were committed with a firearm.
In 32 of the cases the perpetrators used explosive
devices and in other 32 cases they threw stones at
people, houses and cars.
Meanwhile, there were also 9 physical attacks, 113
thefts and 3 attacks against religious sites.
---
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/13/serbia.kosovo.ap/
Associated Press - August 13, 2006
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear'
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's president said Sunday that
Serbs in Kosovo live in fear, despite promises to
protect their rights as a minority from the U.N.
authorities and ethnic Albanian leaders in the
troubled province.
President Boris Tadic issued a statement to mark the
third anniversary of an attack on Serb teenagers in
Kosovo, when gunmen killed two and wounded four while
they were swimming in a river in the western village
of Gorazdevac.
"Serbs live in constant fear for their lives and the
lives of their families," Tadic said. "The
international community must find the perpetrators of
this crime and provide security for all."
Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but it has been an
international protectorate since 1999. Majority ethnic
Albanians want independence from Serbia, but Belgrade
opposes it. Kosovo's final status will be decided at
ongoing U.N.-brokered talks.
Tadic accused the international officials in Kosovo
and the local authorities of "doing nothing to solve
the murder of the children."
The Serbs in Kosovo - about 100,000 of them who
remained there after Serbia lost control over the
province after the 1999 NATO air war - live in
isolated enclaves, without freedom of movement and
fearing attacks from extremist ethnic Albanians.
Ethnic Albanian leaders recently have sought to dispel
Serb fears and promise more rights, but have been
unable to curb attacks from extremists who wish to
drive the remaining Serbs from Kosovo....
Tadic urged the ethnic Albanian leaders to "do
something against extremists and criminals in their
ranks." He insisted that "words are not good enough."
There was no immediate comment from Kosovo on Tadic's
statement.
The talks on Kosovo's final status started earlier
this year. The rights and the position of the Serbs in
Kosovo are a key issue at the negotiations.
---
http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w082637A
Associated Press - August 26, 2006
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman
PRISTINA, Serbia - An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's
tense north injured nine people Saturday night,
including a British policeman with UN forces in the
Serbian province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar
shortly before 7 p.m. local time in the ethnically
divided town Kosovska Mitrovica, UN police spokesman
Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect was
detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of
them is a police officer," Miller said, without giving
further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a
British citizen serving with the UN police in the
province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said
Milan Ivanovic, director of the hospital in Kosovska
Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes
between Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides
the town between its northern Serbian-controlled
sector and the Albanian south.
The incident came a day after the UN's chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's post-war
status, Martti Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit
to the province. The envoy's latest trip was aimed at
pressing Albanians to grant more rights to minority
Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between
Kosovo's communities during the status talks, which
are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO troops reopened a military base in the
Serbian-dominated area in northern Kosovo and UN
police deployed about 500 police officers to boost
security after local Serbian officials said they would
sever ties with Albanian-dominated institutions
following a series of violent incidents they blamed on
Albanians.
26 August 2006 | 20:02 -> 22:30 | Source: Beta, reported by Radio B92
Bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Nine people were injured when a bomb exploded
in Kosovska Mitrovica around 19:00 tonight.
Beta agency named Adem Dibrani (16) from the southern end of the
ethnically divided town as the perpetrator of the incident.
Beta agency reports that the perpetrator has been put under arrest
and the Kosovo Police Service has confirmed that a person suspected
of throwing the explosive device at the café Dolce Vita is in
custody, but declined to reveal his identity or ethnic background.
Deputy Director of the Medical Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica Milan
Ivanović told B92 that nine people with injuries from the blast were
hospitalised tonight. He added that two people were discharged
immediately after receiving first aid.
“Seven people have been kept for further treatment. The injuries
were inflicted by shrapnel and one of the injured is an international
policeman from Great Britain. The other six are civilians, two of
them young women. One Dutch child-bearing woman was also hurt”,
Ivanović said.
Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica stated that “both the Albanian
terrorists and representatives of the international community were
equally to blame for tonight’s bomb attack on innocent Serbian
citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica because since their daily actions were
encouraging these kinds of incidents”.
“Albanian separatists were quick to react to [UN Envoy]Ahtisaari’s
statement that Serbs were guilty as a nation by tossing a bomb at
innocent Serbian citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica”, said
Koštunica’s communiqué to Beta news agency.
“Although [UN envoy] Ahtisaari has been entrusted with a mandate to
ensure negotiations that will lead to a compromise, a historically
just solution based on international legal norms, the UN special
envoy seems to be acting in complete contrast to such a goal”, the
Prime Minister added.
The leader of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija Oliver
Ivanović was sitting in the cafe Dolce Vita when the bomb exploded.
“This is horrible. I’m very upset. A man calmly approached the
café and just threw the bomb. Anyone could have done it and the
incident happened when a lot of young people were around”, Ivanović
told B92. Ivanović added he was concerned about the feeble reaction
by Kosovo Police Service and KFOR.
