* SOLIDARIETA' CON I PRIGIONIERI DI KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (CLI): 34 serbi,
5 gitani ed un macedone in sciopero della fame; i familiari si uniscono
alla protesta (AFP)
* IBRAHIM RUGOVA A FAVORE DELLA GRANDE ALBANIA (AFP / Der Spegel)
* Un nuovo "Tribunale" politico istituito in Kosmet? (AFP)
* Azioni dei terroristi pan-albanesi contro i militari russi in Kosmet
(UPI)
* Il comando KFOR e' passato agli "Eurocorps" (Tanjug)
* L'opinione del kosovaro-albanese Setolli (Tanjug)
* La condizione degli "egiziani" del Kosmet (Tanjug, Irish Times)
----
VOCE OPERAIA wrote:
>
> 7 maggio
>
> LA CORRENTE LENISTA INTERNAZIONALE
> A KOSOVSKA MITROVICA
>
> Un anno fa, in questi giorni, la NATO si accaniva contro la Iugoslavia
> con il pretesto di fermare la "pulizia etnica". Dopo gli Accordi di
> Kumanovo (10 giugno) sotto l'egida dell'ONU, quasi 40mila soldati
> NATO più qualche migliaio di sbirraglia varia, sono entrati in Kosovo,
> per "riportare la pace e la convivenza multietnica".
> Ad un anno di distanza è chiaro il fallimento, non solo
> dell'aggressione NATO, ma dell'occupazione militare del Kosovo.
> - Quasi duecentomila serbi sono stati cacciati col terrore dalle loro
> case e villaggi con il beneplacito delle truppe NATO, sotto i cui
> occhi avveniva la "caccia" non solo al serbo, ma a tutte le altre
> minoranze nazionali nonché agli albanesi avversari dell'UCK.
> - Chi si è oppposto a questa "pulizia etnica", alla trasformazione del
> Kosovo in un porto franco del narco-traffico, delle mafie e dei
> mercenari imperialisti, ha subito la repressione, l'incarcerazione e
> la persecuzione delle autorità amministrative fantoccio dell'ONU
> (UNMIK) capeggiate dal proconsole francese Bernard Kouchner.
> - Kosovska Mitrovica è diventata il simbolo della resistenza delle
> varie minoranze contro lo sciovinismo albanese e la dittatura NATO.
> Ancora oggi 36 prigionieri politici, serbi e rom, sono in sciopero
> della fame contro la loro ingiusta e arbitraria detenzione avvenuta
> senza prove e senza alcun processo regolare.
>
> Allo scopo di chiedere la scarcerazione dei 36 detenuti, di condannare
> l'arbitrarietà inaccettabile delle autorità dell'UNMIK, di difendere
> il diritto all'autodifesa delle minoranze non-albanesi, di porre fine
> alle incursioni terroristiche nelle zone non-albanesi da parte della
> NATO; alcuni militanti della Corrente Leninista Internazionale,
> nell'ambito di una delegazione del Movimento di Solidarietà
> Austria-Iugoslavia (Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung)
> sono in questi giorni a Kosovska Mitrovica e si incontreranno con le
> comunità di questa città simbolo della resistenza alla NATO, all'UCK,
> portando la solidarietà di tutte le forze antimperialiste.
>
> VOCE OPERAIA
> sezione italiana della C.L.I.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> per contatti:
>
> Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung (JÖSB)
> PF 217, A-1040 Wien, Österreich
> joesb@...
>
> International Leninist Current
> ilc@...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Si veda anche l'appello:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/190?&start=188
BELGRADE, May 9 (AFP) - Over 20 Serb women in northern Kosovo --
the wives and relatives of hunger-striking prisoners in a UN-run
jail -- began a sympathy strike Tuesday, the National Serb Council
(SNV) said.
The women began their hunger strike in a garage close to the
jail in Kosovska Mitrovica, where the suspected war criminals -- 34
Serbs, five Roma gypsies and one Macedonian -- are being held, the
SNV told AFP by telephone.
The prisoners, who began their strike on April 10, are
protesting they have been detained by the UN's mission in Kosovo in
some cases as long as 10 months, without trial and sometimes without
charges.
They are demanding provisional release if their cases are not
heard rapidly and impartially.
Leaders of the Serb community in the ethnically divided northern
town, Oliver Ivanovic and Milan Ivanovic and around 100 Serb
supporters visited the 23 women as they began their parallel
starvation campaign.
The women had announced Monday they would join the hunger strike
until the prisoners' demands were accepted, sending a letter to UN
administrator Bernard Kouchner and the UN's Kosovska Mitrovica
administrator, William Nash.
