Da: Rick Rozoff
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Data: Ven 29 Ago 2003 13:24:24
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] Kosovo: The International Community's
'Success Story'
http://bhhrg.org/LatestNews.asp?ArticleID=24
British Helsinki Human Rights Group
August 28, 2003
Kosovo: The International Community’s ‘Success Story’
-Could the US Administration risk admitting that the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has turned out to be
another monster out of control, once sponsored by
Washington now defying it? Or will America quietly
admit that fighting the KLA is one war on terrorism it
can do without?
British Helsinki Human Rights representatives last
visited Kosovo in late March, 2003 in the days leading
up to the US-led invasion of Iraq. While visiting the
enclave of Graèanica, outside Kosovo’s capital,
Priština, they learned that KFOR troops had
effectively stopped protecting its Serb inhabitants
and had even removed armoured protection from outside
the small town’s world-famous orthodox monastery
church. Local Serbs said that they feared for their
safety and that, although things were “quiet” at the
time, past experience indicated that such “quiet” was
invariably a prelude for violent attacks against them
by Albanian youths who would also taunt them while
driving through the enclave in their cars.
In Graèanica and other Serb enclaves BHHRG also noted
a serious deterioration with regard to sanitary
conditions and public health: the stream running
through the centre of Graèanica, for example, was
rust-coloured, presumably polluted by discarded metal
from things like old cars, tractors, etc. Garbage was
strewn everywhere; there appeared to be have been no
garbage collection by any central authority for some
time. Although local Albanians have deposited
mountains of garbage into the streets of Kosovo’s
towns and villages since their ‘liberation’ in 1999,
this was the first time in four years that BHHRG had
noted the same phenomenon in Serb-populated areas.
But, although Kosovo’s Albanians have been the winners
in their conflict with Serbia, many of them cannot
have imagined that liberation was going to turn out
quite as bleakly as it has done. Factories are closed
and there are few jobs for those who have failed to
gain employment in the magic circle of the UN and
other international agencies. Hope must have been
abandoned by many, as Kosovo’s once teeming villages
and small towns now appear eerily uninhabited – many
people have packed up and gone West. For those that
remain, daily life is a constant struggle. In March
2003, BHHRG watched as carts loaded with chopped wood
were being transported home for use as fuel.
Electricity supplies have never properly resumed since
Nato’s bombing campaign in 1999. (Iraqis living on
promises of an imminent renewal of transmission should
take note of Kosovo’s 4 years plus wait for
electricity to return once the “tyrant” had been
driven out.)
BHHRG returned to the UK but refrained from reporting
on conditions in Kosovo at the time preferring to
wait and see if the Graèanica Serbs were correct and
whether or not the “quiet” they talked about really
was the prelude to renewed violence. It seems that the
events of the past few weeks have proved them right.
Recorded below are just a few of the most extreme acts
of violence that have occurred in both Kosovo and
Serbia in summer, 2003.
The anti-Milosevic Western-backed radio station B-92
reported:
“Terrorist attack against Serb children near
Gorazdevac
Gorazdevac, - Unknown persons opened machine gun fire
on Serb children bathing in the Bistrica River not far
from Gorazdevac, Pec municipality. According to
preliminary information two Serb children were killed
and at least five others wounded. Panta Dakic (10) and
Ivan Jovovic (20) were pronounced dead at Pec Hospital
while Bogdan Bukumiric (15) and Nikola Bogicevic are
in critical condition. Also seriously wounded were
Dragana Srbljak (14), Djordje Ugrenovic (20) and Marko
Bogicevic, said Sladjana Todorovic of Gorazdevac, who
was with the wounded children in Pec Hospital.
Bogdan Bukumiric is scheduled to be transferred to
Belgrade by helicopter during the day. According to
reports from the field, Albanians stoned the vehicle
of Milovan Pavlovic while he was attempting to drive
some of the wounded children to Pec Hospital. Pavlovic
sustained arm injuries. Local sources report that the
attackers also beat the wounded child in Pavlovic's
vehicle.
The children were bathing today in the Bistrica
River, some 500 meters from the center of the village,
when they were targeted by machine gun fire by unknown
persons at about 13.30. Three rounds were fired. KFOR
and UNMIK police have not conducted an investigation
at the site of the attack, although members of the UN
military mission helped to get from Gorazdevac to Pec
Hospital, whose staff is really trying to help the
wounded children," explained Sladjana Todorovic.
Gorazdevac today is full of great unrest and fear. The
nuns of the Pec Patriarchate and the monks of Visoki
Decani have urgently requested KFOR to allow them to
enter Gorazdevac. The sisterhood of the Pec
Patriarchate could not get an escort and the Decani
monks are still waiting for a positive response from
KFOR to provide them with a military escort.
This is an unprecedented crime. In Kosovo and
Metohija for four years there has been no Serbian Army
or police, who Albanian terrorists claimed were their
enemies, and they are killing our children. In the
past Serb children have been the targets of grenades
and run over by cars, and now they are being
perfidiously killed when they are swimming in the
river - said Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren,
commenting on today's terrorist attack near
Gorazdevac. The Serb village of Gorazadevac is located
near Pec and security is provided by Italian KFOR
troops. It is still the home of some 1,000 Serbs, half
of the village population prior to the arrival of the
UN mission in Kosovo and Metohija. The village has a
primary school and two secondary schools, one
technical and one economic. In order to obtain basics
for life, residents are dependent on military and
police assistance or forced to travel to northern
Kosovska Mitrovica by escorted convoy.