UNMIK forces blocked access to the café and are currently
investigating the scene. Several hundred citizens gathered in
discontent and started off towards the bridge that was currently
under a blockade.
Jakšić: The attacker should stand trial before a Serbian court
Member of the Belgrade team for negotiations Marko Jakšić told Beta
agency he would demand that the person who threw the bomb at the café
in Kosovska Mitrovica tonight be handed over to Serbian police and
should stand trial before a Serbian court.
“We will also demand the bridge over the Ibar River that divides the
two communities in Kosovska Mitrovica be closed down until the status
of Kosovo and Metohija is resolved. As of tonight, self-organised
citizens will keep watch at the bridge”, Jakšić announced.
He added that the bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica demonstrated that
the crime wave against Serbs has not come to an end.
“This is more proof of the policy of double standards lead by the
international community. Words do not mean anything anymore and we
now demand that the international community finally start doing its
job and protect those who are in danger, in this specific case the
Serb community in Kosovo”, Jakšić said.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 26, 2006 Saturday,
A2006082619-1223C-GNW, 268 words
Text of report by Serbian TV on 26 August - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1758 gmt 26 Aug 06
BELGRADE TV SHOWS KOSOVO CAFE BLAST AFTERMATH, SERBS WANT BRIDGE CLOSED
[Presenter] Let us recall the news from the beginning of Dnevnik [RTS
main news bulletin]. A hand grenade exploded in Dolce Vita cafe in
the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica around 1900 [1700 gmt]. As
our correspondent has reported six persons were injured, including a
Canadian policemen working with the United Nations. An ethnic
Albanian young man ran across the bridge from the southern [Albanian-
populated] part of town and lobbed the bomb into the cafe garden.
Eyewitnesses said that members of the Kosovo Police Service [KPS]
were on the bridge while the young man was running across it. Kfor
[NATO-led Kosovo Force] troops came to the scene as late as half an
hour after the explosion, and our correspondent reported that around
300 Serbs already gathered in protest in the area near the bridge in
whose vicinity Dolce Vita Cafe is located.
We have received first footage from the scene.
[Footage broadcast by Zvecan-based TV Most shown, smashed glass,
shrapnel, holes in the door]
[Nebojsa Jovic, captioned as the chairman of the SNV [Serb National
Council] for Kosovska Mitrovica] The Serb National Council will do
everything it can to keep the situation under control, because, as I
have said, we do not want any incidents, but I think that a decision
has already been made. It is clear that the bridge can no longer
remain open [for civilian traffic], at least not until that infamous
[Kosovo] status is solved, because it is evident that there is no
security on the bridge.
Agence France Presse -- English, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 7:26 PM
GMT, 238 words, MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 26 2006
Grenade attack injures nine in Kosovo
At least nine people, two of them foreigners, were injured Saturday
in a grenade attack in northern Kosovo, a local doctor said.
He said an international policeman and a Dutch woman along with six
Serb civilians, including two young women, were injured when an
unknown attacker threw a hand grenade at a cafe in the ethnically
divided town of Mitrovica.
Three of the nine were severely wounded, doctor Radomir Jankovic of
Mitrovica hospital said.
The cafe is near a bridge over the Ibar river, which divides the
ethnic Albanian south of the town from the Serb-controlled north.
"Police arrested a person suspected to have committed the attack," a
spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told AFP in Pristina,
refusing to reveal the nationality of the suspect.
But another source within the UN mission said the suspect was a 16-
year old ethnic Albanian.
Several hundred angry Serbs gathered in front of the bridge to
protest against the attack, while police increased security.
Both international and local police are keeping the situation in the
town under control, the spokesman said.
The southern Serbian province of Kosovo has been run by the United
Nations and NATO since the end of a conflict between Serbian forces
and armed ethnic Albanian separatists in June 1999.
Ethnic tensions between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and
its Serb minority remain high despite the presence of thousands of
NATO peacekeepers.
Associated Press Worldstream, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 9:02 PM GMT,
INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 287 words, By NEBI QENA, Associated Press Writer,
PRISTINA Serbia
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9
An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's tense north injured nine people on
Saturday night, including a British policeman with U.N. forces in the
province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar shortly before 7
p.m. (1700GMT) in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica,
U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect
was detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of them is a police
officer," Miller said, without giving further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a British citizen
serving with the U.N police in the province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said Milan Ivanovic,
director of the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides the town between its
northern Serb-controlled sector and the ethnic Albanian south.
The incident comes a day after the U.N.'s chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's postwar status, Martti
Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit to the province. The envoy's
latest trip was aimed at pressing ethnic Albanians to grant more
rights to minority Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between Kosovo's communities
during the status talks, which are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO peacekeepers reopened a military base in the Serb-dominated area
in northern Kosovo and U.N. police deployed about 500 police officers
to boost security after local Serbian officials said they would sever
ties with ethnic Albanian-dominated institutions following a series
of violent incidents that they blamed on ethnic Albanians.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Bomb attack on a cafe in Mitrovica
Serbs requesting bridge to be closed
The health condition of nine people injured in a bomb
attack on a cafe in the northern part of Kosovska
Mitrovica is stable and their lives are not
threatened.