Doctors who visited the striking prisoners Sunday expressed
concern at the "very serious" medical condition of most of the men.
As the prisoners' hunger strike goes into its fifth week, two
strikers have been hospitalised.
----
RUGOVA A FAVORE DELLA GRANDE ALBANIA
Sembrava scomparso dalla scena per far posto all'ala militare, quella
dell'UCK: in realta' Rugova continua a lavorare per il distacco del
Kosovo dalla Jugoslavia e la sua annessione alla "Grande Albania". Lo ha
sempre dichiarato in passato, e continua a dirlo oggi, ad esempio su
"DER SPIEGEL" di meta' aprile, secondo quanto riferito dalla AFP il
15/4/00. Rugova ha citato esplicitamente il progetto della "Grande
Albania" e ha detto all'intervistatore che se non sara' garantita
l'indipendenza in Kosovo sara' di nuovo guerra.
----
Sunday, May 7 12:04 PM SGT http://english.hk.dai
Unprecedented war crimes tribunal to be set up in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, May 7 (AFP) -
An unprecedented war crimes tribunal, placing international judges in
local courts, is to be launched in Kosovo to
jumpstart a legal system blocked by case overload and fears of ethnic
bias, UN officials here said.
Some 40 suspected Kosovo Serb war criminals are held by UN police and
with many of them on hunger strike after almost
a year in pre-trial detention, pressure is mounting for their cases to
come to court.
Only 13 have been indicted, said one legal expert, while the others are
held on suspicion.
"If we succeed in setting this up by the end of June we'll have been
highly successful," said Rolf Welberts, head of human
rights and rule of law at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo.
"It would be a record when you consider how slowly things go here," said
Welberts, whose department both monitors
and develops the budding legal system for the UN mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK).
UNMIK has already held the suspected war criminals, some arrested in
June 1999, for almost a year.
Under UNMIK's own regulations they can be held for 12 months before
either having to face trial or being released, but
Welberts was adamant they would not walk free if the tribunal is not
ready.
"It must be. I don't even want to consider that possibility," he said,
adding that UNMIK would try to renew the
detention period if necessary.
"By regulation you can do anything in this system," where UNMIK head
Bernard Kouchner has wide-ranging executive
powers, he said.
The new tribunal for war and ethnic crimes will feature international
judges alongside local Serb and ethnic Albanian
magistrates in a bid to overcome deep-seated ethnic hatreds that could
otherwise compromise judgements.
So far the only international judge in Kosovo has been employed in the
ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica,
scene of recurrent violent clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
Having spent months developing an applicable law -- a mixture of
Yugoslav, Kosovar and international codes -- to try
suspects, the new tribunal will still face many problems, not least the
issue of security.
"Security is a daily fight," said UNMIK legal head Sylvie Pantz. "Until
recently, I didn't have the personnel to secure
hearings, to prevent people from outside from theatening the judges.
"I spend my life begging UNMIK police and KFOR (the international
peacekeeping force). KFOR send me to the police
and vice versa," she said.
In March the ethnic Albanian president of Mitrovica court ordered a
Serbian war crimes suspect to face a court in the
Serb-dominated north of the town but was forced to postpone the case for
security reasons.
Mitrovica's international judge, Krister Karphammer of Sweden, said UN
police and KFOR would not have been able to
guarantee the safety of the people in court.
Pantz admitted that an ethnic Albanian judge trying a Serb for war
crimes in the north of the town risked being
"explosive" and said such cases would be better tried in the provincial
capital Pristina.
Even in petty cases, Karphammer said there was frequently pressure on
all involved.
"The witnesses, victims and even the translators are often threatened,"
he said. "Sometimes witnesses do not answer a
summons, they hide or give false testimony," he said, stressing the
problem was affecting all Kosovo.
International legal experts say that while security and pressure on
judges make trying suspects in Kosovo difficult, they
prefer to hold the trials here rather than in the war crimes court in
The Hague.
The International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has
only indicted five people after the Kosovo
conflict, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his
ministers.
Pantz said the ICTY was still blocked by cases from the three-year
Bosnian war, while trials in Kosovo could be part of
the healing process for a society ripped apart by ethnic war.
----
By LULZIM COTA
TIRANA, ALBANIA, May 8 (UPI) -- Unidentified people threw
Molotov cocktail from a car against a Russian base in Marin, in
Skenderaj
district, the KFOR press office in Pristine reported.
Russian KFOR soldiers have become a target in Kosovo, a
development which is a concern for the KFOR command.
