Jugoinfo
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
BALKAN - ALBANIA - KOSOVO - HEROIN - JIHAD
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
scontact@...
Research Analysis
May 2000
The biggest paradox in the international war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the explosion of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
However, it relates less to drugs and arms and more to the major
participants in this deadly game.
Terrorist organizations at the top of America’s most wanted list are
receiving tacit support in the Balkans from the Clinton administration.
The "most wanted" terrorist in the world today, Osama bin Laden, who
declared a "fatwa" against the US, is being abetted by the Clinton
doctrine. In the Balkans, we are witnessing a true paradox where
several mortal enemies - Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden
and the CIA - are standing shoulder to shoulder while pursuing
diametrically opposite goals.
Drugs Finance Terrorism
Earlier reporting has confirmed that terrorism in the Balkans has been
primarily financed through narcotics trafficking. Heroin - worth 12
times
its weight in gold - is by far the most profitable commodity on the
markets. A kilogram of heroin, worth $1,000 in Thailand, wholesales for
$110,000 in Canada with a street value of $800,000.
In fact, heroin trafficking has become so beneficial to the cause of
Albanian separatism that the predominantly Albanian-inhabited towns of
Veliki Trnovac and Blastica in Serbia, Vratnica and Gostivar in FYR
Macedonia, and Shkoder and Durres in Albania have become known as
the "new Medellins" of the Balkans. Via the Balkan Route, heroin travels
through Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania en route to
western European markets. The value of the heroin shipped is
$400-billion (US) a year. As early as 1996, the US Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) detailed the Balkan Route in its annual report. In 1998,
the DEA stated that Kosovo Albanians had become the second most
important traffickers on the Balkan Route.
These predominantly Albanian drug barons from Kosovo ship heroin
exclusively from Asia's Golden Crescent, an apparently inexhaustible
source. At one end of the crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999
surpassed Burma as the world's largest producer of opium poppies.
>From there, the heroin base passes through Iran to Turkey, where it is
refined, and then placed into the hands of the Albanians who operate
out of the lawless towns bordering FYR Macedonia, Albania, and
Serbia. According to the US State Department, four to six tons of heroin
move through Turkey every month.
"Not very much is stopped", says one official. "We get just a fraction
of
the total". Not surprisingly, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has
flourished along the route. Its dependence on the drug lords is
difficult to
prove, but the evidence is impossible to overlook.
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts belonging to
the "United Kosova" organization at a Dusseldorf bank after it was
discovered that several hundred thousand dollars had been deposited
into those accounts by a convicted Kosovo Albanian drug trafficker.
According to at least one published report, Bujar Bukoshi, Prime
Minister of the "Kosova" Government in Exile, also allegedly controlled
the accounts.
In early 1999 an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for
the KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of an
Albanian Kosovo drug gang. While searching his apartment, they
discovered evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons
and rocket systems. No one had questioned what a small-time dealer
would be doing with rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was
shipping them to the KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway
where he had escaped from prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year
sentence for heroin trafficking.
It's therefore not surprising, say European law enforcement officials,
that
the faction that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under
Hashim Thaci -- was the group that maintained the closest links to
traffickers.
In its report about the KLA and heroin smuggling, the Montreal Gazette
wrote: "...Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug
Enforcement Agency) who left in 1990, said he believes there is no
question that US intelligence knew about the KLA's drug ties. "They
(the CIA) protected them (the KLA) in every way they could. As long as
the CIA is protecting the KLA, you've got major drug pipelines protected
from any police investigation", said Levine, who teaches undercover
tactics and informer handling to US and Canadian police forces,
including the RCMP. "The evidence is irrefutable," he said, explaining
that his information comes from "sources inside the DEA".
The Albanian Medellin connection is particularly strong in Italy where
it
is operating in conjunction with the "Sacra Corona Unita," or the fourth
mafia. The group controls the drug trade in the regions of Brindisi,
Lecce
and Taranto.
The tentacles of the Albanian mafia stretch across Europe. According to
Interpol, Albanian-speaking drug dealers accounted for 14% of those
arrested for heroin smuggling in 1997. While the average trafficker was
apprehended with two grams of heroin, the Albanians had an average of
120 grams in their possession. Scandinavian countries claim that
Albanians control 80% of the heroin market there. Switzerland says
90% of the drug trafficking in that country is connected to Albanians.
German law enforcement agencies claim that Albanians form the largest
group involved in heroin trafficking.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovo Albanians import 80
percent of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovo Albanian
presence in trafficking that many European users refer to illicit drugs
in
general as "Albanka", or Albanian lady.
Terrorism, Spies and Albanians
Osama bin Laden’s activities in Albania are well known and
documented. The presence of his network in that country is so powerful
that US Defence Secretary William Cohen cancelled a scheduled visit
last July out of fear of being assassinated.
The Albanian national security organization SHIK confirmed that plans
exist to target US objects in Albania. SHIK is the offspring of the
notorious communist security apparatus the "Sigurimi." The former head
of the Sigurimi, Irakli Kocollari, is advisor to the current head of
SHIK,
Fatos Klosi. In 1997 the CIA sent a team of experts to modernize and
reorganize SHIK. The other major patron of SHIK is the German
intelligence agency Bundensnachrichtendienst (BND) which opened one
of its largest stations in Tirana. A review of BND personnel is
revealing.
While the terrorist Albanian organization Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosove -
UCK (KLA) was being formed, the BND was headed by Hansjorg Geiger
whose deputy was Rainer Kesselring, the son of the Luftwaffe general
who bombed Belgrade during the Second World War.
Mr. Kesselring was given the job of training KLA terrorists at a Turkish
base near Izmir where he was head of the BND station in 1978. French
sources confirmed that members of the German commando unit,
Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK), participated in the KLA training
program. Gen. Klaus Neumann, the outgoing head of NATO’s
occupational forces in Kosovo and Metohija, formed the German
commando unit.
The relationship between the CIA and SHIK is one of master and
servant. At the CIA’s "request" last year, Albania expelled three
"humanitarian" workers, two Syrians and an Iranian. Acting on another
request, SHIK arrested an Albanian national, Maksim Ciciku, for spying
on the US embassy. Ciciku was educated in Saudi Arabia. In Albania
he worked for a private security company which provided bodyguards for
visiting Arabs. He was accused of following embassy employees on
behalf of Osama bin Laden. Albania also expelled four Egyptians who
were suspected of ties to bin Laden. Two others were arrested and
handed over to US agents, along with a van full of documents and
computer equipment, all of which belonged to Osama bin Laden’s
organization.
At about the same time, Iran, through its embassy in Rome and it’s
operative Mahmut Nuranija, began to organize an intelligence-gathering
sector in Albania. Their involvement in Albania was based on two levels:
economic-financial through the Albanian Arab Islamic Bank, and
humanitarian through organizations which have become standard covers
for subversive activities. At the beginning of 1998 Iran began the
serious
consolidation of its most important European strongholds, Sarajevo and
Tirana. According to Yossef Bodansky, terrorism and unconventional
warfare analyst, Iran aided the KLA by providing military plans drawn up
by Zaim Bersa, a former colonel in the Yugoslav National Army (JNA),
and another Kosovo Albanian, Ejup Dragaj.
One of the leaders of an elite KLA unit was Muhammed al-Zawahiri, the
brother of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader in an Egyptian Jihad
organization and a military commander of Osama bin Laden. Once
again Kosovo becomes a paradox where several mortal enemies -
Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden and the CIA - are
standing shoulder to shoulder training the KLA.
It is believed that bin Laden solidified his organization in Albania in
1994
with the help of then premier Sali Berisha. Albania’s ties to Islamic
terrorist blossomed during Berisha's rule when the main KLA training
base was on Berisha's property in northern Albania. During the
"honeymoon" period between the CIA and Jihad holy warriors, Fatos
Klosi, the head of SHIK, said he had reliable information that four
groups
of Jihad warriors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algiers, Tunisia and Sudan
were in northern Albania and fighting with the KLA. Klosi recently
stated
that there is an attempt to destabilize the country, alluding primarily
to
former premier Sali Berisha.
Jihad and Serbia
In 1994 in Lebanon, a radical Sunni Muslim group, Takfir wal Hijra,
attempted to blow up a convoy of Serbian priests who were on their way
Koura. The priests avoided death when the suicide bomber detonated
the explosive device prematurely.
This attempt on the lives of Serbian priests preceded a more ambitious
plan. At the 18th Islamic conference, Al-Jama’ah al-Islaiyyah, held in
Pakistan (October 23-25, 1998), Albanian separatism in Kosovo and
Metohija was characterized as a Jihad. The same definition was given to
Muslim battles in India (Kashmir), Israel (Palestine) and Eritrea. By
defining armed battles as a "holy war" or Jihad, an obligation is placed
on the Muslim world to do everything in its power - economically,
politically and diplomatically - to aid the fight for freedom in
occupied
Muslim territories". This gave legitimacy to terrorist acts carried out
by
Allah’s holy warriors. Referring to a Jihad, the terrorist organization
of
Osama bin Laden announced terrorist attacks against "infidel nations",
namely Great Britain, United States, France, Israel, Russia, India and
Serbia.
The Bosnian Jihad Connection
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the influence of the ruling Islamic party, Party
of
Democratic Action (SDA), has brought out the recently born again "true
believers". Recognized by their long beards and short-legged pants,
large numbers of them participated in KLA terrorist activities in Kosovo
and Metohija. The transport of these Jihad warriors was conducted
under the patronage of the SDA which provided them with passports.
Visas were issued for a "haj," or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Dr. Nauman
Balic, head of the Kosovo SDA and now a minister in Hashim Thaci’s
government", was responsible for their transit to Albania. The Bosnian
Muslims were provided with journalists' credentials and 2,000 DM for
travel costs. It is not known how many returned from Kosovo, but a
number of these Jihad warriors lost their lives in Chechnya.
The Sarajevo authorities were active in the training of terrorists. In
1993
Saudi Arabia provided $1 million to build a refugee camp for Bosnian
Muslims in Albania. One of the main political leaders of the Muslim
authorities in Sarajevo admitted to Misha Glenny that the base was
used to train saboteurs sent to Kosovo because their Serbian was
flawless.
Kosovo under NATO - A Virtual Narco-State (1)
The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so
than the benefits of Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads,
and the sophisticated weapons -- many of these have been bought with
drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global
Drugs Monitor (OGD), a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of
this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo
observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual
narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.
It was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that
Facilitated the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a
democratization of drug trafficking where ordinary people get involved,
and everyone contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the
KLA," he explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the
clan gets from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to
promote drug trafficking".
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police
agency, 400 to 500 Kosovo Albanians move shipments in the 20-kilo
range, while about 5,000 Kosovo Albanians are small-timers, handling
shipments of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more
than 800 ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges.
In many places, Kosovo Albanians traffickers gained a foothold in the
Illicit drug trade through raw violence. According to a 1999 German
Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian gangs have been involved in
drugs, weapons trafficking blackmail, and murder. They are increasingly
prone to violence".
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels".
Few gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovo Albanians. Those that
do often pay the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovo Albanians
killed Nine people in Milan, Italy during a two-week bloodbath between
rival heroin groups.
Now free of the war and the Yugoslav police, drug traffickers have
Reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power -- and in the
spotlight - the top trafficking families have begun to seek relative
respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The Kosovo
Albanians are trying to position themselves in the higher levels of
trafficking", says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to
move up like any other business, and the Kosovo Albanians are
becoming business leaders. They have become equal partners with the
Turks".
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovo Albanian outreach
last year when they undertook "Operation Pristina". The carabinieri
(Italian Police) uncovered a chain of connections that originated in
Kosovo and stretched through nine European countries, extending into
Central Asia, South America and the United States.
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do
care about (KLA drug trafficking)", says Agresti. "It's just that we've
got
our hands full trying to bring peace there".
The DEA is equally reticent to address the issue. According to Michel
Koutouzis, the DEA's website once contained a section detailing
Kosovo Albanians trafficking, but a week before the US-led bombings
began, the section disappeared. "The DEA doesn't want to talk publicly
(about the KLA)", says OGD director Alain Labrousse. "It's
embarrassing to them".
High-ranking US officials are dismayed that the KLA was installed in
power without public discussion or a thorough check of its background.
"I don't think we're doing anything there to stem the drugs", says a
senior State Department official. "It's out of control. It should be a
high
priority. We've warned about it".
Even if it tried to stop the Kosovo Albanian heroin trade, the US would
be hard-pressed to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo", adds the
State Department official. "They don't even have a police force".
Regardless of what it says, there's little indication that the
administration wants to do anything with the intelligence available
about
its newest ally. "There is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking
organization", said a congressional expert who monitors the drug trade
and requested anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA,
and the administration doesn't want to damage (its) reputation. We are
partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it".
Conclusion
Indeed the biggest paradox in the world war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the outburst of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
What is the reason for this unusual co-relation between US policy in
Balkans, the most wanted terrorist in the world today, Osama bin y en,
and this enormous KLA drug trafficking.
As Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug Enforcement
Agency) stated: "They (the CIA) protected them the KLA) in every way
they could". McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin, said the Afghan
Mujahideen rebels were one of the first US-backed rebel groups to get
into the heroin trade in a big way. The anti-Communist Mujahideen were
backed by the US in their opposition to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979. They started exporting massive amounts of opium
to raise money, with the knowledge and protection of the CIA and
Pakistani intelligence, according to McCoy. "That produced a massive
traffic in the '80s to Europe and the U.S.," he said.
Other recipients of US support were Nicaraguan Contras, Panama’s
General Noriega, Afghan Taliban, Indonesia (remember massacres by
their special units in Timor), and Burma’s Khun Sa. Another US-backed
rebel army, the Nicaraguan contras, raised money for their war against
the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s by flooding U.S. cities
with crack - all with the knowledge and assistance of the CIA and the
DEA, according to the book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and
the Crack Cocaine Explosion, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary
Webb.
Webb's allegations were initially denied by the CIA, but a CIA
inspector-general's report in October 1998 revealed that 58 contras were
linked to drug allegations.
Early in 1999, as the war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund
the KLA's drive for independence. One tear later the US embrace of the
KLA may come as an embarrassment, but not a precedent.
Quo Vadis America?
1 - Material from "Mother Jones" Heroin Heroes, January/February 2000
used without permission, for academic and research purposes only.
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
BALKAN - ALBANIA - KOSOVO - HEROIN - JIHAD
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
scontact@...
Research Analysis
May 2000
The biggest paradox in the international war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the explosion of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
However, it relates less to drugs and arms and more to the major
participants in this deadly game.
Terrorist organizations at the top of America’s most wanted list are
receiving tacit support in the Balkans from the Clinton administration.
The "most wanted" terrorist in the world today, Osama bin Laden, who
declared a "fatwa" against the US, is being abetted by the Clinton
doctrine. In the Balkans, we are witnessing a true paradox where
several mortal enemies - Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden
and the CIA - are standing shoulder to shoulder while pursuing
diametrically opposite goals.
Drugs Finance Terrorism
Earlier reporting has confirmed that terrorism in the Balkans has been
primarily financed through narcotics trafficking. Heroin - worth 12
times
its weight in gold - is by far the most profitable commodity on the
markets. A kilogram of heroin, worth $1,000 in Thailand, wholesales for
$110,000 in Canada with a street value of $800,000.
In fact, heroin trafficking has become so beneficial to the cause of
Albanian separatism that the predominantly Albanian-inhabited towns of
Veliki Trnovac and Blastica in Serbia, Vratnica and Gostivar in FYR
Macedonia, and Shkoder and Durres in Albania have become known as
the "new Medellins" of the Balkans. Via the Balkan Route, heroin travels
through Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania en route to
western European markets. The value of the heroin shipped is
$400-billion (US) a year. As early as 1996, the US Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) detailed the Balkan Route in its annual report. In 1998,
the DEA stated that Kosovo Albanians had become the second most
important traffickers on the Balkan Route.
These predominantly Albanian drug barons from Kosovo ship heroin
exclusively from Asia's Golden Crescent, an apparently inexhaustible
source. At one end of the crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999
surpassed Burma as the world's largest producer of opium poppies.
>From there, the heroin base passes through Iran to Turkey, where it is
refined, and then placed into the hands of the Albanians who operate
out of the lawless towns bordering FYR Macedonia, Albania, and
Serbia. According to the US State Department, four to six tons of heroin
move through Turkey every month.
"Not very much is stopped", says one official. "We get just a fraction
of
the total". Not surprisingly, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has
flourished along the route. Its dependence on the drug lords is
difficult to
prove, but the evidence is impossible to overlook.
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts belonging to
the "United Kosova" organization at a Dusseldorf bank after it was
discovered that several hundred thousand dollars had been deposited
into those accounts by a convicted Kosovo Albanian drug trafficker.
According to at least one published report, Bujar Bukoshi, Prime
Minister of the "Kosova" Government in Exile, also allegedly controlled
the accounts.
In early 1999 an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for
the KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of an
Albanian Kosovo drug gang. While searching his apartment, they
discovered evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons
and rocket systems. No one had questioned what a small-time dealer
would be doing with rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was
shipping them to the KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway
where he had escaped from prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year
sentence for heroin trafficking.
It's therefore not surprising, say European law enforcement officials,
that
the faction that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under
Hashim Thaci -- was the group that maintained the closest links to
traffickers.
In its report about the KLA and heroin smuggling, the Montreal Gazette
wrote: "...Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug
Enforcement Agency) who left in 1990, said he believes there is no
question that US intelligence knew about the KLA's drug ties. "They
(the CIA) protected them (the KLA) in every way they could. As long as
the CIA is protecting the KLA, you've got major drug pipelines protected
from any police investigation", said Levine, who teaches undercover
tactics and informer handling to US and Canadian police forces,
including the RCMP. "The evidence is irrefutable," he said, explaining
that his information comes from "sources inside the DEA".
The Albanian Medellin connection is particularly strong in Italy where
it
is operating in conjunction with the "Sacra Corona Unita," or the fourth
mafia. The group controls the drug trade in the regions of Brindisi,
Lecce
and Taranto.
The tentacles of the Albanian mafia stretch across Europe. According to
Interpol, Albanian-speaking drug dealers accounted for 14% of those
arrested for heroin smuggling in 1997. While the average trafficker was
apprehended with two grams of heroin, the Albanians had an average of
120 grams in their possession. Scandinavian countries claim that
Albanians control 80% of the heroin market there. Switzerland says
90% of the drug trafficking in that country is connected to Albanians.
German law enforcement agencies claim that Albanians form the largest
group involved in heroin trafficking.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovo Albanians import 80
percent of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovo Albanian
presence in trafficking that many European users refer to illicit drugs
in
general as "Albanka", or Albanian lady.
Terrorism, Spies and Albanians
Osama bin Laden’s activities in Albania are well known and
documented. The presence of his network in that country is so powerful
that US Defence Secretary William Cohen cancelled a scheduled visit
last July out of fear of being assassinated.
The Albanian national security organization SHIK confirmed that plans
exist to target US objects in Albania. SHIK is the offspring of the
notorious communist security apparatus the "Sigurimi." The former head
of the Sigurimi, Irakli Kocollari, is advisor to the current head of
SHIK,
Fatos Klosi. In 1997 the CIA sent a team of experts to modernize and
reorganize SHIK. The other major patron of SHIK is the German
intelligence agency Bundensnachrichtendienst (BND) which opened one
of its largest stations in Tirana. A review of BND personnel is
revealing.
While the terrorist Albanian organization Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosove -
UCK (KLA) was being formed, the BND was headed by Hansjorg Geiger
whose deputy was Rainer Kesselring, the son of the Luftwaffe general
who bombed Belgrade during the Second World War.
Mr. Kesselring was given the job of training KLA terrorists at a Turkish
base near Izmir where he was head of the BND station in 1978. French
sources confirmed that members of the German commando unit,
Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK), participated in the KLA training
program. Gen. Klaus Neumann, the outgoing head of NATO’s
occupational forces in Kosovo and Metohija, formed the German
commando unit.
The relationship between the CIA and SHIK is one of master and
servant. At the CIA’s "request" last year, Albania expelled three
"humanitarian" workers, two Syrians and an Iranian. Acting on another
request, SHIK arrested an Albanian national, Maksim Ciciku, for spying
on the US embassy. Ciciku was educated in Saudi Arabia. In Albania
he worked for a private security company which provided bodyguards for
visiting Arabs. He was accused of following embassy employees on
behalf of Osama bin Laden. Albania also expelled four Egyptians who
were suspected of ties to bin Laden. Two others were arrested and
handed over to US agents, along with a van full of documents and
computer equipment, all of which belonged to Osama bin Laden’s
organization.
At about the same time, Iran, through its embassy in Rome and it’s
operative Mahmut Nuranija, began to organize an intelligence-gathering
sector in Albania. Their involvement in Albania was based on two levels:
economic-financial through the Albanian Arab Islamic Bank, and
humanitarian through organizations which have become standard covers
for subversive activities. At the beginning of 1998 Iran began the
serious
consolidation of its most important European strongholds, Sarajevo and
Tirana. According to Yossef Bodansky, terrorism and unconventional
warfare analyst, Iran aided the KLA by providing military plans drawn up
by Zaim Bersa, a former colonel in the Yugoslav National Army (JNA),
and another Kosovo Albanian, Ejup Dragaj.
One of the leaders of an elite KLA unit was Muhammed al-Zawahiri, the
brother of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader in an Egyptian Jihad
organization and a military commander of Osama bin Laden. Once
again Kosovo becomes a paradox where several mortal enemies -
Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden and the CIA - are
standing shoulder to shoulder training the KLA.
It is believed that bin Laden solidified his organization in Albania in
1994
with the help of then premier Sali Berisha. Albania’s ties to Islamic
terrorist blossomed during Berisha's rule when the main KLA training
base was on Berisha's property in northern Albania. During the
"honeymoon" period between the CIA and Jihad holy warriors, Fatos
Klosi, the head of SHIK, said he had reliable information that four
groups
of Jihad warriors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algiers, Tunisia and Sudan
were in northern Albania and fighting with the KLA. Klosi recently
stated
that there is an attempt to destabilize the country, alluding primarily
to
former premier Sali Berisha.
Jihad and Serbia
In 1994 in Lebanon, a radical Sunni Muslim group, Takfir wal Hijra,
attempted to blow up a convoy of Serbian priests who were on their way
Koura. The priests avoided death when the suicide bomber detonated
the explosive device prematurely.
This attempt on the lives of Serbian priests preceded a more ambitious
plan. At the 18th Islamic conference, Al-Jama’ah al-Islaiyyah, held in
Pakistan (October 23-25, 1998), Albanian separatism in Kosovo and
Metohija was characterized as a Jihad. The same definition was given to
Muslim battles in India (Kashmir), Israel (Palestine) and Eritrea. By
defining armed battles as a "holy war" or Jihad, an obligation is placed
on the Muslim world to do everything in its power - economically,
politically and diplomatically - to aid the fight for freedom in
occupied
Muslim territories". This gave legitimacy to terrorist acts carried out
by
Allah’s holy warriors. Referring to a Jihad, the terrorist organization
of
Osama bin Laden announced terrorist attacks against "infidel nations",
namely Great Britain, United States, France, Israel, Russia, India and
Serbia.
The Bosnian Jihad Connection
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the influence of the ruling Islamic party, Party
of
Democratic Action (SDA), has brought out the recently born again "true
believers". Recognized by their long beards and short-legged pants,
large numbers of them participated in KLA terrorist activities in Kosovo
and Metohija. The transport of these Jihad warriors was conducted
under the patronage of the SDA which provided them with passports.
Visas were issued for a "haj," or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Dr. Nauman
Balic, head of the Kosovo SDA and now a minister in Hashim Thaci’s
government", was responsible for their transit to Albania. The Bosnian
Muslims were provided with journalists' credentials and 2,000 DM for
travel costs. It is not known how many returned from Kosovo, but a
number of these Jihad warriors lost their lives in Chechnya.
The Sarajevo authorities were active in the training of terrorists. In
1993
Saudi Arabia provided $1 million to build a refugee camp for Bosnian
Muslims in Albania. One of the main political leaders of the Muslim
authorities in Sarajevo admitted to Misha Glenny that the base was
used to train saboteurs sent to Kosovo because their Serbian was
flawless.
Kosovo under NATO - A Virtual Narco-State (1)
The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so
than the benefits of Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads,
and the sophisticated weapons -- many of these have been bought with
drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global
Drugs Monitor (OGD), a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of
this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo
observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual
narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.
It was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that
Facilitated the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a
democratization of drug trafficking where ordinary people get involved,
and everyone contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the
KLA," he explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the
clan gets from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to
promote drug trafficking".
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police
agency, 400 to 500 Kosovo Albanians move shipments in the 20-kilo
range, while about 5,000 Kosovo Albanians are small-timers, handling
shipments of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more
than 800 ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges.
In many places, Kosovo Albanians traffickers gained a foothold in the
Illicit drug trade through raw violence. According to a 1999 German
Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian gangs have been involved in
drugs, weapons trafficking blackmail, and murder. They are increasingly
prone to violence".
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels".
Few gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovo Albanians. Those that
do often pay the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovo Albanians
killed Nine people in Milan, Italy during a two-week bloodbath between
rival heroin groups.
Now free of the war and the Yugoslav police, drug traffickers have
Reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power -- and in the
spotlight - the top trafficking families have begun to seek relative
respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The Kosovo
Albanians are trying to position themselves in the higher levels of
trafficking", says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to
move up like any other business, and the Kosovo Albanians are
becoming business leaders. They have become equal partners with the
Turks".
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovo Albanian outreach
last year when they undertook "Operation Pristina". The carabinieri
(Italian Police) uncovered a chain of connections that originated in
Kosovo and stretched through nine European countries, extending into
Central Asia, South America and the United States.
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do
care about (KLA drug trafficking)", says Agresti. "It's just that we've
got
our hands full trying to bring peace there".
The DEA is equally reticent to address the issue. According to Michel
Koutouzis, the DEA's website once contained a section detailing
Kosovo Albanians trafficking, but a week before the US-led bombings
began, the section disappeared. "The DEA doesn't want to talk publicly
(about the KLA)", says OGD director Alain Labrousse. "It's
embarrassing to them".
High-ranking US officials are dismayed that the KLA was installed in
power without public discussion or a thorough check of its background.
"I don't think we're doing anything there to stem the drugs", says a
senior State Department official. "It's out of control. It should be a
high
priority. We've warned about it".
Even if it tried to stop the Kosovo Albanian heroin trade, the US would
be hard-pressed to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo", adds the
State Department official. "They don't even have a police force".
Regardless of what it says, there's little indication that the
administration wants to do anything with the intelligence available
about
its newest ally. "There is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking
organization", said a congressional expert who monitors the drug trade
and requested anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA,
and the administration doesn't want to damage (its) reputation. We are
partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it".
Conclusion
Indeed the biggest paradox in the world war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the outburst of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
What is the reason for this unusual co-relation between US policy in
Balkans, the most wanted terrorist in the world today, Osama bin y en,
and this enormous KLA drug trafficking.
As Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug Enforcement
Agency) stated: "They (the CIA) protected them the KLA) in every way
they could". McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin, said the Afghan
Mujahideen rebels were one of the first US-backed rebel groups to get
into the heroin trade in a big way. The anti-Communist Mujahideen were
backed by the US in their opposition to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979. They started exporting massive amounts of opium
to raise money, with the knowledge and protection of the CIA and
Pakistani intelligence, according to McCoy. "That produced a massive
traffic in the '80s to Europe and the U.S.," he said.
Other recipients of US support were Nicaraguan Contras, Panama’s
General Noriega, Afghan Taliban, Indonesia (remember massacres by
their special units in Timor), and Burma’s Khun Sa. Another US-backed
rebel army, the Nicaraguan contras, raised money for their war against
the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s by flooding U.S. cities
with crack - all with the knowledge and assistance of the CIA and the
DEA, according to the book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and
the Crack Cocaine Explosion, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary
Webb.
Webb's allegations were initially denied by the CIA, but a CIA
inspector-general's report in October 1998 revealed that 58 contras were
linked to drug allegations.
Early in 1999, as the war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund
the KLA's drive for independence. One tear later the US embrace of the
KLA may come as an embarrassment, but not a precedent.
Quo Vadis America?
1 - Material from "Mother Jones" Heroin Heroes, January/February 2000
used without permission, for academic and research purposes only.
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society
3662 Albion Rd. South, Gloucester, Ontario, K1T 1A3
serbian.heritage@... (613) 225-3378
PUBLIC STATEMENT BY SERBIAN-CANADIAN ORGANIZATIONS
IN RESPONSE TO THE REPORT PRESENTED BY THE "INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT
COMMISSION ON KOSOVO"
Ottawa, December 6, 2000
While we unreservedly share the Commission’s stated objective of
achieving a lasting, stable and just solution for Kosovo, we differ from
its diagnosis, methodology, and conclusions. We believe that the
Commission has erred in fact and judgment, and that its recommendations
- even if well intentioned - will have the opposite effect of the
hoped-for consequences.
Almost two years after the event, it is our considered opinion that the
war waged by NATO against the Serbs in the spring of 1999 was illegal,
unnecessary, and an abject failure. We are encouraged by the fact that
this is not an eccentric view from the margins. Many eminent analysts
and institutions – even those initially tricked or cajoled into
supporting the intervention - have come to see it as an exercise in
criminal folly. The war is being condemned ever more frequently and
deservedly by liberals and conservatives alike, by the upholders of
multilateralism no less than by the adherents of the traditional
Realpolitik based on national interest.
It is a matter of regret that such arguments have not been properly
considered by the Commission. Bereft of either legitimacy or legality,
it seems to find its raison d’etre in an unending quest for retroactive
justification of the war. Its historic amnesia is reflected in dating
the crisis only to 1989. Its muddled thinking is apparent in the
advocacy of "qualified independence" for the Serbian province Kosovo.
This goal, however qualified and rationalized, would place many borders
all over the world in doubt and make a mockery of the rule of law in
international affairs.
The moral absolutism that is at the core of the Commission’s apologia,
the one that has been routinely invoked by the proponents of NATO
bombing as a substitute for rational argument, is unsustainable. Genuine
dilemmas about our human responsibility for one another must not be used
as an excuse for the doctrine of benevolent global hegemony.
The Commission’s recommendations, so disdainful of the principle of
sovereignty of nation-states, may be motivated by a single-minded belief
that the war against the Westphalian order is a "just" war - but its
"justice" needs to be revealed in its pragmatic simplicity. The
Commission inadvertently confirms that the more arrogant the new
doctrine, the greater the willingness to lie for the truth. To be
capable of "doing something" sustains moral self-respect, if we can
suppress the thought that we are not so much moral actors as consumers
of predigested choices.
Unlike the Commission, we do not seek to lobby for any particular set of
policy options. Historical, political, legal, and moral arguments need
to be cleansed of propagandistic spin if there is to be a proper debate.
Because the treatment of the Kosovo episode by the media and politicians
has been largely one-sided and propagandistic – and, at times,
mendacious – that debate is sorely needed to restore balance in public
perceptions and in policy making. It is in sorrow, rather than anger,
that we aver that this particular Commission has not contributed to that
goal.
Specifically, we reassert the verifiable fact that the "Rambouillet
Peace Accord" was, in truth, a declaration of war disguised as a peace
agreement. The Serbs were told they had only two choices: sign the
agreement as written - or face NATO bombing. By that time the Clinton
Administration’s partnership with the KLA was unambiguous. Its effusive
embrace of an organization that only a year ago its own officials
labeled as "terrorist" was startling.
A key contention of the Commission, the "humanitarian" contention, is
rank hypocrisy. "Illegal but legitimate" is a piece of casuistry
unworthy of serious policy debate. What about Kashmir, Sudan, Uganda,
Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, Algeria…? Properly
videotaped and Amanpourized, each would be as "legal" and "legitimate"
as a dozen "Kosovos". Compared to the killing fields of the Third World,
Kosovo before the bombing was a brutal but unremarkable low-intensity
campaign, uglier than Northern Ireland ten years ago, but much less so
than Kurdistan. Bearing in mind the many brutalities, aggressions and
"ethnic cleansing" ignored by the Western alliance - or even condoned,
notably in Croatia, or in eastern Turkey - it is clear that "Kosovo" is
not about universal principles. Abdullah Ocalan is a terrorist, but Agim
Ceku and Nasir Oric are freedom fighters.
The Commission has failed to acknowledge that the "Kosovo genocide" was
the most outrageous lie of the past decade. It did not happen. We were
force-fed a grotesque myth concocted to justify the war. It was waged in
the spring of 1999 on an independent nation because it refused foreign
troops on its soil. A truly independent Commission - unlike this one -
would have grasped that all other justifications are post facto
rationalizations. The powers that waged that war have aided and abetted
secession by an ethnic minority, secession that – once formally effected
- will render many European borders tentative.
The recommendations presented to us today for the future of Kosovo will
engender countless new hotbeds of instability. They will unleash an
uncontrollable chain reaction throughout the ex-Communist half of
Europe. Its first victim will be the former Yugoslav republic of
Macedonia, where the restive Albanian minority comprises a third of the
total population. With the murderous narco-mafia known as the "KLA" in
charge in Pristina, and the Serbs (and others) gone, the rising
expectations among Macedonia’s Albanians will be hard to contain. Will
the Pristina model not be demanded by the Hungarians in Rumania (more
numerous than Kosovo’s Albanians) and in southern Slovakia? What will
stop the Russians in the Ukraine (Crimea), in Moldova, in Estonia, and
in northern Kazakhstan from following suit? What about the Turks in
Thrace, and the chronically unstable and utterly unviable Dayton-Bosnia,
to mention but some of the European dominos that may fall in the wake of
Kosovo’s evolution as recommended to us today?
And finally, when the Albanians get their "qualified" secession, will
the same apply when the Latinos in southern California, New Mexico,
Arizona, or Texas eventually outnumber their Anglo neighbors and start
demanding bilingual statehood, leading to reunification with Mexico? Are
Russia and China to threaten the United States with bombing if
Washington does not comply?
The fundamental problem with the Commission is that the notion of "human
rights" can never provide a basis for either the rule of law or
morality. Universal "rights," detached from any rootedness in time or
place, will be open to the latest whim of outrage or the latest fad for
victimhood. A future, truly independent international commission should
ponder the implications of this course, and gather the courage to say
"no" to interventionism – for the sake of the rule of law, of peace and
stability in the world.
Slobodanka Borojevic, President Bora Dragasevich,
President
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society Serbian National Shield
Society of Canada
Snezana Vitorovic, President The Centre for
Peace in the Balkans
Association of Serbian Women Toronto
(www.balkanpeace.org)
Mirko Andjic, President
Serbian Canadian Society of Vancouver
3662 Albion Rd. South, Gloucester, Ontario, K1T 1A3
serbian.heritage@... (613) 225-3378
PUBLIC STATEMENT BY SERBIAN-CANADIAN ORGANIZATIONS
IN RESPONSE TO THE REPORT PRESENTED BY THE "INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT
COMMISSION ON KOSOVO"
Ottawa, December 6, 2000
While we unreservedly share the Commission’s stated objective of
achieving a lasting, stable and just solution for Kosovo, we differ from
its diagnosis, methodology, and conclusions. We believe that the
Commission has erred in fact and judgment, and that its recommendations
- even if well intentioned - will have the opposite effect of the
hoped-for consequences.
Almost two years after the event, it is our considered opinion that the
war waged by NATO against the Serbs in the spring of 1999 was illegal,
unnecessary, and an abject failure. We are encouraged by the fact that
this is not an eccentric view from the margins. Many eminent analysts
and institutions – even those initially tricked or cajoled into
supporting the intervention - have come to see it as an exercise in
criminal folly. The war is being condemned ever more frequently and
deservedly by liberals and conservatives alike, by the upholders of
multilateralism no less than by the adherents of the traditional
Realpolitik based on national interest.
It is a matter of regret that such arguments have not been properly
considered by the Commission. Bereft of either legitimacy or legality,
it seems to find its raison d’etre in an unending quest for retroactive
justification of the war. Its historic amnesia is reflected in dating
the crisis only to 1989. Its muddled thinking is apparent in the
advocacy of "qualified independence" for the Serbian province Kosovo.
This goal, however qualified and rationalized, would place many borders
all over the world in doubt and make a mockery of the rule of law in
international affairs.
The moral absolutism that is at the core of the Commission’s apologia,
the one that has been routinely invoked by the proponents of NATO
bombing as a substitute for rational argument, is unsustainable. Genuine
dilemmas about our human responsibility for one another must not be used
as an excuse for the doctrine of benevolent global hegemony.
The Commission’s recommendations, so disdainful of the principle of
sovereignty of nation-states, may be motivated by a single-minded belief
that the war against the Westphalian order is a "just" war - but its
"justice" needs to be revealed in its pragmatic simplicity. The
Commission inadvertently confirms that the more arrogant the new
doctrine, the greater the willingness to lie for the truth. To be
capable of "doing something" sustains moral self-respect, if we can
suppress the thought that we are not so much moral actors as consumers
of predigested choices.
Unlike the Commission, we do not seek to lobby for any particular set of
policy options. Historical, political, legal, and moral arguments need
to be cleansed of propagandistic spin if there is to be a proper debate.
Because the treatment of the Kosovo episode by the media and politicians
has been largely one-sided and propagandistic – and, at times,
mendacious – that debate is sorely needed to restore balance in public
perceptions and in policy making. It is in sorrow, rather than anger,
that we aver that this particular Commission has not contributed to that
goal.
Specifically, we reassert the verifiable fact that the "Rambouillet
Peace Accord" was, in truth, a declaration of war disguised as a peace
agreement. The Serbs were told they had only two choices: sign the
agreement as written - or face NATO bombing. By that time the Clinton
Administration’s partnership with the KLA was unambiguous. Its effusive
embrace of an organization that only a year ago its own officials
labeled as "terrorist" was startling.
A key contention of the Commission, the "humanitarian" contention, is
rank hypocrisy. "Illegal but legitimate" is a piece of casuistry
unworthy of serious policy debate. What about Kashmir, Sudan, Uganda,
Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, Algeria…? Properly
videotaped and Amanpourized, each would be as "legal" and "legitimate"
as a dozen "Kosovos". Compared to the killing fields of the Third World,
Kosovo before the bombing was a brutal but unremarkable low-intensity
campaign, uglier than Northern Ireland ten years ago, but much less so
than Kurdistan. Bearing in mind the many brutalities, aggressions and
"ethnic cleansing" ignored by the Western alliance - or even condoned,
notably in Croatia, or in eastern Turkey - it is clear that "Kosovo" is
not about universal principles. Abdullah Ocalan is a terrorist, but Agim
Ceku and Nasir Oric are freedom fighters.
The Commission has failed to acknowledge that the "Kosovo genocide" was
the most outrageous lie of the past decade. It did not happen. We were
force-fed a grotesque myth concocted to justify the war. It was waged in
the spring of 1999 on an independent nation because it refused foreign
troops on its soil. A truly independent Commission - unlike this one -
would have grasped that all other justifications are post facto
rationalizations. The powers that waged that war have aided and abetted
secession by an ethnic minority, secession that – once formally effected
- will render many European borders tentative.
The recommendations presented to us today for the future of Kosovo will
engender countless new hotbeds of instability. They will unleash an
uncontrollable chain reaction throughout the ex-Communist half of
Europe. Its first victim will be the former Yugoslav republic of
Macedonia, where the restive Albanian minority comprises a third of the
total population. With the murderous narco-mafia known as the "KLA" in
charge in Pristina, and the Serbs (and others) gone, the rising
expectations among Macedonia’s Albanians will be hard to contain. Will
the Pristina model not be demanded by the Hungarians in Rumania (more
numerous than Kosovo’s Albanians) and in southern Slovakia? What will
stop the Russians in the Ukraine (Crimea), in Moldova, in Estonia, and
in northern Kazakhstan from following suit? What about the Turks in
Thrace, and the chronically unstable and utterly unviable Dayton-Bosnia,
to mention but some of the European dominos that may fall in the wake of
Kosovo’s evolution as recommended to us today?
And finally, when the Albanians get their "qualified" secession, will
the same apply when the Latinos in southern California, New Mexico,
Arizona, or Texas eventually outnumber their Anglo neighbors and start
demanding bilingual statehood, leading to reunification with Mexico? Are
Russia and China to threaten the United States with bombing if
Washington does not comply?
The fundamental problem with the Commission is that the notion of "human
rights" can never provide a basis for either the rule of law or
morality. Universal "rights," detached from any rootedness in time or
place, will be open to the latest whim of outrage or the latest fad for
victimhood. A future, truly independent international commission should
ponder the implications of this course, and gather the courage to say
"no" to interventionism – for the sake of the rule of law, of peace and
stability in the world.
Slobodanka Borojevic, President Bora Dragasevich,
President
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society Serbian National Shield
Society of Canada
Snezana Vitorovic, President The Centre for
Peace in the Balkans
Association of Serbian Women Toronto
(www.balkanpeace.org)
Mirko Andjic, President
Serbian Canadian Society of Vancouver
Junge Welt - http://www.jungewelt.de
---
30.10.2000
Kosovo wird für NATO gefährlich
Eine amerikanische Sicht auf das Protektorat nach der Wahl
»Der Fall Slobodan Milosevics ist ein Desaster - zumindest für die
Hoffnungen Kosovos auf Unabhängigkeit.« Mit diesen Worten begann ein
bemerkenswerter Artikel in der Sonntagausgabe der New York Times (NYT),
die der demokratischen Clinton-Regierung nahesteht. Die Wahl Vojislav
Kostunicas, eines »anscheinend vernünftigen, gesetzestreuen Serben«, zum
Präsidenten in Belgrad habe den Traum der Unabhängigkeit der
Kosovo-Albaner zerstört und »folglich die Lage im Kosovo viel
explosiver« gemacht, was einen »weiteren Test für die Soldaten und die
Diplomatie des Westens« bedeute.
Nach dem NATO-Krieg sei das Kosovo zu einem »Protektorat des Westens«
geworden, in dem von der NATO geführte Truppen »ohne sich groß Gedanken
zu machen zugeschaut haben, wie die Hälfte der serbischen Bevölkerung
der Provinz und fast alle Zigeuner vertrieben wurden oder geflüchtet
sind«. Unter Anspielung auf die Hunderte von ethnisch motivierten Morden
an unschuldigen Serben heißt es in der NYT, daß in den Augen des Westens
die albanische »Rache im Rahmen des Strebens nach Freiheit kein Unrecht«
gewesen sei.
Zwar habe es auf seiten des Westens viele Ermahnungen an die Adresse
jene Albaner gegeben, »die organisiert die Vertreibung der
nichtalbanischen Minorität« betrieben. Die NATO-Soldaten »wollten sich
nicht gegen die albanische Mehrheit stellen« und hätten »nur wenige
Verhaftungen« vorgenommen. Grund? Sie wollten »keine eigenen Opfer
riskieren«, also nicht zur Zielscheibe der UCK werden.
UNMIK-Chef Bernard Kouchner habe in der Vergangenheit gerne erklärt, er
sehe »seine Aufgabe darin, Kosovo für die Unabhängigkeit vorzubereiten«.
In der Resolution des UNO-Sicherheitsrates 1244 hätten sich aber alle
Nationen zur »Wahrung der Souveränität und der territorialen Integrität
Jugoslawiens verpflichtet ... wozu auch Kosovo gehört«. Und deshalb, so
kann man nun in der New York Times lesen, habe »Herr Kouchner seine
Kompetenzen weit überschritten«. Dem Kosovo sei lediglich »substantielle
Autonomie und Selbstverwaltung« versprochen worden, nach einer Periode
internationaler Überwachung.
Trotz Boykotts der Kosovo-Serben sieht die NYT in den Kommunalwahlen am
vergangenen Samstag im Kosovo einen »wichtigen ersten Schritt« zum
Aufbau der Institutionen der Selbstverwaltung. Aber 1244 besage auch,
daß diese Institutionen, ebenso wie der Status der serbischen Provinz,
erst in »einer endgültigen Regelung festgelegt« würden, und die Regelung
müsse unter internationalen Auspizien zwischen den »provisorischen,
demokratischen Institutionen der Selbstverwaltung« im Kosovo und Belgrad
ausgehandelt werden. Um diese Verhandlungen kämen die Albaner nicht
herum, und Kostunica dürfte sich dabei als »wahrer Alptraum« für die
nach Unabhängigkeit strebenden Kosovo-Albaner erweisen.
»Zehn Jahre lang erlaubten wir (auf dem Balkan) allen, sich schlecht zu
benehmen, denn sie konnten immer auf Milosevic verweisen, der sich noch
schlechter benahm. Aber die Wahl Kostunicas stellt einen Schlag gegen
Extremisten aller Art in der Region dar, sowohl für Albaner als auch
Serben«, zitiert die NYT einen hohen US-Diplomaten und folgert: »Das
bedeutet, daß jetzt Schluß ist mit dem heimlichen Abgleiten des Kosovo
in die Unabhängigkeit, was ebenso für Montenegro, die Schwesterrepublik
Serbiens, gilt, dessen Präsident Milo Djukanovic zur Erringung der
Unabhängigkeit darauf gebaut hatte, daß Milosevic an der Macht bleiben
würde.«
Die nächste Krise im Kosovo erwartet die Zeitung, wenn die ersten
serbischen Flüchtlinge zurückkehren. Präsident Kostunica hat bereits
wiederholt auf eine sichere Rückkehr gedrängt. Der amerikanische
Gesandte James C. O'Brien hat laut NYT Kostunica »die Unterstützung
Washingtons zur Erreichung dieses Ziels zugesichert«.
Dann wird es jedoch nicht lange dauern, bis die albanischen Extremisten
sich von den USA und der NATO bei ihrem Streben nach Unabhängigkeit
verraten fühlen. Das sieht auch die NYT so. »Deshalb dürfte die Lage im
Kosovo eher explosiver als entspannter werden. Der Grund? Die
Unabhängigkeit wird nicht zum Traum, der erst später verwirklicht wird,
sondern sie wird schlichtweg verweigert. In dem Maße, wie der
Widerspruch zwischen den westlichen verbalen Ermutigungen für eine
kosovo-albanische Selbstverwaltung und Verweigerung der Unabhängigkeit
deutlich wird, wird das Potential der Gewalt gegen NATO- Truppen
zunehmen«, meint die New Yorker Zeitung.
Rainer Rupp
---
Neues amerikanische Doppelspiel im Kosovo.
Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution soll Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo
ermöglichen.
(von Rainer Rupp)
Getrieben von dem Bedürfnis, die Gefahren für die eigenen Truppen im
zunehmend gefährlichen Kosovo möglichst gering zu halten, produzieren
die Strategen der US-Außenpolitik derzeit allerlei Pläne. Von den
Überlegungen aus dem Kosovo eine dritte Teilrepublik Jugoslawiens zu
machen, die sich dann völkerrechtlich korrekt von Serbien trennen und
seine Unabhängigkeit erreichen könnte, hat j.W. bereits berichtet. Der
Plan hat allerdings den Makel, dass Jugoslawien dabei mitspielen müsste,
wozu jedoch auch die neuen Kräfte in Belgrad nicht bereit zu sein
scheinen.
Wenn jedoch Washington die Resolution 1244 des UNO-Sicherheitsrates
durchsetzen will, dann riskiert es, dass US-Truppen im Kosovo zur
Zielscheibe albanischer Terroristen werden, wodurch die gesamte
Balkanpolitik der Clinton- Regierung in Amerika diskreditiert würde.
Denn die Resolution 1244 betont die ungebrochene Souveränität
Jugoslawiens über das Kosovo, die die albanischen Separatisten
überwinden wollen.
Um aus dieser Zwickmühle herauszukommen, hat sich nun Washington an
einen alten Trick erinnert. Wenn Dir etwas nicht gefällt, interpretiere
es einfach um. Wenn Dein Anwalt sagt, das geht nicht, dann suche Dir
einen anderen Anwalt. Bis es geht. Mit Hilfe einer einseitigen
Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution 1244 würden in der Tat viele
Probleme Washingtons gelöst werden, denn trotz aller Proteste könnte
dann das Kosovo "völkerrechtlich korrekt" seine staatliche
Unabhängigkeit erhalten, die UCK-Verbündeten befriedigt und die Gefahr
von US-Truppen abgewendet werden.
Mit einseitigen Interpretationen von UNO-Beschlüssen haben die
Vereinigten Staaten schließlich große Erfahrung. Die Rechtfertigung des
anhaltende Bombenkriegs gegen den Irak begründet Washington mit Hilfe
einer sehr eigenwilligen und einseitigen Auslegung einer UNO-Klausel in
Hinsicht auf den Irak. Die Tatsache, dass das alle anderen Länder - mit
Ausnahme von Großbritannien, das mitbombt - anders sehen, hindert die
USA nicht daran, den Kleinkrieg gegen Bagdad fortzusetzen.
Und tatsächlich scheint das US-Außenministerium seit einiger Zeit recht
intensiv an einer solchen Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution 1244
gearbeitet zu haben. Das berichtete am Montag (30.10.00) die liberalen
britischen Tageszeitung "The Independent", wobei sie sich auf die jüngst
getroffenen Aussagen eines hohen Beamten des US-Außenministeriums in
Pristina berief. Diese Richtung sei eingeschlagen worden, nachdem der
amerikanische Botschafter zur UNO, Richard Holbrooke, letzte Woche das
Kosovo besucht hatte, wo er mit seinen alten Freunden aus der UCK zu
Geheimgesprächen zusammen getroffen war.
Die neue Position des US-Außenministeriums scheint jetzt zu sein, dass
die UNO-Resolution 1244 zwar ausdrücklich die territoriale Integrität
Jugoslawiens garantiert, dass aber das nicht bedeutet, dass das Kosovo
nicht unabhängig werden kann. "De facto ist die Unabhängigkeit bereits
Realität", zitierte <The Independent> den hohen US-Diplomaten.
("Albanians rejoice in their march to freedom", By Kim Sengupta in
Pristina, The Independent, 30 October 2000) Ein anwesender UNO-Beamter
habe sich dagegen voller Unverständnis über diese neue Interpretation
von Resolution 1244 geäußert: "Ein hohes Maß an Autonomie? Ja.
Verhandlungen für eine begrenzte Form der Selbstverwaltung? Ja. Aber
ich sehe nirgendwo, dass 1244 dem Kosovo die Unabhängigkeit ermöglicht."
(Quelle, The Independent, ebenda)
Sollte Washington trotzdem die Um-Interpretation von 1244 weiter
verfolgen, dann bricht es nicht nur mit Jugoslawien, bevor sich die
Beziehungen zu den neuen Kräften in Belgrad wieder richtig entwickeln
konnten, sondern auch mit der Europäischen Union. Der EU-Kommissar für
auswärtige Angelegenheiten, der Brite Chris Patten hatte kürzlich in
Belgrad kategorisch die Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo ausgeschlossen.
("L'UE rejette la possibilité d'une indépendance du Kosovo", BELGRADE,
24 Oct 00, AFP). Wörtlich sagte er: "Die Position der EU zum Kosovo
basiert auf der Resolution 1244 des Sicherheitsrates der UNO, die eine
<substantielle Autonomie> dieser Provinz innerhalb der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien vorsieht. Wir werden uns keinen Zentimeter von dieser
Resolution weg bewegen. Das ist unsere Politik heute und das wird
unsere Politik in der Zukunft sein." (Quelle, AFP, ebenda)
"The Guardian", eine andere große britische Tageszeitung schrieb
ebenfalls am Montag, daß die USA bereit seien, sich in der Frage der
Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo "mit ihren NATO-Partnern zu überwerfen
Allerdings - so <The Guardian> dürften sich die USA in nächster Zukunft
zurückhalten, ihre politische Kehrtwende offiziell bekannt zu machen,
allein schon deshalb, weil den neuen Kräften um Vojislav Kostunica bei
den bevorstehenden Parlamentswahlen nicht geschadet werden soll.
Die Widersprüche in der amerikanischen Politik dürfte jedoch auch
Belgrad nicht übersehen, hatte doch der amerikanische Gesandte James C.
O'Brien bei seinem ersten Treffen mit Kostunica dem neuen jugoslawischen
Präsidenten die volle Unterstützung der USA zugesichert, ihn bei dessen
erklärtem Ziel zu helfen, die serbischen Flüchtlinge sobald wie möglich
zurück ins Kosovo zu bringen. Dies lässt sich jedoch mit Holbrooks
Um-Interpretation von 1244 nicht vereinbaren. Denn in einem
unabhängigen Kosovo, in dem der albanische Rassismus vollkommen zügellos
wüten könnte, hätten die Serben überhaupt keine Zukunftschancen. Aber
wie schon so oft in der Vergangenheit, so scheint Washington auch
diesmal ein Doppelspiel zu betreiben und auf verschiedenen Schultern zu
tragen.
Saarburg den 31.10. 00
---
Nach Wahlniederlage bangt UCK um ihre Pfründe.
Albanische Terroristen wenden sich gegen Rugova.
(von Rainer Rupp)
Trotz ihrer demokratischen Fragwürdigkeit machten die Wahlen im Kosovo
deutlich, dass die verschiedenen Gruppierungen und Parteien der zu
Politikern mutierten UCK-Terroristen und Drogengangster kaum Rückhalt in
der albanischen Bevölkerung des Kosovo haben. Trotz vielfacher
Einschüchterungsversuche der Bevölkerung durch die ehem.
UCK-Kommandeure, ist dem glühenden albanischen Nationalisten und
überzeugten Separatisten Ibrahim Rugova ein überzeugendes Comeback
gelungen. Er hat stets versucht sein Ziel auf friedlichem Weg zu
verwirklichen und ist deshalb von der UCK zum "Verräter" abgestempelt
worden.
