Kosova Crisis Center
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Kosovars Protest Refugee Beatings
by Macedonian Police (AP)
By MELISSA EDDY Associated Press Writer
STENKOVEC, Macedonia (AP) -- Chanting ``NATO, NATO!'' angry Kosova Albanians protested the
alleged beating of two refugees today by Macedonian police and demanded that NATO take
control of the refugee camp.
U.N. refugee workers persuaded the estimated 2,000 ethnic Albanians to disperse after
promising them that NATO representatives would meet at an undetermined time with a small
refugee delegation to discuss their grievances.
But the Macedonians, many of whom participated in yet another anti-NATO protest last
night, will be in no mood to hear criticism of their handling of a situation that many
believe has reached the point where it could destroy their country.
U.N. officials said the spontaneous protest, which lasted less than an hour, was a sign of
how tensions are building in the camps among traumatized refugees driven from their homes
in Kosova.
The trouble at Stenkovec I camp, which houses about 23,000 people, came after two refugees
said they were seized by Macedonia police earlier in the day and beaten.
One of the refugees, Milaim Gashi, said he was relaxing beside a camp fence talking to
relatives when the police came, took him and a friend to the station and roughed him up.
``We've had enough of massacres and beatings,'' said Milaim Kastrati, a Kosova refugee
leading the protest. ``We don't want the Macedonian police to beat us up now.''
One police officer, who refused to give his name, said the two were detained because they
were ``doing something'' to the fence, a strand of yellow tape similar to that used to
seal off crime scenes.
The camp manager for the U.N. refugee agency, Aurvasi Patel, quoted police as saying the
men were trampling on the fence. Police said they responded with ``normal police
procedure,'' taking him to the station and searching him.
``We told (the refugees) we would make sure their case goes to the highest level if they
disperse and we told them if it's a delegation, NATO will speak to the delegation,'' Patel
said. ``But NATO won't be here to patrol every day.''
The camps, which were constructed by NATO troops and then handed over to Macedonian
authorities, house ethnic Albanian refugees who fled Serb authorities in Kosova after NATO
launched its bombing campaign March 24.
Protesters want NATO to retake control of the camps.
Macedonia's government is concerned that the influx of about 228,000 ethnic Albanians will
upset the delicate balance between Macedonians and Albanians in this former Yugoslav
republic.
Last month, Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, warned
that the Macedonian tent cities were ``on the verge of rioting'' because of overcrowded
conditions.
More than 700,000 ethnic Albanian refugees have fled Kosova, a province in southern
Serbia. Most of the refugees have gone to Albania, which has been more receptive to them
than mostly Slavic Macedonia.
Border tensions heightened over politician's murder
- Fehmi Agani slain by Serbs after he was turned back from the Macedonian border
Patrick Graham National Post, with files from news services
SKOPJE, Macedonia - The news that a well-known ethnic Albanian politician from
Kosova has been murdered after he and thousands of refugees were barred from Macedonia
last week is sure to exacerbate the country's already tense relations with its neighbours.
Fehmi Agani, an associate of Ibrahim Rugova and a negotiator at the Rambouillet peace
talks, was taken off a train on May 6, after it returned to Pristina from the Macedonian
border. Then, says his family, he was murdered by the Serb authorities.
The German foreign ministry has demanded an inquiry into the killing and raised the
possibly of a war crimes investigation.
On Saturday, Shpend Agani, Mr. Agani's son, said his father was arrested in Pristina after
trying to escape. The family identified the body of the 66-year-old former sociology
professor when it was returned to them by Serb authorities.
Shpend Agani said the murder represented one more proof of the atrocities against
Albanians in Kosova.
Tanjung, the Yugoslav state news agency, reported that Mr. Agani was murdered by the
Kosova Liberation Army as part of a power struggle between the hardline KLA and the more
moderate followers of Mr. Rugova.
The charge was denied by Mr. Agani's family and Hashim Thaci, the leader of the KLA, who
told reporters by phone from inside Kosova that the murder was designed to divide
Kosovars.
