* 3/2/00: Tre morti albanesi e 20 feriti serbi in incidenti a Mitrovica
dopo l'attentato contro l'autobus (AP)
* 3/2/00: Attacco terroristico contro un autobus ("Il Manifesto")
* 3/2/00: Un migliaio di slavi-musulmani scappano dal Kosovo verso la
Serbia centrale (B92)
* 3/2/00: Programmate per marzo esercitazioni in Kosovo in vista della
prossima aggressione della NATO contro la RF di Jugoslavia (B92)
* 2/2/00: Due morti e cinque feriti in un attacco terroristico contro
l'autobus (B92)
* 2/2/00: Rugova disfa le sue istituzioni del "Kosova" (B92)
* 2/2/00: Liti tra fazioni albanesi, anche un morto ("Il Manifesto")
* 28/1/00: "Visita di Stato" di Thaci "il serpente" in Bulgaria (Tanjug)
* 29/1/00: 38 chili di eroina sequestrata su di un TIR albanese in
Bulgaria (Reuters)
* Il numero speciale di "National Geographic" dedicato al Kosovo: una
completa riscrittura della storia e della realta' attuale. Vergogna!
* Fondi tedeschi ed olandesi per aprire una Banca kosovara nuova di
zecca (IWPR 28/1/00)
* Civili schipetari sottoposti a maltrattamento da parte delle truppe
statunitensi presso Vitina (Washington Post 27/1/00)
* Iniziato il lavoro dell'UCKFOR nella nuova veste di "Corpo di
Protezione del Kosovo" (B92 22/1/00)
* Per la perquisizione, con sequestro di un arsenale, a casa del
fratello di Thaci e per le indagini su altri capibanda il portavoce UCK
Krasniqi e' infuriato; Kouchner e Reinhardt chiedono scusa (AFP 26/1/00)
---
Grenade thrown into Serb cafe in Kosovo
9.40 p.m. ET (249 GMT) February 3, 2000
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) — Violence erupted across this
Kosovo city violence Thursday night with two grenade attacks against
Serb cafes that left at least 20 people wounded and shootings that
claimed the lives of three ethnic Albanians.
The violence began when the two Albanian men were shot to death, the
multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Friday.
Half an hour later, a grenade was thrown into a Serb cafe, wounding
between 10 and 15 customers, said Lt. Col. Henning Philipp, spokesman
for the multinational force known as KFOR.
Minutes later, an ethnic Albanian woman was shot to death. That killing
was followed shortly afterwards by a grenade attack on another Serb cafe
that wounded 10 customers, Philipp said.
A day before, a rocket attack on a U.N. bus carrying Serb civilians left
two Serbs dead and three injured.
The attacks comes as ethnic tensions remain high in Kosovo.
Authorities say many ethnic Albanians were killed by Serb forces during
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's 18-month crackdown against
separatists here. After NATO bombing forced the Serb troops to withdraw
last spring, ethnic Albanians began attacking Serbs as revenge.
---
"Il Manifesto" del 3/2/2000:
KOSOVO
ATTENTATO A UN BUS DI CIVILI SERBI: DUE MORTI
Ennesimo attentato (è ormai un appuntamento quasi giornaliero) nei
confronti dei pochi serbi
ormai rimasti in Kosovo. Un autobus pieno di civili serbi è stato
colpito ieri, infatti, da un razzo
anticarro lanciato dai soliti "sconosciuti". Nell'attentato, due
passeggeri sono morti e altri cinque
sono rimasti feriti.
Il bus, messo a disposizione dall'organizzazione umanitaria Unhcr delle
Nazioni unite, era partito
da Kosovska Mitrovica (la città kosovara divisa in due - una parte
serba, l'altra albanese -
dall'odio etnico), nel nord della regione, nel pomeriggio di ieri, per
raggiungere la cittadina di
Durakovca. Dopo aver percorso appena quindici chilometri è stato colpito
dal razzo,
presumibilmente scagliato da albanesi. Gli uomini della Kfor (la forza
di pace della Nato), che
stavano scortando il veicolo, impotenti di fronte all'ennesima
aggressione, non hanno potuto far
altro che organizzare i soccorsi per le vittime.
La Unhcr organizza servizi di trasporto per i serbi che vogliono
spostarsi da una parte all'altra del
Kosovo nonostante gli innumerevoli rischi. Ma sono (come pure le forze
della Kfor) sempre più in
balia delle bande albanesi dell'ex Uck, cui hanno dato legittimità, e
che proseguono nella
campagna di "pulizia etnica" dei serbi e dei rom (di cui spesso sono
vittime anche quegli albanesi
considerati "collaborazionisti"), cominciata alla fine della guerra. E
che ha portato all'esodo dei
serbi e dei rom dal Kosovo.
---
Muslims flee Kosovo (B92 3/2/00)
PRISTINA, Thursday - About a thousand residents, most of them Muslim,
had
left the region of Prizren and Gora in Kosovo to take refuge in Novi
Pazar in
Central Serbia, UNHCR representative Maki Shinohara said today.
Shinohara
told media that the UNHCR had suspended all bus transport in Kosovo,
adding
that the services would not be continued until yesterday's attack on a
UNHCR
bus had been completed.
---
Socialists on NATO exercises in Kosovo (B92 3/2/00)
BELGRADE, Thursday - NATO is the key factor for destabilisation in
south-east
Europe, Socialist Party spokesman Ivica Dacic told media today. Dacic
was
commenting on the announcement that NATO forces will be on manoeuvres in
Kosovo in March. Brussels has justified the exercises saying that they
are a
preparation for a possible deterioration of the situation in the
province.
---
Serbs die in rocket attack on Kosovo bus (B92 2/2/00)
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Wednesday - Two Serbs are dead and another five
wounded
after a rocket attack on a bus near Kosovska Mitrovica this afternoon.
International forces representative Philip Anido said the UNHCR bus was
being
escorted by KFOR. No further details are available.
---
Rugova disbands parallel institutions (B92 2/2/00)
PRISTINA, Wednesday - The President of the Democratic League of Kosovo,
Ibrahim Rugova, announced today that he had disbanded the Kosovo
Albanian
parallel state government of which he was president. Rugova and the
president
of the parallel Kosovo Albanian Parliament, Idriz Ajeti, told media
today
that all parallel state institutions in the province were dissolved
yesterday. These included the parallel government and parliament, the
office
of the president of Kosovo and all related political, security and
administrative structures.