GORAZDEVAC - Gorazdevac local Rajko Jandzikovic, who
was, after today's attack on Serbs, transporting the
wounded to the hospital in Pec together with Milivoje
Pavlovic, stated that they were attacked near the
farmer's market in that city by a group of Albanians
using their fists and stones.
A group of young people bathing in the Bistrica River
near Pec was targeted by machine gun fire in which two
people were killed and six wounded.
"Near the farmer's market our Opel Kadet with
Zrenjanin license plates ran out of fuel. I went to
the KFOR checkpoint some 50 meters away to ask if they
would give us a liter of fuel but the Italian soldiers
turned us down, despite the fact that I speak Italian
relatively well," said Jandzikovic."We were then
attacked by a group of young Albanians - with fists
and stones - while members of the Kosovo Police
Service nearby failed to react," he added.
Jandzakovic said that "there were two boys in the car
fighting for their lives" and added that he does not
understand "what is happening to people." "Somehow we
managed, with a KFOR military escort, to get to Pec
Hospital but once there we were mistreated even by the
physicians, who refused to give immediate assistance
to the wounded boys," said Jandzikovic, who returned
to Gorazdevac without his vehicle, together with KFOR.
His shirt is soaked with blood and there are several
bruises on his face.”
[See Radio B92, www.b92.net/English/news Beta News
Agency, Belgrade
13th August, 2003.]
PRISTINA, KLINA, BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Repatriate to
the village of Bica near Klina in Kosovo, Zoran
Doncic, who was wounded on Tuesday night, underwent a
surgery in the Spanish military hospital in Istok
andhis condition is stable, the Raska and Prizren
Eparchy announced.
UNMIK spokesman Andrea Angelli said that Doncic was
kept in the Spanish hospital because they could not
transport him to northern Kosovska Mitrovica as
demanded by the local people due to seriousness of his
wound. Bica village elder told B92 that Zoran Doncic
was shot by a sniper from the nearby hill while
driving a tractor.
Coordination Centre for Kosovo head Nebojsa Covic told
Beta that the wounding of Zoran Doncic was a message
to Serbia before adoption of the Kosovo declaration in
the Serbian Parliament, but also a message to the
international community that "terrorist gangs"
operating in Kosovo will not stop doing crimes.
He said it was appalling that UNMIK arrived to the
scene at 9 p.m. when the crime was committed at 6.20
p.m. Around fifty Serb families returned to the
village of Bica a year ago.
[See Beta News Agency, www.b92.net/english/news 27th
August, 2003.]
DOBROTIN: 27.8.03. Three unknown men attempted to
kidnap ten-year old Marina Damjanovic from the village
of Dobrotin near Lipljan in Kosovo yesterday around 8
p.m. According to the girl's testimony and claims of
eyewitnesses, three Albanians in a white Mercedes with
foreign registration plates stopped briefly beside the
girl and attempted to drag her inside the car. The
girl managed to free herself and flee into the
neighbourhood shouting for help, while the car sped
away.
The blockade set up by citizens of Dobrotin on the
local Lipljan-Janjevo road in protest yesterday has
been terminated today. UNMIK police and KFOR have set
up checkpoints at the village's entrance and exit.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 27th
August, 2003.]
Ethnic Albanian violence is not only on the rise in
Kosovo. Incidents are constantly occurring in
neighbouring Macedonia as well as in the Preševo
valley in southern Serbia _ scene of a low-level
insurgency three years ago. BHHRG visited both Preševo
and Bujanovac in March 2003 and noted the increase in
the towns’ Albanian population. Hundreds of new
houses and other properties have been built since the
Group last visited the region in 2000. They stretch
across the narrow Preševo valley effectively cutting
Serbia proper off from Macedonia in the south. BHHRG
also noted the omnipresence of EU-sponsored
regeneration projects which do not seem, as the
following reports show, to have tamed the incipient
violence which seems to be second-nature to local
inhabitants.
Again, the pro-Western B-92 reported:
”Children wounded in Presevo grenade attack
PRESEVO -- Saturday – Two fifteen-year-old girls were
wounded in one of a series of explosions last night in
the courtyard of a cultural centre in the south
Serbian town of Presevo.
The local representative of Belgrade’s Coordination
Centre for Kosovo and South Serbia, Mica Markovic,
told B92 that a bomb crater at the site of the
explosion indicated that the weapon used had been
either a hand grenade or a 40mm grenade launcher.
Because of the direction of the attack, said Markovic,
it was possible that the adjacent police station had
been the target. One of the three grenades caused
major property damage to a neighbouring house.
The two injured girls were sitting on a bench close to
the cultural centre. One suffered wounds to the face
and the other to the legs.
Officers of the Coordination Centre and the EU
Monitoring Mission are supervising an investigation
into the bombing.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 24th
August, 2003.]
PRESEVO A strong explosion last night shook the south
Serbian town of Presevo, close to the Municipal
Assembly building. A preliminary investigation has not
yet revealed whether the blast came from a missile
aimed at the Assembly or a bomb which exploded inside
a building. However police sources say that the likely
cause was a hand grenade thrown into a construction
site adjacent to the local mosque and opposite the
Assembly building.
Gunfire was reported last night in the neighbouring
municipality of Bujanovac, but sources in the security
forces described this as provocation. There were no
casualties in either incident.
Meanwhile, the head of the OSCE mission in
Serbia-Montenegro, Maurizio Massari, has cancelled
planned visit to the region. Massari, who was
scheduled to meet the mayors of Presevo and Bujanovac,
is reported to be unwell.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 28th
August, 2003.]