Gen. Juan Ortuno, the KFOR commander condemning the killing of
Russian soldier Alexander Semione, who was found dead 10 days ago in
Glogovc commune, and warned that KFOR would not tolerate attacks against
his troops.
"I was informed recently about attacks against our Russian
KFOR troops. Every attack against any one KFOR soldier is considered an
attacks against all of us, and we are an unique force which will not
tolerate such acts," said Ortuno.
However, Ortuno's threat did not stop an other attack against
a Russian military camp in Skenderaj. No one was hurt in Sunday's
incident.
The KFOR press office did not say whether the attackers were
Albanians or other ethnic groups, but Albanians have openly claimed they
do not like Russian presence in Kosovo.
During the last two months Russians have been a target of
aggressive attacks or behaviors around Skenderaj by ethnic Albanians,
who
consider the Russians traditional supports of the Serbs. About 10 weeks
ago a Russian soldier was shot dead by a young Albanian in Skenderaj
market. Another Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Russian camp 10 days
ago
too.
KFOR has not been able to change the ethnic Albanians'
attitude toward Russian troops even the KFOR command has repeatedly
considered the Russians a part of their peace-keeping mission in Kosovo.
----
KOSOVO-METOHIJA - EUROCORPS
EUROCORPS TAKES COMMAND OF KFOR IN U.N.-RULED KOSOVO-METOHIJA
PRISTINA, April 18 (Tanjug) - The five-nation Eurocorps on Tuesday took
over command of the international force (KFor) in Kosovo-Metohija, with
Eurocorps Commander Juan Ortuno (aged 60) of Spain taking over from
Germany's Klaus Reinhardt.
This is the third change at the helm of the military mission to this
U.N.-ruled Serbian (Yugoslav) province since it was deployed just over
ten
months ago. In this time, KFor has not carried out practically a single
task entrusted to it under U.N. Resolution 1244.
On the contrary, Kosovo-Metohija has seen an explosion of crime and
terrorism, the ethnic Albanian terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
has
not been disarmed, there are no safety guarantees, and more than 350,000
Serbs and other non-Albanians have been displaced.
Responsibility for this unfavourable state of affairs rests solely with
KFor, which in its short history has been commanded by British General
Michael Jackson, Germany's Reinhardt and, now, by Spain's Ortuno.
The Eurocorps command comprises 350 senior officers from five European
states - Spain, Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg - which is
roughly
one-third of the headquarters staff, the rest coming from Great Britain,
Italy and the United States.
----
ETHNIC ALBANIAN PUBLICIST - SITUATION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
DETERIORATING
PRISTINA, April 17 (Tanjug) - Fatmir Seholi, an independent ethnic
Albanian publicist, said Monday that disastrous anarchy and lawlessness
had
escalated in Kosovo and Metohija.
Seholi told the local radio station Kontakt in Pristina, chief city of
the
Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, that scores of
robberies
were registered on a daily basis, saying that ethnic Albanian terrorists
were now robbing their ethnic kinds because there were hardly any Serbs
and
other non-Albanians left in the province.
He said that an end must be put to such a state of affairs, because it
could result in a civil war between local ethnic Albanians and
terrorists
and extremists.
"All this is happening in the presence of the U.N. civilian mission
(UNMIK) and international forces," he said stressing that peace was not
at
all at hand in Kosovo and Metohija although the fight against ethnic
Albanian terrorists had stopped.
Instead of trying to find immediately ways of how to improve the
situation
in the province and of restoring the province's multi-ethnic character,
some ethnic Albanian leaders are only trying to get rich, he said.
Seholi underlined UNMIK's and the U.N. peacekeeping force KFOR's
responsibility for a failure to implement the U.N. Security Council's
Resolution 1244.
Commenting on announcements that elections will be held in Kosovo and
Metohija, Seholi said that there could be no elections unless the
province's political status was defined. He said that, under the
resolution, the province remained an integral part of Serbia and
Yugoslavia.
All outstanding issues concerning the province should be exclusively
solved in Yugoslav and Serbian authorities' talks with ethnic Albanian
parties and intellectuals as well as representatives of other ethnic
communities, he said.
----
EXPELLED KOSOVO EGYPTIANS STAGE PROTESTS
SKOPJE, April 17 (Tanjug) - About 4,000 ethnic Egyptians, expelled from
Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province into Macedonia by ethnic Albanian
terrorists since the arrival of international peacekeepers, on Monday
lodged a strong protest with the Macedonian government and the Skopje
office of the UNHCR, claiming they have been completely forgotten.