---
"Il Manifesto", 2/2/00:
KOSOVO UCCISO DALL'UCK IL LEADER DI UN PARTITO KOSOVARO
Non parte il governo "misto"
Onu delusa. Gli albanesi non rinunciano alle istituzioni parallele
- R. ES. - PRISTINA
D oveva essere un salto di qualità nella vita pubblica del Kosovo, ma è
finito in battibecchi tra
fazioni kosovaro-albanesi e con i funzionari dell'Onu. Ieri era prevista
la nascita ufficiale del
Struttura amministrativa unitaria ad interim (Jias), una sorta di
governo misto Onu-kosovari della
provincia, con tanto di ministeri (19) e un comitato di presidenza alla
cui testa c'è il
plenipotenziario delle Nazioni unite, Bernard Kouchner, dotato di potere
di veto su qualsiasi
decisione del collegio. Un governo comunque provvisorio, nell'attesa
delle elezioni - la cui
convocazione slitta di mese in mese - e della nascita di un "governo
dell'autonomia" tutto
kosovaro, come prevede la risoluzione 1244 del Consiglio di sicurezza
dell'Onu.
E se la leadership dei serbo-kosovari aveva declinato in un primo
momento l'invito a parteciparvi
- anzi era uscita da tutti gli organi consultivi creati dall'Onu, per
protestare contro la
trasformazione dell'Uck nei Corpi di protezione del Kosovo - negli
ultimi giorni ci ha ripensato e
sta trattando coi funzionari Onu per il suo ingresso nel governo
provvisorio e per la creazione di
entità "comunali" speciali nelle poche zone dove sono concentrati i
serbo-kosovari.
Ieri dunque doveva essere una giornata speciale. Così non è stato.
Convocati a Pristina, i vari
rappresentanti albanesi hanno inscenato una delle loro consuete liti
alla presenza degli avviliti
funzionari Onu. Il punto è che le isituzioni parallele create nel 1989
dalla Lega democratica del
Kosovo di Ibrahim Rugova - presidenza, governo e parlamento kosovaro
"clandestini" -
dovrebbero ora sciogliersi con la nascita della nuova istituzione. In
realtà il parlamento non ha
deliberato alcun autoscioglimento, il che ha mandato su tutte le furie i
falchi ex Uck di Thaci -
che intanto nel silenzio di Onu e Nato governano di fatto gran parte dei
comuni della provincia,
imponendo la loro legge. La sessione di ieri è finita dunque in insulti
ed è stata aggiornata a data
da definirsi.
Non si fermano intanto i regolamenti di conti dell'ex Uck nella
provincia; case bruciate (di serbi)
nei dintorni di Pristina e l'omicidio di un politico kosovaro-albanese,
Hassim Chuse, capo del
minuscolo Partito democrativo riformista. Il suo corpo con tre
proiettili in testa è stato trovato non
lontano da Prizren. Risultava scomparso dal 18 gennaio. Rapimento ed
esecuzione di un
avversario politico nel miglior stile Uck, che non tollera rivali nei
suoi territori. (...)
---
www.serbia-info.com/news
Thaqi's "state visit" to Sofia-giving political legitimacy to a
terrorist
January 29, 2000
SOFIA, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - The ruling structures in Sofia, taking their
cue from their NATO "allies," are sinking deeper and deeper in their
policy towards the situation in Kosovo. An instance of this is an
invitation by Ivan Kosov, leader of the Bulgarian rightist Alliance of
Democratic Forces and prime minister, to Hashim Thaqi, former leader of
the ethnic Albanian terrorist and separatist Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), to visit Sofia.
It has been officially confirmed in Sofia that Thaqi is due here on
Saturday, and will be received by Kostov, a state of affairs which,
according to the Sofia newspaper 24 Casa, will make it a state visit."
This move has put the Bulgarian government in a position where it gives
political legitimacy to a man who is on an international wanted list for
terrorism. The Serbian police has earlier a warrant for the arrest of
Thaqui due to based suspicion that he had committed many grave crime
offences and several murders.
The Bulgarian government, however, is careful to steer clear of
mentioning this very important point in Thaqi's biography, whom it
describes as leader of the certain Kosovo Democratic Progress Party and
member of the provisional administrative council. This "provisional
government," set up by U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) chief Bernard
Kouchner, is not recognized by Yugoslavia, if we exclude the Albanian
separatists.
Kostov's move, although at odds with international law, is not hard to
understand. The government in Sofia is trying by hook and by crook to
get close to and become a member of NATO and the European Union, and is
obviously willing to pay any price for a shortcut to Brussels. At the
time of NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia, Bulgarian government very
generously opened its air space to NATO planes, riggering a wave of
nationwide protests, which were especially bitter in Sofia. Protesters
condemned the country's officials, as well as U.S. President Bill
Clinton, telling the aggressors and their helpers that "the Balkans
belongs to the Balkan nations."
Evidently, the government in Sofia seems naively to believe that, if it
sells its sovereignty, it can get into NATO and the European Union more
easily and solve all its accumulated internal problems overnight.
However, at the recent Summit of the "fifteen" in Helsinki, Bulgaria
found itself in the second group of the country-candidates to enter EU,
which means it would have to wait at least 15 years, maybe longer. Ten
months ago, on the top meeting of 19 alliance countries in Washington,
it was clearly said that Bulgaria would not enter NATO easily and
swiftly.
The visit of Thaqi and Arben Xhaferi to Bulgaria has yet another
interesting aspect which the Bulgarian government will have to explain
to its citizens. Namely, Thaqui and Xhaferi, who are obviously trying to
project themselves as the Balkans' supreme Muslim leaders are to attend
a congress of the Rights and Freedoms Society, a party that rallies more
than a million ethnic Turks in Bulgaria. We should hope that Thaqi will
explain why even the Kosovo Turks have been targeted in ethnic Albanian
ethnic cleansing and forced conversion campaigns.
---
Sat, Jan 29 at Prague 03:45 pm, N.Y. 09:45 am
Bulgaria Seizes 38 Kg Heroin In Albanian Truck
SOFIA, Jan 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) Bulgarian customs said on Friday they
had seized 38.1 kg (84 lbs) of heroin hidden in an Albanian-registered
truck that was coming from Turkey.
Ivan Kutevski, spokesman for the Central Customs Directorate, told
Reuters the shipment was discovered at the Kapitan Andreevo border
checkpoint with Turkey and was hidden in the truck, which was
transporting metal doors.
The truck driver, a 43-year-old Albanian citizen, had been detained,
Kutevski added.
Crime experts said that the local street value of a dose of 0.250 grams
of heroin was between three levs ($1.5) and 10 levs.
Bulgaria, situated between Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and
Romania, lies on the so-called Balkan route for smuggling drugs from
Asia to Europe. Customs say a total of 261 kg of heroin were seized at
Bulgarian borders last year.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria opened the first office under a joint
United Nations - European Union project to fight drug trafficking in the
Balkans.