Why is this violence allowed to go on? How can NATO
leaders still get away with calling the Kosovo
intervention a “great success” unchallenged? Anyobody
who wants different ethnic groups to live in harmony
and prosperity cannot call Kosovo a model. Sadly, one
of the reasons is the failure of the government in
Belgrade to protect Serbs in Kosovo or anywhere else
for that matter, including the Preševo valley.
Hand-wringing by politicians like Serbia’s deputy
prime-minister and points-man for Kosovo, Nebojša
Èovic and prime minister Zoran Živkovic is cynical
politicking and only serves to highlight the fact
that extreme Serbian “nationalism” was always a sham.
Strikingly, supporters of the apparently hardline
Bosnian Serb nationalists like the recently murdered
Serbian Premier, Zoran Djindjic, who was the last
Serbian politician to meet the indicted war criminal
Dr. Radovan Karadzic in 1996, turned out to be
indifferent to the daily attacks on ordinary Serbs.
His heirs and successors are similarly unconcerned,
apart from verbal protests.
Despite the media talk about Serbian intransigence and
blind nationalism, it is remarkable that neither in
Bosnia nor Kosovo have there been any guerrilla
attacks on the NATO-forces in de facto occupation.
This contrasts sharply with the growing difficulties
faced in Iraq by the Anglo-American troops there.
Will the passive attitude to the NATO troops remain
the same if Iraqi resistance continues to cause the
Allies difficulties? Militant Albanians in Kosovo have
shown a disregard for the NATO’s capacity to enforce
peace already in Kosovo, across the border with Serbia
and across the border with Macedonia. So far Serbs
have not imitated their enemies defiance of NATO’s
ostensible authority. Some Serbs abroad are already
denouncing their fellow Serbs’ passivity in view of
the apparent success of Iraqi guerrillas in forcing
Washington and her allies to seek a new UN mandate and
other concessions as a result of casualties.
This letter appeared on a widely distributed Serbian
website:
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your regular articles. I recently read
the comment you published, written by "Cossack,"
titled "A Pox on Both Their Houses"
(http://www.artel.co.yu/en/glas_dijaspore/2003-08-26_3.html).
I disagree with Cossack's conclusion that the reason
that Yugoslavia is not the subject of debate in the
United States is simply a matter of the priorities of
the so-called US liberals and US neo-cons. His
argument puts the blame on others.
Instead, I think the reason why Yugoslavia is not a
point of international debate is because there has
been a very full and complete assumption of power by
willing collaborators in Serbia and Montenegro and
there have been no losses whatsoever to worry about
among US military forces. There has been no guerrilla
war, no resistance and not even a single Yugoslav
daily newspaper opposes the US-led occupation of the
country. Yugoslavia's leadership has been so weak and
divided that it even stooped so low as to adopt the
name arbitrarily given to the country by the United
States way back in 1992 - Serbia and Montenegro.
This utter lack of resistance of any sort leaves no
issue or problem for Americans to debate. That is the
real difference. For the US, Serbia was easy. And
Serbia continues to be easy.
Speaking as a Serb born abroad, I am very sorry to
have to point out this fact.
Milos Obilic would not be able to recognize the
Serbian nation today.
Most sincerely,
John Bosnitch
Journalist
Tokyo
Whether Serbs will copy their Albanian rivals and
resort to guerrilla warfare remains to be seen. But
already the “usual suspects” in the US Congress are
responding to the violence in the region by demanding
further concessions to those engaged in violence.
Already at the start of the year, the U.S. House of
Representatives heard a resolution backing Kosovan
independence:
One Hundred Eighth Congress
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
January 27, 2003
Support the Independence of Kosova
Dear Colleague:
Today we introduced a resolution (H. Res. 28, which is
at the end of this email) expressing the sense of the
House of Representatives that the United States should
declare its support for the independence of Kosova.
Under the Yugoslav constitution of 1974, Kosova was
equivalent in most ways to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and Macedonia . In its position as an
``autonomous province,'' Kosova, in practice,
exercised the same powers as a republic. It had its
own parliament, high courts, central bank, police
service, and defense force. Through its definition in
1968 as a part of the Yugoslav Federal System, it
gained equal representation at the federal level with
Serbia and the other juridical units of the former
Yugoslavia.
When Slovenia and Croatia demanded independence,
Western governments made similar arguments against
recognizing those countries. However, eventually the
same Western governments did recognize not only the
independence of Slovenia and Croatia, but
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia as well, having
discovered that independence for those nations
involved not so much a change of borders as a change
in the status of existing borders. The lines on the
map remained the same, but their status was upgraded
from republican to national. It is fitting that the
Kosovars be allowed to follow the same path towards
independence.
Since the cessation of the1999 conflict with Serbia,
during which the Serbian military and paramilitary
forces killed more than ten thousand Kosovar Albanians
and expelled close to a million, Kosova remains under
a United Nations mandate. The Kosovars, the United
Nations, NATO, and the European Union are now making
efforts to rebuild Kosova, revitalize its economy,
establish democratic institutions of self-government,
and heal the scars of war.
It is time for the United States to abide by its
recognition that a right to self-determination exists
as a fundamental right of all people through declaring
its support for the independence of Kosova. To
cosponsor H.Res.28, please contact Keith O'Neil at
225-6735 (Lantos) or Greg Galvin (Hyde) at 225-5021.
Sincerely,
TOM LANTOS
HENRY HYDE
Member of Congress
Member of Congress
H. RES. 28
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives
that the United States should declare its support for
the independence of Kosova.