Six individuals have been hospitalized, two released
to home care, while international policeman David
Hoffey has been transferred to a KFOR military
hospital.
The attack took place on Saturday evening about 19.00.
A young Albanian man, aged 16, threw a bomb at the
entrance of the 'Dolce vita' cafe that is in close
vicinity to the city bridge over the Ibar River in the
northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
According to eyewitnesses, that young man entered the
cafe, looked around and while going out took out a
hand bomb and threw it at the entrance of the cafe.
He then moved away towards the bridge absolutely
relaxed. Only after Serbs started shouting at and
chasing him did police arrest him.
The Kosovo Protection Service announced that the name
of the attacker was Adem Dibrani, 16 years old. He is
now in a district prison in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Representatives of Serbian National Council of the
northern part of Kosovo and Metohija requested
yesterday from international authorities in the
province to close the bridge dividing the Albanian and
Serbian parts of the city until the end of
negotiations over Kosovo's status.
---
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo - Text of report by Serbian TV on 25 August
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide
Monitoring, August 25, 2006 Friday, 378 words - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1000 gmt 25 Aug 06
[Announcer] The Serbian negotiating team has sent a letter of protest
to Martti Ahtisaari, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for
talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija. The letter says that
Ahtisaari had said in talks with members of the Serbian delegation on
8 August in Vienna that the Serbs were guilty as a nation. The
Serbian negotiating team believes that this seriously brings into
question Ahtisaari's unbiasedness in the negotiations and warrants a
reply and clarification.
[Reporter Biljana Pekusic] That Ahtisaari had really told the
negotiating team that the Serbs were to blame as a nation was
confirmed by all members of the Serbian delegation taking part in the
Vienna talks. The letter of protest was sent on 10 August - 15 days
ago - but Ahtisaari has still not replied.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Slobodan Samardzic speaking at
presser] The second mistake he made was to ignore our fair offer to
clarify such important matters. As far as I personally am concerned,
this only made me even more suspicious about his good intentions.
[Reporter] In order for the talks to continue it is necessary for
Ahtisaari to clarify his statement. The Serbian negotiating team will
assess the reactions of Ahtisaari, the Contact Group and the overall
political public and decide on its future moves on this basis.
Speaking about Martti Ahtisaari's recent contacts with Serb
representatives in Kosmet, the negotiating team says that in these
talks Oliver Ivanovic was systematically manipulating the Serb List
for his own purposes.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Leon Kojen] What Oliver
Ivanovic is doing while submitting different proposals allegedly on
behalf of the Serb List, as well as when meeting [Kosovo Premier]
Agim Ceku, again allegedly on behalf of the Serb List, is pure
political manipulation.
[Reporter] By giving precedence to Oliver Ivanovic, Martti Ahtisaari
wishes to shift the focus of the negotiations from the state
negotiating team to someone else, Slobodan Samardzic says. However,
in the very next meeting his attention will be drawn to the fact that
the Belgrade team is the only authorized instance in the negotiations.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#1
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Government: Ahtisaari responsible
By the latest terrorist attacks in Northern Mitrovica,
Albanian separatists showed how they understood Marti
Ahtisaari's statement that 'Serbs as a nation are
guilty', an announcement issued by the Serbian
Government reads.
'This bomb attack should be the last alarm for the
international community to keep the peace in this part
of Europe', the Serbian Government pointed out.
President Boris Tadic, the Coordination Center for KiM
as well as leaders of Kosovo Serbs condemned the
attack.
....
'I am shocked and disappointed over the bomb attack',
Steven Shook, Deputy UNMIK's Chief said. He also
condemned the attack.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Attackers of Serbian professor still free
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in
the center of Decani on August 21 have not been
arrested yet, although the attack took place before
many eyewitnesses.
In the meantime the organization of war veterans [KLA]
Dukadjini accused Danilovic [of being] a war criminal,
threatening him that he would be treated 'as all other
Serbs'.
The police are said to have serious suspicions that
the attackers of professor Danilovic are members of
the abovementioned organization.
'The announcement is an incorrect interpretation of
the event and is filled with hatred', an OSCE report
specified.
The president of Decani municipality Nazmi Selmanaj
also condemned the attack.
'It is well known to everybody that Danilovic has
always been a peaceful and respected citizen',
Selmanaj said.
Professor Danilovic is temporarily displaced in the
village of Berane.
When the attack occurred, he was in Decani with five
Serbian children within an OSCE project called
'Multiethnic Camp'.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94833
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of
Violence in Kosovo
Belgrade - With the latest terrorist attack in
Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday the Albanian
separatists showed how they have understood the
statement of UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Marti
Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as people” are to blame for
Kosovo’s fate.
If the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo can say such a
thing then any act of violence committed against the
Serbs is justified and rewarded, a statement of the
Serbian government says made with regard to the
terrorist attack at a café in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica, the Serbian newspaper Danas reads
today.