---
LA FINE DI "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"
Quello che segue e' un classico esempio di come la "political
correctness" puo' diventare "scorrettezza scientifica" senza colpo
ferire.
Una rivista prestigiosa come "National Geographic", anziche' descrivere
il patrimonio naturale, culturale ed etnico della regione del Kosmet,
sta facendo propaganda antijugoslava di basso profilo.
Non ho avuto purtroppo ancora occasione di avere la rivista fra le mani,
ma sarei veramente curioso di vedere cosa si dice dei monasteri
bizantini e della loro distruzione sistematica, che e' in corso (piu' di
80 sono gia' stati devastati dall'UCK grazie alla provvidenziale
disattenzione della KFOR... ed anche di tanti nostri "intellettuali di
servizio").
Andrea
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 13:33:41 -0500 (EST)
BCC to: From: sndlist@...
(balkanpeace automailer)
Subject: Mailing list 'Rapid_Response': National
Geographic
Visit us on http://www.balkanpeace.org
---------------------------------------------
Molimo vas da se obratite National Geographic-u za njihove odvratne lazi
o
Kosovu i Jugoslaviji!
Uvjerite se i sami o njihovim lazima na:
http://www.ngnews.com/kosovo/
Pisite im na:
ngsforum@...
Evo samo jednog od pisama koje smo dobili u Centru od ljudi koji su se
javili da nam skrenu paznju na februarsko izdanje:
From: jon & lillian
Subject: National Geographic: lies about yugoslavia
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 22:06:30 -0500
Hello
We have a subscription to the National Geographic magazine and the
February issue has the most damning articles on Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
Just to begin with, all maps of Kosovo make it seem as if it is part
of
Albania. It is still part of Yugoslavia, which was part of the peace
accord signed at the end of the NATO bombing campaign.
The emphasis of the articles was on refugees, all on Kosovo, and never
once mentioned the fact the there are now one million refugees (acording
to the United Nations high commissioner) in Yugoslavia. There was a map
showing Kosovo and all the mass graves, hundreds of them. This, as we
have
found out lately is not true, which was verified by the FBI and RCMP,
among others.
Wherever the author of the article could, Serbians were slandered. You
must read it for yourself, it is too disturbing for me to quote all the
passages. It is American propoganda at some of its worst.
We have cancelled our subscription and written an e-mail. I urge
veryone
to write at:
ngsforum@... Jon
---
http://www.iwpr.net
WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 111, January 28, 2000
(...)
NEW KOSOVO BANK TO KICK-START ECONOMY
Kosovo's first commercial bank pledges to promote economic growth in one
of
the poorest regions in Europe.
By Llazar Semini in Pristina
Metal, a foundry in Pristina, is doing good business following the end
of
the Kosovo war last June.
The company has ambitious expansion plans, but needs investors. "We are
looking for partners and money," said Ymer Qerkini, Metal's manager,
who,
like many Kosovo businessmen, hopes the region's new commercial bank
will
help their enterprises grow.
The Micro Enterprise Bank (MEB), the first bank to be licensed in Kosovo
since last year's conflict, is aiming to meet an urgent demand for
financial
services. The bank, which began operating last Monday, January 24, said
it
acquired 70 new clients the following day.
"A bank is an indispensable part of daily life and Kosovo needed one now
that life is back to normal," said MEB's general manager Koen Wasmus.
MEB, located near the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in
Kosovo,
was founded at the initiative of several international financial
institutions and investment companies, with substantial funding from the
Dutch and German governments.
The bank will provide account management, money transfers, loans and
cashless payment transactions to small enterprises, as well as
individual
customers. Its credits will range from 2,000 to 200,000 German marks,
with
an interest rate of 18 per cent per year.
"Kosovo's economic recovery will increasingly depend on the availability
of
basic banking services," said Horst Koehler, president of the European
Bank
of Reconstruction, one of MEB's backers. "The Micro Enterprise Bank does
just that, giving ordinary people the means to provide for their own
livelihoods without resorting to handouts.
" It will also serve as a dependable, commercial-oriented source of
credit
for small businesses, which will form the backbone of a resurgent
Kosovar
economy."
Wasmus said he considered Kosovo's economy "a pyramid with a broad base
of
small firms with very strong committed people," but he warned that some
bigger corporations would not survive as they needed large investment.
"We have thought that we should assist small enterprises with the aim of
turning them into medium-sized ones," he said. "That is why we decided
to
work from the base of this pyramid and strengthen that."
"We aim to stay in Kosovo for some time," Wasmus said, adding that MEB's
shareholders wanted to see their money back in five to ten years.
At the end of the Kosovo conflict last year, the region's financial
system
was in a shambles, so the MEB had to start from scratch. "We have
provided
intensive training to a number of young and highly motivated banking
trainees - most of whom had no previous banking experience," said
Wasmus.
"They received on-the-job training with similar micro-credit banks in
Albania and Bosnia."
MEB will be based in Pristina with a staff of 31 - 26 of whom are
Albanian.
Branches are due to open soon in Prizren (early February) and Peje
(March or
April). After three years, the bank is expected to have seven branches.
A spokesman for the International Finance Corporation, another of the
bank's
sponsors, said the project would create jobs and improve people's lives.
"A
major impediment to growth has been the lack of access to credit which
is
one of the main vehicles for promoting economic growth.
"By demonstrating the commercial viability of properly structured and
organized lending institutions, we can catalyze considerable private
investments to build credit and other financial services for many poor
people in Kosovo."
Llazar Semini is IWPR Project Manager in Pristina.
IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 111
---
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Army Probes Behavior of U.S. Soldiers in Kosovo
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday , January 28, 2000 ; A17
VITINA, Yugoslavia, Jan. 27 – Baki Ramadani slipped on
the ice that covered almost every street
in this city in eastern Kosovo three weeks ago and
accidentally jostled a U.S. Army soldier standing
guard at the NATO military base. Challenged to explain
himself, Ramadani signaled with his hands
because he is unable to speak or hear, as medical
documents stored in his breast pocket made clear.
Ramadani's efforts failed, however, and he quickly
found himself knocked to the ground, where the
soldier kicked him, striking him in the head,
according to his parents and two brothers. They said
they saw the bruises and got a description later from
Ramadani – who told them in sign language –
and from an ethnic Albanian friend of Ramadani who was
briefly arrested for attempting to intervene.
Army investigators flown here from a U.S. base in
Germany began a probe of the Jan. 6 incident this
week, along with several other allegations by ethnic
Albanians of mistreatment by U.S. soldiers –
including beatings, inappropriate body searches of
women and harassment.