Mr. Agani's death brought home the tragic consequences of Macedonia's decision to
temporarily close its borders last week. According to the United Nations, Macedonian
police forced at least 1,000 people back into Kosova on Wednesday night. Thousands more
waiting behind them were also prevented from crossing into safety from the province.
They included Mr. Agani, who returned by train to Pristina where he was taken into
custody.
The border closing has been widely condemned by the UN and European governments.
"Even if I understand their political situation and fragility, this is something that
from a humanitarian point of view and the Geneva Convention is simply not
acceptable," said Emma Bonino, the European Union's humanitarian aid commissioner.
She arrived in Macedonia yesterday for talks with Ljupco Georgievski, the prime minister.
Although the Macedonian government maintains the border is now open, only a few people
have crossed in recent days, a significant drop from early last week when more than 20,000
came over in 48 hours.
Since the conflict began, Macedonia has complained bitterly that the 200,000-plus refugees
have swamped the country and now threaten the ethnic balance between the Macedonian
majority and the 25% to 30% Albanian minority.
Last week's border closing seems to have been designed to persuade the international
community that the pace of the evacuations must increase. Since then, Albania has agreed
to take 60,000 refugees from Macedonia.
But the government's tactics have angered ethnic Albanians here who view the treatment of
refugees of yet another example of the Macedonian attitude toward the Albanians.
"They are not able to see the refugees as refugees but only as Albanian
invaders," said Arben Djaferi, the leading Albanian politician in Macedonia, just
before Mr. Agani's death was announced.
The border closing was an expression of the "xenophobic mentality of this
society," said Mr. Djaferi, who has grown increasingly critical of the government
while still remaining part of the ruling coalition.
The memorial service for Mr. Agani, to be held today in Skopje, the capital, will
undoubtedly anger the Albanians as they remember the events that led to the murder of a
popular leader.
Jewish group says it has a moral obligation to help
Kosovar children (The Record)
By Raphael Lewis
The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- In a dusty refugee camp called Stancavijc I, men and women born of
one war of ethnic hatred met the children of another.
Framed by Kosova's rugged, snow-topped mountains, Ruth Ann Eckstein of New Jersey, whose
parents survived the Holocaust, danced hand in hand with young boys and girls driven from
their homes.
Manny Bekier, a Long Islander born as a refugee in post-World War II Munich, clapped and
sang. And Ary Frankiel, whose father escaped from Auschwitz, handed out toys.
They and 13 other Jews arrived at the camp with bags upon bags of shoes, Barbie dolls, and
medicine for the refugee children, saying they had a moral obligation to help. But in the
end, smiles, hugs, and hope proved to be the group's most precious cargo. And what was
good for the children was good for the visitors.
``This was about as emotional as any day in my life,'' Bekier said. ``I saw mothers crying
and cradling babies, kids playing soccer with a Coke can, and I thought about how I played
with American GIs when I was 3. It was amazing.''
The group came together with amazing speed last week after Mark Sarna, a real estate
developer, told friends he could no longer sit by and watch as people were herded into
refugee camps because of their ethnic background.
In a matter of one week, Sarna and dozens of others gathered tens of thousands of dollars'
worth of donations, bagged what they could carry on a commercial flight, and took off.
But if the group's objective was clear -- to help the children -- the effect on their own
lives was far less predictable. When the group arrived at the camp , they saw 40,000
ethnic Albanians sharing 30-person tents in an area about 1.5 miles square. Barbed wire
snaked along the perimeter, beyond which armed Macedonian police guarded against escapes.
Children bathed naked in a stream whose waters moments earlier had run through a nearby
stone mine for use as machine coolant.
When the group entered the camp, hordes of dusty-faced children greeted them with
high-fives, hugs, and American-style handshakes.
``The whole thing is so unreal,'' said Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, looking around him. ``You see
nothing but tents and tents and people living in unspeakable conditions, yet they have
smiles on their faces. This is amazing resilience.''