Nine people were wounded in the attack that took place
on Saturday.
The terror exerted over the Serbs in Kosovo in the
presence of the international community has been going
on for seven years now.
Instead of counteracting the Albanian separatist
violence the international community representatives
turn a blind eye and sometimes even tolerate the
violence just like Marti Ahtisaari did with his
statement, the Serbian government says.
The bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica should be the
last indicator for the international community that it
has to use decisive measures to preserve the peace in
this part of Europe, the statement reads.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94832
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
Serbian Parliament to Hold Special Session on Kosovo
Belgrade - After the sharp reaction of the Serbian
authorities with regard to the statement of UN Special
Envoy for Kosovo Marti Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as
people” are to blame for Kosovo’s fate and especially
after the explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday
it is becoming more and more certain that soon the
Serbian parliament will have the possibility to state
its position on the matter, the Serbian newspaper
Danas reads today.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica himself announced
last week that the government will request a special
session of the parliament which will be dedicated to
the talks on the region’s future status.
The Serbian negotiating team is expected to present a
report on the progress of the talks and the MPs to
confirm that Kosovo is an inseparable part of Serbia.
This would be yet another unity declaration on the eve
of the forthcoming meetings for Kosovo’s
decentralization, the newspaper comments.
---
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11578890
Interfax - August 28, 2006
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin
SOCHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin has
reiterated Russia's support of the territorial
integrity of Serbia in a meeting with Montenegrin
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on Monday,
The president confirmed Russia's support of Serbia's
territorial integrity, but noted that much depended on
Serbia itself, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told
reporters after the meeting.
Putin asked Djukanovic's opinion of the Kosovo
situation and his assessment of the prospects for
Serbian-Montenegrin relations, the aide said.
Putin repeated an earlier statement that Russia had
taken a cautious position on the creation of new
states due to the potential weakening of these states,
Prikhodko said.
---
http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?
story_id=w39824i20060828;story=Czech-KFOR-soldiers-seize-weapons-
ammunition-in-Kosovo
Czech News Agency - August 28, 2006
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo
Prague/Pristina - Czech, Finnish and Swedish soldiers
and Kosovo police seized an unspecified quantity of
illegally possessed weapons and ammunition in a search
in the area controlled by the Czech KFOR contingent in
Kosovo, Lieutenant Vit Rapan told CTK today.
The operation that lasted about eight hours was unique
by its extent.
[A]bout 10 houses and farm buildings were searched,
said Rapan, spokesman for the 9th KFOR contingent in
Kosovo.
The Czech KFOR contingent in Kosovo has about 500
soldiers.
It controls the whole central part of Kosovo in which
units from several other states also operate.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34665&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible
Vienna - The EU's external relations commissioner,
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, did not rule out the
possibility of fresh outbreak of violence in Kosovo.
"The Kosovo issue is very tough", she said.
After a standstill in the negotiations over the future
status of the province, she told the Austrian Agency
APA that the Kosovo issue is very tough, which is why
fresh escalation of the situation might take place.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34681&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall
Belgrade - The President of the Coordination Center
for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic, will
put forward a motion recommending to the Belgrade
negotiating team to urge the recall of Martti
Ahtisaari from the post of chief UN mediator in the
negotiations over Kosovo.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by his recent statement "Serbs as a nation
are guilty", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari "has debased and
insulted the Serbian nation", clearly taking the
Albanian side in the negotiating process.
A meeting of the Serbian negotiating team aimed at
reviewing the results of the current stage of Kosovo
status talks is taking place on Monday.
It is due to be attended also by the President Boris
Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign
Minister Vuk Draskovic. Simultaneously, the Serbian
Parliament convened for a session today to discuss the
same topic.
As announced, the Serbian negotiators are due to
decide on further steps, in the light of the recent
Ahtisaari statement that "Serbs as a nation are
guilty", i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be
taken into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past".
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.334408002&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy) - August 28, 2006
KOSOVO: CHIEF UN NEGOTIATOR STIRS UP SERB STORM
Belgrade - Chief United Nations negotiator for Kosovo
Martti Ahtisaari drew unprecedented criticism over the
weekend from Serbian politicians for allegedly saying
that "Serbs are guilty as people" and implying that
they would have to pay for it, possibly by losing
Kosovo, which is seeking independence.
The statement, allegedly made by Ahtisaari during
Kosovo talks in Vienna on 8 August, was made public
Friday by members of Belgrade's negotiating team and
immediately provoked a public shock.
A weekend bomb [was used] against a cafe in the
northern Serb area of the divided town of Kosovska
Mitrovica where ethnic Albanians live to the south of
a UN-guarded bridge.
Ahtisaari, winding up his four-day visit to Kosovo on
Friday, indirectly confirmed his earlier stance.
Asked by journalists for comment he said that "every
nation carries a burden for which it has to pay".
....
The statement further enraged Belgrade, which opposes
Kosovo's independence, and some politicians even
called for Ahtisaari’s resignation.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in a statement
that while the UN was seeking "a just and tenable
solution for the status of Kosovo" Ahtisaari seemed
"determined to do just the opposite."