The results of the investigation will not be released
for at least a week, but Western officials say the
investigators' goal is to examine what might have gone
awry with the U.S. peacekeeping mission in
this ethnically mixed and politically volatile city,
estranging some soldiers from the population they
came here to protect. It is the first large-scale
probe since NATO peacekeepers arrived last June
following the end of the allied air campaign against
Yugoslavia.
Already, the Army's "A" company, 3rd Battalion, 504th
Infantry, which was assigned here last
September, has been redeployed to another city, a
month sooner than normal.
Some Western officials say most of the tensions have
been provoked by former guerrillas with the
ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who
control the city and are resisting sharing
power and influence with either NATO troops or United
Nations administrators. The officials
suggest the charges have been largely manufactured to
discredit the U.S. troops, who have recently
arrested some prominent ethnic Albanians for
committing terrorist acts.
Before the war, Vitina was dominated by Serbs. Today
its population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian
as a result of the Albanians' post-war expulsion of
Serbs. The remaining 500 to 800 Serbs face a
persistent threat of grenade attacks, house burnings,
kidnappings or killings by ethnic Albanian
hard-liners, according to local and Western officials.
For some residents, "the war is not over," said Daut
Xhemajli, president of the municipal government
and a former official of the KLA, which waged a
guerrilla war to win Kosovo's independence from
Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. The KLA
announced it was disbanding after NATO
troops entered the province following the withdrawal
of Serbian military and police forces.
Mirroring the attitude toward NATO forces throughout
Kosovo, U.S. troops arrived here to find an
enormous reservoir of public goodwill. As Ramadani's
father, Saqif, said, "we consider the
Americans our biggest friends" because of Washington's
tough policy toward Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic. He said the family "didn't want to
make anything of this. . . . We hushed this
thing up."
But the beating – along with other alleged misconduct
– became a major topic of protest after U.S.
troops arrested Xhauit Hasani, a prominent ethnic
Albanian here who commanded a KLA unit.
Some Army officials say that ex-KLA rebels are
orchestrating the criticism to gain the
ex-commander's release from a holding cell at Camp
Bondsteel, the immense U.S. military
headquarters 10 miles northwest of here.
At the same time, some of the misconduct charges
appear to have merit, according to officials who
said they could not provide details. Moreover, they
acknowledge that the arrest here on Jan. 16 of
Army Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi on charges of raping
and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl
had undermined the morale and reputation of the "A"
company unit – even though local politicians
said they held only Ronghi responsible. Ronghi, 35, of
Niles, Ohio, is being held in investigative
custody at a military detention center in Mannheim,
Germany.
Many of the charges against the U.S. troops stem from
"A" company police activities on Jan. 6, one
of the weekly market days when hundreds of villagers
stream into the city. On that day, according to
allegations by a number of residents and local
officials, soldiers manhandled as many as eight people
and improperly patted some female ethnic Albanians
while searching for weapons among those in the
crowd.
Capt. Kevin Lambert, the "A" company commander,
declined to comment on the substance of the
charges, citing the probe. But he said the day was no
different than any other, and he had no reason
to suspect any wrongdoing until three days later, when
local officials organized a protest against
Hasani's arrest and raised the allegations for the
first time.
U.S. and local sources said that Hasani had attained
local fame during the war by smuggling arms
and food to KLA units through his home village of
Kluc, located at the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
U.S. soldiers arrested Hasani on a warrant issued by
Macedonian police, who had charged him with
murdering a Macedonian policeman last year. But they
also suspected Hasani and others, including
members of the provisional Kosovo government's
Interior Ministry, of being linked to recent acts of
violence against ethnic Albanians who bought homes or
businesses from Serbs and to a recent
grenade attack on a Serbian cafe.
After a visit here, a senior U.N. official said in a
memorandum to the top U.N. administrator that
NATO "has seized large amounts of heavy weaponry" from
ministry officials, and that the U.S.
peacekeepers suspected that ex-KLA fighters from
Vitina "planted an anti-tank mine" that killed a
U.S. soldier driving a jeep near the village of
Kamenica on Dec. 15. The mine evidently was meant
to detonate beneath trucks driven by Serbian residents
or Russian peacekeepers, other officials said.
Hasani was given a lie detector test at Camp
Bondsteel, according to his sons, Ramiz and Azem.
NATO troops have told them in recent days that Hasani
would be released, they said.
---
Kosovo Protection Corps begins work (B92 26/1/00)
PRISTINA, Wednesday - The Kosovo Protection Corps, the civil defence
force
formally constituted last week from former members of the outlawed
Kosovo
Liberation Army, began its official duties today clearing snow from in
front
of the Government Building in Pristina. Corps Commander Agim Ceku, UN
civilian mission chief Bernard Kouchner and KFOR Commander Klaus
Reinhardt
visited members of the new force as they began work.
---
Wed, Jan 26 at Prague 07:04 pm, N.Y. 01:04 pm
Kosovo Ex-Rebel Spokesman Compares Certain Peacekeepers To Serbs
PRISTINA, Jan 26, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Kosovo's international
administrators were accused Tuesday of using security tactics similar to
those of the 'Serbian criminals.'
The charges were made by Jakup Krasniqi, a spokesman for Kosovo's former
ethnic Albanian guerrillas, in letters to General Klaus Reinhardt,
commander of the international peacekeeping force KFOR, and UN
administration head Bernard Kouchner.
Krasniqi, of the Kosovo Democratic Progress Party of ex-rebel leader
Hashim Thaci, told AFP: "Certain acts by KFOR, in conjunction with the
UN police, remind us of the time of repression" under the Serbs.
He was referring to searches in recent weeks of figures who "symbolize
the resistance against Belgrade."
These included a search earlier this month of the house of Thaci's
brother, who fired a gun in public during New Year's eve celebrations.
Security forces found a large sum of money in various currencies and an
unlicensed gun in the house.
Krasniqi also accused KFOR of actions against former Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) commander Sulejman Selimi, and a relative of one of the
founders of the KLA, Adem Jashari, whose killing by Serb forces in 1997
sparked Albanian resistance.
"I still have trust in the NATO flag, in Mr. Kouchner and General
Reinhardt, but they should control their men," said Krasniqi.
Reinhardt and Kouchner apologised to Thaci for any inconvenience after
his brother and a bodyguard were briefly detained and ordered their men
to consult them before taking any more action against local leaders.
"Did the international forces come to Kosovo to help the Albanian people
who suffered the last holocaust of the century, or to carry on using, in
a slightly gentler form, the methods of the criminal Serb police"
Krasniqi wrote in the letter dated January 22.