Nach Angaben der OSZE-Mission für das ganze Kosovo hatte nach Auszählung
von 90 Prozent der Stimmen die LDK Rugovas 58% und die Nachfolgeparteien
der UCK etwa 27% der Stimmen bekommen. ("OSZE bestätigt absolute
Mehrheit für Rugova-Partei", Pristina (dpa) Meldung vom 30.10.2000
21:47). Nur in den Kommunen im Mittelkosovo, die seit eh als Hochburgen
der Terroristenbewegung gelten, hat es scheinbar die Partei des
politischen Chefs der UCK und des in Serbien wegen achtfachen Mordes
gesuchten Hashim Thaci geschafft, die Führung zu übernehmen.
Damit hat Ibrahim Rugova den ins politische Geschäft gewechselten
Kommandeuren der UCK eine schmerzhafte Niederlage beigebracht. Weil zu
erwarten ist, dass die im terroristischen Kampf erprobten
UCK-"Politiker" ihre Pfründe und Machtpositionen, die sie sich
unmittelbar nach dem Krieg in den meisten Kommunen des Kosovo erobert
hatten¸ nach der verlorenen Wahl nicht ohne Widerstand abgeben werden,
um das Feld dem "Verräter" Rugova und seinen Anhängern zu überlassen,
hat sich die die NATO-geführte KFOR nach einem Bericht der britischen
Tageszeitung "The Independent" bereits auf den Ausbruch von
Gewalttätigkeiten vorbereitet.
Vor diesem Hintergrund musste die Tatsache, dass die PDK des Hashim
Thaci bereits unmittelbar nach der Wahl wegen des angeblich von Rugova
«gestohlenen Sieges» protestierte, besonders bedenklich stimmen.
("UCK-Nachfolgepartei protestiert nach Kosovo-Wahl", Pristina, dpa,
Meldung vom 30.10.2000 16:48) In vielen Gemeinden der Provinz sei die
Kommunalwahl manipuliert worden, sagte der PDK-Wahlkampfleiter Bilal
Sherifi am Montag in Pristina. "In Prizren und sechs anderen Kommunen
wurde der PDK der Sieg gestohlen".
Vor der Pressekonferenz der PDK in Pristina hatte jedoch der umstrittene
UNMIK-Chef Bernard Kouchner unterstützt von US-Diplomaten Gespräche mit
Thaci in dessen Hauptquartier geführt. Wohl um diesen zu beschwichtigen
und vor übereilten Reaktionen abzuhalten. Nach außen ist Thaci
scheinbar darauf eingegangen, denn trotz aller Klagen über den
"gestohlenen Wahlsieg", erklärte Thaci in einer totalen Wende, dass die
PDK das "endgültige Ergebnis" der Wahl akzeptieren aber dazu nochmals
eine Erklärung abgeben würde.
Offiziell hat Thaci schon oft den Anschein der Kooperation mit UNMIK und
KFOR erweckt, während er insgeheim die Tagesordnung der UCK verfolgte.
So hatten er sich z.B. gegen die organisierten Mord- und
Vertreibungsaktionen gegen Serben und nicht-albanische Minderheiten
ausgesprochen und so getan, als ob die UCK und ihre
Nachfolgeorganisation, das von Deutschland und den USA bezahlte
"Kosovo-Schutz-Korps" nichts, aber auch gar nichts mit diesen
Terroraktionen zu tun hätten. Offiziell wurden diese stets als
unkontrollierbare Einzelaktionen dargestellt, auf die die UCK und Hashim
Thaci keinen Einfluss hatten, obwohl sie praktisch das ganze Kosovo mit
Hilfe ihres brutalen Geheimdienstes so gut wie uneingeschränkt
kontrollierten. Und die NATO akzeptierte diese offizielle Version und
verbreitete sie.
Hashim Thaci hatte angekündigt, dass seine Partei, die PDK, nach Vorlage
der endgültigen Wahlergebnisse nochmals eine Erklärung abgeben würde.
Am Dienstag nach der Wahl der siegreichen Partei des Ibrahim Rugova ist
der 45-Jährige Hazir Raci in der Stadt Klina im Westen des Kosovo von
Unbekannten erschossen worden. ("Politiker von Rugovas LDK
erschossen",AP, Pristina, Meldung vom 31.10.2000 20:31)
Saarburg den 1. 11. 00
---
Serben spielen der NATO den Schwarzen Peter zu.
(von Rainer Rupp)
In seiner Rede beim OSZE-Treffen in Wien kritisierte Präsident Kostunica
scharf die Rolle der NATO und der Vereinten Nationen im Kosovo. Es sei
offensichtlich, dass die NATO-geführte KFOR ihrer Aufgabe, militanten
Kosovo-Albanern Einhalt zu gebieten, nicht ordnungsgemäß nachgekommen
sei. Albanische Terroristen versuchten, Serben und Albaner gleichermaßen
einzuschüchtern. Kostunica warnte vor einer Ausweitung der Krise auf die
gesamte Region.
Nach Angaben des UN-Hochkommissars für Flüchtlinge (UNHCR) sind in den
vergangenen Tagen 2.000 Menschen aus dem Presevo-Tal geflohen. Die
albanische Minderheit in Südserbien, die im Presevo-Tal jedoch die
Mehrheit stellt, fürchtet nach Aussage von UNHCR-Sprecher Peter Deck
angeblich eine serbische Offensive. Bis zu 20.000 Menschen könnten in
diesem Fall das Gebiet verlassen. Die Vereinten Nationen bereiten laut
Deck Notunterkünfte in Sporthallen und anderen öffentlichen Gebäuden
vor, um die Flüchtlinge aufzunehmen. Déja vue? Die Strategie kommt
einem bekannt vor. Ob die UCK diesmal wieder Erfolg damit haben wird,
darf allerdings bezweifelt werden.
Sogar der britische Verteidigungsminister Geoff Hoon drückte am Montag
sein Verständnis für die Reaktion von Präsident Kostunica aus: "Ich
erkenne seine legitimen Sorgen wegen der Sicherheit der serbischen
Bevölkerung auf beiden Seiten der Grenze an. Es ist deshalb wichtig,
dass wir niemandem erlauben, weder die Grenze noch das Gefühl der
Sicherheit der Menschen auf beiden Seiten der Grenze zu verletzen."
("UK sees cause for Kostunica's concern over Kosovo ", Reuters, by Paul
Majendie, ZAGREB, Nov 27)
Als Reaktion auf die Offensive der UCK im Presevo-Tal, der Krisenregion
in Südserbien hatte die Regierung in Belgrad Panzer und
Infanterieeinheiten entlang der 5 Kilometer breiten Pufferzone zwischen
Südserbien und dem Kosovo verlegt. Diese demilitarisierte Zone benutzen
die die Terroristen - von der KFOR weitgehend unbehelligt - als
Ausgangspunkt für ihre Überfälle auf serbische Polizisten und
Zivilisten. Deshalb hatte Belgrad der KFOR am Freitag ein Ultimatum
gestellt, das ursprünglich am Montag um 19.00 Uhr ablaufen sollte. Wenn
die NATO unfähig sei, für Sicherheit zu sorgen, dann müssten
jugoslawische Soldaten das selbst tun, hieß es aus Belgrad.
Nun hat die serbische Regierung das Ultimatum jedoch auf unbestimmte
Zeit verlängert. Der Diplomatie solle eine Chance gegeben werden, sagte
der stellvertretende Ministerpräsident Nebosja Covic während eines
Besuchs in der Krisenregion. Die NATO-Truppen im Kosovo seien einzig und
allein dafür verantwortlich, den Rückzug der militanten Albaner aus dem
Gebiet sicher zu stellen, betonte Covic. Ein taktisch kluger Zug. Denn
wenn die NATO nichts tut, dann wird ihr Ruf als sogenannte
Friedenstruppe nur noch mehr diskreditiert. Kommt sie dagegen ihrer
Verpflichtung nach und geht gegen die UCK-Terroristen vor, dann läuft
die NATO Gefahr in den Augen der albanischen Terroristen vom "Befreier"
zum "Besatzern" zu mutieren, und ebenso wie die Serben zu Zielscheiben
der verschiedenen UCK-Gruppen zu werden.
Geschickt hatte Präsident Kostunica am Montag die neue Krise in
Südserbien ausgenutzt, um in Wien eine gefährliche diplomatische Klippe
zu umschiffen. Seit Wochen hat nämlich die amerikanische
Außenministerin Madeleine Albright über verschiedene Kanäle dem neuen
jugoslawischen Präsidenten ihr Interesse an einem Zusammentreffen mit
ihm signalisiert. Der eher EU-orientierte Kostunica hatte bisher aber
kein Interesse an Frau Albright gezeigt, die als Hauptverantwortliche
für den Angriff gegen Jugoslawien gilt. In Washington wurde der Krieg
nach ihr benannt und heißt "Madeine´s War". Mit Spannung wurde daher
das OSZE-Treffen in Wien erwartet, wo auch Frau Albright zugegen sein
würde. Allerdings kamen es in Wien lediglich zu einem formellen
Händeschütteln und einem kurzen Austausch von Höflichkeiten zwischen
Präsident Kostunica und Frau Albright als man zur Aufnahme des bei
solchen Konferenzen üblichen "Familienbildes" der teilnehmenden
MinisterInnen schritt. Auf dem Foto steht Frau Albright ganz rechts
außen, während Präsident Kostunica mit der gastgebenden österreichischen
Ministerin im Zentrum zu sehen ist.
Auf eine amerikanische Einladung hin erklärte Kostunica, daß er keine
Zeit hätte, weil er vorzeitig ins Krisengebiet nach Südserbien
zurückeilen müßte. Allerdings beschwerten sich amerikanische Beobachter
sofort über Kostunicas "Affront" gegenüber der einzigen Supermacht, weil
er trotzdem Zeit gefunden habe, an einem Essen mit dem österreichischen
Präsidenten Thomas Klestil und Jörg Haider teilzunehmen. Die Botschaft
war deutlich: Eine Wiederaufnahme der Beziehungen kann warten, bis in
Washington die neue Bush-Regierung an der Macht ist, von der sich
Kostunica sich aus guten Gründen eine erhebliche Verbesserung der
bilateralen Beziehungen verspricht.
Mitte November hatte in den USA eine Konferenz der führenden Mitglieder
der republikanischen Denkfabriken unter Beteiligung ranghoher
Mitarbeiter von repubikanischen Senatoren und Abgeordneten
stattgefunden, bei der über die zukünftige Balkanpolitik der
Bush-Regierung debattiert wurde. Dabei kam es zu im Konsens
getroffenen, geradezu sensationellen Empfehlungen an die neue Regierung
Kostunica in Belgrad. So forderten die Republikaner z.B. Belgrad auf,
unter keinen Umständen von dem Prinzip abzugehen, dass "das Kosovo
sowohl Teil des souveränen Serbiens als auch Teil des jugoslawischen
Territoriums ist". Eine weitere Empfehlung an Kostunica lautete:
"absolut keine Person an das Internationale Tribunal für
Kriegsverbrechen in Jugoslawien (nach Den Haag) ausliefern".
Bei der Konferenz wurde auch per Video eine Grußbotschaft des
jugoslawischen Präsidenten Kostunica an die Konferenzteilnehmer gezeigt,
die auf lebhaften Zuspruch stieß. Auf weiten Bereichen waren die
Positionen der führenden außenpolitischen Berater der Republikaner
deckungsgleich mit denen Kostunicas. Das deutet auf eine gute
zukünftige amerikanisch-serbische Zusammenarbeit hin. Auch gaben die
Republikaner Kostunica einen guten Rat zum weiteren Umgang mit der
Clinton-Regierung, die den völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg gegen Jugoslawien
entfacht hatte: auf gar keinen Fall die Beziehungen verbessern - und
wenn diplomatisch nicht anders möglich, dann auf höflicher aber kühler
Distanz bleiben! In Wien scheint sich Präsident Kostunica beim Umgang
mit Frau Albright diesen Rat zu Herzen genommen zu haben.
Saarburg den 28.11.00
---
NATO nennt albanische Terroristen wieder "Terroristen"
(von Rainer Rupp)
"Die NATO schlägt sich auf die Seite der Serben gegen die albanische
Bedrohung", hieß gestern der Titel einer Depesche der britischen
Nachrichtenagentur Reuters aus Brüssel. Berichtet wird, dass "die NATO
in einer bemerkenswerten Kehrtwende vom gewohnten Rollenspiel auf dem
Balkan die serbische Zurückhaltung gelobt und sich zugleich verpflichtet
hat, mit Belgrad bei der Bekämpfung der albanischen terroristischen
Aktivitäten zusammenzuarbeiten. In der Tat geht dies aus einer zwei
Seiten langen offiziellen Erklärung des NATO-Generalsekretärs Lord
George Robertson vom Mittwoch hervor. Darin versprach er Maßnahmen, um
die Lage in der entmilitarisierten Pufferzone entlang der
Verwaltungsgrenze zwischen Kosovo und Südserbien zu entspannen. Die
Pufferzone wird von Mitgliedern des UCK-Ablegers UCBMP als Ausgangsbasis
für Überfälle und Anschläge in Südserbien benutzt, die das Ziel haben,
das von 70.000 Albanern bewohnte Presevo-Tal vom "serbischen Joch zu
befreien" um es dann mit dem "unabhängigen, rein albanischen Kosovo zu
vereinen".
Die Tatsache, dass der NATO-Generalsekretär in seiner Erklärung die
Aktivitäten der UCBMP als "terroristisch" bezeichnete, stellt eine
kleine Sensation dar, und zeigt, wie weit bereits die politische
Kertwende im NATO-Denken zum Kosovo gediehen ist. Zuletzt hatte im
Frühling 1998 der US-Balkangesandte, Botschafter Gelbart, die UCK als
"Terroristen" bezeichnet. Als nützliche Handlanger und Waffenbrüder der
USA und NATO beim Angriffskrieg gegen Jugoslawien mutierten die
Kosovo-albanischen Terroristen jedoch plötzlich zu gefeierten
Freiheitskämpfern.
Beim neuen Schmusekurs der NATO-Länder mit Serbien, dem für die
kapitalistische Neuordnung des Balkans eine Schlüsselbedeutung zukommt,
verlieren sowohl das Kosovo als auch die UCK-Terroristen als Druckmittel
gegen Serbien an Bedeutung. Mit wachsendem Ärger mussten die
albanischen Extremisten im Kosovo feststellen, dass sie nun als
Hindernis bei der Annäherung zwischen Belgrad und der NATO angesehen
werden. So ist es nicht verwunderlich, wenn die NATO urplötzlich
UCK-Terroristen wieder als "Terroristen" bezeichnet und bei deren
Bekämpfung mit den Serben zusammenarbeiten will.
Ergänzend konnte Reuters Atmosphärisches aus Brüssel berichten, dass
nämlich die NATO wegen des albanischen Nationalismus "extrem
frustriert" und "wegen der fortdauernden Angriffe gegen Serben, wegen
der internen politischen Gewalt im Kosovo und wegen unerfüllbarer
Forderungen nach Unabhängigkeit mit ihrer Geduld am Ende" sei. Deshalb
hat die NATO es auch mit den allgemeinen Wahlen nicht mehr besonders
eilig, von denen sich die Kosovo-Albaner einen weiteren entscheidenden
Schritt in die Unabhängigkeit von Serbien erhofften. Auch der
umstrittene UNO-Chef im Kosovo, der serbo-phobe Bernard Kouchner, hat
den Wink seiner NATO-Meister bereits verstanden. Letzte Woche erklärte
er in Zagreb, dass die Pläne für eine baldige Wahl immer
unwahrscheinlicher würden. ("West must act to contain Kosovo violence",
ZAGREB, Nov 28 Reuters) Obwohl Kouchners Position als Chef der
UNO-Mission im Kosovo strikte Neutralität verlangt, hat er aus seiner
Sympathie für die UCK und ein unabhängiges Kosovo nie ein Hehl gemacht.
Jetzt, da seine Pläne nicht länger durchzusetzen sind, hat er
angekündigt, dass er seinen Posten zum 15. Dezember verlassen will.
Wohin die Kosovo-albanischen Separatisten blicken, überall sehen sie nun
ihre Felle davonschwimmen. Am meisten dürfte ihnen aber die neue
Zusammenarbeit zwischen der NATO und den Serben zu schaffen machen.
Diese Zusammenarbeit soll sich (vorerst) lediglich gegen die UCBMP
entlang der Pufferzone zwischen Südserbien und den Kosovo richten. Ob
jedoch die im Kosovo vielfach unter sich vernetzten unterschiedlichen
UCK-Terror- und Gangstergruppierungen sich politische so fein säuberlich
trennen lassen, wie das der NATO vorschwebt, darf bezweifelt werden.
Für Fall, dass die NATO "robust gegen die albanischen Separatisten
vorgeht, könnte das zu einer gefährlichen Konfrontation zwischen der
NATO und der UCK überall im Kosovo führen", warnte deshalb das
amerikanische Time Magazin in seiner jüngsten Ausgabe. ("Serb Threat
Raises NATO Dilemma", By Tony Karon, Time.com , Nov 27)
Um dies zu verhindern, wollte am Donnerstag der NATO Lord Robertson
gemeinsam mit dem Oberbefehlshaber der NATO-Europa, dem U.S. General
Joseph W. Ralston ins Kosovo reisen, um dort mit den zu "Politikern"
mutierten UCK-Kommandanten zu sprechen, damit diese einen "mäßigenden
Einfluß" auf ihre Terrorgefährten von der UCBMP ausüben. Als Teil der
anderen vom NATO-Generalsekretär angekündigten Maßnahmen hat die KFOR
entlang der entmilitarisierten Grenze ihre Überwachung und Kontrolle
verstärkt. So gelang es der KFOR jetzt innerhalb weniger Tage den
zweiten Versuch der UCBMP zu verhindern, größere Mengen schwerer Waffen
in die demilitarisierte Zone zu schmuggeln. Dies scheint den Vorwurf
Belgrads zu bestätigen, dass die NATO-Truppen entlang der Grenzzone zu
Südserbien (es ist übrigens die amerikanische Zone) in der Vergangenheit
bei UCBMP-Aktivitäten stets weggeschaut haben.
Saarburg den 30.11.00
---
30.10.2000
Kosovo wird für NATO gefährlich
Eine amerikanische Sicht auf das Protektorat nach der Wahl
»Der Fall Slobodan Milosevics ist ein Desaster - zumindest für die
Hoffnungen Kosovos auf Unabhängigkeit.« Mit diesen Worten begann ein
bemerkenswerter Artikel in der Sonntagausgabe der New York Times (NYT),
die der demokratischen Clinton-Regierung nahesteht. Die Wahl Vojislav
Kostunicas, eines »anscheinend vernünftigen, gesetzestreuen Serben«, zum
Präsidenten in Belgrad habe den Traum der Unabhängigkeit der
Kosovo-Albaner zerstört und »folglich die Lage im Kosovo viel
explosiver« gemacht, was einen »weiteren Test für die Soldaten und die
Diplomatie des Westens« bedeute.
Nach dem NATO-Krieg sei das Kosovo zu einem »Protektorat des Westens«
geworden, in dem von der NATO geführte Truppen »ohne sich groß Gedanken
zu machen zugeschaut haben, wie die Hälfte der serbischen Bevölkerung
der Provinz und fast alle Zigeuner vertrieben wurden oder geflüchtet
sind«. Unter Anspielung auf die Hunderte von ethnisch motivierten Morden
an unschuldigen Serben heißt es in der NYT, daß in den Augen des Westens
die albanische »Rache im Rahmen des Strebens nach Freiheit kein Unrecht«
gewesen sei.
Zwar habe es auf seiten des Westens viele Ermahnungen an die Adresse
jene Albaner gegeben, »die organisiert die Vertreibung der
nichtalbanischen Minorität« betrieben. Die NATO-Soldaten »wollten sich
nicht gegen die albanische Mehrheit stellen« und hätten »nur wenige
Verhaftungen« vorgenommen. Grund? Sie wollten »keine eigenen Opfer
riskieren«, also nicht zur Zielscheibe der UCK werden.
UNMIK-Chef Bernard Kouchner habe in der Vergangenheit gerne erklärt, er
sehe »seine Aufgabe darin, Kosovo für die Unabhängigkeit vorzubereiten«.
In der Resolution des UNO-Sicherheitsrates 1244 hätten sich aber alle
Nationen zur »Wahrung der Souveränität und der territorialen Integrität
Jugoslawiens verpflichtet ... wozu auch Kosovo gehört«. Und deshalb, so
kann man nun in der New York Times lesen, habe »Herr Kouchner seine
Kompetenzen weit überschritten«. Dem Kosovo sei lediglich »substantielle
Autonomie und Selbstverwaltung« versprochen worden, nach einer Periode
internationaler Überwachung.
Trotz Boykotts der Kosovo-Serben sieht die NYT in den Kommunalwahlen am
vergangenen Samstag im Kosovo einen »wichtigen ersten Schritt« zum
Aufbau der Institutionen der Selbstverwaltung. Aber 1244 besage auch,
daß diese Institutionen, ebenso wie der Status der serbischen Provinz,
erst in »einer endgültigen Regelung festgelegt« würden, und die Regelung
müsse unter internationalen Auspizien zwischen den »provisorischen,
demokratischen Institutionen der Selbstverwaltung« im Kosovo und Belgrad
ausgehandelt werden. Um diese Verhandlungen kämen die Albaner nicht
herum, und Kostunica dürfte sich dabei als »wahrer Alptraum« für die
nach Unabhängigkeit strebenden Kosovo-Albaner erweisen.
»Zehn Jahre lang erlaubten wir (auf dem Balkan) allen, sich schlecht zu
benehmen, denn sie konnten immer auf Milosevic verweisen, der sich noch
schlechter benahm. Aber die Wahl Kostunicas stellt einen Schlag gegen
Extremisten aller Art in der Region dar, sowohl für Albaner als auch
Serben«, zitiert die NYT einen hohen US-Diplomaten und folgert: »Das
bedeutet, daß jetzt Schluß ist mit dem heimlichen Abgleiten des Kosovo
in die Unabhängigkeit, was ebenso für Montenegro, die Schwesterrepublik
Serbiens, gilt, dessen Präsident Milo Djukanovic zur Erringung der
Unabhängigkeit darauf gebaut hatte, daß Milosevic an der Macht bleiben
würde.«
Die nächste Krise im Kosovo erwartet die Zeitung, wenn die ersten
serbischen Flüchtlinge zurückkehren. Präsident Kostunica hat bereits
wiederholt auf eine sichere Rückkehr gedrängt. Der amerikanische
Gesandte James C. O'Brien hat laut NYT Kostunica »die Unterstützung
Washingtons zur Erreichung dieses Ziels zugesichert«.
Dann wird es jedoch nicht lange dauern, bis die albanischen Extremisten
sich von den USA und der NATO bei ihrem Streben nach Unabhängigkeit
verraten fühlen. Das sieht auch die NYT so. »Deshalb dürfte die Lage im
Kosovo eher explosiver als entspannter werden. Der Grund? Die
Unabhängigkeit wird nicht zum Traum, der erst später verwirklicht wird,
sondern sie wird schlichtweg verweigert. In dem Maße, wie der
Widerspruch zwischen den westlichen verbalen Ermutigungen für eine
kosovo-albanische Selbstverwaltung und Verweigerung der Unabhängigkeit
deutlich wird, wird das Potential der Gewalt gegen NATO- Truppen
zunehmen«, meint die New Yorker Zeitung.
Rainer Rupp
---
Neues amerikanische Doppelspiel im Kosovo.
Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution soll Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo
ermöglichen.
(von Rainer Rupp)
Getrieben von dem Bedürfnis, die Gefahren für die eigenen Truppen im
zunehmend gefährlichen Kosovo möglichst gering zu halten, produzieren
die Strategen der US-Außenpolitik derzeit allerlei Pläne. Von den
Überlegungen aus dem Kosovo eine dritte Teilrepublik Jugoslawiens zu
machen, die sich dann völkerrechtlich korrekt von Serbien trennen und
seine Unabhängigkeit erreichen könnte, hat j.W. bereits berichtet. Der
Plan hat allerdings den Makel, dass Jugoslawien dabei mitspielen müsste,
wozu jedoch auch die neuen Kräfte in Belgrad nicht bereit zu sein
scheinen.
Wenn jedoch Washington die Resolution 1244 des UNO-Sicherheitsrates
durchsetzen will, dann riskiert es, dass US-Truppen im Kosovo zur
Zielscheibe albanischer Terroristen werden, wodurch die gesamte
Balkanpolitik der Clinton- Regierung in Amerika diskreditiert würde.
Denn die Resolution 1244 betont die ungebrochene Souveränität
Jugoslawiens über das Kosovo, die die albanischen Separatisten
überwinden wollen.
Um aus dieser Zwickmühle herauszukommen, hat sich nun Washington an
einen alten Trick erinnert. Wenn Dir etwas nicht gefällt, interpretiere
es einfach um. Wenn Dein Anwalt sagt, das geht nicht, dann suche Dir
einen anderen Anwalt. Bis es geht. Mit Hilfe einer einseitigen
Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution 1244 würden in der Tat viele
Probleme Washingtons gelöst werden, denn trotz aller Proteste könnte
dann das Kosovo "völkerrechtlich korrekt" seine staatliche
Unabhängigkeit erhalten, die UCK-Verbündeten befriedigt und die Gefahr
von US-Truppen abgewendet werden.
Mit einseitigen Interpretationen von UNO-Beschlüssen haben die
Vereinigten Staaten schließlich große Erfahrung. Die Rechtfertigung des
anhaltende Bombenkriegs gegen den Irak begründet Washington mit Hilfe
einer sehr eigenwilligen und einseitigen Auslegung einer UNO-Klausel in
Hinsicht auf den Irak. Die Tatsache, dass das alle anderen Länder - mit
Ausnahme von Großbritannien, das mitbombt - anders sehen, hindert die
USA nicht daran, den Kleinkrieg gegen Bagdad fortzusetzen.
Und tatsächlich scheint das US-Außenministerium seit einiger Zeit recht
intensiv an einer solchen Um-Interpretation der UNO-Resolution 1244
gearbeitet zu haben. Das berichtete am Montag (30.10.00) die liberalen
britischen Tageszeitung "The Independent", wobei sie sich auf die jüngst
getroffenen Aussagen eines hohen Beamten des US-Außenministeriums in
Pristina berief. Diese Richtung sei eingeschlagen worden, nachdem der
amerikanische Botschafter zur UNO, Richard Holbrooke, letzte Woche das
Kosovo besucht hatte, wo er mit seinen alten Freunden aus der UCK zu
Geheimgesprächen zusammen getroffen war.
Die neue Position des US-Außenministeriums scheint jetzt zu sein, dass
die UNO-Resolution 1244 zwar ausdrücklich die territoriale Integrität
Jugoslawiens garantiert, dass aber das nicht bedeutet, dass das Kosovo
nicht unabhängig werden kann. "De facto ist die Unabhängigkeit bereits
Realität", zitierte <The Independent> den hohen US-Diplomaten.