David Galdi, a college student and the youngest member of the entourage, said he could not
understand what he was seeing.
``I think I need a while to absorb all this,'' he said, pulling out a video camera. ``It's
almost surreal. I don't know whether to be sad or happy, looking at these kids.''
Soon, though, members of the group joined in with the refugees. Some, such as Jeanette
Friedman, tried conversation. Others, such as Jack Nelson, joined pickup games of
basketball. Still others danced and sang with children, often forming the vortex of a
swirling mass of Albanian youth.
``I don't have any words for how much this means to the children,'' said Elan Gazit, one
of 10 Israeli volunteers stationed at Stancavijc I to entertain the camp's children.
``These people mean so much to them, just to see them and touch them and know that people
care.''
The camp, one of seven in Macedonia, receives about 500 new refugees every day and is now
the most crowded in the small nation, aid workers said. And because many of the refugees
came from agrarian villages, families tend to run large. As a result, the number of
children needing shoes, clothing, medicine, and a little fun grows each day.
``The good news is these people were spared genocide and were expelled,'' said Efraim
Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as he visited the
camp. ``The bad news is: What's the hope here? Macedonia cannot absorb these people
because of their shattered economy and fragile ethnic balance. These camps are a
palliative, not a solution. It has the makings of a long, terrible disaster.''
Some refugees, such as Shqipi Hajdini, a 22-year-old dance student from Pristina, will
leave the dusty, crowded camp for more promising quarters. Hajdini was scheduled to fly to
Fort Dix in New Jersey, and others to go to Austria. After one month sleeping in a
30-person tent, she said, a New Jersey army base sounded like heaven.
``I go to see New York City!'' she exclaimed hopefully.
But others, such as Gehtian Grezda, face far more uncertain futures. Grezda, 25, came to
the camp one month ago after Serb shells began destroying Pristina, where he was studying
acting. With no family outside Stancavijc I, the options were boiled down to two: Leave
when the war ends, or escape.
``I have to stay. I am stuck,'' said Grezda, pulling hard on a cigarette as he walked with
Bekier to a United Nations trailer to see his cousin. ``I am hurt in my heart.''
Bekier tried to brighten his spirits, pulling out a vaccination card he received in Munich
as a refugee.
``I made it out, and so will you,'' he said, showing Grezda the card. The young man
smiled.
``Only Jews know our problems,'' said Grezda, a Muslim. ``Before I move to United States,
I visit Israel.''
Albanians Worldwide Answer Rebels'
Call as Thousands Volunteer to Join Fight (W. Post)
By James Rupert Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, May 10, 1999; Page A19
Photo by BBC
KUKES, Albania—At a secret military camp in the craggy mountains of northern
Albania, Shefki Mati, 44, finds himself a long way from his life as a Long Island home
builder and father. Mati is one of thousands of ethnic Albanians -- from Kosova and from a
global diaspora -- who have abandoned jobs and family lives to join the Kosova Liberation
Army.
Ethnic Albanian professionals, laborers and hotel workers from the Balkans, Western Europe
and the United States have flooded into Albania in the past six weeks, vowing to help the
rebel army liberate Kosova, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.
The Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) does not divulge numbers, but one of its officials said
last week that about 13,000 people have been recruited since late March, when NATO
launched airstrikes against Yugoslav military targets and Serb-led Yugoslav forces began
an offensive in Kosova that drove the secessionist guerrillas from their major
strongholds. Although many rebels retreated to neighboring Albania, the guerrillas still
hold small pockets in Kosova and are harassing government forces there.
The recruits are driven by their ethnic identities and inflamed by the televised images of
the destruction of the Kosova Albanian community. Many have no direct family links to
Kosova but say they must join this fight to protect the broader rights of ethnic Albanians
in the Balkans.
"For the first time in history, the Albanians have got the rest of the world on their
side," Mati said.
Photo by BBC
At bases near this town just across the border from Kosova, and elsewhere in
Albania, the KLA is racing to forge an army from disparate recruits who lack military
training and experience. "We're a young army, going through a process of
building," Mati said.