He also accused certain forces within KFOR, including Russians, of
"receiving their orders directly from Belgrade." ((c) 2000 Agence France
Presse)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------
dopo l'attentato contro l'autobus (AP)
* 3/2/00: Attacco terroristico contro un autobus ("Il Manifesto")
* 3/2/00: Un migliaio di slavi-musulmani scappano dal Kosovo verso la
Serbia centrale (B92)
* 3/2/00: Programmate per marzo esercitazioni in Kosovo in vista della
prossima aggressione della NATO contro la RF di Jugoslavia (B92)
* 2/2/00: Due morti e cinque feriti in un attacco terroristico contro
l'autobus (B92)
* 2/2/00: Rugova disfa le sue istituzioni del "Kosova" (B92)
* 2/2/00: Liti tra fazioni albanesi, anche un morto ("Il Manifesto")
* 28/1/00: "Visita di Stato" di Thaci "il serpente" in Bulgaria (Tanjug)
* 29/1/00: 38 chili di eroina sequestrata su di un TIR albanese in
Bulgaria (Reuters)
* Il numero speciale di "National Geographic" dedicato al Kosovo: una
completa riscrittura della storia e della realta' attuale. Vergogna!
* Fondi tedeschi ed olandesi per aprire una Banca kosovara nuova di
zecca (IWPR 28/1/00)
* Civili schipetari sottoposti a maltrattamento da parte delle truppe
statunitensi presso Vitina (Washington Post 27/1/00)
* Iniziato il lavoro dell'UCKFOR nella nuova veste di "Corpo di
Protezione del Kosovo" (B92 22/1/00)
* Per la perquisizione, con sequestro di un arsenale, a casa del
fratello di Thaci e per le indagini su altri capibanda il portavoce UCK
Krasniqi e' infuriato; Kouchner e Reinhardt chiedono scusa (AFP 26/1/00)
---
Grenade thrown into Serb cafe in Kosovo
9.40 p.m. ET (249 GMT) February 3, 2000
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) — Violence erupted across this
Kosovo city violence Thursday night with two grenade attacks against
Serb cafes that left at least 20 people wounded and shootings that
claimed the lives of three ethnic Albanians.
The violence began when the two Albanian men were shot to death, the
multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Friday.
Half an hour later, a grenade was thrown into a Serb cafe, wounding
between 10 and 15 customers, said Lt. Col. Henning Philipp, spokesman
for the multinational force known as KFOR.
Minutes later, an ethnic Albanian woman was shot to death. That killing
was followed shortly afterwards by a grenade attack on another Serb cafe
that wounded 10 customers, Philipp said.
A day before, a rocket attack on a U.N. bus carrying Serb civilians left
two Serbs dead and three injured.
The attacks comes as ethnic tensions remain high in Kosovo.
Authorities say many ethnic Albanians were killed by Serb forces during
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's 18-month crackdown against
separatists here. After NATO bombing forced the Serb troops to withdraw
last spring, ethnic Albanians began attacking Serbs as revenge.
---
"Il Manifesto" del 3/2/2000:
KOSOVO
ATTENTATO A UN BUS DI CIVILI SERBI: DUE MORTI
Ennesimo attentato (è ormai un appuntamento quasi giornaliero) nei
confronti dei pochi serbi
ormai rimasti in Kosovo. Un autobus pieno di civili serbi è stato
colpito ieri, infatti, da un razzo
anticarro lanciato dai soliti "sconosciuti". Nell'attentato, due
passeggeri sono morti e altri cinque
sono rimasti feriti.
Il bus, messo a disposizione dall'organizzazione umanitaria Unhcr delle
Nazioni unite, era partito
da Kosovska Mitrovica (la città kosovara divisa in due - una parte
serba, l'altra albanese -
dall'odio etnico), nel nord della regione, nel pomeriggio di ieri, per
raggiungere la cittadina di
Durakovca. Dopo aver percorso appena quindici chilometri è stato colpito
dal razzo,
presumibilmente scagliato da albanesi. Gli uomini della Kfor (la forza
di pace della Nato), che
stavano scortando il veicolo, impotenti di fronte all'ennesima
aggressione, non hanno potuto far
altro che organizzare i soccorsi per le vittime.
La Unhcr organizza servizi di trasporto per i serbi che vogliono
spostarsi da una parte all'altra del
Kosovo nonostante gli innumerevoli rischi. Ma sono (come pure le forze
della Kfor) sempre più in
balia delle bande albanesi dell'ex Uck, cui hanno dato legittimità, e
che proseguono nella
campagna di "pulizia etnica" dei serbi e dei rom (di cui spesso sono
vittime anche quegli albanesi
considerati "collaborazionisti"), cominciata alla fine della guerra. E
che ha portato all'esodo dei
serbi e dei rom dal Kosovo.
---
Muslims flee Kosovo (B92 3/2/00)
PRISTINA, Thursday - About a thousand residents, most of them Muslim,
had
left the region of Prizren and Gora in Kosovo to take refuge in Novi
Pazar in
Central Serbia, UNHCR representative Maki Shinohara said today.
Shinohara
told media that the UNHCR had suspended all bus transport in Kosovo,
adding
that the services would not be continued until yesterday's attack on a
UNHCR
bus had been completed.
---
Socialists on NATO exercises in Kosovo (B92 3/2/00)
BELGRADE, Thursday - NATO is the key factor for destabilisation in
south-east
Europe, Socialist Party spokesman Ivica Dacic told media today. Dacic
was
commenting on the announcement that NATO forces will be on manoeuvres in
Kosovo in March. Brussels has justified the exercises saying that they
are a
preparation for a possible deterioration of the situation in the
province.
---
Serbs die in rocket attack on Kosovo bus (B92 2/2/00)
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Wednesday - Two Serbs are dead and another five
wounded
after a rocket attack on a bus near Kosovska Mitrovica this afternoon.
International forces representative Philip Anido said the UNHCR bus was
being
escorted by KFOR. No further details are available.
---
Rugova disbands parallel institutions (B92 2/2/00)
PRISTINA, Wednesday - The President of the Democratic League of Kosovo,
Ibrahim Rugova, announced today that he had disbanded the Kosovo
Albanian
parallel state government of which he was president. Rugova and the
president
of the parallel Kosovo Albanian Parliament, Idriz Ajeti, told media
today
that all parallel state institutions in the province were dissolved
yesterday. These included the parallel government and parliament, the
office
of the president of Kosovo and all related political, security and
administrative structures.