More than 100,000 ethnic Egyptians lived in Kosovo and Metohija before
they were terrorized into fleeing the province by ethnic Albanian
extremists after the arrival of the international force KFOR and U.N.
civilian mission UNMIK. Many have been murdered by ethnic Albanian
terrorists, or have had their houses torched. Most Kosovo Egyptians fled
to
Serbia proper, but part of them also sought refuge in Macedonia, they
said
in the open letter sent to the local and world public.
Neither the UNHCR nor the Skopje authorities have recognized the refugee
ethnic Egyptians as a special ethnic group, even though they enjoyed
this
status in Serbia since 1991. These refugees have been listed as Romanies
or
ethnic Albanians and sent to the respective refugee camps of these
national
minorities, the letter said.
The Irish Times
Monday, April 17, 2000
Murders in Kosovo help to
fuel a family's blood feud
Christian Jennings, reports from Sverke, in Kosovo, on the animosity
between Albanians and the Egyptian Muslim minority
KOSOVO: You can tell what kind of ammunition was used to execute Xhafer
Brahimi's mother, son and nephew because the stray bullets from the
burst of gunfire that killed them lodged in the frozen chicken legs they
were bringing home from market.
"I saw their horse and cart going down the track in front of our house,"
says Brahimi, a 37-yearold Kosovan man from the province's beleaguered
Egyptian Muslim community, an Albanian-speaking ethnic minority.
"As soon as I heard automatic gunfire, I looked down through binoculars.
When I saw the horse stop I knew they were dead," he sobs, wiping his
eyes as he looks at their three coffins laid out on the new spring grass
inside his farm compound in the western Kosovan village of Sverke.
The Brahimi killings were just three out of an estimated 12 murders of
ethnic minorities to have taken place in Kosovo in the last 10 days,
says NATO.
Murders of Serbs, Roma Gypsies and Egyptians have more than trebled
since the beginning of April.
Who fired 10 Kalashnikov bullets into the sternum of Xhafer Brahimi's
78-year-old mother? Who executed his 17-year-old son, Fidan? Whose
hunting rifle was fired pointblank into his 18year-old nephew, Muharem,
as he sat on the horse-drawn cart?
The answer depends on whom you talk to. The 150 mourners who have
gathered around the three newly dug graves under the oak trees at the
bottom of the farm will give you different answers.
"In August last year 10 Albanian men came to the gates of the compound
at night," says Xhafer. "They had guns. They tried to break down the
doors. They were asking for grapes."
For grapes read the Brahimi family vineyard. For the vineyard read land.
For land read money. Throw in Kosovo, and it all ends up as a revenge
blood feud.
"It's all about this damn land," says his aunt, shaking her head as she
looks around at the gathered womenfolk of the family. Thirty-five of
them, wearing traditional Muslim head-scarves, are weeping loudly over
the three coffins draped in gaudily coloured fluffy blankets.
"When the men couldn't break down the gate," continues Xhafer, "they
shot through it. I returned fire from the house and hit one man in the
leg. He went down, and by mistake shot another, killing him."
In fine Albanian tradition, there began a family blood feud. Death
avenged by death. The killing of women and children against the rules.
Repeat till not a single man is left alive.
"The family hasn't really left the compound since the summer," says
Xhafer's brother, offering around Coca-Cola and cigarettes as the women
wail and the sun shines strongly. "When my aunt, son and nephew did,
they were followed from here to market and back, and then killed."
Among the dandelions in a quiet corner of the farm, they've dumped the
cart on which the three family members died. Most of the blood's been
scrubbed off, but you can see the bullet-scarred wood, the rust-coloured
stains.
>From here you can almost understand what the feud is all about. This is
God's country. Fertile fields, gently sloping ploughed furrows,
plentiful space. All 60 acres of it. Through the sky above the valley
clatters an Italian NATO helicopter.
"NATO troops will not come and protect us," says Xhafer Brahimi. "We've
asked several times, we know the people that did this."
UN policemen based in the town of Peja, 15 km distant, did come to
investigate the killings. No arrests have yet been made.
Fifty of the Brahimi clan live here on the edge of the ruined village of
Sverke, a predominantly Serb community whose houses were totally
destroyed by Albanians just after NATO entered Kosovo last June.
"The rest live in Germany, which is where we're going if these killings
continue," says Xhafer. "The people that did this, before the war they
used to co-operate with the Serbs. Now they're common criminals."
There's no doubt that ethnic animosity between Albanians and the
Egyptian minority have worsened relations in the village, as have
accusations of complicity and collaboration with Serb military units,
whose programme of ethnic cleansing of the Kosovan Albanian population
in spring 1999 reached its apogee in the Peja region.
The graves lie in a fenced-off area 20 metres by 20, and it's hard not
to think that if you came back in a year's time, the feud would still be
continuing and UN police would still not have got to the bottom of it.