Mati and others said morale is high despite the complications of building a fighting force
from men of varied backgrounds. "In my platoon, we have guys from England, Israel and
France," he said. English-speaking and German-speaking units have been formed for
recruits who failed to learn Albanian as children, he said.
The KLA's most visible image here has been the arrival of groups of recruits from abroad,
often chanting or singing. Mati and about 100 other Albanian Americans landed about three
weeks ago on a charter flight from New York.
Thousands from Germany, France and elsewhere have crossed the Adriatic Sea on daily
ferries from Bari, Italy. On one such passage, "it looked like half the waiters and
busboys of Europe were coming," said Joanne Mariner, a researcher with New York-based
Human Rights Watch, who arrived on one such ferry crossing.
The recruits boarded the vessel in civilian clothes, hauling duffel bags and backpacks.
After it sailed, they changed into combat fatigues and, as the ferry approached the
Albanian coast, assembled on deck for a military pep rally, Mariner said.
Albanians in the United States are more scattered and less visible as an ethnic group than
in Western Europe but still identify strongly with Kosova, said Mati and fellow recruit
Vasel Pjeter Lulgjaraj, both U.S. citizens, who spoke in an interview arranged by KLA
press officials.
Growing up in the Bronx after his family emigrated from Kosova, Lulgjaraj's father
insisted that the family speak Albanian at home and retain the old country's traditions.
"I'm grateful to my father that he kept that order in the house, and I'm proud to be
Albanian," Lulgjaraj, 33, said.
A few weeks ago, he quit his job as a maintenance worker and his studies at New York
University, and signed KLA enlistment papers that he said require that "either we
liberate that land or I don't go home alive."
Some of the recruits have roots not in Kosova but in Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro or
other parts of the Balkans. "This is a fight for all Albanians, wherever we're
from," said Mati, a recruit from Croatia who did not give his family name because, he
said, he was speaking without permission of his commander.
Mati grew up in a Kosova village and served in the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, where
"I was treated as a second-class citizen. . . . All along was in my mind that we were
occupied" by the Serbs, he said. He moved to New York in 1976 and built a small
construction firm.
As the Kosova conflict advanced toward war, he sent money to the KLA's Swiss-based funding
arm, Homeland Calling. Six months ago he brought his 74-year-old mother from their family
village to join him, his wife and their two children in Hampton Bays, N.Y.
He became a news junkie, "watching every day . . . watching," torn between
staying with his family and joining the fight, he said. Finally, after Serbian gunmen
massacred 45 ethnic Albanians in the Kosova village of Racak on Jan. 15, "I knew I
had to go."
Mati said he went to an army-navy store and spent $700 on a camouflage uniform and
accessories. He sewed an orange and black KLA patch on his left shoulder and a U.S. flag
on his right.
Mati said he had lost eight pounds in two weeks of physical conditioning, hand-to-hand
combat and small-arms training. "We're pushing hard," he said. "We know our
brothers and sisters are dying every day in Kosova. Every day's delay means more
die."
"I agree 100 percent [that] we're not ready yet" to launch a counteroffensive in
Kosova, he said, but "I think we're gonna get an order pretty soon."
90 Pct Expulsion of Kosova
Albanians (AP)
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 90 percent of all ethnic Albanians have been expelled from
their homes in Kosova by Serb forces and Serb civilians, the State Department said today.
An estimated 600,000 refugees are still in the Serbian province, struggling to survive,
the report said. Some have taken shelter in forests and mountain valleys.
Another 700,000 have taken sanctuary outside Kosova - in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Macedonia and Montenegro, the smaller of Yugoslav's two republics. Another 130,000 found
temporary haven in other countries.
There are reports of mass graves in six villages and in the Pagarusa Valley, and
consistent refugee reports that Serbian forces systematically separated military-age men
from their families. The total number of missing men and their fate are unknown.
``We will continue to seek justice for the hundreds of thousands of Kosova's ethnic
Albanians who have suffered at the hands of Serb forces,'' the report said.