---
"Il Manifesto", 2/2/00:
KOSOVO UCCISO DALL'UCK IL LEADER DI UN PARTITO KOSOVARO
Non parte il governo "misto"
Onu delusa. Gli albanesi non rinunciano alle istituzioni parallele
- R. ES. - PRISTINA
D oveva essere un salto di qualità nella vita pubblica del Kosovo, ma è
finito in battibecchi tra
fazioni kosovaro-albanesi e con i funzionari dell'Onu. Ieri era prevista
la nascita ufficiale del
Struttura amministrativa unitaria ad interim (Jias), una sorta di
governo misto Onu-kosovari della
provincia, con tanto di ministeri (19) e un comitato di presidenza alla
cui testa c'è il
plenipotenziario delle Nazioni unite, Bernard Kouchner, dotato di potere
di veto su qualsiasi
decisione del collegio. Un governo comunque provvisorio, nell'attesa
delle elezioni - la cui
convocazione slitta di mese in mese - e della nascita di un "governo
dell'autonomia" tutto
kosovaro, come prevede la risoluzione 1244 del Consiglio di sicurezza
dell'Onu.
E se la leadership dei serbo-kosovari aveva declinato in un primo
momento l'invito a parteciparvi
- anzi era uscita da tutti gli organi consultivi creati dall'Onu, per
protestare contro la
trasformazione dell'Uck nei Corpi di protezione del Kosovo - negli
ultimi giorni ci ha ripensato e
sta trattando coi funzionari Onu per il suo ingresso nel governo
provvisorio e per la creazione di
entità "comunali" speciali nelle poche zone dove sono concentrati i
serbo-kosovari.
Ieri dunque doveva essere una giornata speciale. Così non è stato.
Convocati a Pristina, i vari
rappresentanti albanesi hanno inscenato una delle loro consuete liti
alla presenza degli avviliti
funzionari Onu. Il punto è che le isituzioni parallele create nel 1989
dalla Lega democratica del
Kosovo di Ibrahim Rugova - presidenza, governo e parlamento kosovaro
"clandestini" -
dovrebbero ora sciogliersi con la nascita della nuova istituzione. In
realtà il parlamento non ha
deliberato alcun autoscioglimento, il che ha mandato su tutte le furie i
falchi ex Uck di Thaci -
che intanto nel silenzio di Onu e Nato governano di fatto gran parte dei
comuni della provincia,
imponendo la loro legge. La sessione di ieri è finita dunque in insulti
ed è stata aggiornata a data
da definirsi.
Non si fermano intanto i regolamenti di conti dell'ex Uck nella
provincia; case bruciate (di serbi)
nei dintorni di Pristina e l'omicidio di un politico kosovaro-albanese,
Hassim Chuse, capo del
minuscolo Partito democrativo riformista. Il suo corpo con tre
proiettili in testa è stato trovato non
lontano da Prizren. Risultava scomparso dal 18 gennaio. Rapimento ed
esecuzione di un
avversario politico nel miglior stile Uck, che non tollera rivali nei
suoi territori. (...)
---
www.serbia-info.com/news
Thaqi's "state visit" to Sofia-giving political legitimacy to a
terrorist
January 29, 2000
SOFIA, Jan 28 (Tanjug) - The ruling structures in Sofia, taking their
cue from their NATO "allies," are sinking deeper and deeper in their
policy towards the situation in Kosovo. An instance of this is an
invitation by Ivan Kosov, leader of the Bulgarian rightist Alliance of
Democratic Forces and prime minister, to Hashim Thaqi, former leader of
the ethnic Albanian terrorist and separatist Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), to visit Sofia.
It has been officially confirmed in Sofia that Thaqi is due here on
Saturday, and will be received by Kostov, a state of affairs which,
according to the Sofia newspaper 24 Casa, will make it a state visit."
This move has put the Bulgarian government in a position where it gives
political legitimacy to a man who is on an international wanted list for
terrorism. The Serbian police has earlier a warrant for the arrest of
Thaqui due to based suspicion that he had committed many grave crime
offences and several murders.
The Bulgarian government, however, is careful to steer clear of
mentioning this very important point in Thaqi's biography, whom it
describes as leader of the certain Kosovo Democratic Progress Party and
member of the provisional administrative council. This "provisional
government," set up by U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) chief Bernard
Kouchner, is not recognized by Yugoslavia, if we exclude the Albanian
separatists.
Kostov's move, although at odds with international law, is not hard to
understand. The government in Sofia is trying by hook and by crook to
get close to and become a member of NATO and the European Union, and is
obviously willing to pay any price for a shortcut to Brussels. At the
time of NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia, Bulgarian government very
generously opened its air space to NATO planes, riggering a wave of
nationwide protests, which were especially bitter in Sofia. Protesters
condemned the country's officials, as well as U.S. President Bill
Clinton, telling the aggressors and their helpers that "the Balkans
belongs to the Balkan nations."
Evidently, the government in Sofia seems naively to believe that, if it
sells its sovereignty, it can get into NATO and the European Union more
easily and solve all its accumulated internal problems overnight.
However, at the recent Summit of the "fifteen" in Helsinki, Bulgaria
found itself in the second group of the country-candidates to enter EU,
which means it would have to wait at least 15 years, maybe longer. Ten
months ago, on the top meeting of 19 alliance countries in Washington,
it was clearly said that Bulgaria would not enter NATO easily and
swiftly.
The visit of Thaqi and Arben Xhaferi to Bulgaria has yet another
interesting aspect which the Bulgarian government will have to explain
to its citizens. Namely, Thaqui and Xhaferi, who are obviously trying to
project themselves as the Balkans' supreme Muslim leaders are to attend
a congress of the Rights and Freedoms Society, a party that rallies more
than a million ethnic Turks in Bulgaria. We should hope that Thaqi will
explain why even the Kosovo Turks have been targeted in ethnic Albanian
ethnic cleansing and forced conversion campaigns.
---
Sat, Jan 29 at Prague 03:45 pm, N.Y. 09:45 am
Bulgaria Seizes 38 Kg Heroin In Albanian Truck
SOFIA, Jan 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) Bulgarian customs said on Friday they
had seized 38.1 kg (84 lbs) of heroin hidden in an Albanian-registered
truck that was coming from Turkey.
Ivan Kutevski, spokesman for the Central Customs Directorate, told
Reuters the shipment was discovered at the Kapitan Andreevo border
checkpoint with Turkey and was hidden in the truck, which was
transporting metal doors.
The truck driver, a 43-year-old Albanian citizen, had been detained,
Kutevski added.
Crime experts said that the local street value of a dose of 0.250 grams
of heroin was between three levs ($1.5) and 10 levs.
Bulgaria, situated between Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Yugoslavia and
Romania, lies on the so-called Balkan route for smuggling drugs from
Asia to Europe. Customs say a total of 261 kg of heroin were seized at
Bulgarian borders last year.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria opened the first office under a joint
United Nations - European Union project to fight drug trafficking in the
Balkans.