5 gitani ed un macedone in sciopero della fame; i familiari si uniscono
alla protesta (AFP)
* IBRAHIM RUGOVA A FAVORE DELLA GRANDE ALBANIA (AFP / Der Spegel)
* Un nuovo "Tribunale" politico istituito in Kosmet? (AFP)
* Azioni dei terroristi pan-albanesi contro i militari russi in Kosmet
(UPI)
* Il comando KFOR e' passato agli "Eurocorps" (Tanjug)
* L'opinione del kosovaro-albanese Setolli (Tanjug)
* La condizione degli "egiziani" del Kosmet (Tanjug, Irish Times)
----
VOCE OPERAIA wrote:
>
> 7 maggio
>
> LA CORRENTE LENISTA INTERNAZIONALE
> A KOSOVSKA MITROVICA
>
> Un anno fa, in questi giorni, la NATO si accaniva contro la Iugoslavia
> con il pretesto di fermare la "pulizia etnica". Dopo gli Accordi di
> Kumanovo (10 giugno) sotto l'egida dell'ONU, quasi 40mila soldati
> NATO più qualche migliaio di sbirraglia varia, sono entrati in Kosovo,
> per "riportare la pace e la convivenza multietnica".
> Ad un anno di distanza è chiaro il fallimento, non solo
> dell'aggressione NATO, ma dell'occupazione militare del Kosovo.
> - Quasi duecentomila serbi sono stati cacciati col terrore dalle loro
> case e villaggi con il beneplacito delle truppe NATO, sotto i cui
> occhi avveniva la "caccia" non solo al serbo, ma a tutte le altre
> minoranze nazionali nonché agli albanesi avversari dell'UCK.
> - Chi si è oppposto a questa "pulizia etnica", alla trasformazione del
> Kosovo in un porto franco del narco-traffico, delle mafie e dei
> mercenari imperialisti, ha subito la repressione, l'incarcerazione e
> la persecuzione delle autorità amministrative fantoccio dell'ONU
> (UNMIK) capeggiate dal proconsole francese Bernard Kouchner.
> - Kosovska Mitrovica è diventata il simbolo della resistenza delle
> varie minoranze contro lo sciovinismo albanese e la dittatura NATO.
> Ancora oggi 36 prigionieri politici, serbi e rom, sono in sciopero
> della fame contro la loro ingiusta e arbitraria detenzione avvenuta
> senza prove e senza alcun processo regolare.
>
> Allo scopo di chiedere la scarcerazione dei 36 detenuti, di condannare
> l'arbitrarietà inaccettabile delle autorità dell'UNMIK, di difendere
> il diritto all'autodifesa delle minoranze non-albanesi, di porre fine
> alle incursioni terroristiche nelle zone non-albanesi da parte della
> NATO; alcuni militanti della Corrente Leninista Internazionale,
> nell'ambito di una delegazione del Movimento di Solidarietà
> Austria-Iugoslavia (Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung)
> sono in questi giorni a Kosovska Mitrovica e si incontreranno con le
> comunità di questa città simbolo della resistenza alla NATO, all'UCK,
> portando la solidarietà di tutte le forze antimperialiste.
>
> VOCE OPERAIA
> sezione italiana della C.L.I.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> per contatti:
>
> Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung (JÖSB)
> PF 217, A-1040 Wien, Österreich
> joesb@...
>
> International Leninist Current
> ilc@...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Si veda anche l'appello:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/190?&start=188
BELGRADE, May 9 (AFP) - Over 20 Serb women in northern Kosovo --
the wives and relatives of hunger-striking prisoners in a UN-run
jail -- began a sympathy strike Tuesday, the National Serb Council
(SNV) said.
The women began their hunger strike in a garage close to the
jail in Kosovska Mitrovica, where the suspected war criminals -- 34
Serbs, five Roma gypsies and one Macedonian -- are being held, the
SNV told AFP by telephone.
The prisoners, who began their strike on April 10, are
protesting they have been detained by the UN's mission in Kosovo in
some cases as long as 10 months, without trial and sometimes without
charges.
They are demanding provisional release if their cases are not
heard rapidly and impartially.
Leaders of the Serb community in the ethnically divided northern
town, Oliver Ivanovic and Milan Ivanovic and around 100 Serb
supporters visited the 23 women as they began their parallel
starvation campaign.
The women had announced Monday they would join the hunger strike
until the prisoners' demands were accepted, sending a letter to UN
administrator Bernard Kouchner and the UN's Kosovska Mitrovica
administrator, William Nash.