Whereas the United States and the international
community recognize that a right to self-determination
exists as a fundamental right of all people;
Whereas Kosova was constitutionally defined as a
sovereign territory in the First National Liberation
Conference for Kosova on January 2, 1944, and this
status was confirmed in the Constitution of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopted in
1946, and the amended Yugoslav constitution adopted in
1974 preserved the autonomous status of Kosova as a de
facto republic;
Whereas prior to the disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia, Kosova was a separate political and legal
entity with separate and distinct financial
institutions, police force, municipal and national
government, school system, judicial and legal system,
hospitals and other independent organizations;
Whereas Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic rose to
power in 1987 on a platform of ultra nationalism and
anti-Albanian racism, advocating violence and hatred
against all non-Slavs and specifically targeting the
Albanians of Kosova;
Whereas Slobodan Milosevic subsequently stripped
Kosova of its self-rule, without the consent of the
people of Kosova;
Whereas the elected Assembly of Kosova, faced with
these intolerable acts, adopted a Declaration of
Independence on July 2, 1990, proclaimed the Republic
of Kosova, and adopted a constitution on September 7,
1990, based on the international legal principles of
self-determination, equality, and sovereignty;
Whereas in recognition of the de facto dissolution of
the Yugoslav federation, the European community
established principles for the recognition of the
independence and sovereignty of the republics of the
former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and
Kosova fully satisfied those principles as a de facto
republic within the federation;
Whereas a popular referendum was held in Kosova from
September 26-30, 1991, in which 87 percent of all
eligible voters cast ballots and 99.87 percent voted
in favor of declaring Kosova independent of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
Whereas, from the occupation of Kosova in 1989 until
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military
action against the Milosevic regime in 1999, the
Albanians of Kosova were subjected to the most brutal
treatment in the heart of Europe since the Nazi era,
forcing approximately 400,000 Albanians to flee to
Western Europe and the United States;
Whereas in the spring of 1999 almost 1,000,000 Kosovar
Albanians were driven out of Kosova and at least
10,000 were murdered by the Serbian paramilitary and
military;
Whereas Slobodan Milosevic was indicted by the
International War Crimes Tribunal and extradited to
The Hague in June 2001 to stand trial for war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide in Kosova,
Bosnia, and Croatia;
Whereas the United Nations established Kosova as a
protectorate under Resolution 1244, ending the decade
long Serbian occupation of Kosova and Milosevic's
genocidal war in Kosova;
Whereas Kosovar Albanians, together with
representatives of the Serb, Turkish, Roma, Bosniak,
and Ashkali minorities in Kosova, have held free and
fair municipal and general elections in 2000 and 2001
and successfully established a parliament in 2002,
which in turn elected a president and prime minister;
Whereas 50 percent of the population in Kosova is
under the age of 25 and the unemployment rate is
currently between 60 and 70 percent, increasing the
likelihood of young people entering criminal networks,
the source of which lies outside of Kosova, or working
abroad in order to survive unless massive job creation
is facilitated by guaranteeing the security of foreign
investments through an orderly transition to the
independence of Kosova;
Whereas the Kosova parliament is committed to
developing a western-style democracy in which all
citizens, regardless of ethnicity, are granted full
human and civil rights and are committed to the return
of all noncriminal Serbs who fled Kosova during and
after the war; and
Whereas there is every reason to believe that
independence from Serbia is the only viable option for
Kosova, after autonomy has failed time and time again:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that the United States should -
(1) publicly support the independence of
Kosova and the establishment of Kosova as a sovereign
and democratic state in which human rights are
respected, including the rights of ethnic and
religious minorities, as the only way to lasting peace
and stability in the Balkans;
(2) recognize the danger that delay in the
resolution of Kosova's final status poses for the
political and economic viability of Kosova and the
future of Southeast Europe;
(3) work in conjunction with the United
Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and
other multilateral organizations to facilitate an
orderly transition to the independence of Kosova; and
(4) provide its share of assistance, trade,
and other programs to support the government of an
independent Kosova and to encourage the further
development of democracy and a free market economic
system.
At the moment, all the parties on the ground,
including the new UN representative to Kosovo, Harri
Holkeri, deny that anything other than Security
Council resolution 1244 defines the province’s
status. But, the ‘international community’ seems happy
to create ever more, albeit small and precarious,
independent states. As the vociferous support of
newly-independent (and destitute) East Timor for the
Iraq War showed such micro-states can be relied upon
to support this or that intervention when called upon
to do so by their more powerful sponsors.
Even if the ultimate goal of Kosovo’s independence is
postponed, the province looks unlikely to go back
under Belgrade’s wing. However, its “liberation” from
Serbian rule looks like a grim precedent for Iraq’s
fate after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime:
both seem set to continue to suffer from lack of
electricity and clean water, while unemployment and
persistent violence plague them.
Now the threat to NATO comes from the Alliance’s
former Albanian allies. Even if Serbs show no
inclination to mimic Iraqi resistance, Albanian
nationalists seem to be upping the tempo of violence
at a time when US and British forces are already fully
engaged in Iraq. Washington’s recent history of
waking up to find yesterday’s allies today’s enemies
has followed a tortuous path from the 1980s when both
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the Afghan Muslim
fundamentalists were allies to today’s bitter
animosities for Saddam and the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Could the US Administration risk admitting that the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has turned out to be
another monster out of control, once sponsored by
Washington now defying it? Or will America quietly
admit that fighting the KLA is one war on terrorism it
can do without?