("Albanians rejoice in their march to freedom", By Kim Sengupta in
Pristina, The Independent, 30 October 2000) Ein anwesender UNO-Beamter
habe sich dagegen voller Unverständnis über diese neue Interpretation
von Resolution 1244 geäußert: "Ein hohes Maß an Autonomie? Ja.
Verhandlungen für eine begrenzte Form der Selbstverwaltung? Ja. Aber
ich sehe nirgendwo, dass 1244 dem Kosovo die Unabhängigkeit ermöglicht."
(Quelle, The Independent, ebenda)
Sollte Washington trotzdem die Um-Interpretation von 1244 weiter
verfolgen, dann bricht es nicht nur mit Jugoslawien, bevor sich die
Beziehungen zu den neuen Kräften in Belgrad wieder richtig entwickeln
konnten, sondern auch mit der Europäischen Union. Der EU-Kommissar für
auswärtige Angelegenheiten, der Brite Chris Patten hatte kürzlich in
Belgrad kategorisch die Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo ausgeschlossen.
("L'UE rejette la possibilité d'une indépendance du Kosovo", BELGRADE,
24 Oct 00, AFP). Wörtlich sagte er: "Die Position der EU zum Kosovo
basiert auf der Resolution 1244 des Sicherheitsrates der UNO, die eine
<substantielle Autonomie> dieser Provinz innerhalb der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien vorsieht. Wir werden uns keinen Zentimeter von dieser
Resolution weg bewegen. Das ist unsere Politik heute und das wird
unsere Politik in der Zukunft sein." (Quelle, AFP, ebenda)
"The Guardian", eine andere große britische Tageszeitung schrieb
ebenfalls am Montag, daß die USA bereit seien, sich in der Frage der
Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo "mit ihren NATO-Partnern zu überwerfen
Allerdings - so <The Guardian> dürften sich die USA in nächster Zukunft
zurückhalten, ihre politische Kehrtwende offiziell bekannt zu machen,
allein schon deshalb, weil den neuen Kräften um Vojislav Kostunica bei
den bevorstehenden Parlamentswahlen nicht geschadet werden soll.
Die Widersprüche in der amerikanischen Politik dürfte jedoch auch
Belgrad nicht übersehen, hatte doch der amerikanische Gesandte James C.
O'Brien bei seinem ersten Treffen mit Kostunica dem neuen jugoslawischen
Präsidenten die volle Unterstützung der USA zugesichert, ihn bei dessen
erklärtem Ziel zu helfen, die serbischen Flüchtlinge sobald wie möglich
zurück ins Kosovo zu bringen. Dies lässt sich jedoch mit Holbrooks
Um-Interpretation von 1244 nicht vereinbaren. Denn in einem
unabhängigen Kosovo, in dem der albanische Rassismus vollkommen zügellos
wüten könnte, hätten die Serben überhaupt keine Zukunftschancen. Aber
wie schon so oft in der Vergangenheit, so scheint Washington auch
diesmal ein Doppelspiel zu betreiben und auf verschiedenen Schultern zu
tragen.
Saarburg den 31.10. 00
---
Nach Wahlniederlage bangt UCK um ihre Pfründe.
Albanische Terroristen wenden sich gegen Rugova.
(von Rainer Rupp)
Trotz ihrer demokratischen Fragwürdigkeit machten die Wahlen im Kosovo
deutlich, dass die verschiedenen Gruppierungen und Parteien der zu
Politikern mutierten UCK-Terroristen und Drogengangster kaum Rückhalt in
der albanischen Bevölkerung des Kosovo haben. Trotz vielfacher
Einschüchterungsversuche der Bevölkerung durch die ehem.
UCK-Kommandeure, ist dem glühenden albanischen Nationalisten und
überzeugten Separatisten Ibrahim Rugova ein überzeugendes Comeback
gelungen. Er hat stets versucht sein Ziel auf friedlichem Weg zu
verwirklichen und ist deshalb von der UCK zum "Verräter" abgestempelt
worden.
Nach Angaben der OSZE-Mission für das ganze Kosovo hatte nach Auszählung
von 90 Prozent der Stimmen die LDK Rugovas 58% und die Nachfolgeparteien
der UCK etwa 27% der Stimmen bekommen. ("OSZE bestätigt absolute
Mehrheit für Rugova-Partei", Pristina (dpa) Meldung vom 30.10.2000
21:47). Nur in den Kommunen im Mittelkosovo, die seit eh als Hochburgen
der Terroristenbewegung gelten, hat es scheinbar die Partei des
politischen Chefs der UCK und des in Serbien wegen achtfachen Mordes
gesuchten Hashim Thaci geschafft, die Führung zu übernehmen.
Damit hat Ibrahim Rugova den ins politische Geschäft gewechselten
Kommandeuren der UCK eine schmerzhafte Niederlage beigebracht. Weil zu
erwarten ist, dass die im terroristischen Kampf erprobten
UCK-"Politiker" ihre Pfründe und Machtpositionen, die sie sich
unmittelbar nach dem Krieg in den meisten Kommunen des Kosovo erobert
hatten¸ nach der verlorenen Wahl nicht ohne Widerstand abgeben werden,
um das Feld dem "Verräter" Rugova und seinen Anhängern zu überlassen,
hat sich die die NATO-geführte KFOR nach einem Bericht der britischen
Tageszeitung "The Independent" bereits auf den Ausbruch von
Gewalttätigkeiten vorbereitet.
Vor diesem Hintergrund musste die Tatsache, dass die PDK des Hashim
Thaci bereits unmittelbar nach der Wahl wegen des angeblich von Rugova
«gestohlenen Sieges» protestierte, besonders bedenklich stimmen.
("UCK-Nachfolgepartei protestiert nach Kosovo-Wahl", Pristina, dpa,
Meldung vom 30.10.2000 16:48) In vielen Gemeinden der Provinz sei die
Kommunalwahl manipuliert worden, sagte der PDK-Wahlkampfleiter Bilal
Sherifi am Montag in Pristina. "In Prizren und sechs anderen Kommunen
wurde der PDK der Sieg gestohlen".
Vor der Pressekonferenz der PDK in Pristina hatte jedoch der umstrittene
UNMIK-Chef Bernard Kouchner unterstützt von US-Diplomaten Gespräche mit
Thaci in dessen Hauptquartier geführt. Wohl um diesen zu beschwichtigen
und vor übereilten Reaktionen abzuhalten. Nach außen ist Thaci
scheinbar darauf eingegangen, denn trotz aller Klagen über den
"gestohlenen Wahlsieg", erklärte Thaci in einer totalen Wende, dass die
PDK das "endgültige Ergebnis" der Wahl akzeptieren aber dazu nochmals
eine Erklärung abgeben würde.
Offiziell hat Thaci schon oft den Anschein der Kooperation mit UNMIK und
KFOR erweckt, während er insgeheim die Tagesordnung der UCK verfolgte.
So hatten er sich z.B. gegen die organisierten Mord- und
Vertreibungsaktionen gegen Serben und nicht-albanische Minderheiten
ausgesprochen und so getan, als ob die UCK und ihre
Nachfolgeorganisation, das von Deutschland und den USA bezahlte
"Kosovo-Schutz-Korps" nichts, aber auch gar nichts mit diesen
Terroraktionen zu tun hätten. Offiziell wurden diese stets als
unkontrollierbare Einzelaktionen dargestellt, auf die die UCK und Hashim
Thaci keinen Einfluss hatten, obwohl sie praktisch das ganze Kosovo mit
Hilfe ihres brutalen Geheimdienstes so gut wie uneingeschränkt
kontrollierten. Und die NATO akzeptierte diese offizielle Version und
verbreitete sie.
Hashim Thaci hatte angekündigt, dass seine Partei, die PDK, nach Vorlage
der endgültigen Wahlergebnisse nochmals eine Erklärung abgeben würde.
Am Dienstag nach der Wahl der siegreichen Partei des Ibrahim Rugova ist
der 45-Jährige Hazir Raci in der Stadt Klina im Westen des Kosovo von
Unbekannten erschossen worden. ("Politiker von Rugovas LDK
erschossen",AP, Pristina, Meldung vom 31.10.2000 20:31)
Saarburg den 1. 11. 00
---
Serben spielen der NATO den Schwarzen Peter zu.
(von Rainer Rupp)
In seiner Rede beim OSZE-Treffen in Wien kritisierte Präsident Kostunica
scharf die Rolle der NATO und der Vereinten Nationen im Kosovo. Es sei
offensichtlich, dass die NATO-geführte KFOR ihrer Aufgabe, militanten
Kosovo-Albanern Einhalt zu gebieten, nicht ordnungsgemäß nachgekommen
sei. Albanische Terroristen versuchten, Serben und Albaner gleichermaßen
einzuschüchtern. Kostunica warnte vor einer Ausweitung der Krise auf die
gesamte Region.
Nach Angaben des UN-Hochkommissars für Flüchtlinge (UNHCR) sind in den
vergangenen Tagen 2.000 Menschen aus dem Presevo-Tal geflohen. Die
albanische Minderheit in Südserbien, die im Presevo-Tal jedoch die
Mehrheit stellt, fürchtet nach Aussage von UNHCR-Sprecher Peter Deck
angeblich eine serbische Offensive. Bis zu 20.000 Menschen könnten in
diesem Fall das Gebiet verlassen. Die Vereinten Nationen bereiten laut
Deck Notunterkünfte in Sporthallen und anderen öffentlichen Gebäuden
vor, um die Flüchtlinge aufzunehmen. Déja vue? Die Strategie kommt
einem bekannt vor. Ob die UCK diesmal wieder Erfolg damit haben wird,
darf allerdings bezweifelt werden.
Sogar der britische Verteidigungsminister Geoff Hoon drückte am Montag
sein Verständnis für die Reaktion von Präsident Kostunica aus: "Ich
erkenne seine legitimen Sorgen wegen der Sicherheit der serbischen
Bevölkerung auf beiden Seiten der Grenze an. Es ist deshalb wichtig,
dass wir niemandem erlauben, weder die Grenze noch das Gefühl der
Sicherheit der Menschen auf beiden Seiten der Grenze zu verletzen."
("UK sees cause for Kostunica's concern over Kosovo ", Reuters, by Paul
Majendie, ZAGREB, Nov 27)
Als Reaktion auf die Offensive der UCK im Presevo-Tal, der Krisenregion
in Südserbien hatte die Regierung in Belgrad Panzer und
Infanterieeinheiten entlang der 5 Kilometer breiten Pufferzone zwischen
Südserbien und dem Kosovo verlegt. Diese demilitarisierte Zone benutzen
die die Terroristen - von der KFOR weitgehend unbehelligt - als
Ausgangspunkt für ihre Überfälle auf serbische Polizisten und
Zivilisten. Deshalb hatte Belgrad der KFOR am Freitag ein Ultimatum
gestellt, das ursprünglich am Montag um 19.00 Uhr ablaufen sollte. Wenn
die NATO unfähig sei, für Sicherheit zu sorgen, dann müssten
jugoslawische Soldaten das selbst tun, hieß es aus Belgrad.
Nun hat die serbische Regierung das Ultimatum jedoch auf unbestimmte
Zeit verlängert. Der Diplomatie solle eine Chance gegeben werden, sagte
der stellvertretende Ministerpräsident Nebosja Covic während eines
Besuchs in der Krisenregion. Die NATO-Truppen im Kosovo seien einzig und
allein dafür verantwortlich, den Rückzug der militanten Albaner aus dem
Gebiet sicher zu stellen, betonte Covic. Ein taktisch kluger Zug. Denn
wenn die NATO nichts tut, dann wird ihr Ruf als sogenannte
Friedenstruppe nur noch mehr diskreditiert. Kommt sie dagegen ihrer
Verpflichtung nach und geht gegen die UCK-Terroristen vor, dann läuft
die NATO Gefahr in den Augen der albanischen Terroristen vom "Befreier"
zum "Besatzern" zu mutieren, und ebenso wie die Serben zu Zielscheiben
der verschiedenen UCK-Gruppen zu werden.
Geschickt hatte Präsident Kostunica am Montag die neue Krise in
Südserbien ausgenutzt, um in Wien eine gefährliche diplomatische Klippe
zu umschiffen. Seit Wochen hat nämlich die amerikanische
Außenministerin Madeleine Albright über verschiedene Kanäle dem neuen
jugoslawischen Präsidenten ihr Interesse an einem Zusammentreffen mit
ihm signalisiert. Der eher EU-orientierte Kostunica hatte bisher aber
kein Interesse an Frau Albright gezeigt, die als Hauptverantwortliche
für den Angriff gegen Jugoslawien gilt. In Washington wurde der Krieg
nach ihr benannt und heißt "Madeine´s War". Mit Spannung wurde daher
das OSZE-Treffen in Wien erwartet, wo auch Frau Albright zugegen sein
würde. Allerdings kamen es in Wien lediglich zu einem formellen
Händeschütteln und einem kurzen Austausch von Höflichkeiten zwischen
Präsident Kostunica und Frau Albright als man zur Aufnahme des bei
solchen Konferenzen üblichen "Familienbildes" der teilnehmenden
MinisterInnen schritt. Auf dem Foto steht Frau Albright ganz rechts
außen, während Präsident Kostunica mit der gastgebenden österreichischen
Ministerin im Zentrum zu sehen ist.
Auf eine amerikanische Einladung hin erklärte Kostunica, daß er keine
Zeit hätte, weil er vorzeitig ins Krisengebiet nach Südserbien
zurückeilen müßte. Allerdings beschwerten sich amerikanische Beobachter
sofort über Kostunicas "Affront" gegenüber der einzigen Supermacht, weil
er trotzdem Zeit gefunden habe, an einem Essen mit dem österreichischen
Präsidenten Thomas Klestil und Jörg Haider teilzunehmen. Die Botschaft
war deutlich: Eine Wiederaufnahme der Beziehungen kann warten, bis in
Washington die neue Bush-Regierung an der Macht ist, von der sich
Kostunica sich aus guten Gründen eine erhebliche Verbesserung der
bilateralen Beziehungen verspricht.
Mitte November hatte in den USA eine Konferenz der führenden Mitglieder
der republikanischen Denkfabriken unter Beteiligung ranghoher
Mitarbeiter von repubikanischen Senatoren und Abgeordneten
stattgefunden, bei der über die zukünftige Balkanpolitik der
Bush-Regierung debattiert wurde. Dabei kam es zu im Konsens
getroffenen, geradezu sensationellen Empfehlungen an die neue Regierung
Kostunica in Belgrad. So forderten die Republikaner z.B. Belgrad auf,
unter keinen Umständen von dem Prinzip abzugehen, dass "das Kosovo
sowohl Teil des souveränen Serbiens als auch Teil des jugoslawischen
Territoriums ist". Eine weitere Empfehlung an Kostunica lautete:
"absolut keine Person an das Internationale Tribunal für
Kriegsverbrechen in Jugoslawien (nach Den Haag) ausliefern".
Bei der Konferenz wurde auch per Video eine Grußbotschaft des
jugoslawischen Präsidenten Kostunica an die Konferenzteilnehmer gezeigt,
die auf lebhaften Zuspruch stieß. Auf weiten Bereichen waren die
Positionen der führenden außenpolitischen Berater der Republikaner
deckungsgleich mit denen Kostunicas. Das deutet auf eine gute
zukünftige amerikanisch-serbische Zusammenarbeit hin. Auch gaben die
Republikaner Kostunica einen guten Rat zum weiteren Umgang mit der
Clinton-Regierung, die den völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg gegen Jugoslawien
entfacht hatte: auf gar keinen Fall die Beziehungen verbessern - und
wenn diplomatisch nicht anders möglich, dann auf höflicher aber kühler
Distanz bleiben! In Wien scheint sich Präsident Kostunica beim Umgang
mit Frau Albright diesen Rat zu Herzen genommen zu haben.
Saarburg den 28.11.00
---
NATO nennt albanische Terroristen wieder "Terroristen"
(von Rainer Rupp)
"Die NATO schlägt sich auf die Seite der Serben gegen die albanische
Bedrohung", hieß gestern der Titel einer Depesche der britischen
Nachrichtenagentur Reuters aus Brüssel. Berichtet wird, dass "die NATO
in einer bemerkenswerten Kehrtwende vom gewohnten Rollenspiel auf dem
Balkan die serbische Zurückhaltung gelobt und sich zugleich verpflichtet
hat, mit Belgrad bei der Bekämpfung der albanischen terroristischen
Aktivitäten zusammenzuarbeiten. In der Tat geht dies aus einer zwei
Seiten langen offiziellen Erklärung des NATO-Generalsekretärs Lord
George Robertson vom Mittwoch hervor. Darin versprach er Maßnahmen, um
die Lage in der entmilitarisierten Pufferzone entlang der
Verwaltungsgrenze zwischen Kosovo und Südserbien zu entspannen. Die
Pufferzone wird von Mitgliedern des UCK-Ablegers UCBMP als Ausgangsbasis
für Überfälle und Anschläge in Südserbien benutzt, die das Ziel haben,
das von 70.000 Albanern bewohnte Presevo-Tal vom "serbischen Joch zu
befreien" um es dann mit dem "unabhängigen, rein albanischen Kosovo zu
vereinen".
Die Tatsache, dass der NATO-Generalsekretär in seiner Erklärung die
Aktivitäten der UCBMP als "terroristisch" bezeichnete, stellt eine
kleine Sensation dar, und zeigt, wie weit bereits die politische
Kertwende im NATO-Denken zum Kosovo gediehen ist. Zuletzt hatte im
Frühling 1998 der US-Balkangesandte, Botschafter Gelbart, die UCK als
"Terroristen" bezeichnet. Als nützliche Handlanger und Waffenbrüder der
USA und NATO beim Angriffskrieg gegen Jugoslawien mutierten die
Kosovo-albanischen Terroristen jedoch plötzlich zu gefeierten
Freiheitskämpfern.
Beim neuen Schmusekurs der NATO-Länder mit Serbien, dem für die
kapitalistische Neuordnung des Balkans eine Schlüsselbedeutung zukommt,
verlieren sowohl das Kosovo als auch die UCK-Terroristen als Druckmittel
gegen Serbien an Bedeutung. Mit wachsendem Ärger mussten die
albanischen Extremisten im Kosovo feststellen, dass sie nun als
Hindernis bei der Annäherung zwischen Belgrad und der NATO angesehen
werden. So ist es nicht verwunderlich, wenn die NATO urplötzlich
UCK-Terroristen wieder als "Terroristen" bezeichnet und bei deren
Bekämpfung mit den Serben zusammenarbeiten will.
Ergänzend konnte Reuters Atmosphärisches aus Brüssel berichten, dass
nämlich die NATO wegen des albanischen Nationalismus "extrem
frustriert" und "wegen der fortdauernden Angriffe gegen Serben, wegen
der internen politischen Gewalt im Kosovo und wegen unerfüllbarer
Forderungen nach Unabhängigkeit mit ihrer Geduld am Ende" sei. Deshalb
hat die NATO es auch mit den allgemeinen Wahlen nicht mehr besonders
eilig, von denen sich die Kosovo-Albaner einen weiteren entscheidenden
Schritt in die Unabhängigkeit von Serbien erhofften. Auch der
umstrittene UNO-Chef im Kosovo, der serbo-phobe Bernard Kouchner, hat
den Wink seiner NATO-Meister bereits verstanden. Letzte Woche erklärte
er in Zagreb, dass die Pläne für eine baldige Wahl immer
unwahrscheinlicher würden. ("West must act to contain Kosovo violence",
ZAGREB, Nov 28 Reuters) Obwohl Kouchners Position als Chef der
UNO-Mission im Kosovo strikte Neutralität verlangt, hat er aus seiner
Sympathie für die UCK und ein unabhängiges Kosovo nie ein Hehl gemacht.
Jetzt, da seine Pläne nicht länger durchzusetzen sind, hat er
angekündigt, dass er seinen Posten zum 15. Dezember verlassen will.
Wohin die Kosovo-albanischen Separatisten blicken, überall sehen sie nun
ihre Felle davonschwimmen. Am meisten dürfte ihnen aber die neue
Zusammenarbeit zwischen der NATO und den Serben zu schaffen machen.
Diese Zusammenarbeit soll sich (vorerst) lediglich gegen die UCBMP
entlang der Pufferzone zwischen Südserbien und den Kosovo richten. Ob
jedoch die im Kosovo vielfach unter sich vernetzten unterschiedlichen
UCK-Terror- und Gangstergruppierungen sich politische so fein säuberlich
trennen lassen, wie das der NATO vorschwebt, darf bezweifelt werden.
Für Fall, dass die NATO "robust gegen die albanischen Separatisten
vorgeht, könnte das zu einer gefährlichen Konfrontation zwischen der
NATO und der UCK überall im Kosovo führen", warnte deshalb das
amerikanische Time Magazin in seiner jüngsten Ausgabe. ("Serb Threat
Raises NATO Dilemma", By Tony Karon, Time.com , Nov 27)
Um dies zu verhindern, wollte am Donnerstag der NATO Lord Robertson
gemeinsam mit dem Oberbefehlshaber der NATO-Europa, dem U.S. General
Joseph W. Ralston ins Kosovo reisen, um dort mit den zu "Politikern"
mutierten UCK-Kommandanten zu sprechen, damit diese einen "mäßigenden
Einfluß" auf ihre Terrorgefährten von der UCBMP ausüben. Als Teil der
anderen vom NATO-Generalsekretär angekündigten Maßnahmen hat die KFOR
entlang der entmilitarisierten Grenze ihre Überwachung und Kontrolle
verstärkt. So gelang es der KFOR jetzt innerhalb weniger Tage den
zweiten Versuch der UCBMP zu verhindern, größere Mengen schwerer Waffen
in die demilitarisierte Zone zu schmuggeln. Dies scheint den Vorwurf
Belgrads zu bestätigen, dass die NATO-Truppen entlang der Grenzzone zu
Südserbien (es ist übrigens die amerikanische Zone) in der Vergangenheit
bei UCBMP-Aktivitäten stets weggeschaut haben.
Saarburg den 30.11.00
*** NOTIZIE DA KOSOVO E METOHIJA (fonte varia) ***
Selezione e titolazione italiana a cura del
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia
---
ATTACCATO CONVOGLIO NATO
http://www.thestar.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=977067580514&call_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pagepath=News/World
THE TORONTO STAR, Monday, December 18, 2000
NATO patrol is attacked in Kosovo
Peacekeepers suffer no injuries in border attack
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Gunmen fired on a joint American-Russian
patrol yesterday as it tried to seal the boundary between Kosovo and
part of southern Serbia where ethnic Albanian rebels have been
challenging Yugoslav forces, the U.S. army said.
Peacekeepers suffered no casualties in the attack, the first reported
against NATO-led troops since ethnic Albanian rebels escalated
cross-border raids in November.
The joint patrol returned fire but it was unclear whether the attackers,
whose identity was unknown, suffered casualties, U.S. army spokesperson
Capt. Alayne Cramer said in a statement.
The attack occurred one day after a violent incident in northwestern
Kosovo, in which Serbs angry over the arrest of a motorist set fire to a
police station, stoned vehicles and briefly took seven Belgian soldiers
hostage.
Two Serbs died in the melee in the town of Leposavic and one was
wounded, raising tensions in this troubled province.
The U.S. statement said the shooting attack occurred about 1:30 p.m.
local time as the patrol was trying to seal the boundary near the
village of Gornje Karacevo about 50 kilometres southeast of Pristina.
Peacekeepers had just detonated a series of explosive charges to destroy
a section of road believed used by the militants when they received
small arms fire, the statement said.
``The Multinational Brigade East was continuing the boundary closure
efforts to prevent the flow of supplies and movement of armed ethnic
groups across the border,'' the statement added. ``No suspects have been
detained.''
The new government of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has been
urging the NATO-led force in Kosovo to crack down on the ethnic Albanian
extremists of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac,
known by its Albanian-language acronym UCPMB.
Last month, the rebels killed four Yugoslav police officers and seized
several positions in the five-kilometre-wide buffer zone along the
Yugoslav side of the boundary.
The zone was established in June, 1999 to prevent Belgrade's forces from
threatening the peacekeepers who took over Kosovo after the 78-day NATO
bombing of Yugoslavia, launched to force then-president Slobodan
Milosevic to halt his crackdown against Kosovo Albanians.
Yugoslav forces cannot use heavy weapons in the zone, so the ethnic
Albanians have been operating in the area with impunity.
They are trying to drive Yugoslav forces from the area, which has an
ethnic Albanian majority but is not part of Kosovo.
Letters to Editor: lettertoed@...
KOSTUNICA PER EMENDAMENTI AGLI ACCORDI DI KUMANOVO
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT FOR AMENDMENTS TO KUMANOVO MILITARYTECHNICAL
AGREEMENT
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica urged on Monday, during a joint press conference with Norwegian
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, a dialogue with the representatives of the
international community and the moderate leaders of the Kosovo Albanians
and for amendments to the MilitaryTechnical Agreement between Yugoslavia
and NATO.
Kostunica said that "there is too much extremism in Kosovo"
despite the victory of the moderate ethnic Albanians at the October 28
local elections in the province.
Describing the current situation in southern Serbia as a very
serious problem, Kostunica said that there are certain unclear
interpretations of the MilitaryTechnical Agreement, signed last June in
Kumanovo, Macedonia, between the Yugoslav Army and NATO and under which the
local Serbian police in the land security zone can be armed only with light
weapons.
Kostunica said that the Agreement must be amended, adding that
this does not depend on Yugoslavia but on KFOR and the international
community.
"We urge our more extensive presence in order that people feel as
safe as possible," the Yugoslav president set out pointing out that the
security zone is populated both by Serbs and Serb police, but also moderate
ethnic Albanians who are being threatened by the ethnic Albanian terrorists.
Kostunica expressed great satisfaction over the visit by the
Norwegian president who is touring the Balkan countries. He said that
Norway was one of the first countries to recognize the democratic changes
in Yugoslavia.
Stoltenberg noted that Yugoslavia is no longer isolated and that
now it is fully participating in the activities of the international
community, in which Norwegian help and support played a role.
Stoltenberg said that today's talks also focused on the
implementation of the joint declaration on bilateral relations and
cooperation signed at the time of Kostunica's visit to Oslo in October.
KOSTUNICA SUGLI INCIDENTI DI LEPOSAVIC
PRESIDENT KOSTUNICA BLASTS INCIDENTS IN LEPOSAVIC
BELGRADE, December 17 (Tanjug) Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica on Sunday deplored Saturday's clashes and tragic events with loss
of life in Leposavic, KosovoMetohija, and appealed to Serbs, ethnic
Albanians, KFor and UNMIK to take their share of responsibility and avoid
the trap laid by those "who care nothing about peace".
U.N. mission (UNMIK) police in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
U.N.administered KosovoMetohija province opened fire at a crowd of some
1,000 Serbs protesting in Leposavic against the arrest of their compatriot,
and killed two Serbs and wounded one.
A statement from the presidential cabinet quotes Kostunica as
saying that force solves nothing, whoever might use it.