Doctors who visited the striking prisoners Sunday expressed
concern at the "very serious" medical condition of most of the men.
As the prisoners' hunger strike goes into its fifth week, two
strikers have been hospitalised.
----
RUGOVA A FAVORE DELLA GRANDE ALBANIA
Sembrava scomparso dalla scena per far posto all'ala militare, quella
dell'UCK: in realta' Rugova continua a lavorare per il distacco del
Kosovo dalla Jugoslavia e la sua annessione alla "Grande Albania". Lo ha
sempre dichiarato in passato, e continua a dirlo oggi, ad esempio su
"DER SPIEGEL" di meta' aprile, secondo quanto riferito dalla AFP il
15/4/00. Rugova ha citato esplicitamente il progetto della "Grande
Albania" e ha detto all'intervistatore che se non sara' garantita
l'indipendenza in Kosovo sara' di nuovo guerra.
----
Sunday, May 7 12:04 PM SGT http://english.hk.dai
Unprecedented war crimes tribunal to be set up in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, May 7 (AFP) -
An unprecedented war crimes tribunal, placing international judges in
local courts, is to be launched in Kosovo to
jumpstart a legal system blocked by case overload and fears of ethnic
bias, UN officials here said.
Some 40 suspected Kosovo Serb war criminals are held by UN police and
with many of them on hunger strike after almost
a year in pre-trial detention, pressure is mounting for their cases to
come to court.
Only 13 have been indicted, said one legal expert, while the others are
held on suspicion.
"If we succeed in setting this up by the end of June we'll have been
highly successful," said Rolf Welberts, head of human
rights and rule of law at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo.
"It would be a record when you consider how slowly things go here," said
Welberts, whose department both monitors
and develops the budding legal system for the UN mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK).
UNMIK has already held the suspected war criminals, some arrested in
June 1999, for almost a year.
Under UNMIK's own regulations they can be held for 12 months before
either having to face trial or being released, but
Welberts was adamant they would not walk free if the tribunal is not
ready.
"It must be. I don't even want to consider that possibility," he said,
adding that UNMIK would try to renew the
detention period if necessary.
"By regulation you can do anything in this system," where UNMIK head
Bernard Kouchner has wide-ranging executive
powers, he said.
The new tribunal for war and ethnic crimes will feature international
judges alongside local Serb and ethnic Albanian
magistrates in a bid to overcome deep-seated ethnic hatreds that could
otherwise compromise judgements.
So far the only international judge in Kosovo has been employed in the
ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica,
scene of recurrent violent clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
Having spent months developing an applicable law -- a mixture of
Yugoslav, Kosovar and international codes -- to try
suspects, the new tribunal will still face many problems, not least the
issue of security.
"Security is a daily fight," said UNMIK legal head Sylvie Pantz. "Until
recently, I didn't have the personnel to secure
hearings, to prevent people from outside from theatening the judges.
"I spend my life begging UNMIK police and KFOR (the international
peacekeeping force). KFOR send me to the police
and vice versa," she said.
In March the ethnic Albanian president of Mitrovica court ordered a
Serbian war crimes suspect to face a court in the
Serb-dominated north of the town but was forced to postpone the case for
security reasons.
Mitrovica's international judge, Krister Karphammer of Sweden, said UN
police and KFOR would not have been able to
guarantee the safety of the people in court.
Pantz admitted that an ethnic Albanian judge trying a Serb for war
crimes in the north of the town risked being
"explosive" and said such cases would be better tried in the provincial
capital Pristina.
Even in petty cases, Karphammer said there was frequently pressure on
all involved.
"The witnesses, victims and even the translators are often threatened,"
he said. "Sometimes witnesses do not answer a
summons, they hide or give false testimony," he said, stressing the
problem was affecting all Kosovo.
International legal experts say that while security and pressure on
judges make trying suspects in Kosovo difficult, they
prefer to hold the trials here rather than in the war crimes court in
The Hague.
The International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has
only indicted five people after the Kosovo
conflict, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his
ministers.
Pantz said the ICTY was still blocked by cases from the three-year
Bosnian war, while trials in Kosovo could be part of
the healing process for a society ripped apart by ethnic war.
----
By LULZIM COTA
TIRANA, ALBANIA, May 8 (UPI) -- Unidentified people threw
Molotov cocktail from a car against a Russian base in Marin, in
Skenderaj
district, the KFOR press office in Pristine reported.
Russian KFOR soldiers have become a target in Kosovo, a
development which is a concern for the KFOR command.
Gen. Juan Ortuno, the KFOR commander condemning the killing of
Russian soldier Alexander Semione, who was found dead 10 days ago in
Glogovc commune, and warned that KFOR would not tolerate attacks against
his troops.