Ahtisaari has been creating the impression that the
negotiations were unnecessary, he said, "because the
solution already exists and has only to be implemented
- and that is Kosovo independence".
Spokesman for Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia,
Andreja Mladenovic, said that "before Ahtisaari only
Hitler had dared to say that an entire people was
guilty”, slamming Ahtisaari’s statement as
"scandalous, shameful and racist."
Tension was heightened after an attack late Saturday
on a Serbian cafe in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica,
in which nine people, including a UN policemen and a
pregnant Dutch woman, were injured.
The Serbian government said in a statement the
“terrorist act” was encouraged by Ahtisaari’s
statement that “Serbs were guilty as a people”.
"If something like that is said by a special envoy of
the UN Secretary-general in the talks on the Kosovo
status, then any violence against Serbs in justified
and awarded,” the government statement said.
The cafe in the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica on
Saturday, which injured nine people, has fuelled fears
of a fresh wave of violence in the UN-run province,
where nearly two million ethnic Albanians are pushing
for independence from Serbia.
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34711&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia questions Ahtisaari's position
Belgrade - Serbia has officially condemned the UN
Envoy in Kosovo status talks Martti Ahtisaari,
announcing that "resolving of the situation following
his statement" will be demanded.
The Serbian negotiating team has unanimously condemned
the latest Ahtisaari's statements, describing them as
diametrically opposing to his mandate granted by the
Un Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"It was agreed that it is necessary to take all
diplomatic and other steps in order to prevent any
damages that might incur as a result of the recent
Ahtisaari's statements", says the statement released
after today's session of the negotiating team,
attended also by the President Boris Tadic, Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
Earlier today, the President of the Coordination
Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by stating "Serbs as a nation are guilty",
i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be taken
into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari
"has debased and insulted the Serbian nation", clearly
taking the Albanian side in the negotiating process.
---
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060828-104955-4896r
United Press International - August 28, 2006
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks
BELGRADE, Serbia - China's state envoy says his
country supports Serbia in safeguarding its
sovereignty in U.N.-led talks on Kosovo's future,
Belgrade media said.
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Monday told
Serbian President Boris Tadic that Beijing advocates a
compromise, just and peaceful solution to the future
status of Serbia's predominantly ethnic-Albanian
Kosovo province, Belgrade' s Beta news agency
reported.
In a separate meeting with Serbian Prime Minister
Vojislav Kostunica, Tang said the respect of
sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states is
the basis of international order, the premier's office
said in a statement.
Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo's 1.8 million
population is 90-percent ethnic-Albanian and their
leaders insist on independence from the Serbian
government in Belgrade.
But, Serbia's leaders, who represent Kosovo's 100,000
Serbs, will accept any solution except a Kosovo
independent of Belgrade.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#3
Blic (Serbia) - August 28, 2006
Support to Serbia
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said during
yesterday's meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadic
that 'China is respecting Serbia's stances over the
preservation of sovereignty and territorial
integrity', the President's cabinet announced.
Djasuien yesterday also met with Serbian Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/28/eng20060828_297481.html
Xinhua News Agency - August 28, 2006
China willing to promote Sino-Serbian ties to new level: senior official
Visiting Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said on
Sunday that China is willing to work together with
Serbia to promote the bilateral ties to a new level.
Tang made the comments during a meeting with Serbian
Deputy Prime Minister Ivana Dulich Markovich.
Tang told Markovich that China is devoted to the
development of bilateral relations and that it
respects the path of development taken by the Serbian
people as well as the domestic and foreign policies
pursued by the Serbian government.
China will join efforts with Serbia to promote the
bilateral relationship to a new level, Tang stressed.
---
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=13414
Civil Georgia - August 30, 2006
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution
Tbilisi - Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said
in an interview with Interfax news agency that
international community should work out universal
approach in respect of conflict resolution issues.
“There should be no “double standards.”
It is of principle importance not to let use of one
approach in respect of Kosovo problems and another in
respect of similar situations in other regions.
It is clear for us that even now “Kosovo factor” is
already influencing on those processes which take
place in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdnestria, and
in other regions of Europe and of world,” Titov said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060830/53312897.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 30, 2006
Russia wants common approach over Kosovo, frozen conflicts
MOSCOW - Russia insists that a common approach be
taken to resolving the problem of Kosovo and other
regional, "frozen" conflicts, a deputy foreign
minister said Wednesday.
Russia has repeatedly said that sovereignty for the
UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo, which is
sought by the ethnic Albanian majority but opposed by
Belgrade, could have negative consequences for
conflicts in the former Soviet Union that erupted in
the early 1990s.
"It is extremely important to avoid a situation when
one approach is taken to the Kosovo problem and
another one to similar conflicts in other regions,"
Vladimir Titov said.
Russia has peacekeepers stationed in the zones of
three conflicts in the former Soviet Union.