He added that "it is not by accident that this should be happening
now, before Serbian elections which should endorse September's victory of
the democratic forces, and after the strengthening of moderate forces among
Kosovo Albanians".
Kostunica said that "UNMIK and KFor have the duty to discharge all
their obligations under the Kumanovo MilitaryTechnical Accord and U.N.
Resolution 1244, while the people must obey the law.
"This is the only way for peace and law and order to be restored
in Kosovo and its environs once and for all", he said.
ZIZIC SULLA SITUAZIONE A PRESEVO E DINTORNI
PREMIER ZIZIC: YUGOSLAVIA IS CAPABLE OF EXPELLING ETHNIC ALBANIAN
TERRORISTS
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran
Zizic told Monday issue of Blic daily that Yugoslavia is capable of
expelling ethnic Albanian terrorists from the buffer zone in southeastern
Serbia.
He said that the Yugoslav government will do only what is
necessary to push terrorists back from the buffer zone, to protect the
residents of the Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja municipalities, and to
enable Yugoslavia to pursue the process of joining the international
community.
The international community understands the need of expelling
terrorists from the buffer zone. Yugoslavia is capable to do that, if
necessary, Zizic said.
He pointed out that separatism, including that prevailing in
KosovoMetohija, which seems insurmountable at present, will lose its
strength as Yugoslavia continues developing economically.
SVILANOVIC A NEW YORK
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER LEFT FOR NEW YORK
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran
Svilanovic on Monday left for New York to attend Tuesday's U.N. Security
Council session on the KosovoMetohija crisis and its effects outside this
Serbian province, especially in the land security zone.
In New York, Svilanovic is expected to meet with U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, current Security Council Chariman
Sergei Lavrov, and maybe Secretary General Kofi Annan and the new head of
the U.N. civilian mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Hans Haekkerup.
Yugoslav political and diplomatic circles attach great importance
to this Security Council session because, as Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica said, it is expected to take a step further and clearly define
the situation in the land security zone with KosovoMetohija so that it
becomes really safe for all.
According to Kostunica, the Security Council should also adopt a
decision that the ethnic Albanian terrorists leave the security zone.
Svilanovic said that he will demand from the Security Council to
influence the Kosovo Albanian leaders that all armed persons withdraw from
the land security zone.
L'AMBASCIATORE USA NELLA ZONA DEGLI SCONTRI
SERBIAN VICE PREMIER AND U.S. AMBASSADOR TO YUGOSLAVIA MET IN
BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, December 18 (Tanjug) Serbian Vice Premier Nebojsa
Covic and U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, William Montgomery, met in
Bujanovac on Monday afternoon.
The talks are also attended by Yugoslav Minister for National and
Minority Communities Rasim Ljajic, who is also a member of the Yugoslav and
Serbian governments' coordinating body for Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo,
and with Presevo municipality head Riza Halimi.
Before meeting with Montgomery, Covic and Ljajic conferred for
three hours with Halimi and Bujanovac municipality chief Stojan Arsic, as
well as with the ethnic Albanian deputies from this region.
LA KFOR ASPETTAVA LA NEVE
KFOR COMMANDER: KFOR'S HANDS TIED BECAUSE OF GOOD WEATHER CONDITIONS
ROME, December 18 (Tanjug) The warm weather has prevented KFOR
from completing its overall peace operations in the Presevo valley in
southern Serbia, Rome daily La Republica quoted KFOR commander, Italian
general Carlo Cabigiosu as saying.
"I had hoped for at least one metre of snow, but the snowfall has
been late," Gen. Cabigiosu set out adding that the snow would have made it
more difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate the buffer zone in southern
Serbia.
PROTESTA PER L'UCCISIONE DEI DUE SERBI
SERBS PROTEST KILLING OF TWO SERBS IN LEPOSAVIC
BELGRADE, December 17 (Tanjug) Hundreds of Serbs in Leposavic and
the surrounding area in U.N.administered KosovoMetohija protested in
downtown Leposavic on Sunday, indignant at Saturday's killing of two Serbs
and wounding of another by U.N. mission (UNMIK) police.
A delegation of the protesters delivered the protesters' demands
to the UNMIK and international force KFor commands in Kosovska Mitrovica.
UNMIK Kosovo Corps police, probably from the Belgian battalion,
fired bullets and teargas at a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters in
Leposavic shortly before midnight on Saturday, killing two Serbs and
wounding one.
The indignant protesters, demanding the release of their
compatriot, had started throwing stones at the police building and had set
three KFor vehicles and a private car alight.
Representatives of the Serb Crisis Command in Kosovska Mitrovica
met on Sunday with the local KFor commander, General Christian Falzone, and
UNMIK administrator Anthony Welch.
The officials promised to investigate the incident, publish the
names of the soldiers and police who had fired the shots into the crowd and
take the necessary action, and asked that the people of Leposavic refrain
from provoking and attacking KFor and the police.
ATTACCATO CONVOGLIO USA-NATO
USRUSSIAN PATROL UNDER FIRE IN KOSOVO
PRISTINA, December 18 (Tanjug) Unidentified attackers opened fire
on Sunday at a U.S.Russian patrol which was trying to close the border
between Kosovo and southern Serbia near Gornje Karacevo village, about 50
km southeast of Pristina, the U.S. contingent of KFOR said.
The patrol returned fire. There were no KFOR casualties, but there
may have been casualties among the attackers, U.S. contingent
representative Alayne Cramer said.
She said in a statement that the international brigade East
endeavoured to close the border in order to prevent armed ethnic groups
from crossing the boundary and carrying supplies.
No suspects have been identified yet, the statement added.
I BRITANNICI PREMONO AL CONFINE DELLA PROVINCIA
BRITISH TROOPS TO REINFORCE KOSOVOMETOHIJA BORDER AREA
PRISTINA, December 18 (Tanjug) Some 150 British soldiers of the
Kfor international peacekeeping force in Serbia's southern KosovoMetohija
province were deployed on Monday to reinforce the area near the
administrative border separating the province from Serbia proper, a Kfor
Spokesman said in Pristina.
Tim Pearce said that the Royal Regiment of the Princess of Wales
was deployed south of the zone where unidentified assailants fired shots at
soldiers of the Russian and U.S. Kfor contingents on Sunday.
He went on to say that the deployment of this regiment is not a
response to violence that happened during the weekend, but a result of
developments in the Presevo valley.
The British soldiers will be under the command of a U.S. Kfor
brigade whose task is to prevent ethnic Albanian separatist infiltration
and arms smuggling into the Presevo valley, part of the southSerbian land
security zone.
LA POSIZIONE DELL'SPS SULLA UCCISIONE DI DUE
SERBI DA PARTE DELLA KFOR A LEPOSAVIC
> http://www.sps.org.yu/aktuelno/2000/dec/17-1.html
IZVRŠNI ODBOR POKRAJINSKOG
ODBORA SPS KOSOVA I METOHIJE
POVODOM UBISTVA DVOJICE SRBA U
LEPOSAVIÆU OD STRANE POLICIJE
UNMIK-a
Izvršni odbor Pokrajinskog odbora
Socijalistièke partije Srbije Kosova i
Metohije oštro je osudio ubistvo dvojice
Srba u Leposaviæu od strane policije
Civilne misije Ujedinjenih nacija koja je
pucala u masu graðana Leposaviæa koji
su protestvovali zbog nepravednog
zatvaranja njihovog sugraðanina Vladimira
Tomoviæa.
Ubistvo Bojana Jokoviæa i Trifuna
Obradoviæa iz Leposaviæa i teško
ranjavanje devetnaestogodišnjeg Mladena
Obradoviæa iz Kruševca studenta
Prištinskog univerziteta, èija je krivica bila
samo u tome što su protestvovali zbog
nepravde, Izvršni odbor Pokrajinskog
odbora SPS Kosova i Metohije ocenio je
kao još jedan u nizu gnusnih zloèina koje
su pripadnici meðunarodnih bezbednosnih
snaga i Civilne misije UN, direktno ili
indirektno, u saradnji sa albanskim
separatistima i teroristima izvršili u
poslednjih godinu i po dana nad srpskim i
crnogorskim narodom i drugim graðanima
Kosova i Metohije.
Najnovija ubistva u Leposaviæu, upad više
hiljada naoružanih albanskih separatista i
terorista u zonu bezbednosti izmeðu
Kosova i Metohije i unutrašnjosti Srbije u
opštinama Bujanovac i Preševo, potom
danonoæni napadi na Srbe i Crnogorce
širom Kosova i Metohije, istièe IO PO SPS
Kosova i Metohije, deo su jedinstvenog
scenarija i jedinstvene antisrpske i
antijugoslovenske ofanzive preduzete od
pripadnika meðunarodnih bezbednosnih
snaga i policije Civilne misije UN i
albanskih separatista i terorista sa
zajednièkim i jedinstvenim ciljem
iseljavanja i poslednjeg Srbina sa Kosova i
Metohije.
Najuže rukovodstvo kosovsko-metohijskih
socijalista zahteva od aktuelnih
jugoslovenskih vlasti da se stane na put
takvim zloèinima i da se od meðunarodnih
bezbednosnih snaga i Civilne misije UN
zatraži da okonèaju svoju sramnu misiju i
da napuste Kosovo i Metohiju.
Podseæajuæi na hiljade ubijenih, ranjenih i
kidnapovanih Srba i Crnogoraca i drugih
graðana Kosova i Metohije i brojne druge
zloèine poèinjene u proteklih osamnaest
meseci u prisustvu i pred oèima više
desetina hiljada do zuba naoružanih i
najmodernije opremljenih pripadnika
meðunarodnih bezbednosnih snaga i
policije Civilne misije UN, Izvršni odbor
Pokrajinskog odbora SPS Kosova i
Metohije zakljuèuje da bi svako dalje
ostajanje tih snaga na Kosovu i Metohiji
znaèilo samo nove zloèine, nove žrtve i
novo stradanje naroda i destabilizaciju ne
samo Balkana veæ i šire - jugoistoène
Evrope.
UN COMMENTO DALL'ARIZONA
----- Original Message -----
From: TiM Publisher <publisher@...>
To: TiM GW Bulletins <tim@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:30 PM
Subject: NATO Tells Serbs to Stay Put, Adds Insult to Injury (TiM GW Bulletin 2000/12-4, Dec. 16, 2000)
>
> FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA
> 2. NATO Tells Serbs to Stay Put, Adds Insult to Injury
>
> Western Diplomat Slights Yugoslav Army's Capability
>
> PRISTINA, Dec. 15 - In our Dec. 4 update about the situation in Kosovo,
> "Serb Wimps Kiss Up to NATO Pimps," we quoted Zoran Djindjic as saying
> that, "Yugoslav government was seeking NATO acceptance of the plan to drive
> the Kosovo Albanian rebels from the 80-square mile contested Presevo Valley
> buffer zone between Kosovo province and the rest of Serbia."
>
> Asking permission from a foreign occupying force if you can be allowed to
> defend your own land from terrorists who have killed and massacred your
> troops makes the label "wimps" fairly benign. Yet to the new Yugoslav
> president, Vojislav Kostunica, the remark by the man who is widely expected
> to become Serbia's prime minister after the Dec. 23 vote was not wimpy
> enough. Speaking last week after Djindjic's comments, Kostunica said that,
> "this is not the time for war drums."
>
> Belgrade's appeasing attitude toward the aggressors drew protests and
> demonstrations by the Serbs from Presevo Valley on Dec. 13. Thousands of
> angry Serbs blocked key roads near Kosovo today, demanding that the
> authorities drive out the ethnic Albanian militants entrenched in the area,
> the New York Times reported on Dec. 14. Some 3,000 people used cars,
> trucks and tractors to close roads into and out of Bujanovac and the rail
> line, and all roads that link Serbia to Macedonia and Greece.
>
> So now Kostunica and Djindjic have their own people rising up against them
> with no Slobodan Milosevic around any more to take the blame.
>
> Furthermore, Kostunica's willingness to prostrate himself and his country
> before NATO lower than even Djindjic was prepared to do was not lost on the
> KFOR leaders. Yesterday, they told Belgrade what its leaders' meekness
> asked for - butt out! Brig. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, the American who
> commands peacekeepers, including 6,000 American troops, in the eastern part
> of Kosovo, said in an interview published Dec. 15 by the New York Times
> that, NATO "would not tolerate Serbian police or army use of force to
> reassert control of a three-mile-wide buffer zone along Kosovo's eastern
> border that ethnic Albanian rebels control."
>
> No surprise there. As eyewitnesses in the area have already reported to
> TiM, the U.S. troops are virtual accomplices of the Albanian terrorists,
> having been seen to provide logistical support for the rebel operations
> (see "Kosovo Eyewitness: American Troops Aided Albanian Rebels Who Killed
> Four Serb Policemen," Nov. 29, 2000).
>
> But don't take our word for it. Here's what the Kosovo Albanian
> recently-elected leader, Ibrahim Rugova, said in a Dec. 11 interview with
> the German Der Spiegel (The Mirror) magazine:
>
> "Thanks to the presence of KFOR peacekeeping troops, NATO's support and the
> UN's reconstruction assistance Kosovo today is de facto
> independent." Later in the interview, Rugova also added, "NATO is already
> our (Albanian) private army. But in the future we will share responsibility
> and also develop an army of our own as a protective power."
>
> So the new Serb leaders are appealing for help from the foreign troops that
> the Kosovo Albanian leader calls their "private army!" Is there any wonder
> the Serbs of the Presevo Valley are rising up against such Belgrade "leaders?"
>
> As if that was not demeaning enough, asked by the Times whether the Serb
> forces could flush out the Albanian in a quick clean operation, a Western
> diplomat added insult to injury by replying, "I don't think the Serbian
> forces are capable of that." Or was it realism? Because the Albanian
> rebels are certainly treating the Serb posturing as empty threats.
>
> Violence flared anew on Friday (Dec. 15). NATO spokesman said two cars in
> the southern (Bujanovac) part of the zone carrying Serbs were raked with
> gunfire Friday (Dec. 15), leaving one of the occupants wounded in the
> arm. The two targeted cars then drove to a crossing into Kosovo and the
> wounded man was treated by U.S. soldiers, a spokesman for the American
> peacekeepers, Maj. Jim Marshall, said in a statement.
>
> And in a report suggesting tensions might be spreading, locals in the
> northern part of the zone, near Kursumlija, said Albanian militants shot at
> a Serb-populated village late Friday (Dec. 15). It was the first such
> incident reported in the north. The villagers told police they had seen
> Albanian rebels digging trenches in the region. The shootings occurred
> even as Serbs lifted their barricades on roads along the tense border with
> Kosovo after a personal appeal by Kostunica.
>
> Meanwhile, the governments of Yugoslavia and of Serbia, its main republic,
> met today (Dec 16) in Bujanovac - on the edge
> of the tense region - and threatened tough action unless NATO peacekeepers
> and U.N. officials running Kosovo clamp down on the insurgents, according
> to a Dec. 16 Associated Press report.
>
> The commander of the Serb Third Army reported that ethnic Albanian
> militants are seeking to export their independence war from Kosovo into a
> neighboring Serbian area are assembling military hardware for a major
> offensive later this month, according to a Dec. 16 Associated Press
> report. Speaking before the meeting, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic said his
> military intelligence was reporting a rebel offensive planned for Dec. 27
> by "several thousand terrorists."
>
> "They are fixing up bridges, improving their communications, and bringing
> in ... mortars and howitzers," said Lazarevic.
>
> The U.N. Security Council is to meet Tuesday to discuss the latest Balkan
> flashpoint. If it fails to produce an efficient plan and action, Yugoslavia
> will "invoke its legitimate right to solve the problem itself, with the use
> of all internationally permitted measures to fight terrorism," the
> Bujanovac declaration said.
(...)
> NOTE: To cancel the e-mail editions of our reports, just reply REMOVE or
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> ----
> TRUTH IN MEDIA
> Phoenix, Arizona
> e-mail: publisher@...
>
> Visit the Truth in Media Web site http://www.truthinmedia.org/ for articles
> on geopolitical affairs.
>
>
INIZIATIVE CONGIUNTE SUI FATTI DI PRESEVO
YUGOSLAV AND SERBIAN GOVERNMENTS ADOPT DECLARATION ON SOUTHERN SERBIA
BUJANOVAC, Dec 16 (Tanjug) The Yugoslav and Serbian governments
held a joint session in southern Serbia (Yugoslavia) on Saturday and
adopted a declaration on the crisis created by ethnic Albanian terrorist
raids from UNrun KosovoMetohija.
The closeddoor session was attended by Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica.
It was decided that a joint coordinating body be set up to deal
with developments in southern Serbia's troubled Bujanovac, Presevo, and
Medvedja municipalities, and the buffer zone that separates KosovoMetohija
from the rest of Serbia, TANJUG learns.
YUGOSLAV AND SERBIAN GOVERNMENTS SET UP BODY FOR SOUTHERN SERBIA
CRISIS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 16 (Tanjug) The Serbian and Yugoslav governments
on Saturday appointed Serbian VicePremier Nebojsa Covic to head a joint
coordinating body to deal with the crisis created by ethnic Albanian
terrorist raids from U.N.run KosovoMetohija on southern Serbia (Yugoslavia).
The two governments held a joint session in Bujanovac, southern
Serbia, just outside the buffer zone that separates KosovoMetohija from the
rest of this Yugoslav republic.
According to TANJUG's sources, Yugoslav Minister for Minorities
and Ethnic Communities Rasim Ljajic has been appointed deputy chairman of
the 15member body which will coordinate government and political measures
for dealing with the crisis.
The other members are secretary in the Yugoslav Defence Ministry
Milovan Coguric, Serbian CoMinisters of the Interior Bozo Prelevic,
Slobodan Tomovic, Stevan Nikcevic, CoMinisters of Justice Dragan Subasic,
Zoran Nikolic, and Sead Spahovic, and CoMinisters of Information Biserka
Matic, Ivica Dacic, and Bogoljub Pejcic.
Also on the coordinating body are Serbian Minister for Local
SelfRule Veljko Odalovic, Assistant Yugoslav Interior Minister Milisav
Markovic, and a representative of the Yugoslav information secretariat, to
be appointed at a later date.
PROTESTA DEI SERBI A GORAZDEVAC
SERBS PROTEST IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA TOWN
GORAZDEVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Serbs in Gorazdevac, near Pec,
KosovoMetohija, held a rally Friday in protest against the arrest and trial
of town resident Veselin Besovic before an ethnic Albanian court presided
by a Spanish judge.
Besovic was condemned to 3 years and 4 months for alleged armed
robbery. He was arrested a few weeks ago in Gorazdevac, after he reported
to UNMIK police the theft of wood on his land by a group of ethnic Albanians.
However, the group brought false charges against Besovic for armed
robbery and he was tried in a court where everyone but the presiding judge
were ethnic Albanians judges, prosecutors, lawyers and clerks, the
protesters said.
Gorazdevac residents are signing a petition to be presented to the
court and all international institutions in KosovoMetohija, as well as to
relevant Serbian and Yugoslav institutions.
SERBO FERITO NELLA ZONA-CUSCINETTO
SERB WOUNDED IN BUFFER ZONE ACROSS FROM U.N.RUN KOSOVOMETOHIJA
GNJILANE, Dec 16 (Tanjug) A Serb was wounded in an armed attack
late on Friday in the buffer zone that separates U.N.administered
KosovoMetohija from the rest of Serbia (Yugoslavia).
Zoran Mitrovic of Partes, near Gnjilane, southern Serbia, was
wounded when the car he was driving was peppered with bullets at Mucibaba
on the PresevoGnjilane road. His two passengers escaped unscathed,
according to amateur radio operators' reports.
LA TURCHIA "CONTROLLA" IL CONFINE TRA FYROM ED ALBANIA
TURKISH TROOPS TO CONTROL MACEDONIANALBANIAN BORDER
SKOPLJE, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Macedonian and Turkish Foreign Ministers
Srdjan Kerim and Ismail Cem will meet in Brussels to discuss a possible
deployment of Turkish troops to control the MacedonianAlbanian border, the
Skoplje daily Dnevnik writes Friday.
Turkey and Macedonia will attach a great importance to military
cooperation as part of the overall development of bilateral relations, the
daily writes quoting Turkish sources in NATO.
Ankara and Skoplje already have close cooperation in defense.
Turkish military experts have been training Macedonian army and police
officers.
Turkey's aid in border security is very important for Macedonia at
present, as there have been reports on the smuggling of arms by Albanian
extremists who have infiltrated southern Serbia.
Arms, military equipment and terrorists from Albania and
KosovoMetohija are being transported illegally through Macedonia's
territory to southern Serbia, sources in Skoplje said.
MESSAGGIO DI KOSTUNICA AGLI ABITANTI DI BUJANOVAC
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE TO INHABITANTS OF BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, Dec. 15 (Tanjug) The inhabitants of Bujanovac,
southern Serbia, on Friday received a message from Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica who informed them that he had received assurances from
KFOR commander, General Carlo Cabigiosu, that KFOR would exert pressure so
that the terrorist gangs in the land security zone are finally disbanded.
In the message, read out to the citizens by Serbian transitional
Vice Premier Nebojsa Covic, Kostunica said that the KFOR commander had told
him that "NATO is seriously considering ways how to support the Yugoslav
government and help it fully realize its rights over a territory over which
it has undisputed sovereignty."
Covic told the gathered people that the state, police and army
have done everything to ensure their maximum protection and safety. He
informed them about the proposals for the resolution of the problems in
this part of Serbia and called on them to lift the barricades, which was
loudly accepted.
The federal and Serbia governments will meet in Bujanovac on
Saturday and set up a information centre in this town, Covic set out also
promising help for the local radio.
Covic stated that the police received new tasks to stop the
smuggling and acquisition of wealth "from the blood of the people."
RIMOSSE TUTTE LE BARRICATE
ALL BARRICADES IN BUJANOVAC REGION LIFTED
BUJANOVAC, Dec. 15 (Tanjug) All barricades in the region of
Bujanovac, southern Serbia, were removed at 1:15 p.m. local time on Friday
and all routes, including the highway and railway towards Skopje, are now
open, police sources told Tanjug.
The action released, after two days and two nights, some 800
trucks, including six cisterns carrying heating oil for the city of Cacak
and two trucks with Yugoslav Red Cross aid for the people of Presevo.
The local population of Bujanovac and the Kosovo Morava River
region, which erected the blockades on Wednesday, made three main demands
for their lifting: the immediate withdrawal of the ethnic Albanian
terrorists from the occupied ares, the opening of the GnjilaneBujanovac
road and that Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica comes to Bujanovac once
more to talk with them.
Serbian CoPremier Nebojsa Covic and Information CoMinister Biserka
Matic arrived in the region on Thursday evening. They held meetings with
the local authorities and representatives of the citizens throughout the
night and on Friday morning.
After agreement was reached at midday, all roads and railways were
deblocked in only one hour.
LA ALBRIGHT CONDANNA I SUOI ALLEATI
ALBRIGHT CONDEMNS ETHNIC ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS
BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Tanjug) U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright
said on Thursday at the session of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels that
all NATO members condemn ethnic Albanian extremist activities in the
Presevo valley.
Albright stressed that the NATO states join Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica in condemning activities by armed ethnic Albanian
extremists in the Presevo valley.
She pointed out that the chief task of KFOR is to help the U.N.
mission secure respect for Security Council Resolution 1244.
ROBERTSON CONDANNA I SUOI ALLEATI
ROBERTSON: NATO WILL ACT RESOLUTELY AGAINST EXTREMISTS
BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Tanjug) NATO SecretaryGeneral George Roberston
said on Thursday at the close of the first day of work of the Ministerial
Council in Brussels that KFOR and NATO would act resolutely and severely to
stop the violence of ethnic Albanian armed extremists.
At the same time, ties with the Yugoslav Army within the joint
commission for the implementation of the Military Technical Agreement of
Kumanovo will be expanded, he said.
Robertson warned that a small group of hotheads in the security
zone in the Presevo valley in southern Serbia would not be allowed to
provoke an aggravation of conflicts.
Chances for peace have been increased with the arrival of new
Yugoslav President Vojislav kostunica and the elections called for late
next week, he said, much more than it was the case in the past decade, as
well as prospects for strengthening stability and prosperity in the entire
region and a new beginning for Serbia and its people.
For its part, NATO wants to expand cooperation with the democratic
government in Yugoslavia and build friendly relations, Robertson said. The
first signs of such relations were observed in our recent contacts woth the
new Yugoslav government, he said.
TRAFFICI DI ARMI
ARMS DELIVERED TO SERBIA FROM ALBANIA AND KOSOVO KFOR GENERAL
SKOPJE, Dec 15 (Tanjug) KFOR Headquarters Rear Major General
Volker Loew said on Thursday that there are indications that arms for the
socalled Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja arrive in
southern Serbia from Albania, but also from Kosovo via Macedonia.
Maj. Gen. Loew told a press conference in Skopje that Macedonian
security forces are undertaking measures to prevent illegal arms
deliveries, but they cannot seal the border. He could not state the exact
number of the Serbian forces in the Presevo valley, but stressed that they
absolutely respect the Kumanovo Agreement.
Commenting the statement of the KFOR commander, Macedonian Defense
Ministry spokesman Djordji Trendafilov said that the Macedonian army is
undertaking all measures in keeping with regulations to secure the border.
He added that an additional number of troops were guarding the northern
border, with Kosovo, especially the directions from which attacks could be
expected.
The Macedonian army defends the border line, but controls a border
belt which is 100 metres wide, the spokesman said.
Television Telma of Skopje said in a news broadcast on Thursday
that it had learned from reliable sources that not only arms are being
smuggled into the Presevo valley in southern Serbia from Albania and Kosovo
via Macedonia, but also persons who are then recruited for the socalled
Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.
Large quantities of arms were smuggled over Macedonian territory
into southern Serbia already at the time when the disarming of the socalled
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had been announced, the Telma sources said.
L'UNMIK NON RICONOSCE LE ELEZIONI SERBE IN KOSMET
UNMIK WILL NOT ORGANIZE VOTING OF SERBS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
PRISTINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo and Metohija chief Bernard Kouchner said on Thursday that
UNMIK would not organize elections for Serbian parliament in this southern
Serbian province.
However, he said the U.N. mission would ensure safety if Kosovo
Serbs went to the polls on Dec 23, as they did during the Yugoslav
parliamentary and presidential elections in September.
Kouchner said UNMIK would provide security for everyone, Serbs and
ethnic Albanians, but stressed that UNMIK would not have any observers at
the elections.
The UNMIK observers will not monitor anything, he said. "We'll
just ensure the maximum of security," Kouchner told reporters.
At the federal elections, UNMIK had an observer team of 300
members who only tried to check the turnout.
NO INCIDENTS AT BUFFER ZONE DEMARCATION LINE NEAR BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) There were no armed provocations by
ethnic Albanian terrorists in the demilitarized buffer zone near Bujanovac
on Thursday, overnight, or Friday morning, wellinformed circles told Tanjug.
