(english / con brevissimi titoli in italiano;
fonte della stragrande maggioranza dei testi sono
Rick Rozoff, attraverso la lista yugoslaviainfo @yahoogroups.com
ed il sito internet http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/ )
NEVERENDING POGROMS IN KOSMET (3)
# LINKS / collegamenti a notizie fino all'inizio di giugno
# NEWS / agenzie di stampa e brevi articoli:
- Serbs attached 186 times since beginning of talks / 186 ATTENTATI
ANTISERBI DALL'INIZIO DEI "COLLOQUI" DI VIENNA
- Slavica Dejanovic wounded outside her house / FERITA UNA DONNA SERBA
- Serb leaders in Kosovo rebel / I LEADER SERBO-KOSOVARI ROMPONO CON
L'AMMINISTRAZIONE LOCALE
- Kosovo premier congratulates Montenegrins, thanks them for
support / SECESSIONISTI KOSOVARI GIOISCONO PER SECESSIONE MONTENEGRINA
- Moscow city govt donates USD 2 bln to Serbian refugees / DONAZIONI
DALLA RUSSIA PER LE VITTIME SERBE DEI POGROM
- Council of Europe on Kosovo / IL CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA SUL KOSOVO
- Province is human rights' "black hole" / IL BUCO NERO DEI DIRITTI
UMANI È AL CENTRO DELL'EUROPA
- United Nations vehicle attacked near Kosovska Mitrovica / VEICOLO
ONU PRESO DI MIRA
- UNHCR acknowledges plan for Serb evacuation / L'UNHCR (ONU) RENDE
NOTO IL PROPRIO PIANO PER CANCELLARE LA PRESENZA SERBA DALLA PROVINCIA
- Shots fired at returnees / PROFUGHI RIENTRATI IN KOSOVO PRESI DI MIRA
- Serbs in northern Kosovo say they have formed own security units /
FORMATE UNITÀ DI AUTODIFESA SERBE AL NORD
- Kosovo Serbs report 70 incidents to UN envoy / 70 "INCIDENTI"
DENUNCIATI
- Billboards and Posters Against Serbian Goods Spring up in Kosovo /
CAMPAGNA RAZZISTA PER IL BOICOTTAGGIO DEI PRODOTTI SERBI
- Another Serb municipality in northern Kosovo introduces emergency
measures / MISURE DI EMERGENZA NELLA MUNICIPALITÀ SERBA
- Bomb damages Kosovo customs vehicle / ORDIGNO CONTRO VEICOLO UNMIK
- Kosovo Albanians open fire at car with British tourists / SCAMBIATO
PER SERBO, TURISTA BRITANNICO RISCHIA LA VITA
- Kosovo: UN refugee agency remains concerned at persecution risk for
minorities / UNHCR PREOCCUPATA PER ROM ED ALTRE MINORANZE
- Serbia demands independence for Republika Srpska / DOPO IL KOSOVO
LA REPUBBLICA SERBA DI BOSNIA
- Terror on rise / AUMENTA IL TERRORE NELLA PROVINCIA "LIBERATA"
DALLA NATO DI D'ALEMA
- Church vandalised in Obilić / CHIESA VANDALIZZATA
- Serb found dead at his home in Kosovo, police confirm / SERBO
TROVATO MORTO AMMAZZATO
- Kosovo Serbs Recruit Former Soldiers for Defense / I SERBI
ORGANIZZANO L'AUTODIFESA CONTRO IL NEONAZISMO PANALBANESE APPOGGIATO
DA "EUROPA" ED USA
- Serbian church in northern Kosovo attacked again / NUOVO ATTACCO
CONTRO CHIESA
- Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo / ANCORA UN CIMITERO PROFANATO
- Bomb thrown on bus in Serb village / ORDIGNO CONTRO BUS SERBO
- German General Kater assumes KFOR command / COME NEL 1943: GENERALE
TEDESCO RIMPIAZZA ITALIANO ED ASSUME IL COMANDO DELLE TRUPPE DI
OCCUPAZIONE
- Blair warns Serbs to accept different vision for Kosovo / TONY
BLAIR AI SERBI: VOI SUL KOSOVO FARETE QUELLO CHE DICIAMO NOI
- Vecerne Novosti: Agim Ceku Certain that Washington and London Back
Kosovo’s Independence / IL "PREMIER" CRIMINALE DI GUERRA: WASHINGTON
E LONDRA CI APPOGGIANO
- Balkan Web: Albania and Kosovo Will Intensify Cooperation in all
Spheres / SI STRINGONO I LEGAMI PAN-ALBANESI
- Serbia warns of break with west over Kosovo / DETERIORAMENTO DELLE
RELAZIONI TRA SERBIA ED OCCIDENTE
- Kosovo Albanians arrested for attack on police in divided town -
TV / 5 PAN-ALBANESI ATTACCANO POLIZIA A MITROVICA NORD E SONO ARRESTATI
- Politika: Russia hints veto over Kosovo / LA RUSSIA POTREBBE USARE
IL VETO ALL'ONU CONTRO LA SECESSIONE KOSOVARA
- Putin warns against double standards in separatist republics /
PUTIN CONTRO I "DUE PESI DUE MISURE"
=== LINKS: ===
SHOTS FIRED AT SERBIAN CLERGYMAN IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 8, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet050706.htm
SERBS ATTACKED BY ALBANIAN MOB IN KOSOVO
Mina (Montenegro) - May 9, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mina050906.htm
U.S. MILITARY ADVISOR WARNS THAT AN INDEPENDENT KOSOVO WOULD BE
CRIMINAL STATE SIMILAR TO AFGHANISTAN UNDER THE TALIBAN
The Washington Times - May 10, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/wt050906.htm
TWO SERBS SHOT IN KOSOVO
Radio-Television Serbia - May 11, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts051106.htm
GERMANY ARRESTS KOSOVO-ALBANIAN FOR ATROCITIES IN KOSOVO
Blic - May 12, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/blic051206.htm
ANOTHER SERBIAN CHURCH DESECRATED IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 13, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet051106.htm
BUS CARRYING SERBS ATTACKED BY ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 14, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet051206.htm
SERB-OWNED BUSINESS DESTROYED BY ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADE IN KOSOVO
Radio-Television Serbia - May 16, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts051606.htm
ITALIAN POLICE CATCH KOSOVO-ALBANIAN MOBSTERS BOASTING ABOUT THE
DESTRUCTION OF SERBIAN CHURCHES IN WIRETAP OPERATION
Vecernje Novosti - Wednesday, May 18, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn051706.htm
SEVERAL INJURIES IN FIGHTING AFTER ALBANIAN MAN OPENS FIRE ON SERBIAN
REFUGEE OFFICE IN NORTHERN MITROVICA
SRNA - May 19, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna051906.htm
SERBIAN POLICE NAB KOSOVO HEROIN TRAFFICKER ON CROATIAN BORDER
UPI - May 21, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/upi051906.htm
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WOULD LEAD TO FORMATION OF ISLAMIC TERROR STATE
Vecernje Novosti - May 22, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn052106.htm
SQUAD OF UN POLICE AND TWO SERBIAN LAWYERS ATTACKED BY ALBANIAN
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN" IN KOSOVO
AFP - May 26, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp052505.htm
MONTENEGRIN SOVEREIGNTY ENDANGERED BY ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - May 29, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dfasa052606b.htm
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WILL PRECIPITATE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM IN
REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
SRNA - June 1, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna052806.htm
BRIDGE LINKING TWO KOSOVO-SERB COMMUNITIES DESTROYED BY BOMB
B92 - June 2, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060106.htm
PUTIN: KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WILL DESTROY EUROPE
Agence France Presse - June 3, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp060206.htm
UNMIK PLANNING FOR EXPULSION OF 70,000 KOSOVO-SERBS IF KOSOVO GAINS
INDEPENDENCE
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - June 5, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dpa053106.htm
=== NEWS: ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp060106.htm
SERBIAN OFFICIAL: SERBS ATTACKED 186 TIMES SINCE GREEN LIGHT FOR
KOSOVO TALKS
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 1, 2006, Thursday
Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 1 June
[Announcer] The [Serbian] Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija's
press centre in Kosovska Mitrovica said that barricades made of
branches had been set up on the Zvecan-Zitkovac road [where body of
Kosovo Serb was found early this morning with three gunshot wounds],
adding that a number of 7.65-mm calibre shells had been found at the
scene. This is the third serious incident in the area in the past
month. Before that, a vehicle carrying a Serbian Orthodox Church
priest with his family had been fired at, and then two ethnic Serb
youths were gravely injured in an armed attack at a petrol station.
The Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija chairwoman, Sanda
Raskovic-Ivic, today most harshly condemned the incident in the
vicinity of Zvecan, describing the event as a tragedy. In a statement
for Kontakt Plus radio, Raskovic-Ivic recalled that there had been
186 incidents since 24 October 2005, when the decision was taken to
begin talks about the future of Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija].
[Raskovic-Ivic] I made a point of mentioning this date because it was
the date set for the beginning of negotiations about the future
status of Kosovo. In this way we see that in Kosovo, nothing has
changed in practice. We see that the police are not doing their job,
that the Albanians attacked the Serbs 186 times before the very nose
of the international community, incidents in which we had two fatal
outcomes and over 20 persons suffering grave injuries. All this
provides very serious cause for concern, a two-fold concern. The
first is what happens when the international community leaves Kosovo-
Metohija, and the other is that the police are not doing their job,
whether it is the UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo]
police or the Kosovo Police Service [KPS].
[Announcer] Raskovic-Ivic concluded that the latest incident near
Zvecan was yet another story whose ending is not yet known.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet060406.htm
KOSOVO SERB WOMAN SAYS SHOTS FIRED AT HER FROM ALBANIAN VILLAGE
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 4, 2006, Sunday
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Kosovska Mitrovica, 4 June: The life of Slavica Dejanovic, who was
wounded outside her house in the village of Priluzje near Kosovo
Polje at around 1400 [1200 gmt] today, is not in danger, the Kosovska
Mitrovica hospital director Marko Jaksic has confirmed for FoNet.
According to him, her shoulder was injured and, following surgery,
she is stable.
Jaksic said that Slavica had told doctors that she had been shot at
from the direction of the Albanian village of Donje Trnovce.
---
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/05/news/kosovo.php
International Herald Tribune
Reuters, The Associated Press
June 6, 2006
Serb leaders in Kosovo rebel
ZVECAN - Serbia Serbian leaders in north Kosovo said
Monday that they had cut off all contact with the
province's ethnic Albanian authorities, a new sign of
resistance as the Albanian majority pushes for
independence from Serbia this year.
At a protest in the town of Zvecan, leaders of the
50,000 Serbs in north Kosovo declared a "state of
emergency" in response to a spate of shootings that
they attribute to Albanian separatists.
They demanded the return of the Serbian police, who
were forced to leave the province in 1999 with the
Yugoslav Army under an agreement to end 78 days of
NATO bombing.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 provides for the
return of up to 1,000 Serbian police.
....
The United Nations has contingency plans for an exodus
of Serbs in the event the 90-percent ethnic Albanian
majority gets its own state, while NATO said last week
that it planned to bolster patrols in the north by
reopening a military base.
In another development Monday, the Serbian Parliament
proclaimed the Balkan republic a sovereign state,
following Montenegro's decision to declare
independence from their union and dissolve what was
left of Yugoslavia.
The 126 lawmakers who voted unanimously acknowledged
that their state was the heir to the union of Serbia
and Montenegro - the last shred of what was once a
six-member Yugoslav federation. Parliament has 250
deputies, but the opposition boycotted the vote,
walking out just beforehand.
---
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/06/kosovo-premier-
congratulates.html
KohaVision TV (Kosovo)
June 5, 2006
Kosovo premier congratulates Montenegrins, thanks them for support
[Text of report by Kosovo Albanian television
KohaVision TV on 5 June]
[Announcer] By saying Yes to independence, Montenegro,
our neighbour in the West, has fulfilled its
aspiration to break away from Serbian control and
become an equal member of the family of sovereign and
independent nations of the world, Kosova [Kosovo]
Premier Agim Ceku said in his weekly radio address to
the nation.
The birth of this new country in the Balkans, on the
periphery of Europe is, according to the prime
minister, the *penultimate* act of Yugoslavia's
disintegration....
Our relations with Montenegro have shown signs of
improvement since the Dayton accords [US-brokered 1995
Bosnian peace agreement] and gradually culminated in
our liberation war....