"I was informed recently about attacks against our Russian
KFOR troops. Every attack against any one KFOR soldier is considered an
attacks against all of us, and we are an unique force which will not
tolerate such acts," said Ortuno.
However, Ortuno's threat did not stop an other attack against
a Russian military camp in Skenderaj. No one was hurt in Sunday's
incident.
The KFOR press office did not say whether the attackers were
Albanians or other ethnic groups, but Albanians have openly claimed they
do not like Russian presence in Kosovo.
During the last two months Russians have been a target of
aggressive attacks or behaviors around Skenderaj by ethnic Albanians,
who
consider the Russians traditional supports of the Serbs. About 10 weeks
ago a Russian soldier was shot dead by a young Albanian in Skenderaj
market. Another Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Russian camp 10 days
ago
too.
KFOR has not been able to change the ethnic Albanians'
attitude toward Russian troops even the KFOR command has repeatedly
considered the Russians a part of their peace-keeping mission in Kosovo.
----
KOSOVO-METOHIJA - EUROCORPS
EUROCORPS TAKES COMMAND OF KFOR IN U.N.-RULED KOSOVO-METOHIJA
PRISTINA, April 18 (Tanjug) - The five-nation Eurocorps on Tuesday took
over command of the international force (KFor) in Kosovo-Metohija, with
Eurocorps Commander Juan Ortuno (aged 60) of Spain taking over from
Germany's Klaus Reinhardt.
This is the third change at the helm of the military mission to this
U.N.-ruled Serbian (Yugoslav) province since it was deployed just over
ten
months ago. In this time, KFor has not carried out practically a single
task entrusted to it under U.N. Resolution 1244.
On the contrary, Kosovo-Metohija has seen an explosion of crime and
terrorism, the ethnic Albanian terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
has
not been disarmed, there are no safety guarantees, and more than 350,000
Serbs and other non-Albanians have been displaced.
Responsibility for this unfavourable state of affairs rests solely with
KFor, which in its short history has been commanded by British General
Michael Jackson, Germany's Reinhardt and, now, by Spain's Ortuno.
The Eurocorps command comprises 350 senior officers from five European
states - Spain, Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg - which is
roughly
one-third of the headquarters staff, the rest coming from Great Britain,
Italy and the United States.
----
ETHNIC ALBANIAN PUBLICIST - SITUATION IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
DETERIORATING
PRISTINA, April 17 (Tanjug) - Fatmir Seholi, an independent ethnic
Albanian publicist, said Monday that disastrous anarchy and lawlessness
had
escalated in Kosovo and Metohija.
Seholi told the local radio station Kontakt in Pristina, chief city of
the
Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province, that scores of
robberies
were registered on a daily basis, saying that ethnic Albanian terrorists
were now robbing their ethnic kinds because there were hardly any Serbs
and
other non-Albanians left in the province.
He said that an end must be put to such a state of affairs, because it
could result in a civil war between local ethnic Albanians and
terrorists
and extremists.
"All this is happening in the presence of the U.N. civilian mission
(UNMIK) and international forces," he said stressing that peace was not
at
all at hand in Kosovo and Metohija although the fight against ethnic
Albanian terrorists had stopped.
Instead of trying to find immediately ways of how to improve the
situation
in the province and of restoring the province's multi-ethnic character,
some ethnic Albanian leaders are only trying to get rich, he said.
Seholi underlined UNMIK's and the U.N. peacekeeping force KFOR's
responsibility for a failure to implement the U.N. Security Council's
Resolution 1244.
Commenting on announcements that elections will be held in Kosovo and
Metohija, Seholi said that there could be no elections unless the
province's political status was defined. He said that, under the
resolution, the province remained an integral part of Serbia and
Yugoslavia.
All outstanding issues concerning the province should be exclusively
solved in Yugoslav and Serbian authorities' talks with ethnic Albanian
parties and intellectuals as well as representatives of other ethnic
communities, he said.
----
EXPELLED KOSOVO EGYPTIANS STAGE PROTESTS
SKOPJE, April 17 (Tanjug) - About 4,000 ethnic Egyptians, expelled from
Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province into Macedonia by ethnic Albanian
terrorists since the arrival of international peacekeepers, on Monday
lodged a strong protest with the Macedonian government and the Skopje
office of the UNHCR, claiming they have been completely forgotten.
More than 100,000 ethnic Egyptians lived in Kosovo and Metohija before
they were terrorized into fleeing the province by ethnic Albanian
extremists after the arrival of the international force KFOR and U.N.
civilian mission UNMIK. Many have been murdered by ethnic Albanian
terrorists, or have had their houses torched. Most Kosovo Egyptians fled
to
Serbia proper, but part of them also sought refuge in Macedonia, they
said
in the open letter sent to the local and world public.