The terrorists infiltrated the zone in southern Serbia proper from
Kosovo and Metohija province and temporarily seized a part of the Bujanovac
municipality, several villages from which many ethnic Albanians, mostly
young people, had fled to escape mobilization by the terrorists.
The situation in Bujanovac and the wider area is extremely
complex, and the people are apprehensive because of the uncertainty as to
its outcome.
12 ALBANESI ARRESTATI
KFOR ARREST 12 ALBANIANS
PRISTINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) International force KFOR
representatives said on Thursday that their troops arrested 12 Albanians
and that five of them are suspected of belonging to the socalled Liberation
Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac which infiltrated Serbian
territory last month.
KFOR military police intercepted a vehicle with these men near
Gnjilane, close to the administrative border of Kosovo and Metohija
province and Serbia proper.
The statement said it was not certain yet whether the KFOR police
would open an investigation against them.
Within an action of monitoring and controlling the zone along the
provincial boundary, KFOR in the past week seized arms and arrested several
Albanians suspected of terrorist incursions into Serbia proper last month.
ANCORA BLOCCATE PER PROTESTA
LE VIE DI COMUNICAZIONE PRESSO BUJANOVAC
RAIL AND ROAD TRAFFIC IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL BLOCKED
BUJANOVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Serbs from the Pcinj district and
their compatriots expelled from KosovoMetohija continued the blockade,
started near Bujanovac on Wednesday, of the railway and highway leading to
Macedonia and Greece.
The Serbs blocked the road in protest against the incursion by
ethnic Albanian terrorists into the Bujanovac municipality, southern
Serbia, a month ago. The terrorist remain in the area.
Apart from the railroad and highway linking Belgrade with Salonica
via Nis and Skopje, the Serbs have blocked several regional and local roads
near Bujanovac.
They claim they are determined to maintain the barricades until
the ethnic Albanians are pushed back from southern Serbia.
The protesters are also demanding the opening to traffic of the
regional road linking Bujanovac and Gnjilane, seized by the ethnic
Albanians, and to meet with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.
Serbian transitional government VicePremier Nebojsa Covic is in
Vranje and Bujanovac where he is trying to reach an agreement with the
local residents on removing the barricades.
SALTA IN ARIA UNA CASA SERBA
SERB HOUSE IN KLOKOT BLOWN UP
KOSOVSKA VITINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) The house of Serb Dusan
Vlatkovic in Klokot village, municipality of Kosovska Vitina, was razed in
an explosion late Thursday, amateur radio operators reported from crisis
areas of Serbia's southern Kosovo and Metohija province early on Friday.
Representatives of Vitina Serbs had repeatedly warned
international force KFOR representatives that they had knowledge that
Vlatkovic's house would be targeted by ethnic Albanian extremists. Many
other Serb houses in the territory of this municipality have already been
blown up.
The responsible KFOR authorities, however, ignored these warnings
and ethnic Albanian extremists succeeded in destroying yet another Serb
house with planted explosives, the report said.
E' HEAKKERUP IL SUCCESSORE DI KOUCHNER
RUSSIAN EXPECTATIONS FROM NEW UNMIK CHIEF HEAKKERUP
MOSCOW, Dec. 13 (Tanjug) Russia expects from the new head of the
U.N. civilian mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), Hans Heakkerup, to
strictly respect all provisions of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244
primarily the principle of the territorial entirety of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, Moscow said on Wednesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that Heakkerup will
make maximum efforts to avoid all the mistakes of his predecessor Bernard
Kouchner whose replacement Moscow demanded on several occasions.
In the realization of his mission Heakkerup should establish
"constructive relations with the new democratic authorities in Yugoslavia
regarding all political, humanitarian and military issues," the Russian
Foreign Ministry said.
Kouchner totally lost credibility by ignoring Resolution 1244 and
by supporting the actions of the Kosovo Albanians which basically aim to
undermine the sovereignty and territorial entirety of Yugoslavia, the
Russian Foreign Ministry said.
SERBO DESAPARECIDO
SERB DISAPPEARS, BELIEVED KIDNAPPED BY KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Zoran Stankovic of Rakovac village has
gone missing in Bujanovac, local police and Bujanovac Mayor Stojanca Arsic
confirmed to Tanjug on Thursday.
Stankovic was last seen when he set off from Bujanovac for Veliki
Trnovac village on a motorcycle on Saturday, Dec 9. Since he disappeared on
this road, it is believed that he has been kidnapped by ethnic Albanian
terrorists, the sources said. An investigation is under way.
BLOCCHI STRADALI PRESSO BUJANOVAC
ROADS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL UNDER BLOCKADE
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Serbs of Bujanovac and Vranje and
those expelled from Kosovo and Metohija province who have found temporary
haven in these two southern Serbian municipalities maintained their
blockade of roads in southern Serbia on Wednesday night as well, Bujanovac
Mayor Stojanca Arsic said in a statement for Tanjug.
The Serbs, who have set up six road blocks, demand the expulsion
of the Kosovo Albanian terrorists, who have seized several villages in
southern Serbia, and the opening of the trunk road from Bujanovac to
Gnjilane for free and safe traffic.
Arsic specified that the blockades are on the highway section
linking Vranje and Presevo leading to the YugoslavMacedonian border, the
trunk roads toward Gnjilane and the St. Prohor Pcinjski monastery, and the
old road to Vranje and Nis.
He said long lines of stranded vehicles were stretching along the
highway. The protesting Serbs allow only ambulances and other emergency
cases to pass.
The Serbs claim they will not remove the road blocks until the
ethnic terrorists are pushed out of southern Serbia and normal traffic is
secured between Bujanovac and the Kosovo and Metohija town of Gnjilane.
PROVOCAZIONI A LUCANI
KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS OPEN FIRE AT SERBIAN POLICE IN LUCANI
BELGRADE, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists opened
automatic fire at positions held by Serbian police in Lucani from the very
line of the security zone just after 0615 hrs Wednesday, sources close to
the Serbian Interior Ministry confirmed to Tanjug late Wednesday.
There have been no reports of casualties among the Serbian police.
The police acted in keeping with the ceasefire and did not
PROTESTA DEI SERBI DI BUJANOVAC
TRAFFIC IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL BLOCKED OVER SERB PROTESTS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) International road and railway traffic
in southern Serbia toward Macedonia and Greece is still paralysed due to a
blockade of the highway and railway line at Bujanovac.
Bujanovac Mayor Stojanca Arsic has told Tanjug that Serbs set up
also six barricades around Bujanovac, so that traffic on several trunk and
local roads is also blocked.
More than 2,000 Serbs of Bujanovac and Vranje and those expelled
from Kosovo and Metohija province blocked the highway at Bujanovac shortly
after noon on Wednesday with heavy vehicles, and then also the railway
tracks on the route BelgradeNisVranjeSkopjeSalonika.
Traffic on the highway section linking Macedonia and Vranje, and
the border crossing at the St. Prohor Pcinjski monastery is also blocked.
Lines of stranded vehicles stretch for several kilometres along
the highway. Serbs holding the barricades allow only ambulances and other
emergency cases to pass.
Groups of Serbs kept watch at the roadblocks all night. They
warmed themselves by lighting fires and making tea, and citizens of
Bujanovac brought them sandwiches and other food.
The Serbs claim they will not remove the road blocks until their
demands are met the withdrawal of ethnic Albanian terrorist bands from
southern Serbia, strict implementation of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1244, the reopening of road traffic on the BujanovacGnjilane
route which has been blocked by ethnic Albanian extremists, and a meeting
with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to acquaint him directly with
the situation. respond to this attack, the sources said.
SERBO UCCISO A KOSOVSKA VITINA
SERB MURDERED IN UNADMINISTERED KOSOVOMETOHIJA
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gunned down
outside a shop owned by an ethnic Albanian in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
UNadministered KosovoMetohija province late on Wednesday, according to
reports in Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursday.
The Serb, Milorad Krstic, aged 55, was shot from a pistol in
Kosovska Vitina, eastern KosovoMetohija, where he had moved after being
driven by ethnic Albanian extremists from his native Urosevac.
Since a month ago, he was working as a watchman in the local UN
Mission (UNMIK) office.
COMMENTI SULLA VITTORIA DI BUSH
> http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/001214/world/afp/Bush_victory_worries_Kosovo_Albanians.html
Thursday, December 14 6:52 PM SGT
Bush victory worries Kosovo Albanians
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 14 (AFP) -
Kosovo Albanian commentators expressed concern Thursday that the victory of
George W. Bush in the US presidential election may cost them a vital ally in
their struggle for independence.
"In Kosovo, there is a fear of a Bush administration," said an editorial in
the daily Zeri, "Albanians fear that Bush will name in his cabinet allies of
his father who have urged that the United States distance itself completely
from the Balkans and leave policy in the area to Europe."
Two officials from George Bush senior's administration tipped to hold top
posts in his son's new government, probable Secretary of State Colin Powell
and expected National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice are "extremist
conservatives who do not believe in America's interventionist
foreign policy and are opposed to its participation in peacekeeping," the
paper said.
In late October at the height of the US election campaign, Rice told the New
York Times that a Bush administration would pull out of peacekeeping
operations in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo.
With 8,600 troops in Kosovo and neighbouring Macedonia, the United States is
by far the largest single contributor to the 44,000 strong NATO-led KFOR
peacekeeping force.
KFOR has been responsible for the security of the breakaway province since the
end of the 1998-1999 conflict between ethnic Albanian sepaprtist rebels and
Yugoslav security forces.
Kosovo's Albanian majority regards the continuing US presence as their best
guarantee against the return of the forces of Belgrade, which continues to
insist on its sovereignty over the territory.
"With calls for the removal of US forces from Europe, the Albanian question
could be left in the hands of European states traditionally closer to the
Slavs," notably France, Zeri warned.
But the main Kosovo Albanian parties, who all back independence, were less
dismayed by the US result. Hajredin Kuqi, the vice-president of the Democratic
Party of Kosovo (PDK) which sprang from the guerrilla movement, dismissed
Rice's intervention as an "electoral tactic."
And Skender Hyseni, spokesman for Kosovo's largest party the Democratic League
of Kosovo (LDK), told AFP: "We are expecting US policy to show continuity as
long as the problems here are unresolved."
Bujar Dugolli, a member of the ruling council of the Alliance for the Future
of Kosovo (AAK) whose leader Ramush Haradinaj is in close and regular contact
with US officials, said "The Americans have spent too much money in Kosovo to
pull out now."
The main US military base in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, is the largest
constructed by the United States since the Vietnam war. Contractors employed
to build some of its facilities told AFP they had been told it had to last for
at least 15 years.
UN COMPITO INGRATO PER HEAKKERUP
NEW UNMIK ADMINISTRATOR WILL HAVE DIFFICULT JOB
BELGRADE, Dec 13 (Tanjug) Danish Defence Minister Hans Heakkerup,
who succeeds U.N. administrator in KosovoMetohija Bernard Kouchner, will
have a difficult job but "we are ready to help him in every way," Yugoslav
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Wednesday in Belgrade after
meeting with his Danish counterpart Niels Helveg Petersen.
Svilanovic told a joint press conference that the talks with
Petersen are an introduction into future cooperation between the Yugoslav
and Danish governments, as well as with UNMIK.
Stressing that he has cooperated with Haekkerup for a long time,
Petersen said that the U.N. secretarygeneral has made a wise choice in
selecting the new UNMIK chief. The Danish foreign minister said that
Haekkerup is well trained for this job, well acquainted with the Balkan
region and is preparing extensively for the job of administrator of
Serbia's southern province.
Talking about his first visit to Belgrade, Petersen said that he
is impressed how quickly Yugoslavia is reintegrating in the international
community, illustrating this with Yugoslavia's membership in the United
Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
its efforts to join the Council of Europe and talks on future relations
with the E.U.
PRESA DI POSIZIONE DEL GOVERNO
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS EXPULSION OF TERRORISTS FROM SECURITY ZONE
BELGRADE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) The Serbian government assessed at its
session Tuesday that the security situation in the Presevo, Bujanovac and
Medvedja municipalities in southern Serbia is very serious and demanded
that KFor and UNMIK honour their commitments and secure the expulsion of
ethnic Albanian terrorists from the buffer zone, the premier's cabinet said
in a statement.
The latest attacks by ethnic Albanian terrorists constitute a
fresh escalation of endangering the country's sovereignty and territorial
integrity, as a consequence of systematic nonimplementation and violations
of the Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo MilitaryTechnical
Agreement, the statement says.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists, whose numbers in the buffer zone are
constantly growing, are a factor of a dangerous security crisis and
endanger people and territory, Serbia's transitional government stressed.
KFor and UNMIK are entirely responsible for the present situation,
as they have allowed terrorists to infiltrate the security zone unhindered,
the government said.
The Serbian government demands that the Yugoslav federal
government and other Yugoslav institutions insist with the UN Security
Council that KFor and UNMIK carry out their tasks and secure the expulsion
of ethnic Albanian terrorists from the security zone in the interest of
peace and safety of all residents of the area.
The Serbian government insists that the federal government demand
from the Security Council that KFor and UNMIK immediately cut off the
sources of terrorism, dismantle terrorist centres and training bases, and
disarm and completely dismantle the terrorist organization and its
infrastructure in KosovoMetohija in line with the Article 15 of the
Resolution 1244, the statement says.
NESSUN INCIDENTE
SOUTHERN SERBIA SPENDS INCIDENTFREE NIGHT
BUJANOVAC, Dec 13 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists provoked no
incidents on Tuesday, during the night or on Wednesday morning in the
buffer zone between U.N.run KosovoMetohija and the rest of Serbia
(Yugoslavia), wellinformed sources in Bujanovac say.
No terrorist operations have been reported since ethnic Albanian
extremists opened fire from the villages of Sveti Ilija and Ravno Bucje in
the evening of Dec. 11.
The terrorists had opened automatic fire and fired four mortar
shells on a Serbian police patrol at the village of Cestelin. The police
returned fire.
There were no police casualties in the incident.
MALUMORI DEI SERBI DI BUJANOVAC
SERBS FROM BUJANOVAC, KOSOVO DEMAND OUSTING OF
TERRORISTS BUJANOVAC,
Dec. 13 (Tanjug) Over 2,000 Serbs from Bujanovac, Presevo Valley,
and persons temporarily displaced from KosovoMetohija who found refuge in
this area, protested in the centre of the town on Wednesday demanding that
the ethnic Albanian terrorists who seized several villages in southern
Serbia are immediately ousted and that the BujanovacGnjilane regional road
linking Serbia proper and its southern province is opened to free and
unimpeded traffic.
The protesters demanded from the state organs to help liberate the
occupied territory near Bujanovac and that problems in KosovoMetohija are
resolved in keeping with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
They also demanded to meet with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica who visited Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo all located along
the administrative border with KosovoMetohija, some ten days ago.
The protesting Serbs blocked the BujanovacPresevo road in the
direction of the YugoslavMacedonian border to the south and the Serbian
cities of Vranje and Nis to the north.
RUGOVA PARLA CON TUTTI TRANNE CHE CON I SERBI
ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER SAYS WILLING TO TALK WITH WORLD, NOT SERBIA
BERLIN, Dec 13 (Tanjug) KosovoMetohija's ethnic Albanian leader
is quoted on Wednesday as saying ethnic Albanians would negotiate on the
Serbian province's independence with the international community, and
Serbia was allowed to attend.
Ibrahim Rugova, who heads the Democratic League of Kosovo, told
Germany's DPA news agency in Pristina, KosovoMetohija, it was to be seen
how far the Belgrade government would be democratic and cooperate with the
West.
Rugova urged the Serbian government to consider a peaceful
settlement for the conflict in southern Serbia, instead of "making matters
worse and raising tensions between (ethnic) Albanian rebels and the Serbian
police".
What Rugova calls "Albanian rebels" are terrorists who daily shoot
without provocation at lightly armed Serbian police in the buffer zone that
separates U.N.administered KosovoMetohija from the rest of Serbia
(Yugoslavia).
NOTTE QUIETA DOPO LA SPARATORIA
SOUTH SERBIA SPENDS QUIET NIGHT AFTER ETHNIC ALBANIAN ATTACK ON
POLICE
VRANJE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) Southern Serbia spent a quiet night after
Monday evening's ethnic Albanian terrorist attacks on Serbian police.
After several days of calm, ethnic Albanian terrorists late on
Monday resumed operations from the demilitarised zone between U.N.
administered KosovoMetohija and the rest of Serbia (Yugoslavia), opening
fire on a Serbian police patrol, but causing no casualties.
The terrorists, who had come from KosovoMetohija, first opened
automatic fire from the village of Sveti Ilija, and then fired four mortar
shells from the direction of the village of Ravno Bucje, on the police
patrol in the Cestelin hills northwest of Vranje.
The police returned fire, putting an end to the
incident. Expectations that the nationalist extremists of ethnic
Albanian terrorist hardline leader Hashim Thaci would discontinue armed
operations for the duration of the Ramadan holidays have not materialised.
Instead, they have spread their operations to the Vranje
municipality deeper in southern Serbia.
Cestelin is notorious for its World War II fierce and protracted
battles between partisans and Nazi Germany's ethnic Albanian allies.
PASTORE SERBO FERITO
ETHNIC ALBANIANS WOUND SERB SHEPHERD
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 11 (Tanjug) Borislav Orkovic, 70, a Serb
from the village of Gornji Strmac close to Kosovska Mitrovica, was wounded
on Sunday afternoon while tending his cattle some 150 metres from his
house, Tanjug learned on Monday from Serb sources.
Orlovic was shot from the nearby forest which belongs to a
neighbouring ethnic Albanian village.
Orlovic was then taken by cattle wagon to the Serb hospital in the
northern part of the ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica where he was
operated upon on Sunday evening. He is out of danger.
The attack on Orlovic is only one in a series carried out over the
past few weeks in the zone controlled by the Dutch peacekeepers.
ATTACCO CONTRO POLIZIOTTI
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS SHOOT AT SERBIAN POLICE
BELGRADE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists on Monday
opened automatic fire on a Serbian police patrol from the village of Sveti
Ilija in the buffer zone that separates UNrun KosovoMetohija from the rest
of Serbia (Yugoslavia), a report said late on Monday.
According to Serbian state radio and television RTS, the police
returned fire, after which the terrorists fired four mortar shells from the
direction of the village of Ravno Gucje.
There were no casualties among the police.
UN MORTO ED UN FERITO
ONE SERB KILLED, ANOTHER ONE SERIOUSLY INJURED
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec 11 (Tanjug) One Serb, 19, was killed and
his cousin was seriously injured in a Monday explosion of a mine laid by
ethnic Albanian terrorists on a local road in northern KosovoMetohija.
Srdjan Tomasevic was killed on Monday near Suvo Grlo village in
Srbica municipality, and his cousin Stevan Tomasevic was taken to Spanish
hospital of KFor in Istok.
Executive Board of Srbice municipality President Slavica Jaredic,
who has toured the village together with KFor troops, told Tanjug that the
local residents of Suvo Grlo and Banja villages are desperate and urge the
state and the international peace forces to be more energetic in resolving
this problem, because Srdjan Tomasevic is the 6th victim from these two
villages since the deployment of KFor in KosovoMetohija.
BOMBA CONTRO ABITAZIONE SERBA
BOMB ON SERBIAN HOUSE
GNJILANE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) A bomb was thrown on the house of Djora
Milosevic, a Serb, in Gnjilane, eastern Kosovo, late on Monday, the
Gnjilane Church Council has said.
The strong blast damaged the house, but fortunately there were no
casualties.
DUE BAMBINI ARSI VIVI IN UN ROGO A MITROVICA
TWO CHILDREN BURN TO DEATH IN FIRE IN KOSOVO
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 12 (Tanjug) A fire, which broke out
early on Tuesday in the house of the Serb family of Dragos and Dragica
Radojevic in the northern part of the ethnically divided (Serb) part of the
city of Kosovska Mitrovica, killed fouryearold Pavle and threeyearold Ruzica.
VIOLENZA IN CRESCITA
VIOLENCE IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA ON THE RISE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 12 (Tanjug) Following several months of
calm in the region of Kosovska Mitrovica, in the past week several
incidents took place and violence and crime are on the rise in both ethnic
communities (Serb and ethnic Albanian) in KosovoMetohija, the spokesman of
the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), Frank Benjmisen, said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Benjmisen called on the ethnic
Albanians and Serbs to comprehend the reality and stop the violence because
this is not the road which will lead them into Europe.
U.N. police spokesman Dag Ebestad confirmed on Monday that Srdjan
Tomasevic, 19, a Serb, was killed on Monday when his tractor activated an
antitank mine in central Kosovo, while Stefan Tomasevic and Vladimir Dobric
were seriously injured.
In a shootout on Monday afternoon in a cafe in Srbica, an ethnic
Albanian was injured and another arrested, Ebestad stated.
He confirmed that an ethnic Albanian house in the northern (Serb)
part of Kosovska Mitrovica burned down three days ago, and its owner was
declared missing.
1500 IRREDENTISTI ALBANESI ARMATI A BUJANOVAC
FEDERAL DEFENCE MINISTER: CRISIS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA IS COMPLEX
BELGRADE, December 7 (Tanjug) Deputies of the Chamber of the
Republics (upper house) of the Yugoslav parliament said at their session
Thursday that the crisis caused in southern Serbia by raids by ethnic
Albanian terrorists in the security zone was still very serious.
Yugoslav Defense Minister Slobodan Krapovic said that although the
tension was reduced in southern Serbia, the situation remained very complex.
According to available reports, there are about 1,500 ethnic
Albanian terrorists in the security zone, deployed mainly west of
Bujanovac, he said.
The terrorists are consolidating the positions they have taken and
recruiting and arming young ethnic Albanians from the Presevo and Bujanovac
areas, Krapovic said. Krapovic said that Yugoslav security forces
deployed along the 450 km long security zone are in control and are aware
of what is going on, except in two places a section connected to
Montenegro and a section controlled by US forces.
In all other areas, there is good cooperation between the police
and KFor, Krapovic said.
Underlining that incidents had occurred precisely in the zone
under the control of US forces, Krapovic said it was obvious that there was
specific international support behind the incidents.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists are expected to pursue provocations,
Krapovic said and noted that Yugoslav leadership and army did not give in
to the terrorist provocations, paving the way for settling the crisis by
diplomatic means.
All opportunities must be used on order to fully coordinate
diplomatic, political and military activities, Krapovic said.
ANCORA LETTERE AL CONSIGLIO DI SICUREZZA
YUGOSLAV PREMIER WRITES TO SECURITY COUNCIL
NEW YORK, December 7 (Tanjug) The latest developments in
KosovoMetohija clearly demonstrate that the situation there is
characterized not only by classic terrorist acts, but also by political
violence, which must be halted, Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic said in
a letter to the UN Security Council President, Russian Ambassador Sergei
Lavrov.
The letter, presented to Lavrov by the Yugoslav Charge d'Affaires
at the UN Vladislav Mladenovic, points to the deteriorating situation in
the security zone in southern Serbia.
The following is the official text of the letter:
In their letters of 22 and 27 November 2000 addressed to your
predecessors, President of the FR of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica and
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Goran Svilanovic expressed deep
concern over the deterioration of the situation in the Ground Safety Zone
in the Presevo valley in southern Serbia. It is an uncontestable fact that,
despite their clear obligations under United Nations Security Council
resolution 1244 and the MilitaryTechnical Agreement, KFOR and UNMIK have
allowed large armed groups of Albanian terrorists from Kosovo and Metohija
to enter the Ground Safety Zone and carry out armed attacks, including by
heavy weapons, on lightly armed members of police. On that occasion 4
policemen and 1 civilian were killed, while 5 policemen were gravely or
lightly wounded. The local police were therefore compelled to abandon their
positions in the Ground Safety Zone which, under the provisions of the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement, they are obliged to control.
The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia, in anticipation of
adequate reaction by the Security Council and other influential
international factors, has taken urgent diplomatic steps aimed at calming
down the situation and requested the most responsible international
factors, primarily UNMIK and KFOR, to take appropriate measures in view of
their responsibilities under Security Council resolution 1244 and the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement. The Government leaned fully on the authority
of the Security Council and the condemnation of these terrorist acts by the
international community. However, it is its duty to note with regret that
the situation in the field has not changed and that there is no effective
prevention of the violation of Security Council resolution 1244 and the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement, i.e. that no measures are being taken to
compel the infiltrated armed groups to withdraw and disarm without delay.
The latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija indicate clearly
that not only cl<br/><br/>(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
Selezione e titolazione italiana a cura del
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia
---
ATTACCATO CONVOGLIO NATO
http://www.thestar.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=977067580514&call_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pagepath=News/World
THE TORONTO STAR, Monday, December 18, 2000
NATO patrol is attacked in Kosovo
Peacekeepers suffer no injuries in border attack
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Gunmen fired on a joint American-Russian
patrol yesterday as it tried to seal the boundary between Kosovo and
part of southern Serbia where ethnic Albanian rebels have been
challenging Yugoslav forces, the U.S. army said.
Peacekeepers suffered no casualties in the attack, the first reported
against NATO-led troops since ethnic Albanian rebels escalated
cross-border raids in November.
The joint patrol returned fire but it was unclear whether the attackers,
whose identity was unknown, suffered casualties, U.S. army spokesperson
Capt. Alayne Cramer said in a statement.
The attack occurred one day after a violent incident in northwestern
Kosovo, in which Serbs angry over the arrest of a motorist set fire to a
police station, stoned vehicles and briefly took seven Belgian soldiers
hostage.
Two Serbs died in the melee in the town of Leposavic and one was
wounded, raising tensions in this troubled province.
The U.S. statement said the shooting attack occurred about 1:30 p.m.
local time as the patrol was trying to seal the boundary near the
village of Gornje Karacevo about 50 kilometres southeast of Pristina.
Peacekeepers had just detonated a series of explosive charges to destroy
a section of road believed used by the militants when they received
small arms fire, the statement said.
``The Multinational Brigade East was continuing the boundary closure
efforts to prevent the flow of supplies and movement of armed ethnic
groups across the border,'' the statement added. ``No suspects have been
detained.''
The new government of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has been
urging the NATO-led force in Kosovo to crack down on the ethnic Albanian
extremists of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac,
known by its Albanian-language acronym UCPMB.
Last month, the rebels killed four Yugoslav police officers and seized
several positions in the five-kilometre-wide buffer zone along the
Yugoslav side of the boundary.
The zone was established in June, 1999 to prevent Belgrade's forces from
threatening the peacekeepers who took over Kosovo after the 78-day NATO
bombing of Yugoslavia, launched to force then-president Slobodan
Milosevic to halt his crackdown against Kosovo Albanians.
Yugoslav forces cannot use heavy weapons in the zone, so the ethnic
Albanians have been operating in the area with impunity.
They are trying to drive Yugoslav forces from the area, which has an
ethnic Albanian majority but is not part of Kosovo.
Letters to Editor: lettertoed@...