The Kosova people will never forget the hospitality
the Montenegrin government and people showed during
1998-99 when they sheltered hundreds of thousands of
Albanians...the Kosova prime minister said.
....
It is time for the Montenegrin minority to come out
openly and help strengthen our institutions, our
common Kosova.
Kosova is awaiting a definition of its status,
independence and sovereignty.
We will then move faster towards Europe.
Until then we wish the Montenegrin government and the
people a good journey, prosperity and peace, assuring
them that we will soon meet in a united Europe, Kosova
Premier Ceku underlined in his weekly address.
---
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=9585128&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
June 6, 2006
Moscow city govt donates USD 2 bln to Serbian refugees
BELGRADE - Moscow city government has donated two
million U.S. dollars to build housing for Serbian
refugees returning to Kosovo, a source at the
Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija said on
Tuesday.
A delegation of the Moscow city government has arrived
in Belgrade to meet with the Coordinating Centre’s
head Sanda Raskovic-Ivic to discuss “technical
implementation of the project.”
The funds will be earmarked for building 75 homes in
Ljug and Blagaca, northeast of Kosovo.
Serbian families who fled from the region in 1999 will
be able to return to Kosovo by the end of the year.
“Construction work is already in progress,” the source
said.
Raskovic-Ivic expressed to the Moscow city government
“sincere gratitude for fraternal help for the Serbians
refugees returning to Kosovo.”
She pointed out that this process requires “long-term
comprehensive efforts and the Moscow city government
helped us a lot in this sense.”
---
From: tim fenton
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] Council of Europe on Kosovo
Date: June 7, 2006 10:17:45 PM GMT+02:00
Not surprisingly the CIA has found the legal limbo of Kosovo &
Metohija suits their nefarious requirements to mistreat suspects
perfect. The Council of Europe paper published recently has the
following comments:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?Link=/CommitteeDocs/
2006/20060606_Ejdoc162006PartII-FINAL.htm#P1163_244624
264. Legality and fairness by no means preclude firmness, but confer
genuine legitimacy and credibility on a state’s inevitable preventive
actions. In this respect, some of the international community’s
attitudes are disturbing. I have already mentioned the unacceptable
practice involving the application of UN Security Council sanctions
on the basis of black lists. Another example is the situation in
Kosovo, where the international community intervened to restore
peace, justice and democracy: the inhabitants of this region are
still the only people in Europe – with the exception of Belarus –
not
to have access to the European Court of Human Rights; its prisons are
a virtual black hole, not open for inspections or monitoring by the
Committee for the Prevention of Torture. In the name of what
legitimacy, and with what credibility, is this same international
community entitled to lecture Serbia? Examples are more effective
than threats (Corneille).
[...]
291. The international community is finally urged to create more
transparency in the places of detention in Kosovo, which to date
qualify as ‘black holes’ that cannot even be accessed by the CPT.
This is frankly intolerable, considering that the international
intervention in this region was meant to restore order and lawfulness.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Security&loid=8.0.307207490&par=0
ADN Kronos Internatioal (Italy)
June 6, 2006
KOSOVO: PROVINCE IS A HUMAN RIGHTS "BLACK HOLE" FOR SERBS, OFFICIAL
WARNS
Belgrade - The ethnic Albanian majority southern
province of Kosovo's tiny Serb minority is facing
annihilation, a senior Serb official on Tuesday warned
the UN chief representative in Kosovo, Soren Jessen
Petersen.
The Serbian government's coordinator for Kosovo, Sanda
Raskovic Ivic, told Jessen Petersen that Kosovo is a
‘black hole’ when it comes to human rights, blaming
the international community for not doing its job
there.
Since the continuing talks on Kosovo's final status
started last October, 186 ethnically motivated
incidents against Serbs have taken place, including
two murders and 20 serious injuries.
There will soon be no Serbs in Kosovo if the present
situation continues, Raskovic Ivic told Jessen
Petersen in a letter.
She pointed out that 140,000 remaining Serbs in Kosovo
live in isolated ghettos, without freedom of movement
and basic human rights, including the “right to live”.
Serb officials have previously accused Petersen of
bias in his support for the ethnic Albanian drive for
independence.
Serbs in Kosovo were the victims of constant
harassment and even murders by the majority ethnic
Albanians, Raskovic Ivic stated.
“Today, Kosovo and Metohija (the Serbian name for the
province) is a ‘black hole’ when it comes to human
rights, and many democratic countries keep assaulting
the territorial integrity of Serbia through their
officials and lobbyists,” said Raskovic.
"Serbs are the most endangered ethnic group in Europe.
Today an ethnocide is being carried out on its soil in
front of the international police force, which simply
looks the other way, not wishing to see the reality,”
she said.
Raskovic Ivic blamed the United Nations Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK) for "killing even the Serbian word" by
censuring its press. "Only this time the gunshot did
not come from an Albanian sniper, it was fired from
UNMIK’s office,” Raskovic concluded.
The dramatic letter, distributed to the press, was
written on the eve of the seventh anniversary of
Kosovo being put under UN control in June 1999 and
ahead of Petersen’s imminent report to the UN Security
Council on the situation in Kosovo.
Over 3,000 Serbs have been killed or listed as missing
since the province was put under United Nations
control in 1999.
Belgrade and local Serbs oppose Kosovo's independence,
which they regard as the birthplace of their state,
preferring a form of broad autonomy for the province.
According to signals from world powers, the
international community is now moving towards granting
Kosovo independence - wanted by most of its 1.7
million ethnic Albanians.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060806.htm
KOSOVO ALBANIANS ATTACK UN VEHICLE NEAR MITROVICA
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 8, 2006, Thursday
Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on
8 June
Kosovska Mitrovica, 8 June: A group of Albanians attacked a United
Nations vehicle near Kosovska Mitrovica today.
"About 15 Albanians, slightly older than the age of 20, jumped out
onto the road. I had to slow down the bus to make sure that I would
not run anyone over. They used this move to approach the bus, kick it
and hit it with sticks and throw rocks at it. I was able to get the
bus out somehow, by swerving on the road and trying to escape," said
bus driver Aleksandar Trajkovic.
The back window of the vehicle was broken during the attack, but no-
one was injured.
This same bus had already been attacked twice in the same village of
Rudnik, once on 9 May and another time on 12 May. Since these
incidents, Kosovo police have been escorting the vehicle on its
trips, though today the police were, for unknown reasons, not present.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.308264568&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
Jun 8, 2006
KOSOVO: UNHCR ACKNOWLEDGES PLAN FOR SERB EVACUATION
Pristina - The United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) has acknowledged the existence of a
contingency plan to evacuate 70,000 Serbs from the
southern Kosovo province if the region became
independent as expected this year.
In an interview with Belgrade daily Vecernje novosti,
Sandra Mitchell, an official of the UN administration
in Kosovo (UNMIK), played down the significance of the
plan, saying: "Such plans are prepared everywhere
where political processes with possible incidents are
taking place, which may influence the displacement of
people."
"The UNHCR plan for the acceptance of some 70,000
refugees from Kosovo is nothing unusual, but an
obligation of the organisation," said Mitchell.
But she added she was convinced the exodus would not
take place should the international community cede to
ethnic Albanian majority demands for Kosovo's
independence.
Mitchell said that several thousand Serbs have shown
interest in returning to Kosovo, after some 250,000
fled the province when it was put under UN control in
1999.
"Unfortunately, the number of returnees of Serb and
other non-Albanian communities is much smaller than
expected. According to UNHCR data, about 14,500 people
have returned, of which 40 percent are Serbs, which is
still a very small number," Mitchell said.
UNMIK this week announced it was sending some 500 new
international peackeepers to Kosovo to stem the rise
in inter-ethnic incidents that has occurred as Kosovo
appears to be moving closer towards independence.
UNMIK said that the reinforcements would be stationed
in northern Kosovo, populated mostly by Serbs, raising
speculations in Belgrade press that the purpose was
actually to prevent the partitioning of Kosovo if it
became independent.
Belgrade opposes Kosovo's independence, favouring
instead broad autonomy for the province's 1.7 million
ethnic Albanians.
However, ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will
settle for nothing short of independence.
UNMIK chief Soren Jessen Petersen is expected on 20
June to deliver a report to the UN Security Council on
the situation in the province.
Petersen’s term expires at the end of June and
Pristina media reported on Thursday that he would
leave the post, which would temporarily be taken over
by his deputy, American general Steven Shuck.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060906.htm
SHOTS FIRED AT KOSOVO SERB RETURNEES, SAYS OFFICIAL
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 9, 2006, Friday
Text of report by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 9 June
Ljug, 9 June: Automatic rifle shots were fired last night at a house
in the settlement of Ljug, which is being used by Serb returnees
until their homes are ready.
Rados Vulic from the Kosovo Coordination Centre said that the attack
occurred at 0030 [2230 gmt] while there were 10 people in the house,
who are waiting for the completion of building work on their houses
in Ljug.
No-one was injured in the attack. "The aim of the assailants was to
intimidate Serbs, thereby dissuading them from settling down in their
new homes. Two days ago unknown perpetrators cut the power cable and
took away the electrical fittings from one of the houses, as well as
putting up an Albanian flag on another house also under
construction," Vulic said.
The incidents have been reported to the Kosovo Police Service.
---
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/06/serbs-in-northern-kosovo-say-
they-have.html
Associated Press
June 12, 2006
Serbs in northern Kosovo say they have formed own security units
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Serbs in tense northern Kosovo
said Monday they have formed neighborhood security
units following a recent spate of attacks in the area.
The U.N. police said they had no knowledge of such
units.
The Serb Coordination Center said in a statement that
the self-styled observation posts and vigilante groups
were set up at "potentially dangerous points" last
week to stave off possible attacks against the Serbs
in northern Kosovo.
"Constant attacks on the Serbs and their property,
from robberies to murders, have forced us to organize
ourselves," the statement said. It added that the
units were formed with the help of members of the
Kosovo police and former Serb police. No other details
were given.
There was no immediate comment from the U.N.
authorities in Kosovo, who have run the province since
a 1999 war. The U.N. police in Kosovska Mitrovica -
the divided city that is the center of northern Kosovo
- said they were not aware that the units were formed.
The Serbs last week have complained of growing
incidents in the region, and the U.N. authorities
promised to send additional police to step up
security.
Forming of Serb-only units could fuel tensions in
Kosovo, amid the ongoing U.N.-brokered negotiations
that will decide whether the province will gain
independence or remain part of Serbia.
Kosovo now formally is a Serbian province, but it has
been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999,
when a NATO air war against Serbia forced Belgrade to
end a crackdown against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian
separatists and pull out of the province.
Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo insist on gaining
independence, while the minority Serbs and Belgrade
want the province to remain within Serbia.
Also Monday, Serbia's president Boris Tadic warned
that "any form of independence" for Kosovo would
destabilize the Balkans. Serbia has offered Kosovo
full autonomy from Belgrade's government, but not
territorial independence.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet061106.htm
Kosovo Serbs report 70 incidents to UN envoy
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 11, 2006
Excerpt from report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Kosovska Mitrovica, 11 June: UN envoy for Kosovo status talks Marti
Ahtisaari has held talks in Kosovska Mitrovica with representatives
of the Serb National Council [SNV] of northern Kosovo who warned him
that democratic standards are not being achieved in Kosovo despite
UNMIK [UN mission in Kosovo] claims to the contrary.
SNV chairman Milan Ivanovic told a news conference that Ahtisaari was
informed about 70 ethnically-motivated incidents which had recently
taken place in the Mitrovica region.
Ivanovic said that the Finnish diplomat was warned that
representatives of Kosovo institutions were trying to conceal the
background to crimes against Kosovo Serbs.
"We told Ahtisaari in no uncertain terms that an independent Kosovo
is unacceptable for the Serbs and that it would lead to ethnic
cleansing of the Serb community," Ivanovic said. [Passage omitted]
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=90104&ch=0
Focus News Agency
June 10, 2006
Billboards and Posters Against Serbian Goods Spring up in Kosovo
Kosovska Mitrovica - Billboards and posters appeared
all around Kosovo calling for a boycott of Serbian
goods in the region, the Serbian news agency TANJUG
reports.
The goods in question are products of Serbian
companies that produce building materials, foods,
medicine, etc.