A: Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Data: Ven 29 Ago 2003 13:24:24
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] Kosovo: The International Community's
'Success Story'
http://bhhrg.org/LatestNews.asp?ArticleID=24
British Helsinki Human Rights Group
August 28, 2003
Kosovo: The International Community’s ‘Success Story’
-Could the US Administration risk admitting that the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has turned out to be
another monster out of control, once sponsored by
Washington now defying it? Or will America quietly
admit that fighting the KLA is one war on terrorism it
can do without?
British Helsinki Human Rights representatives last
visited Kosovo in late March, 2003 in the days leading
up to the US-led invasion of Iraq. While visiting the
enclave of Graèanica, outside Kosovo’s capital,
Priština, they learned that KFOR troops had
effectively stopped protecting its Serb inhabitants
and had even removed armoured protection from outside
the small town’s world-famous orthodox monastery
church. Local Serbs said that they feared for their
safety and that, although things were “quiet” at the
time, past experience indicated that such “quiet” was
invariably a prelude for violent attacks against them
by Albanian youths who would also taunt them while
driving through the enclave in their cars.
In Graèanica and other Serb enclaves BHHRG also noted
a serious deterioration with regard to sanitary
conditions and public health: the stream running
through the centre of Graèanica, for example, was
rust-coloured, presumably polluted by discarded metal
from things like old cars, tractors, etc. Garbage was
strewn everywhere; there appeared to be have been no
garbage collection by any central authority for some
time. Although local Albanians have deposited
mountains of garbage into the streets of Kosovo’s
towns and villages since their ‘liberation’ in 1999,
this was the first time in four years that BHHRG had
noted the same phenomenon in Serb-populated areas.
But, although Kosovo’s Albanians have been the winners
in their conflict with Serbia, many of them cannot
have imagined that liberation was going to turn out
quite as bleakly as it has done. Factories are closed
and there are few jobs for those who have failed to
gain employment in the magic circle of the UN and
other international agencies. Hope must have been
abandoned by many, as Kosovo’s once teeming villages
and small towns now appear eerily uninhabited – many
people have packed up and gone West. For those that
remain, daily life is a constant struggle. In March
2003, BHHRG watched as carts loaded with chopped wood
were being transported home for use as fuel.
Electricity supplies have never properly resumed since
Nato’s bombing campaign in 1999. (Iraqis living on
promises of an imminent renewal of transmission should
take note of Kosovo’s 4 years plus wait for
electricity to return once the “tyrant” had been
driven out.)
BHHRG returned to the UK but refrained from reporting
on conditions in Kosovo at the time preferring to
wait and see if the Graèanica Serbs were correct and
whether or not the “quiet” they talked about really
was the prelude to renewed violence. It seems that the
events of the past few weeks have proved them right.
Recorded below are just a few of the most extreme acts
of violence that have occurred in both Kosovo and
Serbia in summer, 2003.
The anti-Milosevic Western-backed radio station B-92
reported:
“Terrorist attack against Serb children near
Gorazdevac
Gorazdevac, - Unknown persons opened machine gun fire
on Serb children bathing in the Bistrica River not far
from Gorazdevac, Pec municipality. According to
preliminary information two Serb children were killed
and at least five others wounded. Panta Dakic (10) and
Ivan Jovovic (20) were pronounced dead at Pec Hospital
while Bogdan Bukumiric (15) and Nikola Bogicevic are
in critical condition. Also seriously wounded were
Dragana Srbljak (14), Djordje Ugrenovic (20) and Marko
Bogicevic, said Sladjana Todorovic of Gorazdevac, who
was with the wounded children in Pec Hospital.
Bogdan Bukumiric is scheduled to be transferred to
Belgrade by helicopter during the day. According to
reports from the field, Albanians stoned the vehicle
of Milovan Pavlovic while he was attempting to drive
some of the wounded children to Pec Hospital. Pavlovic
sustained arm injuries. Local sources report that the
attackers also beat the wounded child in Pavlovic's
vehicle.
The children were bathing today in the Bistrica
River, some 500 meters from the center of the village,
when they were targeted by machine gun fire by unknown
persons at about 13.30. Three rounds were fired. KFOR
and UNMIK police have not conducted an investigation
at the site of the attack, although members of the UN
military mission helped to get from Gorazdevac to Pec
Hospital, whose staff is really trying to help the
wounded children," explained Sladjana Todorovic.
Gorazdevac today is full of great unrest and fear. The
nuns of the Pec Patriarchate and the monks of Visoki
Decani have urgently requested KFOR to allow them to
enter Gorazdevac. The sisterhood of the Pec
Patriarchate could not get an escort and the Decani
monks are still waiting for a positive response from
KFOR to provide them with a military escort.
This is an unprecedented crime. In Kosovo and
Metohija for four years there has been no Serbian Army
or police, who Albanian terrorists claimed were their
enemies, and they are killing our children. In the
past Serb children have been the targets of grenades
and run over by cars, and now they are being
perfidiously killed when they are swimming in the
river - said Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren,
commenting on today's terrorist attack near
Gorazdevac. The Serb village of Gorazadevac is located
near Pec and security is provided by Italian KFOR
troops. It is still the home of some 1,000 Serbs, half
of the village population prior to the arrival of the
UN mission in Kosovo and Metohija. The village has a
primary school and two secondary schools, one
technical and one economic. In order to obtain basics
for life, residents are dependent on military and
police assistance or forced to travel to northern
Kosovska Mitrovica by escorted convoy.