KOSTUNICA PER EMENDAMENTI AGLI ACCORDI DI KUMANOVO
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT FOR AMENDMENTS TO KUMANOVO MILITARYTECHNICAL
AGREEMENT
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica urged on Monday, during a joint press conference with Norwegian
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, a dialogue with the representatives of the
international community and the moderate leaders of the Kosovo Albanians
and for amendments to the MilitaryTechnical Agreement between Yugoslavia
and NATO.
Kostunica said that "there is too much extremism in Kosovo"
despite the victory of the moderate ethnic Albanians at the October 28
local elections in the province.
Describing the current situation in southern Serbia as a very
serious problem, Kostunica said that there are certain unclear
interpretations of the MilitaryTechnical Agreement, signed last June in
Kumanovo, Macedonia, between the Yugoslav Army and NATO and under which the
local Serbian police in the land security zone can be armed only with light
weapons.
Kostunica said that the Agreement must be amended, adding that
this does not depend on Yugoslavia but on KFOR and the international
community.
"We urge our more extensive presence in order that people feel as
safe as possible," the Yugoslav president set out pointing out that the
security zone is populated both by Serbs and Serb police, but also moderate
ethnic Albanians who are being threatened by the ethnic Albanian terrorists.
Kostunica expressed great satisfaction over the visit by the
Norwegian president who is touring the Balkan countries. He said that
Norway was one of the first countries to recognize the democratic changes
in Yugoslavia.
Stoltenberg noted that Yugoslavia is no longer isolated and that
now it is fully participating in the activities of the international
community, in which Norwegian help and support played a role.
Stoltenberg said that today's talks also focused on the
implementation of the joint declaration on bilateral relations and
cooperation signed at the time of Kostunica's visit to Oslo in October.
KOSTUNICA SUGLI INCIDENTI DI LEPOSAVIC
PRESIDENT KOSTUNICA BLASTS INCIDENTS IN LEPOSAVIC
BELGRADE, December 17 (Tanjug) Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica on Sunday deplored Saturday's clashes and tragic events with loss
of life in Leposavic, KosovoMetohija, and appealed to Serbs, ethnic
Albanians, KFor and UNMIK to take their share of responsibility and avoid
the trap laid by those "who care nothing about peace".
U.N. mission (UNMIK) police in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
U.N.administered KosovoMetohija province opened fire at a crowd of some
1,000 Serbs protesting in Leposavic against the arrest of their compatriot,
and killed two Serbs and wounded one.
A statement from the presidential cabinet quotes Kostunica as
saying that force solves nothing, whoever might use it.
He added that "it is not by accident that this should be happening
now, before Serbian elections which should endorse September's victory of
the democratic forces, and after the strengthening of moderate forces among
Kosovo Albanians".
Kostunica said that "UNMIK and KFor have the duty to discharge all
their obligations under the Kumanovo MilitaryTechnical Accord and U.N.
Resolution 1244, while the people must obey the law.
"This is the only way for peace and law and order to be restored
in Kosovo and its environs once and for all", he said.
ZIZIC SULLA SITUAZIONE A PRESEVO E DINTORNI
PREMIER ZIZIC: YUGOSLAVIA IS CAPABLE OF EXPELLING ETHNIC ALBANIAN
TERRORISTS
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran
Zizic told Monday issue of Blic daily that Yugoslavia is capable of
expelling ethnic Albanian terrorists from the buffer zone in southeastern
Serbia.
He said that the Yugoslav government will do only what is
necessary to push terrorists back from the buffer zone, to protect the
residents of the Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja municipalities, and to
enable Yugoslavia to pursue the process of joining the international
community.
The international community understands the need of expelling
terrorists from the buffer zone. Yugoslavia is capable to do that, if
necessary, Zizic said.
He pointed out that separatism, including that prevailing in
KosovoMetohija, which seems insurmountable at present, will lose its
strength as Yugoslavia continues developing economically.
SVILANOVIC A NEW YORK
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER LEFT FOR NEW YORK
BELGRADE, December 18 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran
Svilanovic on Monday left for New York to attend Tuesday's U.N. Security
Council session on the KosovoMetohija crisis and its effects outside this
Serbian province, especially in the land security zone.
In New York, Svilanovic is expected to meet with U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, current Security Council Chariman
Sergei Lavrov, and maybe Secretary General Kofi Annan and the new head of
the U.N. civilian mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Hans Haekkerup.
Yugoslav political and diplomatic circles attach great importance
to this Security Council session because, as Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica said, it is expected to take a step further and clearly define
the situation in the land security zone with KosovoMetohija so that it
becomes really safe for all.
According to Kostunica, the Security Council should also adopt a
decision that the ethnic Albanian terrorists leave the security zone.
Svilanovic said that he will demand from the Security Council to
influence the Kosovo Albanian leaders that all armed persons withdraw from
the land security zone.
L'AMBASCIATORE USA NELLA ZONA DEGLI SCONTRI
SERBIAN VICE PREMIER AND U.S. AMBASSADOR TO YUGOSLAVIA MET IN
BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, December 18 (Tanjug) Serbian Vice Premier Nebojsa
Covic and U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, William Montgomery, met in
Bujanovac on Monday afternoon.
The talks are also attended by Yugoslav Minister for National and
Minority Communities Rasim Ljajic, who is also a member of the Yugoslav and
Serbian governments' coordinating body for Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo,
and with Presevo municipality head Riza Halimi.
Before meeting with Montgomery, Covic and Ljajic conferred for
three hours with Halimi and Bujanovac municipality chief Stojan Arsic, as
well as with the ethnic Albanian deputies from this region.
LA KFOR ASPETTAVA LA NEVE
KFOR COMMANDER: KFOR'S HANDS TIED BECAUSE OF GOOD WEATHER CONDITIONS
ROME, December 18 (Tanjug) The warm weather has prevented KFOR
from completing its overall peace operations in the Presevo valley in
southern Serbia, Rome daily La Republica quoted KFOR commander, Italian
general Carlo Cabigiosu as saying.
"I had hoped for at least one metre of snow, but the snowfall has
been late," Gen. Cabigiosu set out adding that the snow would have made it
more difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate the buffer zone in southern
Serbia.
PROTESTA PER L'UCCISIONE DEI DUE SERBI
SERBS PROTEST KILLING OF TWO SERBS IN LEPOSAVIC
BELGRADE, December 17 (Tanjug) Hundreds of Serbs in Leposavic and
the surrounding area in U.N.administered KosovoMetohija protested in
downtown Leposavic on Sunday, indignant at Saturday's killing of two Serbs
and wounding of another by U.N. mission (UNMIK) police.
A delegation of the protesters delivered the protesters' demands
to the UNMIK and international force KFor commands in Kosovska Mitrovica.
UNMIK Kosovo Corps police, probably from the Belgian battalion,
fired bullets and teargas at a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters in
Leposavic shortly before midnight on Saturday, killing two Serbs and
wounding one.
The indignant protesters, demanding the release of their
compatriot, had started throwing stones at the police building and had set
three KFor vehicles and a private car alight.
Representatives of the Serb Crisis Command in Kosovska Mitrovica
met on Sunday with the local KFor commander, General Christian Falzone, and
UNMIK administrator Anthony Welch.
The officials promised to investigate the incident, publish the
names of the soldiers and police who had fired the shots into the crowd and
take the necessary action, and asked that the people of Leposavic refrain
from provoking and attacking KFor and the police.
ATTACCATO CONVOGLIO USA-NATO
USRUSSIAN PATROL UNDER FIRE IN KOSOVO
PRISTINA, December 18 (Tanjug) Unidentified attackers opened fire
on Sunday at a U.S.Russian patrol which was trying to close the border
between Kosovo and southern Serbia near Gornje Karacevo village, about 50
km southeast of Pristina, the U.S. contingent of KFOR said.
The patrol returned fire. There were no KFOR casualties, but there
may have been casualties among the attackers, U.S. contingent
representative Alayne Cramer said.
She said in a statement that the international brigade East
endeavoured to close the border in order to prevent armed ethnic groups
from crossing the boundary and carrying supplies.
No suspects have been identified yet, the statement added.
I BRITANNICI PREMONO AL CONFINE DELLA PROVINCIA
BRITISH TROOPS TO REINFORCE KOSOVOMETOHIJA BORDER AREA
PRISTINA, December 18 (Tanjug) Some 150 British soldiers of the
Kfor international peacekeeping force in Serbia's southern KosovoMetohija
province were deployed on Monday to reinforce the area near the
administrative border separating the province from Serbia proper, a Kfor
Spokesman said in Pristina.
Tim Pearce said that the Royal Regiment of the Princess of Wales
was deployed south of the zone where unidentified assailants fired shots at
soldiers of the Russian and U.S. Kfor contingents on Sunday.
He went on to say that the deployment of this regiment is not a
response to violence that happened during the weekend, but a result of
developments in the Presevo valley.
The British soldiers will be under the command of a U.S. Kfor
brigade whose task is to prevent ethnic Albanian separatist infiltration
and arms smuggling into the Presevo valley, part of the southSerbian land
security zone.
LA POSIZIONE DELL'SPS SULLA UCCISIONE DI DUE
SERBI DA PARTE DELLA KFOR A LEPOSAVIC
> http://www.sps.org.yu/aktuelno/2000/dec/17-1.html
IZVRŠNI ODBOR POKRAJINSKOG
ODBORA SPS KOSOVA I METOHIJE
POVODOM UBISTVA DVOJICE SRBA U
LEPOSAVIÆU OD STRANE POLICIJE
UNMIK-a
Izvršni odbor Pokrajinskog odbora
Socijalistièke partije Srbije Kosova i
Metohije oštro je osudio ubistvo dvojice
Srba u Leposaviæu od strane policije
Civilne misije Ujedinjenih nacija koja je
pucala u masu graðana Leposaviæa koji
su protestvovali zbog nepravednog
zatvaranja njihovog sugraðanina Vladimira
Tomoviæa.
Ubistvo Bojana Jokoviæa i Trifuna
Obradoviæa iz Leposaviæa i teško
ranjavanje devetnaestogodišnjeg Mladena
Obradoviæa iz Kruševca studenta
Prištinskog univerziteta, èija je krivica bila
samo u tome što su protestvovali zbog
nepravde, Izvršni odbor Pokrajinskog
odbora SPS Kosova i Metohije ocenio je
kao još jedan u nizu gnusnih zloèina koje
su pripadnici meðunarodnih bezbednosnih
snaga i Civilne misije UN, direktno ili
indirektno, u saradnji sa albanskim
separatistima i teroristima izvršili u
poslednjih godinu i po dana nad srpskim i
crnogorskim narodom i drugim graðanima
Kosova i Metohije.
Najnovija ubistva u Leposaviæu, upad više
hiljada naoružanih albanskih separatista i
terorista u zonu bezbednosti izmeðu
Kosova i Metohije i unutrašnjosti Srbije u
opštinama Bujanovac i Preševo, potom
danonoæni napadi na Srbe i Crnogorce
širom Kosova i Metohije, istièe IO PO SPS
Kosova i Metohije, deo su jedinstvenog
scenarija i jedinstvene antisrpske i
antijugoslovenske ofanzive preduzete od
pripadnika meðunarodnih bezbednosnih
snaga i policije Civilne misije UN i
albanskih separatista i terorista sa
zajednièkim i jedinstvenim ciljem
iseljavanja i poslednjeg Srbina sa Kosova i
Metohije.
Najuže rukovodstvo kosovsko-metohijskih
socijalista zahteva od aktuelnih
jugoslovenskih vlasti da se stane na put
takvim zloèinima i da se od meðunarodnih
bezbednosnih snaga i Civilne misije UN
zatraži da okonèaju svoju sramnu misiju i
da napuste Kosovo i Metohiju.
Podseæajuæi na hiljade ubijenih, ranjenih i
kidnapovanih Srba i Crnogoraca i drugih
graðana Kosova i Metohije i brojne druge
zloèine poèinjene u proteklih osamnaest
meseci u prisustvu i pred oèima više
desetina hiljada do zuba naoružanih i
najmodernije opremljenih pripadnika
meðunarodnih bezbednosnih snaga i
policije Civilne misije UN, Izvršni odbor
Pokrajinskog odbora SPS Kosova i
Metohije zakljuèuje da bi svako dalje
ostajanje tih snaga na Kosovu i Metohiji
znaèilo samo nove zloèine, nove žrtve i
novo stradanje naroda i destabilizaciju ne
samo Balkana veæ i šire - jugoistoène
Evrope.
UN COMMENTO DALL'ARIZONA
----- Original Message -----
From: TiM Publisher <publisher@...>
To: TiM GW Bulletins <tim@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:30 PM
Subject: NATO Tells Serbs to Stay Put, Adds Insult to Injury (TiM GW Bulletin 2000/12-4, Dec. 16, 2000)
>
> FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA
> 2. NATO Tells Serbs to Stay Put, Adds Insult to Injury
>
> Western Diplomat Slights Yugoslav Army's Capability
>
> PRISTINA, Dec. 15 - In our Dec. 4 update about the situation in Kosovo,
> "Serb Wimps Kiss Up to NATO Pimps," we quoted Zoran Djindjic as saying
> that, "Yugoslav government was seeking NATO acceptance of the plan to drive
> the Kosovo Albanian rebels from the 80-square mile contested Presevo Valley
> buffer zone between Kosovo province and the rest of Serbia."
>
> Asking permission from a foreign occupying force if you can be allowed to
> defend your own land from terrorists who have killed and massacred your
> troops makes the label "wimps" fairly benign. Yet to the new Yugoslav
> president, Vojislav Kostunica, the remark by the man who is widely expected
> to become Serbia's prime minister after the Dec. 23 vote was not wimpy
> enough. Speaking last week after Djindjic's comments, Kostunica said that,
> "this is not the time for war drums."
>
> Belgrade's appeasing attitude toward the aggressors drew protests and
> demonstrations by the Serbs from Presevo Valley on Dec. 13. Thousands of
> angry Serbs blocked key roads near Kosovo today, demanding that the
> authorities drive out the ethnic Albanian militants entrenched in the area,
> the New York Times reported on Dec. 14. Some 3,000 people used cars,
> trucks and tractors to close roads into and out of Bujanovac and the rail
> line, and all roads that link Serbia to Macedonia and Greece.
>
> So now Kostunica and Djindjic have their own people rising up against them
> with no Slobodan Milosevic around any more to take the blame.
>
> Furthermore, Kostunica's willingness to prostrate himself and his country
> before NATO lower than even Djindjic was prepared to do was not lost on the
> KFOR leaders. Yesterday, they told Belgrade what its leaders' meekness
> asked for - butt out! Brig. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, the American who
> commands peacekeepers, including 6,000 American troops, in the eastern part
> of Kosovo, said in an interview published Dec. 15 by the New York Times
> that, NATO "would not tolerate Serbian police or army use of force to
> reassert control of a three-mile-wide buffer zone along Kosovo's eastern
> border that ethnic Albanian rebels control."
>
> No surprise there. As eyewitnesses in the area have already reported to
> TiM, the U.S. troops are virtual accomplices of the Albanian terrorists,
> having been seen to provide logistical support for the rebel operations
> (see "Kosovo Eyewitness: American Troops Aided Albanian Rebels Who Killed
> Four Serb Policemen," Nov. 29, 2000).
>
> But don't take our word for it. Here's what the Kosovo Albanian
> recently-elected leader, Ibrahim Rugova, said in a Dec. 11 interview with
> the German Der Spiegel (The Mirror) magazine:
>
> "Thanks to the presence of KFOR peacekeeping troops, NATO's support and the
> UN's reconstruction assistance Kosovo today is de facto
> independent." Later in the interview, Rugova also added, "NATO is already
> our (Albanian) private army. But in the future we will share responsibility
> and also develop an army of our own as a protective power."
>
> So the new Serb leaders are appealing for help from the foreign troops that
> the Kosovo Albanian leader calls their "private army!" Is there any wonder
> the Serbs of the Presevo Valley are rising up against such Belgrade "leaders?"
>
> As if that was not demeaning enough, asked by the Times whether the Serb
> forces could flush out the Albanian in a quick clean operation, a Western
> diplomat added insult to injury by replying, "I don't think the Serbian
> forces are capable of that." Or was it realism? Because the Albanian
> rebels are certainly treating the Serb posturing as empty threats.
>
> Violence flared anew on Friday (Dec. 15). NATO spokesman said two cars in
> the southern (Bujanovac) part of the zone carrying Serbs were raked with
> gunfire Friday (Dec. 15), leaving one of the occupants wounded in the
> arm. The two targeted cars then drove to a crossing into Kosovo and the
> wounded man was treated by U.S. soldiers, a spokesman for the American
> peacekeepers, Maj. Jim Marshall, said in a statement.
>
> And in a report suggesting tensions might be spreading, locals in the
> northern part of the zone, near Kursumlija, said Albanian militants shot at
> a Serb-populated village late Friday (Dec. 15). It was the first such
> incident reported in the north. The villagers told police they had seen
> Albanian rebels digging trenches in the region. The shootings occurred
> even as Serbs lifted their barricades on roads along the tense border with
> Kosovo after a personal appeal by Kostunica.
>
> Meanwhile, the governments of Yugoslavia and of Serbia, its main republic,
> met today (Dec 16) in Bujanovac - on the edge
> of the tense region - and threatened tough action unless NATO peacekeepers
> and U.N. officials running Kosovo clamp down on the insurgents, according
> to a Dec. 16 Associated Press report.
>
> The commander of the Serb Third Army reported that ethnic Albanian
> militants are seeking to export their independence war from Kosovo into a
> neighboring Serbian area are assembling military hardware for a major
> offensive later this month, according to a Dec. 16 Associated Press
> report. Speaking before the meeting, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic said his
> military intelligence was reporting a rebel offensive planned for Dec. 27
> by "several thousand terrorists."
>
> "They are fixing up bridges, improving their communications, and bringing
> in ... mortars and howitzers," said Lazarevic.
>
> The U.N. Security Council is to meet Tuesday to discuss the latest Balkan
> flashpoint. If it fails to produce an efficient plan and action, Yugoslavia
> will "invoke its legitimate right to solve the problem itself, with the use
> of all internationally permitted measures to fight terrorism," the
> Bujanovac declaration said.
(...)
> NOTE: To cancel the e-mail editions of our reports, just reply REMOVE or
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> TRUTH IN MEDIA
> Phoenix, Arizona
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>
> Visit the Truth in Media Web site http://www.truthinmedia.org/ for articles
> on geopolitical affairs.
>
>
INIZIATIVE CONGIUNTE SUI FATTI DI PRESEVO
YUGOSLAV AND SERBIAN GOVERNMENTS ADOPT DECLARATION ON SOUTHERN SERBIA
BUJANOVAC, Dec 16 (Tanjug) The Yugoslav and Serbian governments
held a joint session in southern Serbia (Yugoslavia) on Saturday and
adopted a declaration on the crisis created by ethnic Albanian terrorist
raids from UNrun KosovoMetohija.
The closeddoor session was attended by Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica.
It was decided that a joint coordinating body be set up to deal
with developments in southern Serbia's troubled Bujanovac, Presevo, and
Medvedja municipalities, and the buffer zone that separates KosovoMetohija
from the rest of Serbia, TANJUG learns.
YUGOSLAV AND SERBIAN GOVERNMENTS SET UP BODY FOR SOUTHERN SERBIA
CRISIS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 16 (Tanjug) The Serbian and Yugoslav governments
on Saturday appointed Serbian VicePremier Nebojsa Covic to head a joint
coordinating body to deal with the crisis created by ethnic Albanian
terrorist raids from U.N.run KosovoMetohija on southern Serbia (Yugoslavia).
The two governments held a joint session in Bujanovac, southern
Serbia, just outside the buffer zone that separates KosovoMetohija from the
rest of this Yugoslav republic.
According to TANJUG's sources, Yugoslav Minister for Minorities
and Ethnic Communities Rasim Ljajic has been appointed deputy chairman of
the 15member body which will coordinate government and political measures
for dealing with the crisis.
The other members are secretary in the Yugoslav Defence Ministry
Milovan Coguric, Serbian CoMinisters of the Interior Bozo Prelevic,
Slobodan Tomovic, Stevan Nikcevic, CoMinisters of Justice Dragan Subasic,
Zoran Nikolic, and Sead Spahovic, and CoMinisters of Information Biserka
Matic, Ivica Dacic, and Bogoljub Pejcic.
Also on the coordinating body are Serbian Minister for Local
SelfRule Veljko Odalovic, Assistant Yugoslav Interior Minister Milisav
Markovic, and a representative of the Yugoslav information secretariat, to
be appointed at a later date.
PROTESTA DEI SERBI A GORAZDEVAC
SERBS PROTEST IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA TOWN
GORAZDEVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Serbs in Gorazdevac, near Pec,
KosovoMetohija, held a rally Friday in protest against the arrest and trial
of town resident Veselin Besovic before an ethnic Albanian court presided
by a Spanish judge.
Besovic was condemned to 3 years and 4 months for alleged armed
robbery. He was arrested a few weeks ago in Gorazdevac, after he reported
to UNMIK police the theft of wood on his land by a group of ethnic Albanians.
However, the group brought false charges against Besovic for armed
robbery and he was tried in a court where everyone but the presiding judge
were ethnic Albanians judges, prosecutors, lawyers and clerks, the
protesters said.
Gorazdevac residents are signing a petition to be presented to the
court and all international institutions in KosovoMetohija, as well as to
relevant Serbian and Yugoslav institutions.
SERBO FERITO NELLA ZONA-CUSCINETTO
SERB WOUNDED IN BUFFER ZONE ACROSS FROM U.N.RUN KOSOVOMETOHIJA
GNJILANE, Dec 16 (Tanjug) A Serb was wounded in an armed attack
late on Friday in the buffer zone that separates U.N.administered
KosovoMetohija from the rest of Serbia (Yugoslavia).
Zoran Mitrovic of Partes, near Gnjilane, southern Serbia, was
wounded when the car he was driving was peppered with bullets at Mucibaba
on the PresevoGnjilane road. His two passengers escaped unscathed,
according to amateur radio operators' reports.
LA TURCHIA "CONTROLLA" IL CONFINE TRA FYROM ED ALBANIA
TURKISH TROOPS TO CONTROL MACEDONIANALBANIAN BORDER
SKOPLJE, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Macedonian and Turkish Foreign Ministers
Srdjan Kerim and Ismail Cem will meet in Brussels to discuss a possible
deployment of Turkish troops to control the MacedonianAlbanian border, the
Skoplje daily Dnevnik writes Friday.
Turkey and Macedonia will attach a great importance to military
cooperation as part of the overall development of bilateral relations, the
daily writes quoting Turkish sources in NATO.
Ankara and Skoplje already have close cooperation in defense.
Turkish military experts have been training Macedonian army and police
officers.
Turkey's aid in border security is very important for Macedonia at
present, as there have been reports on the smuggling of arms by Albanian
extremists who have infiltrated southern Serbia.
Arms, military equipment and terrorists from Albania and
KosovoMetohija are being transported illegally through Macedonia's
territory to southern Serbia, sources in Skoplje said.
MESSAGGIO DI KOSTUNICA AGLI ABITANTI DI BUJANOVAC
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE TO INHABITANTS OF BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, Dec. 15 (Tanjug) The inhabitants of Bujanovac,
southern Serbia, on Friday received a message from Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica who informed them that he had received assurances from
KFOR commander, General Carlo Cabigiosu, that KFOR would exert pressure so
that the terrorist gangs in the land security zone are finally disbanded.
In the message, read out to the citizens by Serbian transitional
Vice Premier Nebojsa Covic, Kostunica said that the KFOR commander had told
him that "NATO is seriously considering ways how to support the Yugoslav
government and help it fully realize its rights over a territory over which
it has undisputed sovereignty."
Covic told the gathered people that the state, police and army
have done everything to ensure their maximum protection and safety. He
informed them about the proposals for the resolution of the problems in
this part of Serbia and called on them to lift the barricades, which was
loudly accepted.
The federal and Serbia governments will meet in Bujanovac on
Saturday and set up a information centre in this town, Covic set out also
promising help for the local radio.
Covic stated that the police received new tasks to stop the
smuggling and acquisition of wealth "from the blood of the people."
RIMOSSE TUTTE LE BARRICATE
ALL BARRICADES IN BUJANOVAC REGION LIFTED
BUJANOVAC, Dec. 15 (Tanjug) All barricades in the region of
Bujanovac, southern Serbia, were removed at 1:15 p.m. local time on Friday
and all routes, including the highway and railway towards Skopje, are now
open, police sources told Tanjug.
The action released, after two days and two nights, some 800
trucks, including six cisterns carrying heating oil for the city of Cacak
and two trucks with Yugoslav Red Cross aid for the people of Presevo.
The local population of Bujanovac and the Kosovo Morava River
region, which erected the blockades on Wednesday, made three main demands
for their lifting: the immediate withdrawal of the ethnic Albanian
terrorists from the occupied ares, the opening of the GnjilaneBujanovac
road and that Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica comes to Bujanovac once
more to talk with them.
Serbian CoPremier Nebojsa Covic and Information CoMinister Biserka
Matic arrived in the region on Thursday evening. They held meetings with
the local authorities and representatives of the citizens throughout the
night and on Friday morning.
After agreement was reached at midday, all roads and railways were
deblocked in only one hour.
LA ALBRIGHT CONDANNA I SUOI ALLEATI
ALBRIGHT CONDEMNS ETHNIC ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS
BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Tanjug) U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright
said on Thursday at the session of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels that
all NATO members condemn ethnic Albanian extremist activities in the
Presevo valley.
Albright stressed that the NATO states join Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica in condemning activities by armed ethnic Albanian
extremists in the Presevo valley.
She pointed out that the chief task of KFOR is to help the U.N.
mission secure respect for Security Council Resolution 1244.
ROBERTSON CONDANNA I SUOI ALLEATI
ROBERTSON: NATO WILL ACT RESOLUTELY AGAINST EXTREMISTS
BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Tanjug) NATO SecretaryGeneral George Roberston
said on Thursday at the close of the first day of work of the Ministerial
Council in Brussels that KFOR and NATO would act resolutely and severely to
stop the violence of ethnic Albanian armed extremists.
At the same time, ties with the Yugoslav Army within the joint
commission for the implementation of the Military Technical Agreement of
Kumanovo will be expanded, he said.
Robertson warned that a small group of hotheads in the security
zone in the Presevo valley in southern Serbia would not be allowed to
provoke an aggravation of conflicts.
Chances for peace have been increased with the arrival of new
Yugoslav President Vojislav kostunica and the elections called for late
next week, he said, much more than it was the case in the past decade, as
well as prospects for strengthening stability and prosperity in the entire
region and a new beginning for Serbia and its people.
For its part, NATO wants to expand cooperation with the democratic
government in Yugoslavia and build friendly relations, Robertson said. The
first signs of such relations were observed in our recent contacts woth the
new Yugoslav government, he said.
TRAFFICI DI ARMI
ARMS DELIVERED TO SERBIA FROM ALBANIA AND KOSOVO KFOR GENERAL
SKOPJE, Dec 15 (Tanjug) KFOR Headquarters Rear Major General
Volker Loew said on Thursday that there are indications that arms for the
socalled Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja arrive in
southern Serbia from Albania, but also from Kosovo via Macedonia.