According to the Serbian Statistical Institute in 2005
Serbia marketed in Kosovo goods amounting to EUR 144,4
million while Kosovo marketed on the Serbian market
goods amounting only to EUR 3,3 million.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp061406.htm
Another Serb municipality in northern Kosovo introduces emergency
measures
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 14, 2006, Wednesday
Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 13 June
[Announcer] Leposavic municipal deputies decided today [13 June] to
introduce emergency measures in this northern Kosovo municipality and
to cut all ties with Kosovo interim institutions. Zeljko Tvrdisic
reports.
[Tvrdisic] This is the third municipality in northern Kosovo,
following Zvecan and Zubin Potok, which decided to cut ties with the
Kosovo government due to, as it was stated, alarmingly-worsened
security situation in this part of Kosovo. Besides the decision that
Serbs refuse to receive salaries and all other dues from Kosovo
institutions, the deputies also supported a general petition from
last week's rally in Zvecan, that they get self-organized for
security reasons. It was also mentioned that the Leposavic
municipality was prepared, if the previous petition is not met, to
take part in employing and financing 999 Serb policemen. The measure
passed by the Leposavic deputies stepped took immediate effect and
shall be implemented until perpetrators of numerous crimes have been
found, i.e. until the security situation in northern Kosovo has
stabilized.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna061506.htm
Bomb damages Kosovo customs vehicle
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - Jun 15, 2006
Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA
Zubin Potok, 15 June: Unknown persons hurled a bomb at a Kosovo
Customs Administration vehicle in front of the UNMIK [UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo] building in Zubin Potok in northern
Kosovo at about 1600 [1400 gmt], Kosovo Police Service spokesman
Ranko Stanojevic has told SRNA.
"There were no casualties or injuries, although considerable material
damage was caused to the vehicle," Stanojevic said.
He said that a Kosovo police investigating unit immediately came to
the scene and started an on-site investigation. [Passage omitted]
---
KOSOVO-ALBANIANS OPEN FIRE AT BRITISH TOURISTS FOR DRIVING A CAR WITH
BELGRADE LICENSE PLATES
Itar-Tass - June 17, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/it061506.htm
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10257893&PageNum=4
Itar-Tass
JUne 16, 2006
Kosovo Albanians open fire at car with British tourists
BELGRADE - Albanians opened fire at a car with British
tourists near the town of Jakovica in the west of
Serbia’s much-troubled province of Kosovo, diplomats
at the British mission in Kosovan capital Pristina
said.
A total of two British nationals were traveling around
Kosovo in a car rented in Belgrade.
The misfortunate incident occurred when they
encountered an automobile cortege with a wedding
procession.
Upon seeing an automobile with a Belgrade number
plate, the Albanians opened sporadic fire at it from
pistols and hunting guns, which inflicted heavy damage
on the car.
Kosovan mass media indicate the Britons had a narrow
escape – they jumped out of the automobile and took
hiding in a nearby forest until police arrived at the
scene.
Kosovo law enforcement agencies launched an inquiry
into the incident.
---
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18892&Cr=kosovo&Cr1=
UN News Centre
June 16, 2006
Kosovo: UN refugee agency remains concerned at persecution risk for
minorities
While removing two Roma communities from the list of
people considered at risk in Kosovo, the United
Nations refugee agency remains concerned for more than
400,000 Serbs, other Roma and Albanians who could face
persecution if they returned to places where they are
a minority in the multi-ethnic Serbian province.
“The fragile security environment and serious
limitations these people face in exercising their
fundamental human rights shows they should continue to
be considered at risk of persecution and should
continue to benefit from international protection in
countries of asylum,” UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news
briefing in Geneva.
“Return of these minorities should be strictly
voluntary, based on fully informed individual
decisions,” he added of UNHCR’s latest position paper
aimed at guiding states and others making decisions
about whether people from Kosovo should continue to
receive international protection in an asylum country.
The Ashkaelia and Egyptian Roma communities were taken
off the list thanks to positive developments within
the inter-ethnic environment, but the paper says their
returns should still be approached in a phased manner
due to the limited absorption capacity of Kosovo,
where Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1.
There are still more than 200,000 refugees and persons
of concern to UNHCR from Kosovo in western European
and other countries, with an equal number of
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Serbia, and
some 18,000 persons of concern in neighbouring
Montenegro.
The report notes that although the overall security
situation in Kosovo has progressively improved over
the past year, it remains fragile and unpredictable.
Minorities continue to suffer from ethnically
motivated or criminal incidents. Many incidents remain
unreported as the victims often fear reprisals from
perpetrators.
Serbs and Roma continue to face serious obstacles in
accessing essential services in health, education,
justice and public administration.
Discrimination as well as low representation of
minorities in the administrative structures further
discourages minorities from exercising their basic
rights.
The UN has administered Kosovo ever since North
Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) forces drove out
Yugoslav troops in 1999....Talks are now underway to
determine its future status and the return of Serb
refugees is seen as a crucial factor in reaching a
decision. Independence and autonomy are among options
that have been mentioned. Serbia rejects independence.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=26619&NrIssue=54&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia)
June 16, 2006
Serbia demands independence for Republika Srpska
Belgrade - If Kosovo gains independence, then the
Republka Srpska (RS) should be granted the same right,
the President of the Coordination Center for Kosovo,
Sanda Raskovic-Ivic told RS television.
"If Kosovo and Metohija gain independence, then the
same right should be granted to RS, the Trans-Dneister
region, Abkhazia, Catalonia...", said Ivic for TRS.
According to her, there are around 50 locations
undergoing frozen conflicts but they are only "frozen
on the surface, while beneath is boiling".
"If we want to have, indeed, a short fuse for the
planet, and if someone from the international
community refuses to see it, to create a common
confusion everywhere and to open 50 more conflicts,
then the best way to do that is to grant independence
to Kosovo", said Raskovic-Ivic.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.312217506&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
June 19, 2006
KOSOVO: TERROR ON RISE AHEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, SERBS WARN
Belgrade - Ahead of a United Nations Security Council
session on Kosovo, local Serbs warned on Monday of
growing “ethnic Albanian terrorism” in the province
which has been under UN administration since 1999.
The warnings came the same day as Kosovan police told
the SRNA news agency they had found a powerful
explosive device on a road some 2.5 kilometres from
the Kosovan capital, Pristina, near the building
housing offices of a number of international
organisations and a Serb police office.
Security for Serbs and other non-Albanians has
worsened in the last few months as the international
community neared a decision on the final status of the
province whose overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority
demands independence, Milan Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb
leader, told a press conference in the Serbian
capital, Belgrade.
In the northern district of Kosovska Mitrovica alone,
there have been 70 incidents directed against Serbs,
including several murders and woundings, as well as
bombings, said Ivanovic, ascribing these to "Albanian
terrorism."
Ivanovic accused the departing UN chief in Kosovo,
Soren Jessen Petersen, of lobbying for the Albanian
cause and of misinforming UN secretary general Kofi
Annan on the situation in the province.
Petersen, a Danish diplomat who leaves his post this
month, will submit his final report to the UN Security
Council - the UN's top decision-making body - on
Tuesday.
Serbian officials, who oppose Kosovo's independence,
suspect that Petersen will present what they see as a
false picture of the situation in the province in
order to enhance the case for independence.
Annan has already submitted his report to the Security
Council, saying that the situation in Kosovo has
improved, Ivanovic told reporters. Annan's report was
based on a "false report by Jessen Petersen," said
Ivanovic.
Another Kosovo Serb leader, Marko Jaksic, said
two-thirds of Kosovan Serbs have left the province
since 1999, with just 100,000 having remained in the
province, living in isolated enclaves without basic
security and freedom of movement.
Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo live in
conditions that are "ten times worse than those of
Albanians during the rule of (late Serbian president)
Slobodan Milosevic,” Jaksic said.
Serbian Orthodox Church Kosovo bishop Artemije pointed
out that 150 Orthodox churches have been damaged and
destroyed since 1999, and the "Serbian church heritage
in Kosovo has been endangered to the point of
destroying all traces."
The influential German daily Die Welt also criticised
Petersen in an article on Monday, saying he has become
increasingly aggressive in supporting the ethnic
Albanian cause before his departure at the end of
June.
Belgrade has disputed Petersen's claim that great
progress has been made in the Kosovo in last two
years, saying that barely 10,000 Serbs of the 230,000
who have fled the province since 1999 have returned
there.
In a strongly worded letter to Jessen Petersen earlier
this month, the Serbian government's coordinator for
Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, told him the province is
a 'black hole' for Serb human rights and that Serbs
there risk annihilation.
Since the continuing talks on Kosovo's final status
started last October, more than 180 ethnically
motivated incidents against Serbs have taken place.
Some 3,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have been
killed or listed as missing since UN took control of
the province.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/beta061906.htm
Church vandalised in Obilić
Beta - June 19, 2006
OBILIĆ -- Unknown vandals demolished a church in the centre of
Obilić, Kosovo and Metohija Radio reported.
According to reports, four crosses were removed from the church and
taken, as was the chimney on the right side of the church and part of
the roofing.
Municipal Coordinator in Obilić Mirče Jakovljević said that this is
yet another attack on everything that is Serbian in Obilić.
Jakovljević said that the church vandalism is yet another argument
that proves that the international community cannot and does not have
the power to stop such acts.
“This is further evidence that Serbs need new municipalities in
order to stay here. If this does not happen, then villages such as
Obilić will be ethnically clean very soon. We are questioning whether
KFOR is prepared to secure safety and security for us and our
children.” Jakovljević said.
No one from the Kosovo Police Service was willing to comment on the
incident. This same church in Obilić was set on fire on March 18, 2004.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet062006.htm
Serb found dead at his home in Kosovo, police confirm
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 20, 2006, Tuesday
Excerpt from report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Gracanica, 20 June: Dragan Popovic from Klina was found dead today,
Pec police officer on duty Zef Krasniqi has confirmed for [Gracanica-
based] KiM radio.
He could not give more details regarding Popovic's cause of death,
and he only stated that Popovic was born in 1938.
Klina municipal coordinator Stojan Doncic has told KiM radio that
Popovic was killed in his house yesterday [19 June] evening, adding
that he was shot in the head.
---
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1882361&C=europe
Reuters - June 20, 2006
Kosovo Serbs Recruit Former Soldiers for Defense
By BRANISLAV KRSTIC
MITROVICA, SERBIA - Serbs in northern Kosovo have
recruited hundreds of former Yugoslav army soldiers to
defend them from attacks by ethnic Albanians pushing
for independence for the province, Serb officials said
on June 20.
It is the latest sign of resistance among the Serb
minority in the United Nations-run province to the
drive for independence by the two million ethnic
Albanian majority.
U.N.-led talks look likely to give Kosovo some form of
independence before year-end.
Officials in the north, home to 50,000 Serbs, said 385
former Yugoslav reservists had been employed by
municipalities to "organize defense in the event of
extremist violence."
"We have been forced into such a move because of
police ineffectiveness, and the cover-up of crimes and
their perpetrators," Zvecan mayor Dragisa Milovic told
Reuters. Officially, the "Civil Defence Service" will
not be armed.
The north, adjacent to central Serbia, cut ties last
month with Albanian authorities in the capital - a
move some analysts said was a precursor to a Serb bid
to partition the province.
The Serb police and army, then the Yugoslav army under
late [president] Slobodan Milosevic, were forced from
Kosovo in 1999 when NATO bombed...in a two-year war
with separatist guerrillas.
Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge
[sic] attacks. The 100,000 who stayed live on the
margins of society.
Kosovo’s outgoing U.N. governor, Soren
Jessen-Petersen, will tell the U.N. Security Council
on June 20 that Kosovo Albanian leaders have made
strides in improving the rights and security of the
remaining Serbs - something U.N. and Western diplomats
say is key to clinching independence.
The Serbs say this is a lie and blame a recent spate
of violence on Albanians bent on driving them out.
Jessen-Petersen, in a report seen in advance by
Reuters, will say the rate of ethnically-motivated
crime is falling. [As the number of remaining
potential victims decreases.]
Direct talks on Kosovo’s fate began in February in
Vienna under U.N. mediation. The crunch issue of
status should be on the table in late July, with
Western powers determined to end seven years of limbo
in Kosovo by the end of the year.
Diplomats say the West favors independence, but fear a
bid by Serbs in the north to partition Kosovo, a move
seen certain to spark Albanian retaliation and force
thousands to flee.
The U.N. has contingency plans for the exodus of
50,000 Serbs if Kosovo splits from Serbia.