GORAZDEVAC - Gorazdevac local Rajko Jandzikovic, who
was, after today's attack on Serbs, transporting the
wounded to the hospital in Pec together with Milivoje
Pavlovic, stated that they were attacked near the
farmer's market in that city by a group of Albanians
using their fists and stones.
A group of young people bathing in the Bistrica River
near Pec was targeted by machine gun fire in which two
people were killed and six wounded.
"Near the farmer's market our Opel Kadet with
Zrenjanin license plates ran out of fuel. I went to
the KFOR checkpoint some 50 meters away to ask if they
would give us a liter of fuel but the Italian soldiers
turned us down, despite the fact that I speak Italian
relatively well," said Jandzikovic."We were then
attacked by a group of young Albanians - with fists
and stones - while members of the Kosovo Police
Service nearby failed to react," he added.
Jandzakovic said that "there were two boys in the car
fighting for their lives" and added that he does not
understand "what is happening to people." "Somehow we
managed, with a KFOR military escort, to get to Pec
Hospital but once there we were mistreated even by the
physicians, who refused to give immediate assistance
to the wounded boys," said Jandzikovic, who returned
to Gorazdevac without his vehicle, together with KFOR.
His shirt is soaked with blood and there are several
bruises on his face.”
[See Radio B92, www.b92.net/English/news Beta News
Agency, Belgrade
13th August, 2003.]
PRISTINA, KLINA, BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Repatriate to
the village of Bica near Klina in Kosovo, Zoran
Doncic, who was wounded on Tuesday night, underwent a
surgery in the Spanish military hospital in Istok
andhis condition is stable, the Raska and Prizren
Eparchy announced.
UNMIK spokesman Andrea Angelli said that Doncic was
kept in the Spanish hospital because they could not
transport him to northern Kosovska Mitrovica as
demanded by the local people due to seriousness of his
wound. Bica village elder told B92 that Zoran Doncic
was shot by a sniper from the nearby hill while
driving a tractor.
Coordination Centre for Kosovo head Nebojsa Covic told
Beta that the wounding of Zoran Doncic was a message
to Serbia before adoption of the Kosovo declaration in
the Serbian Parliament, but also a message to the
international community that "terrorist gangs"
operating in Kosovo will not stop doing crimes.
He said it was appalling that UNMIK arrived to the
scene at 9 p.m. when the crime was committed at 6.20
p.m. Around fifty Serb families returned to the
village of Bica a year ago.
[See Beta News Agency, www.b92.net/english/news 27th
August, 2003.]
DOBROTIN: 27.8.03. Three unknown men attempted to
kidnap ten-year old Marina Damjanovic from the village
of Dobrotin near Lipljan in Kosovo yesterday around 8
p.m. According to the girl's testimony and claims of
eyewitnesses, three Albanians in a white Mercedes with
foreign registration plates stopped briefly beside the
girl and attempted to drag her inside the car. The
girl managed to free herself and flee into the
neighbourhood shouting for help, while the car sped
away.
The blockade set up by citizens of Dobrotin on the
local Lipljan-Janjevo road in protest yesterday has
been terminated today. UNMIK police and KFOR have set
up checkpoints at the village's entrance and exit.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 27th
August, 2003.]
Ethnic Albanian violence is not only on the rise in
Kosovo. Incidents are constantly occurring in
neighbouring Macedonia as well as in the Preševo
valley in southern Serbia _ scene of a low-level
insurgency three years ago. BHHRG visited both Preševo
and Bujanovac in March 2003 and noted the increase in
the towns’ Albanian population. Hundreds of new
houses and other properties have been built since the
Group last visited the region in 2000. They stretch
across the narrow Preševo valley effectively cutting
Serbia proper off from Macedonia in the south. BHHRG
also noted the omnipresence of EU-sponsored
regeneration projects which do not seem, as the
following reports show, to have tamed the incipient
violence which seems to be second-nature to local
inhabitants.
Again, the pro-Western B-92 reported:
”Children wounded in Presevo grenade attack
PRESEVO -- Saturday – Two fifteen-year-old girls were
wounded in one of a series of explosions last night in
the courtyard of a cultural centre in the south
Serbian town of Presevo.
The local representative of Belgrade’s Coordination
Centre for Kosovo and South Serbia, Mica Markovic,
told B92 that a bomb crater at the site of the
explosion indicated that the weapon used had been
either a hand grenade or a 40mm grenade launcher.
Because of the direction of the attack, said Markovic,
it was possible that the adjacent police station had
been the target. One of the three grenades caused
major property damage to a neighbouring house.
The two injured girls were sitting on a bench close to
the cultural centre. One suffered wounds to the face
and the other to the legs.
Officers of the Coordination Centre and the EU
Monitoring Mission are supervising an investigation
into the bombing.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 24th
August, 2003.]
PRESEVO A strong explosion last night shook the south
Serbian town of Presevo, close to the Municipal
Assembly building. A preliminary investigation has not
yet revealed whether the blast came from a missile
aimed at the Assembly or a bomb which exploded inside
a building. However police sources say that the likely
cause was a hand grenade thrown into a construction
site adjacent to the local mosque and opposite the
Assembly building.
Gunfire was reported last night in the neighbouring
municipality of Bujanovac, but sources in the security
forces described this as provocation. There were no
casualties in either incident.
Meanwhile, the head of the OSCE mission in
Serbia-Montenegro, Maurizio Massari, has cancelled
planned visit to the region. Massari, who was
scheduled to meet the mayors of Presevo and Bujanovac,
is reported to be unwell.