Two of them are in Georgia, where the self-proclaimed
republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia refuse to
recognize Tbilisi's rule, and the other is in Moldova,
where the unrecognized Transdnestr has sought to break
away from the central authorities.
"For us it is obvious that the Kosovo factor has
influenced processes in Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
Transdnestr, and other regions in Europe and the
world," Titov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in July
against any double standards with regard to the
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova and said
there had always been contradictions in the principles
of international law.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on decisions to be
based on a universal principle to prevent cases when
approaches to the regions like Kosovo are different
from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, as it is
incorrect," the president said during a Web cast.
Titov said status for Kosov was still to be defined
and added that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the
UN Security Council and one of the six-nation Kosovo
Contact Group, would continue efforts to help find a
solution that would be approved by the UN, but
insisted a solution should not be imposed by one of
the countries involved.
http://www.vor.ru/index_eng.phtml?view=news_eng&id=11630
Voice of Russia - August 30, 2006
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world.
This came in a statement by the deputy Russian Foreign
Minister Vladimir Titov.
According to him, the Kosovo factor affects the
processes under way in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Trans-Dniestria.
The diplomat pointed out that Albanians press for
Kosovo’s independence at a time when Belgrade comes up
with an offer of broad autonomy for the province
within Serbia.
Meanwhile settlement standards have been set down in
the UN Charter and also, in relation to Kosovo, in the
relevant UN Security Council resolution and other
documents.
These claim that Serbia is indivisible and that Kosovo
is part thereof.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?
yyyy=2006&mm=08&dd=31&nav_category=92&nav_id=36405
B92/Beta (Serbia) - August 31, 2006
Contact Group on Kosovo [Excerpt]
BELGRADE - The Contact Group will meet in Vienna to
determine the next steps in the Kosovo status
negotiations. Belgrade-Ahtisaari feud continues.
The meeting will be attended by the chief UN
negotiator Martti Ahtisaari.
His spokeswoman told B92 that the Contact Group will
analyze the negotiations’ achievements so far. The
meeting will take place in the midst of a war of words
between official Belgrade and Martti Ahtisaari on his
alleged statement on Serbs being guilty as a nation.
Ahtisaari’s chief spokesperson Hua Jiang told B92 that
Ahtisaari will not apologise for his statements
because he never mentioned the collective guilt of the
Serbian people.
“The statement was taken out of context and poorly
presented. He never mentioned the collective guilt of
the Serbian people. Ahtisaari spoke of the historical
legacy, that every nation should have the courage to
face its own past. There is no reason for Ahtisaari to
offer an apology and that is not going to happen.”
Jiang said.
The Serbian Government responded by publishing a
document which the Serbian Kosovo status negotiation
team had sent to Ahtisaari in early August. The letter
states that Ahtisaari literally said that the Serbian
people are to blame for the Kosovo crisis and that all
members of the negotiation delegation can confirm
that.
Regardless of the recent bickering, UN officials are
continuing to prepare the continuation of the
discussions. In light of these preparations, the
Serbian discussion team met with UNOSEK
decentralisation experts this morning.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Serbian
government will demand the clarification of the UN
Kosovo Envoy’s statement on the Serbs’ collective
guilt from the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman Sanda
Raškoviæ-Iviæ held a press conference after the
government session, and expressed her expectation that
Annan, “renowned for fighting racism and
discrimination”, would not support the statement
accusing an entire people of being guilty.
“To say that Serbs are guilty as a nation, that any
nation is guilty as such, is one of the basic
assumptions of fascism and it cannot be overlooked”,
she said and added that the entire negotiating team is
demanding Ahtisaari’s apology.
....
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95069
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 1, 2006
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence:
Serbia Wants Kosovo to Turn into Embers
Pristina - “The solution of the Kosovo issue has been
predetermined long ago. Now, dramas are being played
in Kosovo and Serbia, which are staged by the
international community”, Adem Demaci, the most
popular political prisoner of former Yugoslavia and an
ideologist of Kosovo’s independence since 1958, said
in an interview with the Serbian newspaper Glas
Javnosti.
Currently, Demaci is a chairman of the Union of
Writers in Kosovo.
According to him, the international community is
trying to draw the two countries’ stands closer so
that the UN Security Council could solve the issue at
once when the time is appropriate.
He added that the Serbian and Kosovo politicians were
the same – they all aim to preserve their power.
“The world accepts an independent Kosovo, which will
exist within the EU. Under the EU shelter, the
Albanian people will be united. Serbia wants Kosovo.
But neither the Serbs, nor the Albanians will accept
that. So Serbia wants a division, which would mean a
Palestinization of Kosovo. Serbia wants Kosovo to turn
into embers”, Demaci stated.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - September 1, 2006
Displaced in Serbia
In the territory of Serbia, seven years after the end
of conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija, there are more
than 200,000 people displaced from that province, the
new UNHCR report specifies.
Among 207,000 refugees there are 155,000 Serbs, 22,000
Gypsies, 8,000 Montenegrins, slightly more than 5,000
Bosniacs and about 500 Albanians.