The 17,000-strong NATO peace force said this month it
would bolster mobile units in the north by reopening a
military base there.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp062106.htm
Serbian church in northern Kosovo attacked again
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 21, 2006, Wednesday
Excerpt from report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 21 June
[Announcer] Unidentified persons have repeatedly damaged the church
of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Podujevo, KiM [Kosovo-Metohija] Info
Service today said. The church was demolished during the March
violence in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] in 2004, but also on 2 April
this year when unknown persons broke into the church and smashed 15
windows. The attackers repeatedly broke into the church early in May
when two other windows were smashed in addition to the doors. Similar
demolition incident took place last week. Jasmina Scekic has the report:
[Reporter] This time the attackers again smashed the windows and
wrote fresh scandalous graffiti on the church walls. The Kosovo
police also confirmed that the church was repeatedly attacked this
month, which is the third registered case of attacks against this
church this year. Bishop Teodosije, a member of the committee for the
renewal of Serb holy sites in Kosmet, most vehemently condemned this
latest brutal attack against the church of the Holy Apostle Andrew in
Podujevo. The repeated attack against the church of the Holy Apostle
Andrew, only a month after the last attack, as well as the
desecration of the church in Obilic two days ago, shows that Serbian
Orthodox Churches are constantly targeted by hooligans and
extremists, and the municipal authorities and the Kosovo Police
Service [KPS] are neither willing nor capable of protecting Serbian
Orthodox churches under threat, Teodosije said.
As far as the very renewal is concerned, we are fully determined that
such attacks will not bother us, because giving up further renewal of
our holy sites would be the greatest concession, a gift to those who
wish to erase traces of the Serb people and our church in these
regions, the bishop said.
These days, a tender has been invited to repair the roof of Ljeviska
Mother of God in Prizren removed after an act of vandalism in
December last year. We will not accept the beginning of the works
unless 24-hour police protection is organized around this church,
Bishop Teodosije said.
---
ALBANIAN TERRORISTS VANDALIZE; PLANT LANDMINES IN KOSOVO-SERB CEMETERY
Radio-Television Serbia - June 22, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts062006.htm
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/
20060620p2g00m0in033000c.html
Associated Press
June 20, 2006
Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Serbia - Vandals have damaged tombstones in
a Serb cemetery in central Kosovo, police and a Serb
government center said Tuesday.
Sixteen graveside monuments were damaged in the Serb
village of Staro Gracko, 20 kilometers south of the
province's capital, Pristina, said police spokesman
Veton Elshani.
Police were at the scene investigating. Elshani said
it was not clear when the damage was done.
But a Serb government-run center in Kosovo, quoting
local Serb representatives, said a group got into the
cemetery early Tuesday and vandalized the monuments,
leaving behind broken crosses, benches and pots for
flowers and candles.
Kosovo has been run by a United Nations mission since
1999, when a NATO air war halted Serb forces'
crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
U.N.-brokered talks will determine whether Kosovo will
become an independent state, as the ethnic Albanians
demand, or remain attached to Serbia, as the
province's minority Serbs insist.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mina062106.htm
Bomb thrown on bus in Serb village near Kosovo's divided town of
Mitrovica
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 21, 2006, Wednesday
Text of report by Montenegrin Mina news agency
Kosovska Mitrovica, 21 June: An unidentified person has thrown an
explosive device on a bus of the Interturs company owned by Nebojsa
Radojcic of the village of Leposavic.
No-one was injured in the explosion which took place last night when
a hand grenade - of the so-called kasikara bomb make - was thrown and
caused damage to the bus.
Kosovo police members have inspected the scene but have not made the
details of the search public.
The village of Leposavic is populated mainly by Serbs. The garage
where the bus was parked at the time is situated near the Kosovska
Mitrovica-Raska [town in southern Serbia] main road.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Security&loid=8.0.313738836&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
June 22, 2006
KOSOVO: GERMAN GENERAL KATER ASSUMES KFOR COMMAND
Belgrade - German general Roland Kater will replace
Italian general Giuseppe Valotta as commander of the
international forces in Kosovo (KFOR), Serbian media
reported on Thursday, quoting German defence ministry
sources.
Kater, 57, will be the third German to command KFOR
since Kosovo was put under United Nations control in
1999.
He will replace Valotta on September 1, when his one
year term expires.
Kater had already served in Kosovo in 1999/2000, when
he was a commander of a German contingent in the
province whose majority ethnic Albanians demand
independence.
Germany has 2,300 soldiers serving in the 17,000
strong international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
Kater will take the command of KFOR at a crucial
moment as the international community is moving
towards determining the final status of the province.
Belgrade opposes Kosovo independence, but ethnic
Albanian leaders have said they would settle for
nothing less.
The international community, which safeguards peace in
Kosovo, fears a fresh outbreak of violence as the
status talks move to a close and has already beefed up
the international police in the province.
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6a3a1564-04b0-11db-8981-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times
June 26, 2006
Blair warns Serbs to accept different vision for Kosovo
By Neil MacDonald in Belgrade and Mark Turner at the United Nations
Serbia must accept a "different vision" for the future
make-up of south-east Europe or face increasing
isolation and diminishing prospects of closer
relations with the European Union, Tony Blair, the UK
prime minister, will tell Vojislav Kostunica, his
Serbian counterpart, tomorrow
At a London meeting at which Belgrade is likely to be
pressed to meet its international obligations, such as
catching indicted war criminals, Mr Kostunica would
also be urged to accept the inevitability of
independence for Kosovo, the breakaway Serbian
province under United Nations administration, by the
end of this year, British officials said.
The warning comes amid increased diplomatic activity
as UN-mediated negotiations in Vienna over the status
of Kosovo approach their decisive political phase.
Six rounds of technical meetings have failed to
produce any breakthrough on the basic status question.
Belgrade is under pressure from the UK, US and the UN
administration in Kosovo to accept independence as the
"least problematic solution".
However, Mr Kostunica faces formidable domestic
pressure not to abandon Serbia's historical claims to
the province, now dominated by ethnic Albanians.
Belgrade continues to offer "the widest possible
autonomy" without conceding sovereignty.
The 100,000 remaining Kosovo Serbs have sounded alarm
bells about renewed ethnic violence aimed at driving
them out. Serbs who have returned to northern Kosovo
say they will pack up and go to central Serbia again
unless the UN interim administration tracks down the
murderer of Dragan Popovic, a 68-year-old Serb killed
last week on the doorstep of his home, to which he
returned last year after abandoning it in 1999.
While an autopsy showed a gunshot wound to the back of
his head, the UN administration refused to confirm an
ethnic motive for the killing.
UN officials warned Serbs against "any unilateral
security measures not within the bounds of law", such
as forming local militias.
Guaranteeing the rights and safety of the ethnic
minorities who make up 10 per cent of Kosovo's
population is the main test for the ethnic Albanian
leadership negotiating independence.
Roughly 200,000 people - including at least half of
the province's Serb population - from ethnic minority
groups fled Kosovo in the wake of the 1999 war.
Only around 5 per cent of those Serbs have returned,
despite a UN-brokered protocol on returns.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, chief UN administrator in
Kosovo, told the UN Security Council last week that
many Kosovo Serbs "feel confused, exposed and
isolated, and they do not know what to think about the
future".
But he also accused Belgrade of keeping them from
engaging in local democratic politics.
Serbian state-run newspapers recently exposed internal
UN plans for dealing with a "new Serb exodus" of
70,000 people from Kosovo in the event of
independence.
UN officials in Belgrade confirmed the existence of
emergency evacuation plans, but cautioned against
citing these as a "scare tactic".
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=91203&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria)
June 28, 2006
Vecerne Novosti: Agim Ceku Certain that Washington and London Back
Kosovo’s Independence
Pristina - “It is realistic to expect that the Kosovo
status might be determined by the end of the year, but
the possibility of a certain delay should not be ruled
out. The decision will probably meet our expectations,
which are related to independence”, Kosovo Prime
Minister Agim Ceku said, the Serbian Vecerne Novosti
newspaper reported.
According to him, the government in Pristina backs a
long-term solution of the Kosovo status, which means
that it should not be limited in time, as Belgrade has
proposed.
“I’m sure that in Washington and London, Kostunica
will be asked to prepare the Serb society for the
inevitable independence of Kosovo”, Ceku said.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=128&newsid=91170&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria)
June 27, 2006
Balkan Web: Albania and Kosovo Will Intensify Cooperation in all Spheres
Tirana - The encouragement of bilateral cooperation in
all spheres was the topic of today’s meeting in Tirana
between the Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and the
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisa, Balkan Web
reports.
After the meeting Berisa evaluated the enormous
progress reached from Kosovo and announced that the
visit of Sejdiu in Tirana comes in very important
moment for Kosovo and for the region.
On his hand Fatmir Sejdiu pointed out that Kosovo will
take lesson from Tirana’s experience in process of
European integration.
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/baff7c76-0642-11db-9dde-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times
June 28, 2006
Serbia warns of break with west over Kosovo
By Daniel Dombey in London and Neil Macdonald in Pristina
Serbia yesterday warned it could break with the west
unless the international community took a more
conciliatory approach over the issues of Kosovo and
the apprehension of an indicted war criminal.
Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian premier, said that
Belgrade would not accept an imposed solution for the
majority ethnic Albanian province that many western
diplomats believe should be put on the path to
independence by the end of the year.
Speaking in London after meeting Tony Blair, his UK
counterpart, Mr Kostunica also labelled as "absurd"
the European Union's decision to halt negotiations on
closer ties with Serbia because of Belgrade's failure
to apprehend Ratko Mladic, a war crimes indictee.
But he did say that Serbia would draw up an "action
plan" on improving co-operation with the United
Nations tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, a step the
EU has called for.
An "imposed solution" would "certainly be rejected by
Serbia's parliament, and "that would inevitably mark
the turning point [for] . . . Serbia's relations with
the rest of the world," he said.
Within Serbia, support for the... Radical party is
rising and Mr Kostunica said the country was "becoming
tired of the constant pressure".
He singled out the EU's decision to halt talks on a
stabilisation and association agreement - a waystation
to membership - because Mr Mladic remains free.
"We have, in fact, ended up in a position where the
survival of an entire European democracy directly
depends on bringing to justice one single indictee,
which . . . is absurd," hesaid.
Mr Blair called for Serbia to comply with the wishes
of Kosovo's people and also to step up its
co-operation with the UN tribunal.
The UK has been at the forefront of calls for Belgrade
to live up to its obligations, while other
governments, notably France, have taken a more
conciliatory approach, concerned that Serbia could be
alienated from the EU.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts070106.htm
Kosovo Albanians arrested for attack on police in divided town - TV
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 1, 2006 Saturday
Text of report by Serbian TV on 1 July
Police have arrested five [ethnic] Albanians who attacked a Kosovo
Police Service patrol last night in the northern [Serb-populated]
part of Kosovska Mitrovica, agencies have reported.
The five Albanians first beat up two Serb members of the Kosovo
police, followed by their two Albanian colleagues on the Kosovska
Mitrovica - Suvi Do road.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=29018&NrIssue=71&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia)
July 5, 2006
Politika: Russia hints veto over Kosovo
Belgrade - Russia for the first time hinted at a
possibility to exercise its veto rights at the UN
Security Council provided that the Western countries
imposed independence for Kosovo, Belgrade's daily
Politika said.
The paper says Russia presented its stands to the
Contact Group members, and had for the first time
mentioned the possibility to veto a resolution
granting Kosovo independence.
Politika daily says at the Contact Group meeting, held
on 30 June in Brussels, Russian representative put on
the table an unofficial document containing four
paragraphs reflecting Russia's position on Kosovo
status talks.
---
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060706/51000794.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
July 6, 2006
Putin warns against double standards in separatist republics
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned
Thursday against any double standards in regard to
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Transdnestr
in Moldova declared independence in the early 1990s
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian
troops assisted ceasefire agreements in these
republics and have helped maintain a ceasefire since
then.
However, West-leaning central authorities in Moldova
and Georgia have recently been seeking expulsion of
Russian forces from the conflict zones.
"We will call on the international community to avoid
dangerous trends of applying double standards in
approaches to these republics' problems," Putin told a
Web cast.
When asked whether it was possible to hold
independence referenda in the breakaway republics, the
president said Russia respected territorial integrity
of Georgia and Moldova.
"But it is also important to respect the opinion of
people living in these territories," he said.