Maj. Gen. Loew told a press conference in Skopje that Macedonian
security forces are undertaking measures to prevent illegal arms
deliveries, but they cannot seal the border. He could not state the exact
number of the Serbian forces in the Presevo valley, but stressed that they
absolutely respect the Kumanovo Agreement.
Commenting the statement of the KFOR commander, Macedonian Defense
Ministry spokesman Djordji Trendafilov said that the Macedonian army is
undertaking all measures in keeping with regulations to secure the border.
He added that an additional number of troops were guarding the northern
border, with Kosovo, especially the directions from which attacks could be
expected.
The Macedonian army defends the border line, but controls a border
belt which is 100 metres wide, the spokesman said.
Television Telma of Skopje said in a news broadcast on Thursday
that it had learned from reliable sources that not only arms are being
smuggled into the Presevo valley in southern Serbia from Albania and Kosovo
via Macedonia, but also persons who are then recruited for the socalled
Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.
Large quantities of arms were smuggled over Macedonian territory
into southern Serbia already at the time when the disarming of the socalled
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had been announced, the Telma sources said.
L'UNMIK NON RICONOSCE LE ELEZIONI SERBE IN KOSMET
UNMIK WILL NOT ORGANIZE VOTING OF SERBS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
PRISTINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo and Metohija chief Bernard Kouchner said on Thursday that
UNMIK would not organize elections for Serbian parliament in this southern
Serbian province.
However, he said the U.N. mission would ensure safety if Kosovo
Serbs went to the polls on Dec 23, as they did during the Yugoslav
parliamentary and presidential elections in September.
Kouchner said UNMIK would provide security for everyone, Serbs and
ethnic Albanians, but stressed that UNMIK would not have any observers at
the elections.
The UNMIK observers will not monitor anything, he said. "We'll
just ensure the maximum of security," Kouchner told reporters.
At the federal elections, UNMIK had an observer team of 300
members who only tried to check the turnout.
NO INCIDENTS AT BUFFER ZONE DEMARCATION LINE NEAR BUJANOVAC
BUJANOVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) There were no armed provocations by
ethnic Albanian terrorists in the demilitarized buffer zone near Bujanovac
on Thursday, overnight, or Friday morning, wellinformed circles told Tanjug.
The terrorists infiltrated the zone in southern Serbia proper from
Kosovo and Metohija province and temporarily seized a part of the Bujanovac
municipality, several villages from which many ethnic Albanians, mostly
young people, had fled to escape mobilization by the terrorists.
The situation in Bujanovac and the wider area is extremely
complex, and the people are apprehensive because of the uncertainty as to
its outcome.
12 ALBANESI ARRESTATI
KFOR ARREST 12 ALBANIANS
PRISTINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) International force KFOR
representatives said on Thursday that their troops arrested 12 Albanians
and that five of them are suspected of belonging to the socalled Liberation
Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac which infiltrated Serbian
territory last month.
KFOR military police intercepted a vehicle with these men near
Gnjilane, close to the administrative border of Kosovo and Metohija
province and Serbia proper.
The statement said it was not certain yet whether the KFOR police
would open an investigation against them.
Within an action of monitoring and controlling the zone along the
provincial boundary, KFOR in the past week seized arms and arrested several
Albanians suspected of terrorist incursions into Serbia proper last month.
ANCORA BLOCCATE PER PROTESTA
LE VIE DI COMUNICAZIONE PRESSO BUJANOVAC
RAIL AND ROAD TRAFFIC IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL BLOCKED
BUJANOVAC, Dec 15 (Tanjug) Serbs from the Pcinj district and
their compatriots expelled from KosovoMetohija continued the blockade,
started near Bujanovac on Wednesday, of the railway and highway leading to
Macedonia and Greece.
The Serbs blocked the road in protest against the incursion by
ethnic Albanian terrorists into the Bujanovac municipality, southern
Serbia, a month ago. The terrorist remain in the area.
Apart from the railroad and highway linking Belgrade with Salonica
via Nis and Skopje, the Serbs have blocked several regional and local roads
near Bujanovac.
They claim they are determined to maintain the barricades until
the ethnic Albanians are pushed back from southern Serbia.
The protesters are also demanding the opening to traffic of the
regional road linking Bujanovac and Gnjilane, seized by the ethnic
Albanians, and to meet with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.
Serbian transitional government VicePremier Nebojsa Covic is in
Vranje and Bujanovac where he is trying to reach an agreement with the
local residents on removing the barricades.
SALTA IN ARIA UNA CASA SERBA
SERB HOUSE IN KLOKOT BLOWN UP
KOSOVSKA VITINA, Dec 15 (Tanjug) The house of Serb Dusan
Vlatkovic in Klokot village, municipality of Kosovska Vitina, was razed in
an explosion late Thursday, amateur radio operators reported from crisis
areas of Serbia's southern Kosovo and Metohija province early on Friday.
Representatives of Vitina Serbs had repeatedly warned
international force KFOR representatives that they had knowledge that
Vlatkovic's house would be targeted by ethnic Albanian extremists. Many
other Serb houses in the territory of this municipality have already been
blown up.
The responsible KFOR authorities, however, ignored these warnings
and ethnic Albanian extremists succeeded in destroying yet another Serb
house with planted explosives, the report said.
E' HEAKKERUP IL SUCCESSORE DI KOUCHNER
RUSSIAN EXPECTATIONS FROM NEW UNMIK CHIEF HEAKKERUP
MOSCOW, Dec. 13 (Tanjug) Russia expects from the new head of the
U.N. civilian mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), Hans Heakkerup, to
strictly respect all provisions of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244
primarily the principle of the territorial entirety of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, Moscow said on Wednesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that Heakkerup will
make maximum efforts to avoid all the mistakes of his predecessor Bernard
Kouchner whose replacement Moscow demanded on several occasions.
In the realization of his mission Heakkerup should establish
"constructive relations with the new democratic authorities in Yugoslavia
regarding all political, humanitarian and military issues," the Russian
Foreign Ministry said.
Kouchner totally lost credibility by ignoring Resolution 1244 and
by supporting the actions of the Kosovo Albanians which basically aim to
undermine the sovereignty and territorial entirety of Yugoslavia, the
Russian Foreign Ministry said.
SERBO DESAPARECIDO
SERB DISAPPEARS, BELIEVED KIDNAPPED BY KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Zoran Stankovic of Rakovac village has
gone missing in Bujanovac, local police and Bujanovac Mayor Stojanca Arsic
confirmed to Tanjug on Thursday.
Stankovic was last seen when he set off from Bujanovac for Veliki
Trnovac village on a motorcycle on Saturday, Dec 9. Since he disappeared on
this road, it is believed that he has been kidnapped by ethnic Albanian
terrorists, the sources said. An investigation is under way.
BLOCCHI STRADALI PRESSO BUJANOVAC
ROADS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL UNDER BLOCKADE
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Serbs of Bujanovac and Vranje and
those expelled from Kosovo and Metohija province who have found temporary
haven in these two southern Serbian municipalities maintained their
blockade of roads in southern Serbia on Wednesday night as well, Bujanovac
Mayor Stojanca Arsic said in a statement for Tanjug.
The Serbs, who have set up six road blocks, demand the expulsion
of the Kosovo Albanian terrorists, who have seized several villages in
southern Serbia, and the opening of the trunk road from Bujanovac to
Gnjilane for free and safe traffic.
Arsic specified that the blockades are on the highway section
linking Vranje and Presevo leading to the YugoslavMacedonian border, the
trunk roads toward Gnjilane and the St. Prohor Pcinjski monastery, and the
old road to Vranje and Nis.
He said long lines of stranded vehicles were stretching along the
highway. The protesting Serbs allow only ambulances and other emergency
cases to pass.
The Serbs claim they will not remove the road blocks until the
ethnic terrorists are pushed out of southern Serbia and normal traffic is
secured between Bujanovac and the Kosovo and Metohija town of Gnjilane.
PROVOCAZIONI A LUCANI
KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS OPEN FIRE AT SERBIAN POLICE IN LUCANI
BELGRADE, Dec 14 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists opened
automatic fire at positions held by Serbian police in Lucani from the very
line of the security zone just after 0615 hrs Wednesday, sources close to
the Serbian Interior Ministry confirmed to Tanjug late Wednesday.
There have been no reports of casualties among the Serbian police.
The police acted in keeping with the ceasefire and did not
PROTESTA DEI SERBI DI BUJANOVAC
TRAFFIC IN SOUTHERN SERBIA STILL BLOCKED OVER SERB PROTESTS
BUJANOVAC, Dec 14 (Tanjug) International road and railway traffic
in southern Serbia toward Macedonia and Greece is still paralysed due to a
blockade of the highway and railway line at Bujanovac.
Bujanovac Mayor Stojanca Arsic has told Tanjug that Serbs set up
also six barricades around Bujanovac, so that traffic on several trunk and
local roads is also blocked.
More than 2,000 Serbs of Bujanovac and Vranje and those expelled
from Kosovo and Metohija province blocked the highway at Bujanovac shortly
after noon on Wednesday with heavy vehicles, and then also the railway
tracks on the route BelgradeNisVranjeSkopjeSalonika.
Traffic on the highway section linking Macedonia and Vranje, and
the border crossing at the St. Prohor Pcinjski monastery is also blocked.
Lines of stranded vehicles stretch for several kilometres along
the highway. Serbs holding the barricades allow only ambulances and other
emergency cases to pass.
Groups of Serbs kept watch at the roadblocks all night. They
warmed themselves by lighting fires and making tea, and citizens of
Bujanovac brought them sandwiches and other food.
The Serbs claim they will not remove the road blocks until their
demands are met the withdrawal of ethnic Albanian terrorist bands from
southern Serbia, strict implementation of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1244, the reopening of road traffic on the BujanovacGnjilane
route which has been blocked by ethnic Albanian extremists, and a meeting
with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to acquaint him directly with
the situation. respond to this attack, the sources said.
SERBO UCCISO A KOSOVSKA VITINA
SERB MURDERED IN UNADMINISTERED KOSOVOMETOHIJA
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gunned down
outside a shop owned by an ethnic Albanian in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
UNadministered KosovoMetohija province late on Wednesday, according to
reports in Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursday.
The Serb, Milorad Krstic, aged 55, was shot from a pistol in
Kosovska Vitina, eastern KosovoMetohija, where he had moved after being
driven by ethnic Albanian extremists from his native Urosevac.
Since a month ago, he was working as a watchman in the local UN
Mission (UNMIK) office.
COMMENTI SULLA VITTORIA DI BUSH
> http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/001214/world/afp/Bush_victory_worries_Kosovo_Albanians.html
Thursday, December 14 6:52 PM SGT
Bush victory worries Kosovo Albanians
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 14 (AFP) -
Kosovo Albanian commentators expressed concern Thursday that the victory of
George W. Bush in the US presidential election may cost them a vital ally in
their struggle for independence.
"In Kosovo, there is a fear of a Bush administration," said an editorial in
the daily Zeri, "Albanians fear that Bush will name in his cabinet allies of
his father who have urged that the United States distance itself completely
from the Balkans and leave policy in the area to Europe."
Two officials from George Bush senior's administration tipped to hold top
posts in his son's new government, probable Secretary of State Colin Powell
and expected National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice are "extremist
conservatives who do not believe in America's interventionist
foreign policy and are opposed to its participation in peacekeeping," the
paper said.
In late October at the height of the US election campaign, Rice told the New
York Times that a Bush administration would pull out of peacekeeping
operations in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo.
With 8,600 troops in Kosovo and neighbouring Macedonia, the United States is
by far the largest single contributor to the 44,000 strong NATO-led KFOR
peacekeeping force.
KFOR has been responsible for the security of the breakaway province since the
end of the 1998-1999 conflict between ethnic Albanian sepaprtist rebels and
Yugoslav security forces.
Kosovo's Albanian majority regards the continuing US presence as their best
guarantee against the return of the forces of Belgrade, which continues to
insist on its sovereignty over the territory.
"With calls for the removal of US forces from Europe, the Albanian question
could be left in the hands of European states traditionally closer to the
Slavs," notably France, Zeri warned.
But the main Kosovo Albanian parties, who all back independence, were less
dismayed by the US result. Hajredin Kuqi, the vice-president of the Democratic
Party of Kosovo (PDK) which sprang from the guerrilla movement, dismissed
Rice's intervention as an "electoral tactic."
And Skender Hyseni, spokesman for Kosovo's largest party the Democratic League
of Kosovo (LDK), told AFP: "We are expecting US policy to show continuity as
long as the problems here are unresolved."
Bujar Dugolli, a member of the ruling council of the Alliance for the Future
of Kosovo (AAK) whose leader Ramush Haradinaj is in close and regular contact
with US officials, said "The Americans have spent too much money in Kosovo to
pull out now."
The main US military base in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, is the largest
constructed by the United States since the Vietnam war. Contractors employed
to build some of its facilities told AFP they had been told it had to last for
at least 15 years.
UN COMPITO INGRATO PER HEAKKERUP
NEW UNMIK ADMINISTRATOR WILL HAVE DIFFICULT JOB
BELGRADE, Dec 13 (Tanjug) Danish Defence Minister Hans Heakkerup,
who succeeds U.N. administrator in KosovoMetohija Bernard Kouchner, will
have a difficult job but "we are ready to help him in every way," Yugoslav
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Wednesday in Belgrade after
meeting with his Danish counterpart Niels Helveg Petersen.
Svilanovic told a joint press conference that the talks with
Petersen are an introduction into future cooperation between the Yugoslav
and Danish governments, as well as with UNMIK.
Stressing that he has cooperated with Haekkerup for a long time,
Petersen said that the U.N. secretarygeneral has made a wise choice in
selecting the new UNMIK chief. The Danish foreign minister said that
Haekkerup is well trained for this job, well acquainted with the Balkan
region and is preparing extensively for the job of administrator of
Serbia's southern province.
Talking about his first visit to Belgrade, Petersen said that he
is impressed how quickly Yugoslavia is reintegrating in the international
community, illustrating this with Yugoslavia's membership in the United
Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
its efforts to join the Council of Europe and talks on future relations
with the E.U.
PRESA DI POSIZIONE DEL GOVERNO
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS EXPULSION OF TERRORISTS FROM SECURITY ZONE
BELGRADE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) The Serbian government assessed at its
session Tuesday that the security situation in the Presevo, Bujanovac and
Medvedja municipalities in southern Serbia is very serious and demanded
that KFor and UNMIK honour their commitments and secure the expulsion of
ethnic Albanian terrorists from the buffer zone, the premier's cabinet said
in a statement.
The latest attacks by ethnic Albanian terrorists constitute a
fresh escalation of endangering the country's sovereignty and territorial
integrity, as a consequence of systematic nonimplementation and violations
of the Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo MilitaryTechnical
Agreement, the statement says.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists, whose numbers in the buffer zone are
constantly growing, are a factor of a dangerous security crisis and
endanger people and territory, Serbia's transitional government stressed.
KFor and UNMIK are entirely responsible for the present situation,
as they have allowed terrorists to infiltrate the security zone unhindered,
the government said.
The Serbian government demands that the Yugoslav federal
government and other Yugoslav institutions insist with the UN Security
Council that KFor and UNMIK carry out their tasks and secure the expulsion
of ethnic Albanian terrorists from the security zone in the interest of
peace and safety of all residents of the area.
The Serbian government insists that the federal government demand
from the Security Council that KFor and UNMIK immediately cut off the
sources of terrorism, dismantle terrorist centres and training bases, and
disarm and completely dismantle the terrorist organization and its
infrastructure in KosovoMetohija in line with the Article 15 of the
Resolution 1244, the statement says.
NESSUN INCIDENTE
SOUTHERN SERBIA SPENDS INCIDENTFREE NIGHT
BUJANOVAC, Dec 13 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists provoked no
incidents on Tuesday, during the night or on Wednesday morning in the
buffer zone between U.N.run KosovoMetohija and the rest of Serbia
(Yugoslavia), wellinformed sources in Bujanovac say.
No terrorist operations have been reported since ethnic Albanian
extremists opened fire from the villages of Sveti Ilija and Ravno Bucje in
the evening of Dec. 11.
The terrorists had opened automatic fire and fired four mortar
shells on a Serbian police patrol at the village of Cestelin. The police
returned fire.
There were no police casualties in the incident.
MALUMORI DEI SERBI DI BUJANOVAC
SERBS FROM BUJANOVAC, KOSOVO DEMAND OUSTING OF
TERRORISTS BUJANOVAC,
Dec. 13 (Tanjug) Over 2,000 Serbs from Bujanovac, Presevo Valley,
and persons temporarily displaced from KosovoMetohija who found refuge in
this area, protested in the centre of the town on Wednesday demanding that
the ethnic Albanian terrorists who seized several villages in southern
Serbia are immediately ousted and that the BujanovacGnjilane regional road
linking Serbia proper and its southern province is opened to free and
unimpeded traffic.
The protesters demanded from the state organs to help liberate the
occupied territory near Bujanovac and that problems in KosovoMetohija are
resolved in keeping with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
They also demanded to meet with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica who visited Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo all located along
the administrative border with KosovoMetohija, some ten days ago.
The protesting Serbs blocked the BujanovacPresevo road in the
direction of the YugoslavMacedonian border to the south and the Serbian
cities of Vranje and Nis to the north.
RUGOVA PARLA CON TUTTI TRANNE CHE CON I SERBI
ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER SAYS WILLING TO TALK WITH WORLD, NOT SERBIA
BERLIN, Dec 13 (Tanjug) KosovoMetohija's ethnic Albanian leader
is quoted on Wednesday as saying ethnic Albanians would negotiate on the
Serbian province's independence with the international community, and
Serbia was allowed to attend.
Ibrahim Rugova, who heads the Democratic League of Kosovo, told
Germany's DPA news agency in Pristina, KosovoMetohija, it was to be seen
how far the Belgrade government would be democratic and cooperate with the
West.
Rugova urged the Serbian government to consider a peaceful
settlement for the conflict in southern Serbia, instead of "making matters
worse and raising tensions between (ethnic) Albanian rebels and the Serbian
police".
What Rugova calls "Albanian rebels" are terrorists who daily shoot
without provocation at lightly armed Serbian police in the buffer zone that
separates U.N.administered KosovoMetohija from the rest of Serbia
(Yugoslavia).
NOTTE QUIETA DOPO LA SPARATORIA
SOUTH SERBIA SPENDS QUIET NIGHT AFTER ETHNIC ALBANIAN ATTACK ON
POLICE
VRANJE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) Southern Serbia spent a quiet night after
Monday evening's ethnic Albanian terrorist attacks on Serbian police.
After several days of calm, ethnic Albanian terrorists late on
Monday resumed operations from the demilitarised zone between U.N.
administered KosovoMetohija and the rest of Serbia (Yugoslavia), opening
fire on a Serbian police patrol, but causing no casualties.
The terrorists, who had come from KosovoMetohija, first opened
automatic fire from the village of Sveti Ilija, and then fired four mortar
shells from the direction of the village of Ravno Bucje, on the police
patrol in the Cestelin hills northwest of Vranje.
The police returned fire, putting an end to the
incident. Expectations that the nationalist extremists of ethnic
Albanian terrorist hardline leader Hashim Thaci would discontinue armed
operations for the duration of the Ramadan holidays have not materialised.
Instead, they have spread their operations to the Vranje
municipality deeper in southern Serbia.
Cestelin is notorious for its World War II fierce and protracted
battles between partisans and Nazi Germany's ethnic Albanian allies.
PASTORE SERBO FERITO
ETHNIC ALBANIANS WOUND SERB SHEPHERD
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 11 (Tanjug) Borislav Orkovic, 70, a Serb
from the village of Gornji Strmac close to Kosovska Mitrovica, was wounded
on Sunday afternoon while tending his cattle some 150 metres from his
house, Tanjug learned on Monday from Serb sources.
Orlovic was shot from the nearby forest which belongs to a
neighbouring ethnic Albanian village.
Orlovic was then taken by cattle wagon to the Serb hospital in the
northern part of the ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica where he was
operated upon on Sunday evening. He is out of danger.
The attack on Orlovic is only one in a series carried out over the
past few weeks in the zone controlled by the Dutch peacekeepers.
ATTACCO CONTRO POLIZIOTTI
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS SHOOT AT SERBIAN POLICE
BELGRADE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) Ethnic Albanian terrorists on Monday
opened automatic fire on a Serbian police patrol from the village of Sveti
Ilija in the buffer zone that separates UNrun KosovoMetohija from the rest
of Serbia (Yugoslavia), a report said late on Monday.
According to Serbian state radio and television RTS, the police
returned fire, after which the terrorists fired four mortar shells from the
direction of the village of Ravno Gucje.
There were no casualties among the police.
UN MORTO ED UN FERITO
ONE SERB KILLED, ANOTHER ONE SERIOUSLY INJURED
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec 11 (Tanjug) One Serb, 19, was killed and
his cousin was seriously injured in a Monday explosion of a mine laid by
ethnic Albanian terrorists on a local road in northern KosovoMetohija.
Srdjan Tomasevic was killed on Monday near Suvo Grlo village in
Srbica municipality, and his cousin Stevan Tomasevic was taken to Spanish
hospital of KFor in Istok.
Executive Board of Srbice municipality President Slavica Jaredic,
who has toured the village together with KFor troops, told Tanjug that the
local residents of Suvo Grlo and Banja villages are desperate and urge the
state and the international peace forces to be more energetic in resolving
this problem, because Srdjan Tomasevic is the 6th victim from these two
villages since the deployment of KFor in KosovoMetohija.
BOMBA CONTRO ABITAZIONE SERBA
BOMB ON SERBIAN HOUSE
GNJILANE, Dec 12 (Tanjug) A bomb was thrown on the house of Djora
Milosevic, a Serb, in Gnjilane, eastern Kosovo, late on Monday, the
Gnjilane Church Council has said.
The strong blast damaged the house, but fortunately there were no
casualties.
DUE BAMBINI ARSI VIVI IN UN ROGO A MITROVICA
TWO CHILDREN BURN TO DEATH IN FIRE IN KOSOVO
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 12 (Tanjug) A fire, which broke out
early on Tuesday in the house of the Serb family of Dragos and Dragica
Radojevic in the northern part of the ethnically divided (Serb) part of the
city of Kosovska Mitrovica, killed fouryearold Pavle and threeyearold Ruzica.
VIOLENZA IN CRESCITA
VIOLENCE IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA ON THE RISE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Dec. 12 (Tanjug) Following several months of
calm in the region of Kosovska Mitrovica, in the past week several
incidents took place and violence and crime are on the rise in both ethnic
communities (Serb and ethnic Albanian) in KosovoMetohija, the spokesman of
the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), Frank Benjmisen, said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Benjmisen called on the ethnic
Albanians and Serbs to comprehend the reality and stop the violence because
this is not the road which will lead them into Europe.
U.N. police spokesman Dag Ebestad confirmed on Monday that Srdjan
Tomasevic, 19, a Serb, was killed on Monday when his tractor activated an
antitank mine in central Kosovo, while Stefan Tomasevic and Vladimir Dobric
were seriously injured.
In a shootout on Monday afternoon in a cafe in Srbica, an ethnic
Albanian was injured and another arrested, Ebestad stated.
He confirmed that an ethnic Albanian house in the northern (Serb)
part of Kosovska Mitrovica burned down three days ago, and its owner was
declared missing.
1500 IRREDENTISTI ALBANESI ARMATI A BUJANOVAC
FEDERAL DEFENCE MINISTER: CRISIS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA IS COMPLEX
BELGRADE, December 7 (Tanjug) Deputies of the Chamber of the
Republics (upper house) of the Yugoslav parliament said at their session
Thursday that the crisis caused in southern Serbia by raids by ethnic
Albanian terrorists in the security zone was still very serious.
Yugoslav Defense Minister Slobodan Krapovic said that although the
tension was reduced in southern Serbia, the situation remained very complex.
According to available reports, there are about 1,500 ethnic
Albanian terrorists in the security zone, deployed mainly west of
Bujanovac, he said.
The terrorists are consolidating the positions they have taken and
recruiting and arming young ethnic Albanians from the Presevo and Bujanovac
areas, Krapovic said. Krapovic said that Yugoslav security forces
deployed along the 450 km long security zone are in control and are aware
of what is going on, except in two places a section connected to
Montenegro and a section controlled by US forces.
In all other areas, there is good cooperation between the police
and KFor, Krapovic said.
Underlining that incidents had occurred precisely in the zone
under the control of US forces, Krapovic said it was obvious that there was
specific international support behind the incidents.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists are expected to pursue provocations,
Krapovic said and noted that Yugoslav leadership and army did not give in
to the terrorist provocations, paving the way for settling the crisis by
diplomatic means.
All opportunities must be used on order to fully coordinate
diplomatic, political and military activities, Krapovic said.
ANCORA LETTERE AL CONSIGLIO DI SICUREZZA
YUGOSLAV PREMIER WRITES TO SECURITY COUNCIL
NEW YORK, December 7 (Tanjug) The latest developments in
KosovoMetohija clearly demonstrate that the situation there is
characterized not only by classic terrorist acts, but also by political
violence, which must be halted, Yugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic said in
a letter to the UN Security Council President, Russian Ambassador Sergei
Lavrov.
The letter, presented to Lavrov by the Yugoslav Charge d'Affaires
at the UN Vladislav Mladenovic, points to the deteriorating situation in
the security zone in southern Serbia.
The following is the official text of the letter:
In their letters of 22 and 27 November 2000 addressed to your
predecessors, President of the FR of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica and
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Goran Svilanovic expressed deep
concern over the deterioration of the situation in the Ground Safety Zone
in the Presevo valley in southern Serbia. It is an uncontestable fact that,
despite their clear obligations under United Nations Security Council
resolution 1244 and the MilitaryTechnical Agreement, KFOR and UNMIK have
allowed large armed groups of Albanian terrorists from Kosovo and Metohija
to enter the Ground Safety Zone and carry out armed attacks, including by
heavy weapons, on lightly armed members of police. On that occasion 4
policemen and 1 civilian were killed, while 5 policemen were gravely or
lightly wounded. The local police were therefore compelled to abandon their
positions in the Ground Safety Zone which, under the provisions of the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement, they are obliged to control.
The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia, in anticipation of
adequate reaction by the Security Council and other influential
international factors, has taken urgent diplomatic steps aimed at calming
down the situation and requested the most responsible international
factors, primarily UNMIK and KFOR, to take appropriate measures in view of
their responsibilities under Security Council resolution 1244 and the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement. The Government leaned fully on the authority
of the Security Council and the condemnation of these terrorist acts by the
international community. However, it is its duty to note with regret that
the situation in the field has not changed and that there is no effective
prevention of the violation of Security Council resolution 1244 and the
MilitaryTechnical Agreement, i.e. that no measures are being taken to
compel the infiltrated armed groups to withdraw and disarm without delay.
The latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija indicate clearly
that not only cl<br/><br/>(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