---
http://www.vor.ru/Exclusive/excl_next8234_eng.html
Voice of Russia - September 1, 2006
SERBS ARE UNHAPPY OVER PRO-ALBANIAN POSITION OF NEW U.N MISSION HEAD
Pyotr Iskenderov
The new U.N mission head in Kosovo, 55-year old German
diplomat, Joachim Ruecker, has today, September 1,
taken up his new post and simultaneously a German
general, Roland Kather, has taken over command of KFOR
in Kosovo.
The changes in the administration and KFOR have been
effected on the eve of crucial events in the
settlement in Kosovo.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on September 18
to listen to a progress report by the U.N special
envoy to talks on Kosovo future, Marti Ahtisaari.
But before September 18, diplomats of the Contact
Group will review the report.
Ahtisaari has promised to present to the diplomats a
preliminary version of Kosovo’s new status.
The new U.N mission head has let it be known that he
hopes to be the last person to occupy the post since
he believes that shortly a solution of the final
status of Kosovo will be found, a statement seen by
knowledgeable experts as a an attempt to prepare world
public opinion to accept a fait accompli - Kosovo
independence.
In the meantime, Serbs are unhappy over the
appointment of Joachim Ruecker as the new head of the
U.N mission in Kosovo.
Until his new appointment he supervised the process of
privatization in the province and he encouraged the
buying at give-away prices of Serbian enterprises and
property by local Albanians.
The chief of the economic council for Kosovo and
Metohia plus southern Serbia in the Serbian
government, Nenada Popovica, has disclosed that about
250 enterprises have already changed ownership and 99
per cent of their new owners are Albanians living
either in Kosovo or outside its border.
With such a dented reputation Joachim Ruecker can
hardly expect to easily win the trust of Serbs.
---
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/europe/EU_GEN_Kosovo_NATO.php
Associated Press - September 2, 2006
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks
PRISTINA - Serbia NATO's new commander in Kosovo
pledged Friday that the force would deal swiftly with
security threats in the province as it enters the
endgame in resolving its political status.
In what he said was a year of shaping the future,
German Lt. Gen. Roland Kather said the peacekeeping
force was set on overcoming obstacles in providing
stability in the volatile province.
"If there are some, we will push them away, you can be
sure," Kather said.
Kather is the 11th commander of the force of some
16,000 peacekeepers and replaces Italian Lt. Gen.
Giuseppe Valotto, who led the force for nearly a year.
The ceremony for the transfer of command was attended
by Italian Defense Minister Arturo Parisi and his
German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, as well as the
commander of NATO's Joint Force Command based in
Naples, Italy, Adm. Harry Ulrich.
The move comes as Germany takes a more prominent
political and military role in the region. Another
German, Joachim Ruecker officially took over as the
head of the U.N. mission in the province on Friday.
Germany is the largest contributor to the peacekeeping
force in Kosovo with some 2,500 soldiers. A battalion
was deployed recently into Kosovo to reinforce the
NATO-led peacekeepers.
Talks to determine Kosovo's future — whether it
becomes an independent state, as the ethnic Albanians
demand, or remains attached to Serbia, as the
province's minority Serbs insist — are under way and
are aimed at steering the two sides toward settling
the province's status by the end of the year.
Kather said his new duty was to ensure "everything
remains under control" during the status talks.
International authorities fear tensions between the
communities might spill over as the talks become more
intensive. So far there has been little progress
between the delegations that have been meeting in
Vienna, Austria in U.N.-run negotiations.
In a recent incident in Kosovo's north, nine people
were injured when an explosive device was thrown in a
bar frequented by Serbs. Police arrested an
ethnic-Albanian suspect.
Kather said the force would concentrate on the
northern part of the province, where most of Kosovo's
Serbs are.
"We all know that the presence of minorities in the
north is in numbers more numerous than in other parts,
therefore for us it will be a big challenge. For the
time being, I believe that the situation in the north
is quiet. But will it remain stable? Time will show,"
Kather said through a translator.
This is Kather's second tour of duty in Kosovo. He
previously commanded the troops in Kosovo's southern
German-controlled sector in 1999 and 2000, soon after
the province came under U.N. and NATO control.
The alliance's peacekeepers are in charge of the
overall security of the province.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/insight/opinions.php?nav_id=36489
Balkan Insight - September 4, 2006
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up
Zeljko Tvrdišiæ
International forces in Kosovo have stepped up their
police presence in northern Kosovo, saying local Serbs
need more protection from attacks.
But local Serb population and officials as well as
some Albanian analysts fear the real goal is to ensure
the Serb enclave does not unite with Serbia in the
event of Kosovo being declared independent.
Tensions are running high in northern Kosovo after a
bomb went off on August 27 in the Dolce Vita café, a
popular hang-out for Serbs in divided Mitrovica.
Local Serbs say if the international police were
serious about protecting them, the bombing, which
injured nine people, would not have happened in the
first place.
Serbs nerves are on edge over the likely outcome of
status talks on the future of the bitterly disputed
territory.