Putin said there had always been a contradiction in
the principles of international law and it remained at
present.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on such decisions to
be based on a universal principle to prevent such
cases when approaches to the regions like Kosovo are
different from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia,
which is incorrect," Putin said.
fonte della stragrande maggioranza dei testi sono
Rick Rozoff, attraverso la lista yugoslaviainfo @yahoogroups.com
ed il sito internet http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/ )
NEVERENDING POGROMS IN KOSMET (3)
# LINKS / collegamenti a notizie fino all'inizio di giugno
# NEWS / agenzie di stampa e brevi articoli:
- Serbs attached 186 times since beginning of talks / 186 ATTENTATI
ANTISERBI DALL'INIZIO DEI "COLLOQUI" DI VIENNA
- Slavica Dejanovic wounded outside her house / FERITA UNA DONNA SERBA
- Serb leaders in Kosovo rebel / I LEADER SERBO-KOSOVARI ROMPONO CON
L'AMMINISTRAZIONE LOCALE
- Kosovo premier congratulates Montenegrins, thanks them for
support / SECESSIONISTI KOSOVARI GIOISCONO PER SECESSIONE MONTENEGRINA
- Moscow city govt donates USD 2 bln to Serbian refugees / DONAZIONI
DALLA RUSSIA PER LE VITTIME SERBE DEI POGROM
- Council of Europe on Kosovo / IL CONSIGLIO D'EUROPA SUL KOSOVO
- Province is human rights' "black hole" / IL BUCO NERO DEI DIRITTI
UMANI È AL CENTRO DELL'EUROPA
- United Nations vehicle attacked near Kosovska Mitrovica / VEICOLO
ONU PRESO DI MIRA
- UNHCR acknowledges plan for Serb evacuation / L'UNHCR (ONU) RENDE
NOTO IL PROPRIO PIANO PER CANCELLARE LA PRESENZA SERBA DALLA PROVINCIA
- Shots fired at returnees / PROFUGHI RIENTRATI IN KOSOVO PRESI DI MIRA
- Serbs in northern Kosovo say they have formed own security units /
FORMATE UNITÀ DI AUTODIFESA SERBE AL NORD
- Kosovo Serbs report 70 incidents to UN envoy / 70 "INCIDENTI"
DENUNCIATI
- Billboards and Posters Against Serbian Goods Spring up in Kosovo /
CAMPAGNA RAZZISTA PER IL BOICOTTAGGIO DEI PRODOTTI SERBI
- Another Serb municipality in northern Kosovo introduces emergency
measures / MISURE DI EMERGENZA NELLA MUNICIPALITÀ SERBA
- Bomb damages Kosovo customs vehicle / ORDIGNO CONTRO VEICOLO UNMIK
- Kosovo Albanians open fire at car with British tourists / SCAMBIATO
PER SERBO, TURISTA BRITANNICO RISCHIA LA VITA
- Kosovo: UN refugee agency remains concerned at persecution risk for
minorities / UNHCR PREOCCUPATA PER ROM ED ALTRE MINORANZE
- Serbia demands independence for Republika Srpska / DOPO IL KOSOVO
LA REPUBBLICA SERBA DI BOSNIA
- Terror on rise / AUMENTA IL TERRORE NELLA PROVINCIA "LIBERATA"
DALLA NATO DI D'ALEMA
- Church vandalised in Obilić / CHIESA VANDALIZZATA
- Serb found dead at his home in Kosovo, police confirm / SERBO
TROVATO MORTO AMMAZZATO
- Kosovo Serbs Recruit Former Soldiers for Defense / I SERBI
ORGANIZZANO L'AUTODIFESA CONTRO IL NEONAZISMO PANALBANESE APPOGGIATO
DA "EUROPA" ED USA
- Serbian church in northern Kosovo attacked again / NUOVO ATTACCO
CONTRO CHIESA
- Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo / ANCORA UN CIMITERO PROFANATO
- Bomb thrown on bus in Serb village / ORDIGNO CONTRO BUS SERBO
- German General Kater assumes KFOR command / COME NEL 1943: GENERALE
TEDESCO RIMPIAZZA ITALIANO ED ASSUME IL COMANDO DELLE TRUPPE DI
OCCUPAZIONE
- Blair warns Serbs to accept different vision for Kosovo / TONY
BLAIR AI SERBI: VOI SUL KOSOVO FARETE QUELLO CHE DICIAMO NOI
- Vecerne Novosti: Agim Ceku Certain that Washington and London Back
Kosovo’s Independence / IL "PREMIER" CRIMINALE DI GUERRA: WASHINGTON
E LONDRA CI APPOGGIANO
- Balkan Web: Albania and Kosovo Will Intensify Cooperation in all
Spheres / SI STRINGONO I LEGAMI PAN-ALBANESI
- Serbia warns of break with west over Kosovo / DETERIORAMENTO DELLE
RELAZIONI TRA SERBIA ED OCCIDENTE
- Kosovo Albanians arrested for attack on police in divided town -
TV / 5 PAN-ALBANESI ATTACCANO POLIZIA A MITROVICA NORD E SONO ARRESTATI
- Politika: Russia hints veto over Kosovo / LA RUSSIA POTREBBE USARE
IL VETO ALL'ONU CONTRO LA SECESSIONE KOSOVARA
- Putin warns against double standards in separatist republics /
PUTIN CONTRO I "DUE PESI DUE MISURE"
=== LINKS: ===
SHOTS FIRED AT SERBIAN CLERGYMAN IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 8, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet050706.htm
SERBS ATTACKED BY ALBANIAN MOB IN KOSOVO
Mina (Montenegro) - May 9, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mina050906.htm
U.S. MILITARY ADVISOR WARNS THAT AN INDEPENDENT KOSOVO WOULD BE
CRIMINAL STATE SIMILAR TO AFGHANISTAN UNDER THE TALIBAN
The Washington Times - May 10, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/wt050906.htm
TWO SERBS SHOT IN KOSOVO
Radio-Television Serbia - May 11, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts051106.htm
GERMANY ARRESTS KOSOVO-ALBANIAN FOR ATROCITIES IN KOSOVO
Blic - May 12, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/blic051206.htm
ANOTHER SERBIAN CHURCH DESECRATED IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 13, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet051106.htm
BUS CARRYING SERBS ATTACKED BY ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO
FoNet - May 14, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet051206.htm
SERB-OWNED BUSINESS DESTROYED BY ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADE IN KOSOVO
Radio-Television Serbia - May 16, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts051606.htm
ITALIAN POLICE CATCH KOSOVO-ALBANIAN MOBSTERS BOASTING ABOUT THE
DESTRUCTION OF SERBIAN CHURCHES IN WIRETAP OPERATION
Vecernje Novosti - Wednesday, May 18, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn051706.htm
SEVERAL INJURIES IN FIGHTING AFTER ALBANIAN MAN OPENS FIRE ON SERBIAN
REFUGEE OFFICE IN NORTHERN MITROVICA
SRNA - May 19, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna051906.htm
SERBIAN POLICE NAB KOSOVO HEROIN TRAFFICKER ON CROATIAN BORDER
UPI - May 21, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/upi051906.htm
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WOULD LEAD TO FORMATION OF ISLAMIC TERROR STATE
Vecernje Novosti - May 22, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn052106.htm
SQUAD OF UN POLICE AND TWO SERBIAN LAWYERS ATTACKED BY ALBANIAN
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN" IN KOSOVO
AFP - May 26, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp052505.htm
MONTENEGRIN SOVEREIGNTY ENDANGERED BY ALBANIAN TERRORISTS
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - May 29, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dfasa052606b.htm
KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WILL PRECIPITATE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM IN
REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
SRNA - June 1, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna052806.htm
BRIDGE LINKING TWO KOSOVO-SERB COMMUNITIES DESTROYED BY BOMB
B92 - June 2, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060106.htm
PUTIN: KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE WILL DESTROY EUROPE
Agence France Presse - June 3, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp060206.htm
UNMIK PLANNING FOR EXPULSION OF 70,000 KOSOVO-SERBS IF KOSOVO GAINS
INDEPENDENCE
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - June 5, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dpa053106.htm
=== NEWS: ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp060106.htm
SERBIAN OFFICIAL: SERBS ATTACKED 186 TIMES SINCE GREEN LIGHT FOR
KOSOVO TALKS
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 1, 2006, Thursday
Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 1 June
[Announcer] The [Serbian] Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija's
press centre in Kosovska Mitrovica said that barricades made of
branches had been set up on the Zvecan-Zitkovac road [where body of
Kosovo Serb was found early this morning with three gunshot wounds],
adding that a number of 7.65-mm calibre shells had been found at the
scene. This is the third serious incident in the area in the past
month. Before that, a vehicle carrying a Serbian Orthodox Church
priest with his family had been fired at, and then two ethnic Serb
youths were gravely injured in an armed attack at a petrol station.
The Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija chairwoman, Sanda
Raskovic-Ivic, today most harshly condemned the incident in the
vicinity of Zvecan, describing the event as a tragedy. In a statement
for Kontakt Plus radio, Raskovic-Ivic recalled that there had been
186 incidents since 24 October 2005, when the decision was taken to
begin talks about the future of Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija].
[Raskovic-Ivic] I made a point of mentioning this date because it was
the date set for the beginning of negotiations about the future
status of Kosovo. In this way we see that in Kosovo, nothing has
changed in practice. We see that the police are not doing their job,
that the Albanians attacked the Serbs 186 times before the very nose
of the international community, incidents in which we had two fatal
outcomes and over 20 persons suffering grave injuries. All this
provides very serious cause for concern, a two-fold concern. The
first is what happens when the international community leaves Kosovo-
Metohija, and the other is that the police are not doing their job,
whether it is the UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo]
police or the Kosovo Police Service [KPS].
[Announcer] Raskovic-Ivic concluded that the latest incident near
Zvecan was yet another story whose ending is not yet known.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet060406.htm
KOSOVO SERB WOMAN SAYS SHOTS FIRED AT HER FROM ALBANIAN VILLAGE
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 4, 2006, Sunday
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Kosovska Mitrovica, 4 June: The life of Slavica Dejanovic, who was
wounded outside her house in the village of Priluzje near Kosovo
Polje at around 1400 [1200 gmt] today, is not in danger, the Kosovska
Mitrovica hospital director Marko Jaksic has confirmed for FoNet.
According to him, her shoulder was injured and, following surgery,
she is stable.
Jaksic said that Slavica had told doctors that she had been shot at
from the direction of the Albanian village of Donje Trnovce.
---
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/05/news/kosovo.php
International Herald Tribune
Reuters, The Associated Press
June 6, 2006
Serb leaders in Kosovo rebel
ZVECAN - Serbia Serbian leaders in north Kosovo said
Monday that they had cut off all contact with the
province's ethnic Albanian authorities, a new sign of
resistance as the Albanian majority pushes for
independence from Serbia this year.
At a protest in the town of Zvecan, leaders of the
50,000 Serbs in north Kosovo declared a "state of
emergency" in response to a spate of shootings that
they attribute to Albanian separatists.
They demanded the return of the Serbian police, who
were forced to leave the province in 1999 with the
Yugoslav Army under an agreement to end 78 days of
NATO bombing.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 provides for the
return of up to 1,000 Serbian police.
....
The United Nations has contingency plans for an exodus
of Serbs in the event the 90-percent ethnic Albanian
majority gets its own state, while NATO said last week
that it planned to bolster patrols in the north by
reopening a military base.
In another development Monday, the Serbian Parliament
proclaimed the Balkan republic a sovereign state,
following Montenegro's decision to declare
independence from their union and dissolve what was
left of Yugoslavia.
The 126 lawmakers who voted unanimously acknowledged
that their state was the heir to the union of Serbia
and Montenegro - the last shred of what was once a
six-member Yugoslav federation. Parliament has 250
deputies, but the opposition boycotted the vote,
walking out just beforehand.
---
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/06/kosovo-premier-
congratulates.html
KohaVision TV (Kosovo)
June 5, 2006
Kosovo premier congratulates Montenegrins, thanks them for support
[Text of report by Kosovo Albanian television
KohaVision TV on 5 June]
[Announcer] By saying Yes to independence, Montenegro,
our neighbour in the West, has fulfilled its
aspiration to break away from Serbian control and
become an equal member of the family of sovereign and
independent nations of the world, Kosova [Kosovo]
Premier Agim Ceku said in his weekly radio address to
the nation.
The birth of this new country in the Balkans, on the
periphery of Europe is, according to the prime
minister, the *penultimate* act of Yugoslavia's
disintegration....
Our relations with Montenegro have shown signs of
improvement since the Dayton accords [US-brokered 1995
Bosnian peace agreement] and gradually culminated in
our liberation war....