[See B92 http://www.b92.net/english/news/index 28th
August, 2003.]
Why is this violence allowed to go on? How can NATO
leaders still get away with calling the Kosovo
intervention a “great success” unchallenged? Anyobody
who wants different ethnic groups to live in harmony
and prosperity cannot call Kosovo a model. Sadly, one
of the reasons is the failure of the government in
Belgrade to protect Serbs in Kosovo or anywhere else
for that matter, including the Preševo valley.
Hand-wringing by politicians like Serbia’s deputy
prime-minister and points-man for Kosovo, Nebojša
Èovic and prime minister Zoran Živkovic is cynical
politicking and only serves to highlight the fact
that extreme Serbian “nationalism” was always a sham.
Strikingly, supporters of the apparently hardline
Bosnian Serb nationalists like the recently murdered
Serbian Premier, Zoran Djindjic, who was the last
Serbian politician to meet the indicted war criminal
Dr. Radovan Karadzic in 1996, turned out to be
indifferent to the daily attacks on ordinary Serbs.
His heirs and successors are similarly unconcerned,
apart from verbal protests.
Despite the media talk about Serbian intransigence and
blind nationalism, it is remarkable that neither in
Bosnia nor Kosovo have there been any guerrilla
attacks on the NATO-forces in de facto occupation.
This contrasts sharply with the growing difficulties
faced in Iraq by the Anglo-American troops there.
Will the passive attitude to the NATO troops remain
the same if Iraqi resistance continues to cause the
Allies difficulties? Militant Albanians in Kosovo have
shown a disregard for the NATO’s capacity to enforce
peace already in Kosovo, across the border with Serbia
and across the border with Macedonia. So far Serbs
have not imitated their enemies defiance of NATO’s
ostensible authority. Some Serbs abroad are already
denouncing their fellow Serbs’ passivity in view of
the apparent success of Iraqi guerrillas in forcing
Washington and her allies to seek a new UN mandate and
other concessions as a result of casualties.
This letter appeared on a widely distributed Serbian
website:
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your regular articles. I recently read
the comment you published, written by "Cossack,"
titled "A Pox on Both Their Houses"
(http://www.artel.co.yu/en/glas_dijaspore/2003-08-26_3.html).
I disagree with Cossack's conclusion that the reason
that Yugoslavia is not the subject of debate in the
United States is simply a matter of the priorities of
the so-called US liberals and US neo-cons. His
argument puts the blame on others.
Instead, I think the reason why Yugoslavia is not a
point of international debate is because there has
been a very full and complete assumption of power by
willing collaborators in Serbia and Montenegro and
there have been no losses whatsoever to worry about
among US military forces. There has been no guerrilla
war, no resistance and not even a single Yugoslav
daily newspaper opposes the US-led occupation of the
country. Yugoslavia's leadership has been so weak and
divided that it even stooped so low as to adopt the
name arbitrarily given to the country by the United
States way back in 1992 - Serbia and Montenegro.
This utter lack of resistance of any sort leaves no
issue or problem for Americans to debate. That is the
real difference. For the US, Serbia was easy. And
Serbia continues to be easy.
Speaking as a Serb born abroad, I am very sorry to
have to point out this fact.
Milos Obilic would not be able to recognize the
Serbian nation today.
Most sincerely,
John Bosnitch
Journalist
Tokyo
Whether Serbs will copy their Albanian rivals and
resort to guerrilla warfare remains to be seen. But
already the “usual suspects” in the US Congress are
responding to the violence in the region by demanding
further concessions to those engaged in violence.
Already at the start of the year, the U.S. House of
Representatives heard a resolution backing Kosovan
independence:
One Hundred Eighth Congress
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
January 27, 2003
Support the Independence of Kosova
Dear Colleague:
Today we introduced a resolution (H. Res. 28, which is
at the end of this email) expressing the sense of the
House of Representatives that the United States should
declare its support for the independence of Kosova.
Under the Yugoslav constitution of 1974, Kosova was
equivalent in most ways to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and Macedonia . In its position as an
``autonomous province,'' Kosova, in practice,
exercised the same powers as a republic. It had its
own parliament, high courts, central bank, police
service, and defense force. Through its definition in
1968 as a part of the Yugoslav Federal System, it
gained equal representation at the federal level with
Serbia and the other juridical units of the former
Yugoslavia.
When Slovenia and Croatia demanded independence,
Western governments made similar arguments against
recognizing those countries. However, eventually the
same Western governments did recognize not only the
independence of Slovenia and Croatia, but
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia as well, having
discovered that independence for those nations
involved not so much a change of borders as a change
in the status of existing borders. The lines on the
map remained the same, but their status was upgraded
from republican to national. It is fitting that the
Kosovars be allowed to follow the same path towards
independence.
Since the cessation of the1999 conflict with Serbia,
during which the Serbian military and paramilitary
forces killed more than ten thousand Kosovar Albanians
and expelled close to a million, Kosova remains under
a United Nations mandate. The Kosovars, the United
Nations, NATO, and the European Union are now making
efforts to rebuild Kosova, revitalize its economy,
establish democratic institutions of self-government,
and heal the scars of war.
It is time for the United States to abide by its
recognition that a right to self-determination exists
as a fundamental right of all people through declaring
its support for the independence of Kosova. To
cosponsor H.Res.28, please contact Keith O'Neil at
225-6735 (Lantos) or Greg Galvin (Hyde) at 225-5021.
Sincerely,
TOM LANTOS
HENRY HYDE
Member of Congress
Member of Congress
H. RES. 28
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives
that the United States should declare its support for
the independence of Kosova.