Neither the UNHCR nor the Skopje authorities have recognized the refugee
ethnic Egyptians as a special ethnic group, even though they enjoyed
this
status in Serbia since 1991. These refugees have been listed as Romanies
or
ethnic Albanians and sent to the respective refugee camps of these
national
minorities, the letter said.
The Irish Times
Monday, April 17, 2000
Murders in Kosovo help to
fuel a family's blood feud
Christian Jennings, reports from Sverke, in Kosovo, on the animosity
between Albanians and the Egyptian Muslim minority
KOSOVO: You can tell what kind of ammunition was used to execute Xhafer
Brahimi's mother, son and nephew because the stray bullets from the
burst of gunfire that killed them lodged in the frozen chicken legs they
were bringing home from market.
"I saw their horse and cart going down the track in front of our house,"
says Brahimi, a 37-yearold Kosovan man from the province's beleaguered
Egyptian Muslim community, an Albanian-speaking ethnic minority.
"As soon as I heard automatic gunfire, I looked down through binoculars.
When I saw the horse stop I knew they were dead," he sobs, wiping his
eyes as he looks at their three coffins laid out on the new spring grass
inside his farm compound in the western Kosovan village of Sverke.
The Brahimi killings were just three out of an estimated 12 murders of
ethnic minorities to have taken place in Kosovo in the last 10 days,
says NATO.
Murders of Serbs, Roma Gypsies and Egyptians have more than trebled
since the beginning of April.
Who fired 10 Kalashnikov bullets into the sternum of Xhafer Brahimi's
78-year-old mother? Who executed his 17-year-old son, Fidan? Whose
hunting rifle was fired pointblank into his 18year-old nephew, Muharem,
as he sat on the horse-drawn cart?
The answer depends on whom you talk to. The 150 mourners who have
gathered around the three newly dug graves under the oak trees at the
bottom of the farm will give you different answers.
"In August last year 10 Albanian men came to the gates of the compound
at night," says Xhafer. "They had guns. They tried to break down the
doors. They were asking for grapes."
For grapes read the Brahimi family vineyard. For the vineyard read land.
For land read money. Throw in Kosovo, and it all ends up as a revenge
blood feud.
"It's all about this damn land," says his aunt, shaking her head as she
looks around at the gathered womenfolk of the family. Thirty-five of
them, wearing traditional Muslim head-scarves, are weeping loudly over
the three coffins draped in gaudily coloured fluffy blankets.
"When the men couldn't break down the gate," continues Xhafer, "they
shot through it. I returned fire from the house and hit one man in the
leg. He went down, and by mistake shot another, killing him."
In fine Albanian tradition, there began a family blood feud. Death
avenged by death. The killing of women and children against the rules.
Repeat till not a single man is left alive.
"The family hasn't really left the compound since the summer," says
Xhafer's brother, offering around Coca-Cola and cigarettes as the women
wail and the sun shines strongly. "When my aunt, son and nephew did,
they were followed from here to market and back, and then killed."
Among the dandelions in a quiet corner of the farm, they've dumped the
cart on which the three family members died. Most of the blood's been
scrubbed off, but you can see the bullet-scarred wood, the rust-coloured
stains.
>From here you can almost understand what the feud is all about. This is
God's country. Fertile fields, gently sloping ploughed furrows,
plentiful space. All 60 acres of it. Through the sky above the valley
clatters an Italian NATO helicopter.
"NATO troops will not come and protect us," says Xhafer Brahimi. "We've
asked several times, we know the people that did this."
UN policemen based in the town of Peja, 15 km distant, did come to
investigate the killings. No arrests have yet been made.
Fifty of the Brahimi clan live here on the edge of the ruined village of
Sverke, a predominantly Serb community whose houses were totally
destroyed by Albanians just after NATO entered Kosovo last June.
"The rest live in Germany, which is where we're going if these killings
continue," says Xhafer. "The people that did this, before the war they
used to co-operate with the Serbs. Now they're common criminals."
There's no doubt that ethnic animosity between Albanians and the
Egyptian minority have worsened relations in the village, as have
accusations of complicity and collaboration with Serb military units,
whose programme of ethnic cleansing of the Kosovan Albanian population
in spring 1999 reached its apogee in the Peja region.
The graves lie in a fenced-off area 20 metres by 20, and it's hard not
to think that if you came back in a year's time, the feud would still be
continuing and UN police would still not have got to the bottom of it.