The Kosova people will never forget the hospitality
the Montenegrin government and people showed during
1998-99 when they sheltered hundreds of thousands of
Albanians...the Kosova prime minister said.
....
It is time for the Montenegrin minority to come out
openly and help strengthen our institutions, our
common Kosova.
Kosova is awaiting a definition of its status,
independence and sovereignty.
We will then move faster towards Europe.
Until then we wish the Montenegrin government and the
people a good journey, prosperity and peace, assuring
them that we will soon meet in a united Europe, Kosova
Premier Ceku underlined in his weekly address.
---
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=9585128&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
June 6, 2006
Moscow city govt donates USD 2 bln to Serbian refugees
BELGRADE - Moscow city government has donated two
million U.S. dollars to build housing for Serbian
refugees returning to Kosovo, a source at the
Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija said on
Tuesday.
A delegation of the Moscow city government has arrived
in Belgrade to meet with the Coordinating Centre’s
head Sanda Raskovic-Ivic to discuss “technical
implementation of the project.”
The funds will be earmarked for building 75 homes in
Ljug and Blagaca, northeast of Kosovo.
Serbian families who fled from the region in 1999 will
be able to return to Kosovo by the end of the year.
“Construction work is already in progress,” the source
said.
Raskovic-Ivic expressed to the Moscow city government
“sincere gratitude for fraternal help for the Serbians
refugees returning to Kosovo.”
She pointed out that this process requires “long-term
comprehensive efforts and the Moscow city government
helped us a lot in this sense.”
---
From: tim fenton
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] Council of Europe on Kosovo
Date: June 7, 2006 10:17:45 PM GMT+02:00
Not surprisingly the CIA has found the legal limbo of Kosovo &
Metohija suits their nefarious requirements to mistreat suspects
perfect. The Council of Europe paper published recently has the
following comments:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?Link=/CommitteeDocs/
2006/20060606_Ejdoc162006PartII-FINAL.htm#P1163_244624
264. Legality and fairness by no means preclude firmness, but confer
genuine legitimacy and credibility on a state’s inevitable preventive
actions. In this respect, some of the international community’s
attitudes are disturbing. I have already mentioned the unacceptable
practice involving the application of UN Security Council sanctions
on the basis of black lists. Another example is the situation in
Kosovo, where the international community intervened to restore
peace, justice and democracy: the inhabitants of this region are
still the only people in Europe – with the exception of Belarus –
not
to have access to the European Court of Human Rights; its prisons are
a virtual black hole, not open for inspections or monitoring by the
Committee for the Prevention of Torture. In the name of what
legitimacy, and with what credibility, is this same international
community entitled to lecture Serbia? Examples are more effective
than threats (Corneille).
[...]
291. The international community is finally urged to create more
transparency in the places of detention in Kosovo, which to date
qualify as ‘black holes’ that cannot even be accessed by the CPT.
This is frankly intolerable, considering that the international
intervention in this region was meant to restore order and lawfulness.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Security&loid=8.0.307207490&par=0
ADN Kronos Internatioal (Italy)
June 6, 2006
KOSOVO: PROVINCE IS A HUMAN RIGHTS "BLACK HOLE" FOR SERBS, OFFICIAL
WARNS
Belgrade - The ethnic Albanian majority southern
province of Kosovo's tiny Serb minority is facing
annihilation, a senior Serb official on Tuesday warned
the UN chief representative in Kosovo, Soren Jessen
Petersen.
The Serbian government's coordinator for Kosovo, Sanda
Raskovic Ivic, told Jessen Petersen that Kosovo is a
‘black hole’ when it comes to human rights, blaming
the international community for not doing its job
there.
Since the continuing talks on Kosovo's final status
started last October, 186 ethnically motivated
incidents against Serbs have taken place, including
two murders and 20 serious injuries.
There will soon be no Serbs in Kosovo if the present
situation continues, Raskovic Ivic told Jessen
Petersen in a letter.
She pointed out that 140,000 remaining Serbs in Kosovo
live in isolated ghettos, without freedom of movement
and basic human rights, including the “right to live”.
Serb officials have previously accused Petersen of
bias in his support for the ethnic Albanian drive for
independence.
Serbs in Kosovo were the victims of constant
harassment and even murders by the majority ethnic
Albanians, Raskovic Ivic stated.
“Today, Kosovo and Metohija (the Serbian name for the
province) is a ‘black hole’ when it comes to human
rights, and many democratic countries keep assaulting
the territorial integrity of Serbia through their
officials and lobbyists,” said Raskovic.
"Serbs are the most endangered ethnic group in Europe.
Today an ethnocide is being carried out on its soil in
front of the international police force, which simply
looks the other way, not wishing to see the reality,”
she said.
Raskovic Ivic blamed the United Nations Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK) for "killing even the Serbian word" by
censuring its press. "Only this time the gunshot did
not come from an Albanian sniper, it was fired from
UNMIK’s office,” Raskovic concluded.
The dramatic letter, distributed to the press, was
written on the eve of the seventh anniversary of
Kosovo being put under UN control in June 1999 and
ahead of Petersen’s imminent report to the UN Security
Council on the situation in Kosovo.
Over 3,000 Serbs have been killed or listed as missing
since the province was put under United Nations
control in 1999.
Belgrade and local Serbs oppose Kosovo's independence,
which they regard as the birthplace of their state,
preferring a form of broad autonomy for the province.
According to signals from world powers, the
international community is now moving towards granting
Kosovo independence - wanted by most of its 1.7
million ethnic Albanians.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060806.htm
KOSOVO ALBANIANS ATTACK UN VEHICLE NEAR MITROVICA
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 8, 2006, Thursday
Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on
8 June
Kosovska Mitrovica, 8 June: A group of Albanians attacked a United
Nations vehicle near Kosovska Mitrovica today.
"About 15 Albanians, slightly older than the age of 20, jumped out
onto the road. I had to slow down the bus to make sure that I would
not run anyone over. They used this move to approach the bus, kick it
and hit it with sticks and throw rocks at it. I was able to get the
bus out somehow, by swerving on the road and trying to escape," said
bus driver Aleksandar Trajkovic.
The back window of the vehicle was broken during the attack, but no-
one was injured.
This same bus had already been attacked twice in the same village of
Rudnik, once on 9 May and another time on 12 May. Since these
incidents, Kosovo police have been escorting the vehicle on its
trips, though today the police were, for unknown reasons, not present.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.308264568&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
Jun 8, 2006
KOSOVO: UNHCR ACKNOWLEDGES PLAN FOR SERB EVACUATION
Pristina - The United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) has acknowledged the existence of a
contingency plan to evacuate 70,000 Serbs from the
southern Kosovo province if the region became
independent as expected this year.
In an interview with Belgrade daily Vecernje novosti,
Sandra Mitchell, an official of the UN administration
in Kosovo (UNMIK), played down the significance of the
plan, saying: "Such plans are prepared everywhere
where political processes with possible incidents are
taking place, which may influence the displacement of
people."
"The UNHCR plan for the acceptance of some 70,000
refugees from Kosovo is nothing unusual, but an
obligation of the organisation," said Mitchell.
But she added she was convinced the exodus would not
take place should the international community cede to
ethnic Albanian majority demands for Kosovo's
independence.
Mitchell said that several thousand Serbs have shown
interest in returning to Kosovo, after some 250,000
fled the province when it was put under UN control in
1999.
"Unfortunately, the number of returnees of Serb and
other non-Albanian communities is much smaller than
expected. According to UNHCR data, about 14,500 people
have returned, of which 40 percent are Serbs, which is
still a very small number," Mitchell said.
UNMIK this week announced it was sending some 500 new
international peackeepers to Kosovo to stem the rise
in inter-ethnic incidents that has occurred as Kosovo
appears to be moving closer towards independence.
UNMIK said that the reinforcements would be stationed
in northern Kosovo, populated mostly by Serbs, raising
speculations in Belgrade press that the purpose was
actually to prevent the partitioning of Kosovo if it
became independent.
Belgrade opposes Kosovo's independence, favouring
instead broad autonomy for the province's 1.7 million
ethnic Albanians.
However, ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will
settle for nothing short of independence.
UNMIK chief Soren Jessen Petersen is expected on 20
June to deliver a report to the UN Security Council on
the situation in the province.
Petersen’s term expires at the end of June and
Pristina media reported on Thursday that he would
leave the post, which would temporarily be taken over
by his deputy, American general Steven Shuck.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92060906.htm
SHOTS FIRED AT KOSOVO SERB RETURNEES, SAYS OFFICIAL
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 9, 2006, Friday
Text of report by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 9 June
Ljug, 9 June: Automatic rifle shots were fired last night at a house
in the settlement of Ljug, which is being used by Serb returnees
until their homes are ready.
Rados Vulic from the Kosovo Coordination Centre said that the attack
occurred at 0030 [2230 gmt] while there were 10 people in the house,
who are waiting for the completion of building work on their houses
in Ljug.
No-one was injured in the attack. "The aim of the assailants was to
intimidate Serbs, thereby dissuading them from settling down in their
new homes. Two days ago unknown perpetrators cut the power cable and
took away the electrical fittings from one of the houses, as well as
putting up an Albanian flag on another house also under
construction," Vulic said.
The incidents have been reported to the Kosovo Police Service.
---
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/06/serbs-in-northern-kosovo-say-
they-have.html
Associated Press
June 12, 2006
Serbs in northern Kosovo say they have formed own security units
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Serbs in tense northern Kosovo
said Monday they have formed neighborhood security
units following a recent spate of attacks in the area.
The U.N. police said they had no knowledge of such
units.
The Serb Coordination Center said in a statement that
the self-styled observation posts and vigilante groups
were set up at "potentially dangerous points" last
week to stave off possible attacks against the Serbs
in northern Kosovo.
"Constant attacks on the Serbs and their property,
from robberies to murders, have forced us to organize
ourselves," the statement said. It added that the
units were formed with the help of members of the
Kosovo police and former Serb police. No other details
were given.
There was no immediate comment from the U.N.
authorities in Kosovo, who have run the province since
a 1999 war. The U.N. police in Kosovska Mitrovica -
the divided city that is the center of northern Kosovo
- said they were not aware that the units were formed.
The Serbs last week have complained of growing
incidents in the region, and the U.N. authorities
promised to send additional police to step up
security.
Forming of Serb-only units could fuel tensions in
Kosovo, amid the ongoing U.N.-brokered negotiations
that will decide whether the province will gain
independence or remain part of Serbia.
Kosovo now formally is a Serbian province, but it has
been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999,
when a NATO air war against Serbia forced Belgrade to
end a crackdown against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian
separatists and pull out of the province.
Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo insist on gaining
independence, while the minority Serbs and Belgrade
want the province to remain within Serbia.
Also Monday, Serbia's president Boris Tadic warned
that "any form of independence" for Kosovo would
destabilize the Balkans. Serbia has offered Kosovo
full autonomy from Belgrade's government, but not
territorial independence.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet061106.htm
Kosovo Serbs report 70 incidents to UN envoy
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 11, 2006
Excerpt from report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Kosovska Mitrovica, 11 June: UN envoy for Kosovo status talks Marti
Ahtisaari has held talks in Kosovska Mitrovica with representatives
of the Serb National Council [SNV] of northern Kosovo who warned him
that democratic standards are not being achieved in Kosovo despite
UNMIK [UN mission in Kosovo] claims to the contrary.
SNV chairman Milan Ivanovic told a news conference that Ahtisaari was
informed about 70 ethnically-motivated incidents which had recently
taken place in the Mitrovica region.
Ivanovic said that the Finnish diplomat was warned that
representatives of Kosovo institutions were trying to conceal the
background to crimes against Kosovo Serbs.
"We told Ahtisaari in no uncertain terms that an independent Kosovo
is unacceptable for the Serbs and that it would lead to ethnic
cleansing of the Serb community," Ivanovic said. [Passage omitted]
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=90104&ch=0
Focus News Agency
June 10, 2006
Billboards and Posters Against Serbian Goods Spring up in Kosovo
Kosovska Mitrovica - Billboards and posters appeared
all around Kosovo calling for a boycott of Serbian
goods in the region, the Serbian news agency TANJUG
reports.
The goods in question are products of Serbian
companies that produce building materials, foods,
medicine, etc.