In 1999, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 declared
Kosovo a UN protectorate, although it formally
remained a part of Serbia.
The majority Albanian population insists on an
independent state, while Belgrade and most Kosovo
Serbs staunchly oppose the idea.
Talks on Kosovo's final status started in February in
Vienna but have yielded no results.
While the representatives of Pristina and Belgrade are
at loggerheads, the mediators in the process - the UN
and the so-called Contact Group of countries the
Balkans - insist negotiations must wrap up this year.
The Contact Group has already established ten
principles for Kosovo`s future status. Among them are
the decrees that Kosovo will not be divided, will not
unite with any other country and will never return to
the status it held before 1999.
Serbia fears the international community may then
impose its own solution, which will involve some form
of independent statehood for Kosovo.
The UN's human rights arm, UNHCR, supports the claim
of official sources in Serbia and Montenegro that
around 223,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma and other
minorities have fled Kosovo since 1999.
Serbs remaining in Kosovo, meanwhile, have been on the
receiving end of frequent attacks by Albanians who
especially target the isolated enclaves Serb south of
the Ibar River, which runs through Mitrovica.
Nor has the mainly Serb north of Kosovo escaped
attack. Early in July a Serb youth, Miljan Veskovic,
was murdered in Zveèan, in northern Kosovo.
In protest, three northern Serb municipalities
suspended all cooperation with Albanian controlled
institutions in the Kosovo capital, Priština.
The international forces in Kosovo, known as KFOR,
have now established a military base in the northern
town of Leposaviæ, deploying about 300 soldiers. The
UN administration, meanwhile, is planning to send an
additional 500 international police to the area.
UNMIK police commissioner Vein Hissong said on August
9 that the extra police were coming at the request of
the local Serb authorities.
A KFOR representative, Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand
Fayet, said the two companies of a German battalion,
now stationed near Leposaviæ, would remain till the
end of September when units from other tactical KFOR
forces will replace them.
Fayet told Balkan Insight that the beefed-up military
presence was meant to "reassure and calm down the
local population".
But Slaviša Ristiæ, mayor of Zubin Potok, a
municipality in northern Kosovo, told Balkan Insight
that Serbs suspected the real intention was to prevent
the area from uniting with Serbia. "Otherwise, I see
no reason to beef up the presence of police forces,"
said Ristiæ.
Some Albanians agree. A local political analyst,
Nedzmedin Spahiu, told Balkan Insight he also thought
the increased presence signalled the international
community's determination to prevent Kosovo's
partition.
"The Serbian government wants the partition of Kosovo,
and this move on the part of the international
community is intended to preclude such a development,"
said Spahiu.
Živojin Rakoèeviæ, a Kosovo Serb media editor from
Graèanica, in central Kosovo, said the move was a
warning to officials from Priština and Belgrade who
have discussed the possibility of partition.
"This is why the international community has
strengthened its presence, sending a clear message
that the partition is not a viable option - for the
time being," said Rakoèeviæ.
The local Serbs share the views of the analysts and
Serb representatives. Most are suspicious of the
international community's intentions, pointing out
that incidents have continued to occur, despite the
increased international presence. The bombing on
August 27 in Mitrovica bolstered their suspicions.
"I used to think safety concerns were the reason to
increase the international military and police
presence here, but after this incident in Mitrovica I
doubt it," said law student Jelena Dabetiæ from
Mitrovica.
She said the UNMIK police were probably preparing for
"something much bigger and more sinister", meaning the
imposition of Kosovo's final status as an independent
state.
Nebojša Markoviæ, another Serb from Mitrovica, agreed.
"They are not here to protect us but the
administrative border with Serbia," he said, referring
to the international forces, "since the international
community fears the Serb reaction in case Kosovo's
independence is declared".
Markoviæ said the UN police was acting under pressure
of the Albanians, who insist on creating their own
state.
However, Larry Miller, Mitrovica region's police press
officer, said such talk was nonsense.
"The increased presence of international officers in
the Northern Mitrovica region is to provide security
for all citizens and ensure that rule of law
prevails," he said.
"These officers have been assigned to Mitrovica,
partially in response to requests from local political
leaders for increase security.
"Everything else would be pure speculation."
Zeljko Tvrdisic is the editor-in-chief of Kontakt Plus
Radio in Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo correspondent
of Tanjug press agency. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s
online publication.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95476
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 8, 2006
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of
Independence: Serbia’s President
Washington - Serbia’s President Boris Tadic stated
yesterday evening that during all his conversations
with US officials, including with US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, he felt there was an overall
opinion that Kosovo should receive some kind of
independence, Serbian online edition Mondo informs.
“Such an opinion is felt in all Washington
conversations and Serbia should know this.
"On the other hand Serbia is defending its position –
of opposing Kosovo’s independence and of preserving
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the
country - with legal means,” Mr. Tadic told RTS.
He pointed out that he had expressed his opinion
openly and at the same time had pointed out that
“Serbia is more than interested in a strategic
partnership with the US”.