---
LA FINE DI "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"
Quello che segue e' un classico esempio di come la "political
correctness" puo' diventare "scorrettezza scientifica" senza colpo
ferire.
Una rivista prestigiosa come "National Geographic", anziche' descrivere
il patrimonio naturale, culturale ed etnico della regione del Kosmet,
sta facendo propaganda antijugoslava di basso profilo.
Non ho avuto purtroppo ancora occasione di avere la rivista fra le mani,
ma sarei veramente curioso di vedere cosa si dice dei monasteri
bizantini e della loro distruzione sistematica, che e' in corso (piu' di
80 sono gia' stati devastati dall'UCK grazie alla provvidenziale
disattenzione della KFOR... ed anche di tanti nostri "intellettuali di
servizio").
Andrea
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 13:33:41 -0500 (EST)
BCC to: From: sndlist@...
(balkanpeace automailer)
Subject: Mailing list 'Rapid_Response': National
Geographic
Visit us on http://www.balkanpeace.org
---------------------------------------------
Molimo vas da se obratite National Geographic-u za njihove odvratne lazi
o
Kosovu i Jugoslaviji!
Uvjerite se i sami o njihovim lazima na:
http://www.ngnews.com/kosovo/
Pisite im na:
ngsforum@...
Evo samo jednog od pisama koje smo dobili u Centru od ljudi koji su se
javili da nam skrenu paznju na februarsko izdanje:
From: jon & lillian
Subject: National Geographic: lies about yugoslavia
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 22:06:30 -0500
Hello
We have a subscription to the National Geographic magazine and the
February issue has the most damning articles on Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
Just to begin with, all maps of Kosovo make it seem as if it is part
of
Albania. It is still part of Yugoslavia, which was part of the peace
accord signed at the end of the NATO bombing campaign.
The emphasis of the articles was on refugees, all on Kosovo, and never
once mentioned the fact the there are now one million refugees (acording
to the United Nations high commissioner) in Yugoslavia. There was a map
showing Kosovo and all the mass graves, hundreds of them. This, as we
have
found out lately is not true, which was verified by the FBI and RCMP,
among others.
Wherever the author of the article could, Serbians were slandered. You
must read it for yourself, it is too disturbing for me to quote all the
passages. It is American propoganda at some of its worst.
We have cancelled our subscription and written an e-mail. I urge
veryone
to write at:
ngsforum@... Jon
---
http://www.iwpr.net
WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 111, January 28, 2000
(...)
NEW KOSOVO BANK TO KICK-START ECONOMY
Kosovo's first commercial bank pledges to promote economic growth in one
of
the poorest regions in Europe.
By Llazar Semini in Pristina
Metal, a foundry in Pristina, is doing good business following the end
of
the Kosovo war last June.
The company has ambitious expansion plans, but needs investors. "We are
looking for partners and money," said Ymer Qerkini, Metal's manager,
who,
like many Kosovo businessmen, hopes the region's new commercial bank
will
help their enterprises grow.
The Micro Enterprise Bank (MEB), the first bank to be licensed in Kosovo
since last year's conflict, is aiming to meet an urgent demand for
financial
services. The bank, which began operating last Monday, January 24, said
it
acquired 70 new clients the following day.
"A bank is an indispensable part of daily life and Kosovo needed one now
that life is back to normal," said MEB's general manager Koen Wasmus.
MEB, located near the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in
Kosovo,
was founded at the initiative of several international financial
institutions and investment companies, with substantial funding from the
Dutch and German governments.
The bank will provide account management, money transfers, loans and
cashless payment transactions to small enterprises, as well as
individual
customers. Its credits will range from 2,000 to 200,000 German marks,
with
an interest rate of 18 per cent per year.
"Kosovo's economic recovery will increasingly depend on the availability
of
basic banking services," said Horst Koehler, president of the European
Bank
of Reconstruction, one of MEB's backers. "The Micro Enterprise Bank does
just that, giving ordinary people the means to provide for their own
livelihoods without resorting to handouts.
" It will also serve as a dependable, commercial-oriented source of
credit
for small businesses, which will form the backbone of a resurgent
Kosovar
economy."
Wasmus said he considered Kosovo's economy "a pyramid with a broad base
of
small firms with very strong committed people," but he warned that some
bigger corporations would not survive as they needed large investment.
"We have thought that we should assist small enterprises with the aim of
turning them into medium-sized ones," he said. "That is why we decided
to
work from the base of this pyramid and strengthen that."
"We aim to stay in Kosovo for some time," Wasmus said, adding that MEB's
shareholders wanted to see their money back in five to ten years.
At the end of the Kosovo conflict last year, the region's financial
system
was in a shambles, so the MEB had to start from scratch. "We have
provided
intensive training to a number of young and highly motivated banking
trainees - most of whom had no previous banking experience," said
Wasmus.
"They received on-the-job training with similar micro-credit banks in
Albania and Bosnia."
MEB will be based in Pristina with a staff of 31 - 26 of whom are
Albanian.
Branches are due to open soon in Prizren (early February) and Peje
(March or
April). After three years, the bank is expected to have seven branches.
A spokesman for the International Finance Corporation, another of the
bank's
sponsors, said the project would create jobs and improve people's lives.
"A
major impediment to growth has been the lack of access to credit which
is
one of the main vehicles for promoting economic growth.
"By demonstrating the commercial viability of properly structured and
organized lending institutions, we can catalyze considerable private
investments to build credit and other financial services for many poor
people in Kosovo."
Llazar Semini is IWPR Project Manager in Pristina.
IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 111
---
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Army Probes Behavior of U.S. Soldiers in Kosovo
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday , January 28, 2000 ; A17
VITINA, Yugoslavia, Jan. 27 – Baki Ramadani slipped on
the ice that covered almost every street
in this city in eastern Kosovo three weeks ago and
accidentally jostled a U.S. Army soldier standing
guard at the NATO military base. Challenged to explain
himself, Ramadani signaled with his hands
because he is unable to speak or hear, as medical
documents stored in his breast pocket made clear.
Ramadani's efforts failed, however, and he quickly
found himself knocked to the ground, where the
soldier kicked him, striking him in the head,
according to his parents and two brothers. They said
they saw the bruises and got a description later from
Ramadani – who told them in sign language –
and from an ethnic Albanian friend of Ramadani who was
briefly arrested for attempting to intervene.
Army investigators flown here from a U.S. base in
Germany began a probe of the Jan. 6 incident this
week, along with several other allegations by ethnic
Albanians of mistreatment by U.S. soldiers –
including beatings, inappropriate body searches of
women and harassment.