According to the Serbian Statistical Institute in 2005
Serbia marketed in Kosovo goods amounting to EUR 144,4
million while Kosovo marketed on the Serbian market
goods amounting only to EUR 3,3 million.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp061406.htm
Another Serb municipality in northern Kosovo introduces emergency
measures
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 14, 2006, Wednesday
Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 13 June
[Announcer] Leposavic municipal deputies decided today [13 June] to
introduce emergency measures in this northern Kosovo municipality and
to cut all ties with Kosovo interim institutions. Zeljko Tvrdisic
reports.
[Tvrdisic] This is the third municipality in northern Kosovo,
following Zvecan and Zubin Potok, which decided to cut ties with the
Kosovo government due to, as it was stated, alarmingly-worsened
security situation in this part of Kosovo. Besides the decision that
Serbs refuse to receive salaries and all other dues from Kosovo
institutions, the deputies also supported a general petition from
last week's rally in Zvecan, that they get self-organized for
security reasons. It was also mentioned that the Leposavic
municipality was prepared, if the previous petition is not met, to
take part in employing and financing 999 Serb policemen. The measure
passed by the Leposavic deputies stepped took immediate effect and
shall be implemented until perpetrators of numerous crimes have been
found, i.e. until the security situation in northern Kosovo has
stabilized.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna061506.htm
Bomb damages Kosovo customs vehicle
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - Jun 15, 2006
Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA
Zubin Potok, 15 June: Unknown persons hurled a bomb at a Kosovo
Customs Administration vehicle in front of the UNMIK [UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo] building in Zubin Potok in northern
Kosovo at about 1600 [1400 gmt], Kosovo Police Service spokesman
Ranko Stanojevic has told SRNA.
"There were no casualties or injuries, although considerable material
damage was caused to the vehicle," Stanojevic said.
He said that a Kosovo police investigating unit immediately came to
the scene and started an on-site investigation. [Passage omitted]
---
KOSOVO-ALBANIANS OPEN FIRE AT BRITISH TOURISTS FOR DRIVING A CAR WITH
BELGRADE LICENSE PLATES
Itar-Tass - June 17, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/it061506.htm
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10257893&PageNum=4
Itar-Tass
JUne 16, 2006
Kosovo Albanians open fire at car with British tourists
BELGRADE - Albanians opened fire at a car with British
tourists near the town of Jakovica in the west of
Serbia’s much-troubled province of Kosovo, diplomats
at the British mission in Kosovan capital Pristina
said.
A total of two British nationals were traveling around
Kosovo in a car rented in Belgrade.
The misfortunate incident occurred when they
encountered an automobile cortege with a wedding
procession.
Upon seeing an automobile with a Belgrade number
plate, the Albanians opened sporadic fire at it from
pistols and hunting guns, which inflicted heavy damage
on the car.
Kosovan mass media indicate the Britons had a narrow
escape – they jumped out of the automobile and took
hiding in a nearby forest until police arrived at the
scene.
Kosovo law enforcement agencies launched an inquiry
into the incident.
---
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18892&Cr=kosovo&Cr1=
UN News Centre
June 16, 2006
Kosovo: UN refugee agency remains concerned at persecution risk for
minorities
While removing two Roma communities from the list of
people considered at risk in Kosovo, the United
Nations refugee agency remains concerned for more than
400,000 Serbs, other Roma and Albanians who could face
persecution if they returned to places where they are
a minority in the multi-ethnic Serbian province.
“The fragile security environment and serious
limitations these people face in exercising their
fundamental human rights shows they should continue to
be considered at risk of persecution and should
continue to benefit from international protection in
countries of asylum,” UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news
briefing in Geneva.
“Return of these minorities should be strictly
voluntary, based on fully informed individual
decisions,” he added of UNHCR’s latest position paper
aimed at guiding states and others making decisions
about whether people from Kosovo should continue to
receive international protection in an asylum country.
The Ashkaelia and Egyptian Roma communities were taken
off the list thanks to positive developments within
the inter-ethnic environment, but the paper says their
returns should still be approached in a phased manner
due to the limited absorption capacity of Kosovo,
where Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1.
There are still more than 200,000 refugees and persons
of concern to UNHCR from Kosovo in western European
and other countries, with an equal number of
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Serbia, and
some 18,000 persons of concern in neighbouring
Montenegro.
The report notes that although the overall security
situation in Kosovo has progressively improved over
the past year, it remains fragile and unpredictable.
Minorities continue to suffer from ethnically
motivated or criminal incidents. Many incidents remain
unreported as the victims often fear reprisals from
perpetrators.
Serbs and Roma continue to face serious obstacles in
accessing essential services in health, education,
justice and public administration.
Discrimination as well as low representation of
minorities in the administrative structures further
discourages minorities from exercising their basic
rights.
The UN has administered Kosovo ever since North
Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) forces drove out
Yugoslav troops in 1999....Talks are now underway to
determine its future status and the return of Serb
refugees is seen as a crucial factor in reaching a
decision. Independence and autonomy are among options
that have been mentioned. Serbia rejects independence.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=26619&NrIssue=54&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia)
June 16, 2006
Serbia demands independence for Republika Srpska
Belgrade - If Kosovo gains independence, then the
Republka Srpska (RS) should be granted the same right,
the President of the Coordination Center for Kosovo,
Sanda Raskovic-Ivic told RS television.
"If Kosovo and Metohija gain independence, then the
same right should be granted to RS, the Trans-Dneister
region, Abkhazia, Catalonia...", said Ivic for TRS.
According to her, there are around 50 locations
undergoing frozen conflicts but they are only "frozen
on the surface, while beneath is boiling".
"If we want to have, indeed, a short fuse for the
planet, and if someone from the international
community refuses to see it, to create a common
confusion everywhere and to open 50 more conflicts,
then the best way to do that is to grant independence
to Kosovo", said Raskovic-Ivic.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.312217506&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
June 19, 2006
KOSOVO: TERROR ON RISE AHEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, SERBS WARN
Belgrade - Ahead of a United Nations Security Council
session on Kosovo, local Serbs warned on Monday of
growing “ethnic Albanian terrorism” in the province
which has been under UN administration since 1999.
The warnings came the same day as Kosovan police told
the SRNA news agency they had found a powerful
explosive device on a road some 2.5 kilometres from
the Kosovan capital, Pristina, near the building
housing offices of a number of international
organisations and a Serb police office.
Security for Serbs and other non-Albanians has
worsened in the last few months as the international
community neared a decision on the final status of the
province whose overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority
demands independence, Milan Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb
leader, told a press conference in the Serbian
capital, Belgrade.
In the northern district of Kosovska Mitrovica alone,
there have been 70 incidents directed against Serbs,
including several murders and woundings, as well as
bombings, said Ivanovic, ascribing these to "Albanian
terrorism."
Ivanovic accused the departing UN chief in Kosovo,
Soren Jessen Petersen, of lobbying for the Albanian
cause and of misinforming UN secretary general Kofi
Annan on the situation in the province.
Petersen, a Danish diplomat who leaves his post this
month, will submit his final report to the UN Security
Council - the UN's top decision-making body - on
Tuesday.
Serbian officials, who oppose Kosovo's independence,
suspect that Petersen will present what they see as a
false picture of the situation in the province in
order to enhance the case for independence.
Annan has already submitted his report to the Security
Council, saying that the situation in Kosovo has
improved, Ivanovic told reporters. Annan's report was
based on a "false report by Jessen Petersen," said
Ivanovic.
Another Kosovo Serb leader, Marko Jaksic, said
two-thirds of Kosovan Serbs have left the province
since 1999, with just 100,000 having remained in the
province, living in isolated enclaves without basic
security and freedom of movement.
Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo live in
conditions that are "ten times worse than those of
Albanians during the rule of (late Serbian president)
Slobodan Milosevic,” Jaksic said.
Serbian Orthodox Church Kosovo bishop Artemije pointed
out that 150 Orthodox churches have been damaged and
destroyed since 1999, and the "Serbian church heritage
in Kosovo has been endangered to the point of
destroying all traces."
The influential German daily Die Welt also criticised
Petersen in an article on Monday, saying he has become
increasingly aggressive in supporting the ethnic
Albanian cause before his departure at the end of
June.
Belgrade has disputed Petersen's claim that great
progress has been made in the Kosovo in last two
years, saying that barely 10,000 Serbs of the 230,000
who have fled the province since 1999 have returned
there.
In a strongly worded letter to Jessen Petersen earlier
this month, the Serbian government's coordinator for
Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, told him the province is
a 'black hole' for Serb human rights and that Serbs
there risk annihilation.
Since the continuing talks on Kosovo's final status
started last October, more than 180 ethnically
motivated incidents against Serbs have taken place.
Some 3,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have been
killed or listed as missing since UN took control of
the province.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/beta061906.htm
Church vandalised in Obilić
Beta - June 19, 2006
OBILIĆ -- Unknown vandals demolished a church in the centre of
Obilić, Kosovo and Metohija Radio reported.
According to reports, four crosses were removed from the church and
taken, as was the chimney on the right side of the church and part of
the roofing.
Municipal Coordinator in Obilić Mirče Jakovljević said that this is
yet another attack on everything that is Serbian in Obilić.
Jakovljević said that the church vandalism is yet another argument
that proves that the international community cannot and does not have
the power to stop such acts.
“This is further evidence that Serbs need new municipalities in
order to stay here. If this does not happen, then villages such as
Obilić will be ethnically clean very soon. We are questioning whether
KFOR is prepared to secure safety and security for us and our
children.” Jakovljević said.
No one from the Kosovo Police Service was willing to comment on the
incident. This same church in Obilić was set on fire on March 18, 2004.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet062006.htm
Serb found dead at his home in Kosovo, police confirm
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 20, 2006, Tuesday
Excerpt from report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Gracanica, 20 June: Dragan Popovic from Klina was found dead today,
Pec police officer on duty Zef Krasniqi has confirmed for [Gracanica-
based] KiM radio.
He could not give more details regarding Popovic's cause of death,
and he only stated that Popovic was born in 1938.
Klina municipal coordinator Stojan Doncic has told KiM radio that
Popovic was killed in his house yesterday [19 June] evening, adding
that he was shot in the head.
---
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1882361&C=europe
Reuters - June 20, 2006
Kosovo Serbs Recruit Former Soldiers for Defense
By BRANISLAV KRSTIC
MITROVICA, SERBIA - Serbs in northern Kosovo have
recruited hundreds of former Yugoslav army soldiers to
defend them from attacks by ethnic Albanians pushing
for independence for the province, Serb officials said
on June 20.
It is the latest sign of resistance among the Serb
minority in the United Nations-run province to the
drive for independence by the two million ethnic
Albanian majority.
U.N.-led talks look likely to give Kosovo some form of
independence before year-end.
Officials in the north, home to 50,000 Serbs, said 385
former Yugoslav reservists had been employed by
municipalities to "organize defense in the event of
extremist violence."
"We have been forced into such a move because of
police ineffectiveness, and the cover-up of crimes and
their perpetrators," Zvecan mayor Dragisa Milovic told
Reuters. Officially, the "Civil Defence Service" will
not be armed.
The north, adjacent to central Serbia, cut ties last
month with Albanian authorities in the capital - a
move some analysts said was a precursor to a Serb bid
to partition the province.
The Serb police and army, then the Yugoslav army under
late [president] Slobodan Milosevic, were forced from
Kosovo in 1999 when NATO bombed...in a two-year war
with separatist guerrillas.
Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge
[sic] attacks. The 100,000 who stayed live on the
margins of society.
Kosovo’s outgoing U.N. governor, Soren
Jessen-Petersen, will tell the U.N. Security Council
on June 20 that Kosovo Albanian leaders have made
strides in improving the rights and security of the
remaining Serbs - something U.N. and Western diplomats
say is key to clinching independence.
The Serbs say this is a lie and blame a recent spate
of violence on Albanians bent on driving them out.
Jessen-Petersen, in a report seen in advance by
Reuters, will say the rate of ethnically-motivated
crime is falling. [As the number of remaining
potential victims decreases.]
Direct talks on Kosovo’s fate began in February in
Vienna under U.N. mediation. The crunch issue of
status should be on the table in late July, with
Western powers determined to end seven years of limbo
in Kosovo by the end of the year.
Diplomats say the West favors independence, but fear a
bid by Serbs in the north to partition Kosovo, a move
seen certain to spark Albanian retaliation and force
thousands to flee.
The U.N. has contingency plans for the exodus of
50,000 Serbs if Kosovo splits from Serbia.