Whereas the United States and the international
community recognize that a right to self-determination
exists as a fundamental right of all people;
Whereas Kosova was constitutionally defined as a
sovereign territory in the First National Liberation
Conference for Kosova on January 2, 1944, and this
status was confirmed in the Constitution of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopted in
1946, and the amended Yugoslav constitution adopted in
1974 preserved the autonomous status of Kosova as a de
facto republic;
Whereas prior to the disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia, Kosova was a separate political and legal
entity with separate and distinct financial
institutions, police force, municipal and national
government, school system, judicial and legal system,
hospitals and other independent organizations;
Whereas Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic rose to
power in 1987 on a platform of ultra nationalism and
anti-Albanian racism, advocating violence and hatred
against all non-Slavs and specifically targeting the
Albanians of Kosova;
Whereas Slobodan Milosevic subsequently stripped
Kosova of its self-rule, without the consent of the
people of Kosova;
Whereas the elected Assembly of Kosova, faced with
these intolerable acts, adopted a Declaration of
Independence on July 2, 1990, proclaimed the Republic
of Kosova, and adopted a constitution on September 7,
1990, based on the international legal principles of
self-determination, equality, and sovereignty;
Whereas in recognition of the de facto dissolution of
the Yugoslav federation, the European community
established principles for the recognition of the
independence and sovereignty of the republics of the
former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and
Kosova fully satisfied those principles as a de facto
republic within the federation;
Whereas a popular referendum was held in Kosova from
September 26-30, 1991, in which 87 percent of all
eligible voters cast ballots and 99.87 percent voted
in favor of declaring Kosova independent of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
Whereas, from the occupation of Kosova in 1989 until
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military
action against the Milosevic regime in 1999, the
Albanians of Kosova were subjected to the most brutal
treatment in the heart of Europe since the Nazi era,
forcing approximately 400,000 Albanians to flee to
Western Europe and the United States;
Whereas in the spring of 1999 almost 1,000,000 Kosovar
Albanians were driven out of Kosova and at least
10,000 were murdered by the Serbian paramilitary and
military;
Whereas Slobodan Milosevic was indicted by the
International War Crimes Tribunal and extradited to
The Hague in June 2001 to stand trial for war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide in Kosova,
Bosnia, and Croatia;
Whereas the United Nations established Kosova as a
protectorate under Resolution 1244, ending the decade
long Serbian occupation of Kosova and Milosevic's
genocidal war in Kosova;
Whereas Kosovar Albanians, together with
representatives of the Serb, Turkish, Roma, Bosniak,
and Ashkali minorities in Kosova, have held free and
fair municipal and general elections in 2000 and 2001
and successfully established a parliament in 2002,
which in turn elected a president and prime minister;
Whereas 50 percent of the population in Kosova is
under the age of 25 and the unemployment rate is
currently between 60 and 70 percent, increasing the
likelihood of young people entering criminal networks,
the source of which lies outside of Kosova, or working
abroad in order to survive unless massive job creation
is facilitated by guaranteeing the security of foreign
investments through an orderly transition to the
independence of Kosova;
Whereas the Kosova parliament is committed to
developing a western-style democracy in which all
citizens, regardless of ethnicity, are granted full
human and civil rights and are committed to the return
of all noncriminal Serbs who fled Kosova during and
after the war; and
Whereas there is every reason to believe that
independence from Serbia is the only viable option for
Kosova, after autonomy has failed time and time again:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that the United States should -
(1) publicly support the independence of
Kosova and the establishment of Kosova as a sovereign
and democratic state in which human rights are
respected, including the rights of ethnic and
religious minorities, as the only way to lasting peace
and stability in the Balkans;
(2) recognize the danger that delay in the
resolution of Kosova's final status poses for the
political and economic viability of Kosova and the
future of Southeast Europe;
(3) work in conjunction with the United
Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and
other multilateral organizations to facilitate an
orderly transition to the independence of Kosova; and
(4) provide its share of assistance, trade,
and other programs to support the government of an
independent Kosova and to encourage the further
development of democracy and a free market economic
system.
At the moment, all the parties on the ground,
including the new UN representative to Kosovo, Harri
Holkeri, deny that anything other than Security
Council resolution 1244 defines the province’s
status. But, the ‘international community’ seems happy
to create ever more, albeit small and precarious,
independent states. As the vociferous support of
newly-independent (and destitute) East Timor for the
Iraq War showed such micro-states can be relied upon
to support this or that intervention when called upon
to do so by their more powerful sponsors.
Even if the ultimate goal of Kosovo’s independence is
postponed, the province looks unlikely to go back
under Belgrade’s wing. However, its “liberation” from
Serbian rule looks like a grim precedent for Iraq’s
fate after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime:
both seem set to continue to suffer from lack of
electricity and clean water, while unemployment and
persistent violence plague them.
Now the threat to NATO comes from the Alliance’s
former Albanian allies. Even if Serbs show no
inclination to mimic Iraqi resistance, Albanian
nationalists seem to be upping the tempo of violence
at a time when US and British forces are already fully
engaged in Iraq. Washington’s recent history of
waking up to find yesterday’s allies today’s enemies
has followed a tortuous path from the 1980s when both
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the Afghan Muslim
fundamentalists were allies to today’s bitter
animosities for Saddam and the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Could the US Administration risk admitting that the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has turned out to be
another monster out of control, once sponsored by
Washington now defying it? Or will America quietly
admit that fighting the KLA is one war on terrorism it
can do without?