The results of the investigation will not be released
for at least a week, but Western officials say the
investigators' goal is to examine what might have gone
awry with the U.S. peacekeeping mission in
this ethnically mixed and politically volatile city,
estranging some soldiers from the population they
came here to protect. It is the first large-scale
probe since NATO peacekeepers arrived last June
following the end of the allied air campaign against
Yugoslavia.
Already, the Army's "A" company, 3rd Battalion, 504th
Infantry, which was assigned here last
September, has been redeployed to another city, a
month sooner than normal.
Some Western officials say most of the tensions have
been provoked by former guerrillas with the
ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who
control the city and are resisting sharing
power and influence with either NATO troops or United
Nations administrators. The officials
suggest the charges have been largely manufactured to
discredit the U.S. troops, who have recently
arrested some prominent ethnic Albanians for
committing terrorist acts.
Before the war, Vitina was dominated by Serbs. Today
its population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian
as a result of the Albanians' post-war expulsion of
Serbs. The remaining 500 to 800 Serbs face a
persistent threat of grenade attacks, house burnings,
kidnappings or killings by ethnic Albanian
hard-liners, according to local and Western officials.
For some residents, "the war is not over," said Daut
Xhemajli, president of the municipal government
and a former official of the KLA, which waged a
guerrilla war to win Kosovo's independence from
Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. The KLA
announced it was disbanding after NATO
troops entered the province following the withdrawal
of Serbian military and police forces.
Mirroring the attitude toward NATO forces throughout
Kosovo, U.S. troops arrived here to find an
enormous reservoir of public goodwill. As Ramadani's
father, Saqif, said, "we consider the
Americans our biggest friends" because of Washington's
tough policy toward Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic. He said the family "didn't want to
make anything of this. . . . We hushed this
thing up."
But the beating – along with other alleged misconduct
– became a major topic of protest after U.S.
troops arrested Xhauit Hasani, a prominent ethnic
Albanian here who commanded a KLA unit.
Some Army officials say that ex-KLA rebels are
orchestrating the criticism to gain the
ex-commander's release from a holding cell at Camp
Bondsteel, the immense U.S. military
headquarters 10 miles northwest of here.
At the same time, some of the misconduct charges
appear to have merit, according to officials who
said they could not provide details. Moreover, they
acknowledge that the arrest here on Jan. 16 of
Army Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi on charges of raping
and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl
had undermined the morale and reputation of the "A"
company unit – even though local politicians
said they held only Ronghi responsible. Ronghi, 35, of
Niles, Ohio, is being held in investigative
custody at a military detention center in Mannheim,
Germany.
Many of the charges against the U.S. troops stem from
"A" company police activities on Jan. 6, one
of the weekly market days when hundreds of villagers
stream into the city. On that day, according to
allegations by a number of residents and local
officials, soldiers manhandled as many as eight people
and improperly patted some female ethnic Albanians
while searching for weapons among those in the
crowd.
Capt. Kevin Lambert, the "A" company commander,
declined to comment on the substance of the
charges, citing the probe. But he said the day was no
different than any other, and he had no reason
to suspect any wrongdoing until three days later, when
local officials organized a protest against
Hasani's arrest and raised the allegations for the
first time.
U.S. and local sources said that Hasani had attained
local fame during the war by smuggling arms
and food to KLA units through his home village of
Kluc, located at the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
U.S. soldiers arrested Hasani on a warrant issued by
Macedonian police, who had charged him with
murdering a Macedonian policeman last year. But they
also suspected Hasani and others, including
members of the provisional Kosovo government's
Interior Ministry, of being linked to recent acts of
violence against ethnic Albanians who bought homes or
businesses from Serbs and to a recent
grenade attack on a Serbian cafe.
After a visit here, a senior U.N. official said in a
memorandum to the top U.N. administrator that
NATO "has seized large amounts of heavy weaponry" from
ministry officials, and that the U.S.
peacekeepers suspected that ex-KLA fighters from
Vitina "planted an anti-tank mine" that killed a
U.S. soldier driving a jeep near the village of
Kamenica on Dec. 15. The mine evidently was meant
to detonate beneath trucks driven by Serbian residents
or Russian peacekeepers, other officials said.
Hasani was given a lie detector test at Camp
Bondsteel, according to his sons, Ramiz and Azem.
NATO troops have told them in recent days that Hasani
would be released, they said.
---
Kosovo Protection Corps begins work (B92 26/1/00)
PRISTINA, Wednesday - The Kosovo Protection Corps, the civil defence
force
formally constituted last week from former members of the outlawed
Kosovo
Liberation Army, began its official duties today clearing snow from in
front
of the Government Building in Pristina. Corps Commander Agim Ceku, UN
civilian mission chief Bernard Kouchner and KFOR Commander Klaus
Reinhardt
visited members of the new force as they began work.
---
Wed, Jan 26 at Prague 07:04 pm, N.Y. 01:04 pm
Kosovo Ex-Rebel Spokesman Compares Certain Peacekeepers To Serbs
PRISTINA, Jan 26, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Kosovo's international
administrators were accused Tuesday of using security tactics similar to
those of the 'Serbian criminals.'
The charges were made by Jakup Krasniqi, a spokesman for Kosovo's former
ethnic Albanian guerrillas, in letters to General Klaus Reinhardt,
commander of the international peacekeeping force KFOR, and UN
administration head Bernard Kouchner.
Krasniqi, of the Kosovo Democratic Progress Party of ex-rebel leader
Hashim Thaci, told AFP: "Certain acts by KFOR, in conjunction with the
UN police, remind us of the time of repression" under the Serbs.
He was referring to searches in recent weeks of figures who "symbolize
the resistance against Belgrade."
These included a search earlier this month of the house of Thaci's
brother, who fired a gun in public during New Year's eve celebrations.
Security forces found a large sum of money in various currencies and an
unlicensed gun in the house.
Krasniqi also accused KFOR of actions against former Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) commander Sulejman Selimi, and a relative of one of the
founders of the KLA, Adem Jashari, whose killing by Serb forces in 1997
sparked Albanian resistance.
"I still have trust in the NATO flag, in Mr. Kouchner and General
Reinhardt, but they should control their men," said Krasniqi.
Reinhardt and Kouchner apologised to Thaci for any inconvenience after
his brother and a bodyguard were briefly detained and ordered their men
to consult them before taking any more action against local leaders.
"Did the international forces come to Kosovo to help the Albanian people
who suffered the last holocaust of the century, or to carry on using, in
a slightly gentler form, the methods of the criminal Serb police"
Krasniqi wrote in the letter dated January 22.
He also accused certain forces within KFOR, including Russians, of
"receiving their orders directly from Belgrade." ((c) 2000 Agence France
Presse)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
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