The 17,000-strong NATO peace force said this month it
would bolster mobile units in the north by reopening a
military base there.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp062106.htm
Serbian church in northern Kosovo attacked again
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 21, 2006, Wednesday
Excerpt from report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 21 June
[Announcer] Unidentified persons have repeatedly damaged the church
of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Podujevo, KiM [Kosovo-Metohija] Info
Service today said. The church was demolished during the March
violence in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] in 2004, but also on 2 April
this year when unknown persons broke into the church and smashed 15
windows. The attackers repeatedly broke into the church early in May
when two other windows were smashed in addition to the doors. Similar
demolition incident took place last week. Jasmina Scekic has the report:
[Reporter] This time the attackers again smashed the windows and
wrote fresh scandalous graffiti on the church walls. The Kosovo
police also confirmed that the church was repeatedly attacked this
month, which is the third registered case of attacks against this
church this year. Bishop Teodosije, a member of the committee for the
renewal of Serb holy sites in Kosmet, most vehemently condemned this
latest brutal attack against the church of the Holy Apostle Andrew in
Podujevo. The repeated attack against the church of the Holy Apostle
Andrew, only a month after the last attack, as well as the
desecration of the church in Obilic two days ago, shows that Serbian
Orthodox Churches are constantly targeted by hooligans and
extremists, and the municipal authorities and the Kosovo Police
Service [KPS] are neither willing nor capable of protecting Serbian
Orthodox churches under threat, Teodosije said.
As far as the very renewal is concerned, we are fully determined that
such attacks will not bother us, because giving up further renewal of
our holy sites would be the greatest concession, a gift to those who
wish to erase traces of the Serb people and our church in these
regions, the bishop said.
These days, a tender has been invited to repair the roof of Ljeviska
Mother of God in Prizren removed after an act of vandalism in
December last year. We will not accept the beginning of the works
unless 24-hour police protection is organized around this church,
Bishop Teodosije said.
---
ALBANIAN TERRORISTS VANDALIZE; PLANT LANDMINES IN KOSOVO-SERB CEMETERY
Radio-Television Serbia - June 22, 2006
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts062006.htm
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/
20060620p2g00m0in033000c.html
Associated Press
June 20, 2006
Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Serbia - Vandals have damaged tombstones in
a Serb cemetery in central Kosovo, police and a Serb
government center said Tuesday.
Sixteen graveside monuments were damaged in the Serb
village of Staro Gracko, 20 kilometers south of the
province's capital, Pristina, said police spokesman
Veton Elshani.
Police were at the scene investigating. Elshani said
it was not clear when the damage was done.
But a Serb government-run center in Kosovo, quoting
local Serb representatives, said a group got into the
cemetery early Tuesday and vandalized the monuments,
leaving behind broken crosses, benches and pots for
flowers and candles.
Kosovo has been run by a United Nations mission since
1999, when a NATO air war halted Serb forces'
crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
U.N.-brokered talks will determine whether Kosovo will
become an independent state, as the ethnic Albanians
demand, or remain attached to Serbia, as the
province's minority Serbs insist.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mina062106.htm
Bomb thrown on bus in Serb village near Kosovo's divided town of
Mitrovica
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - June 21, 2006, Wednesday
Text of report by Montenegrin Mina news agency
Kosovska Mitrovica, 21 June: An unidentified person has thrown an
explosive device on a bus of the Interturs company owned by Nebojsa
Radojcic of the village of Leposavic.
No-one was injured in the explosion which took place last night when
a hand grenade - of the so-called kasikara bomb make - was thrown and
caused damage to the bus.
Kosovo police members have inspected the scene but have not made the
details of the search public.
The village of Leposavic is populated mainly by Serbs. The garage
where the bus was parked at the time is situated near the Kosovska
Mitrovica-Raska [town in southern Serbia] main road.
---
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Security&loid=8.0.313738836&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy)
June 22, 2006
KOSOVO: GERMAN GENERAL KATER ASSUMES KFOR COMMAND
Belgrade - German general Roland Kater will replace
Italian general Giuseppe Valotta as commander of the
international forces in Kosovo (KFOR), Serbian media
reported on Thursday, quoting German defence ministry
sources.
Kater, 57, will be the third German to command KFOR
since Kosovo was put under United Nations control in
1999.
He will replace Valotta on September 1, when his one
year term expires.
Kater had already served in Kosovo in 1999/2000, when
he was a commander of a German contingent in the
province whose majority ethnic Albanians demand
independence.
Germany has 2,300 soldiers serving in the 17,000
strong international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
Kater will take the command of KFOR at a crucial
moment as the international community is moving
towards determining the final status of the province.
Belgrade opposes Kosovo independence, but ethnic
Albanian leaders have said they would settle for
nothing less.
The international community, which safeguards peace in
Kosovo, fears a fresh outbreak of violence as the
status talks move to a close and has already beefed up
the international police in the province.
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6a3a1564-04b0-11db-8981-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times
June 26, 2006
Blair warns Serbs to accept different vision for Kosovo
By Neil MacDonald in Belgrade and Mark Turner at the United Nations
Serbia must accept a "different vision" for the future
make-up of south-east Europe or face increasing
isolation and diminishing prospects of closer
relations with the European Union, Tony Blair, the UK
prime minister, will tell Vojislav Kostunica, his
Serbian counterpart, tomorrow
At a London meeting at which Belgrade is likely to be
pressed to meet its international obligations, such as
catching indicted war criminals, Mr Kostunica would
also be urged to accept the inevitability of
independence for Kosovo, the breakaway Serbian
province under United Nations administration, by the
end of this year, British officials said.
The warning comes amid increased diplomatic activity
as UN-mediated negotiations in Vienna over the status
of Kosovo approach their decisive political phase.
Six rounds of technical meetings have failed to
produce any breakthrough on the basic status question.
Belgrade is under pressure from the UK, US and the UN
administration in Kosovo to accept independence as the
"least problematic solution".
However, Mr Kostunica faces formidable domestic
pressure not to abandon Serbia's historical claims to
the province, now dominated by ethnic Albanians.
Belgrade continues to offer "the widest possible
autonomy" without conceding sovereignty.
The 100,000 remaining Kosovo Serbs have sounded alarm
bells about renewed ethnic violence aimed at driving
them out. Serbs who have returned to northern Kosovo
say they will pack up and go to central Serbia again
unless the UN interim administration tracks down the
murderer of Dragan Popovic, a 68-year-old Serb killed
last week on the doorstep of his home, to which he
returned last year after abandoning it in 1999.
While an autopsy showed a gunshot wound to the back of
his head, the UN administration refused to confirm an
ethnic motive for the killing.
UN officials warned Serbs against "any unilateral
security measures not within the bounds of law", such
as forming local militias.
Guaranteeing the rights and safety of the ethnic
minorities who make up 10 per cent of Kosovo's
population is the main test for the ethnic Albanian
leadership negotiating independence.
Roughly 200,000 people - including at least half of
the province's Serb population - from ethnic minority
groups fled Kosovo in the wake of the 1999 war.
Only around 5 per cent of those Serbs have returned,
despite a UN-brokered protocol on returns.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, chief UN administrator in
Kosovo, told the UN Security Council last week that
many Kosovo Serbs "feel confused, exposed and
isolated, and they do not know what to think about the
future".
But he also accused Belgrade of keeping them from
engaging in local democratic politics.
Serbian state-run newspapers recently exposed internal
UN plans for dealing with a "new Serb exodus" of
70,000 people from Kosovo in the event of
independence.
UN officials in Belgrade confirmed the existence of
emergency evacuation plans, but cautioned against
citing these as a "scare tactic".
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=91203&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria)
June 28, 2006
Vecerne Novosti: Agim Ceku Certain that Washington and London Back
Kosovo’s Independence
Pristina - “It is realistic to expect that the Kosovo
status might be determined by the end of the year, but
the possibility of a certain delay should not be ruled
out. The decision will probably meet our expectations,
which are related to independence”, Kosovo Prime
Minister Agim Ceku said, the Serbian Vecerne Novosti
newspaper reported.
According to him, the government in Pristina backs a
long-term solution of the Kosovo status, which means
that it should not be limited in time, as Belgrade has
proposed.
“I’m sure that in Washington and London, Kostunica
will be asked to prepare the Serb society for the
inevitable independence of Kosovo”, Ceku said.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=128&newsid=91170&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria)
June 27, 2006
Balkan Web: Albania and Kosovo Will Intensify Cooperation in all Spheres
Tirana - The encouragement of bilateral cooperation in
all spheres was the topic of today’s meeting in Tirana
between the Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and the
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisa, Balkan Web
reports.
After the meeting Berisa evaluated the enormous
progress reached from Kosovo and announced that the
visit of Sejdiu in Tirana comes in very important
moment for Kosovo and for the region.
On his hand Fatmir Sejdiu pointed out that Kosovo will
take lesson from Tirana’s experience in process of
European integration.
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/baff7c76-0642-11db-9dde-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times
June 28, 2006
Serbia warns of break with west over Kosovo
By Daniel Dombey in London and Neil Macdonald in Pristina
Serbia yesterday warned it could break with the west
unless the international community took a more
conciliatory approach over the issues of Kosovo and
the apprehension of an indicted war criminal.
Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian premier, said that
Belgrade would not accept an imposed solution for the
majority ethnic Albanian province that many western
diplomats believe should be put on the path to
independence by the end of the year.
Speaking in London after meeting Tony Blair, his UK
counterpart, Mr Kostunica also labelled as "absurd"
the European Union's decision to halt negotiations on
closer ties with Serbia because of Belgrade's failure
to apprehend Ratko Mladic, a war crimes indictee.
But he did say that Serbia would draw up an "action
plan" on improving co-operation with the United
Nations tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, a step the
EU has called for.
An "imposed solution" would "certainly be rejected by
Serbia's parliament, and "that would inevitably mark
the turning point [for] . . . Serbia's relations with
the rest of the world," he said.
Within Serbia, support for the... Radical party is
rising and Mr Kostunica said the country was "becoming
tired of the constant pressure".
He singled out the EU's decision to halt talks on a
stabilisation and association agreement - a waystation
to membership - because Mr Mladic remains free.
"We have, in fact, ended up in a position where the
survival of an entire European democracy directly
depends on bringing to justice one single indictee,
which . . . is absurd," hesaid.
Mr Blair called for Serbia to comply with the wishes
of Kosovo's people and also to step up its
co-operation with the UN tribunal.
The UK has been at the forefront of calls for Belgrade
to live up to its obligations, while other
governments, notably France, have taken a more
conciliatory approach, concerned that Serbia could be
alienated from the EU.
---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/rts070106.htm
Kosovo Albanians arrested for attack on police in divided town - TV
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 1, 2006 Saturday
Text of report by Serbian TV on 1 July
Police have arrested five [ethnic] Albanians who attacked a Kosovo
Police Service patrol last night in the northern [Serb-populated]
part of Kosovska Mitrovica, agencies have reported.
The five Albanians first beat up two Serb members of the Kosovo
police, followed by their two Albanian colleagues on the Kosovska
Mitrovica - Suvi Do road.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=29018&NrIssue=71&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia)
July 5, 2006
Politika: Russia hints veto over Kosovo
Belgrade - Russia for the first time hinted at a
possibility to exercise its veto rights at the UN
Security Council provided that the Western countries
imposed independence for Kosovo, Belgrade's daily
Politika said.
The paper says Russia presented its stands to the
Contact Group members, and had for the first time
mentioned the possibility to veto a resolution
granting Kosovo independence.
Politika daily says at the Contact Group meeting, held
on 30 June in Brussels, Russian representative put on
the table an unofficial document containing four
paragraphs reflecting Russia's position on Kosovo
status talks.
---
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060706/51000794.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
July 6, 2006
Putin warns against double standards in separatist republics
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned
Thursday against any double standards in regard to
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Transdnestr
in Moldova declared independence in the early 1990s
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian
troops assisted ceasefire agreements in these
republics and have helped maintain a ceasefire since
then.
However, West-leaning central authorities in Moldova
and Georgia have recently been seeking expulsion of
Russian forces from the conflict zones.
"We will call on the international community to avoid
dangerous trends of applying double standards in
approaches to these republics' problems," Putin told a
Web cast.
When asked whether it was possible to hold
independence referenda in the breakaway republics, the
president said Russia respected territorial integrity
of Georgia and Moldova.
"But it is also important to respect the opinion of
people living in these territories," he said.
Putin said there had always been a contradiction in
the principles of international law and it remained at
present.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on such decisions to
be based on a universal principle to prevent such
cases when approaches to the regions like Kosovo are
different from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia,
which is incorrect," Putin said.