Serb security forces were attacking civilians last fall, but this spring Yugoslav army and
special police units joined with newly armed Serb civilians to expel their neighbors from
almost all towns and villages in the province, the report said.
Refugees report summary executions in at least 70 towns and villages throughout Kosova,
the report said. Intellectuals, professionals and community leaders are targeted.
Rape is on the rise in Djakovica and Pec on a systematic and mass basis, the State
Department said. Many such crimes probably were not reported because of cultural stigma,
the report said.
The efforts against civilians gathered momentum in mid-March with departure of European
observers before NATO began its bombing campaign March 24. More than 300 villages have
been burned since April 4, the report said.
Besides houses and apartments, Serbs have targeted and destroyed mosques, churches,
schools and medical facilities. The report is entitled ``Erasing History: Ethnic Cleansing
in Kosova.''
It is designed to support the Clinton administration's use of force against Yugoslavia.
The report accused President Slobodan Milosevic of conducting a campaign of forced
migration on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.
Jezerc highlands in full
encirclement from the serbian terrorist forces (KP)
Ferizaj, May 10th (Kosovapress) After the numerous attacks and fighting during the last
days, the serbian forces have undertaken today an overall offensive against the albanian
villages and the positions of KLA, in the Operative Zone of Nerodimes, in the Jezerc
highlands side. The serbian forces putting in a full and ironed encirclement this region,
have been positioned today in many points, from Ferizaj and Nerodimja e Epėrme in the
left side of the road up to Shtime and along the gorge of Carralevė, then by the side of
Suharekė in Grejkoc, Budakovė, Jezerc etc. Besides the new positions of the increased
serbian forces, they have begun attacks with all the types of the light and heavy means,
as well as with infantry. The units of KLA are staying mobilized in their place positions,
along the front line. Today, the serbian positions are noticed near the army's barracks,
in a barrack where are positioned many police. paramilitary and military serbian troops.
In Lloshkobare, in the end of the asphalted road to Dremjak, at the place called
„Roga", there are tanks and a battery of the projectilelounchers, while near the
village of Koshare, at Kodra e Madhe, there are tanks, military munition and a battery of
the projectilelounchers. Yesterday, here many paramilitars and militars have come from
Ferizaj.
Also, near this village 600 mt away th road Ferizaj-Shtime, at some barracks there are
batteries of projectilelounchers, armoured vehicles, two tanks and massive troops. At the
tubes plant, near Shtime, there are placed 5 trucks with munition provisions, with civil
and military plates, one battery of projectilelounchers, armoured vehicles and three
tanks. While at Podi i Gėshtenjave, near Shtimes, there are placed one prag, one armoured
vehicle, two tanks , three batteries of projectilelounchers. In the first houses in the
exit of Shtime, toward the road to Petrov, there are batteries of projectilelounchers,
massive infantry forces, etc. Along the road which is divided for Raēak, at the place
called „Qesta", there are one armoured vehicle, one prag, one tank, one battery
of projectilelounchers, infantry forces and a lot of munition. While, in Belincė, towards
Jezerc at the joint of the rivers, there are also serbian forces. Our sources inform that,
in the mountains of Jezerc, are sheltered about 80.000 albanian civilians, particularly in
Grykė tė Topillės. They are in dramatic conditions and in full encirclement from the
serbian forces, which can make massacres and massive deportations.
The serbian terrorist forces are
burning the city of Gjakovė (KP)
Gjakovė, May 10th (Kosovapress) Today, in Ēabrat of Gjakovės, fierce fighting have
taken place. The fighters of the 137th Brigade „Gjakova", have done a powerful
resistance to the serbian forces for 10 consecutive hours. On this occasion, they have
killed 15 serbian soldiers. The fighters of the 137th Brigade, have reached to repel the
serbian forces, while then the enemy forces from Cabrati have attacked with bombarded the
town with cannons and projectilelounchers of various calibers. During the yesterday
fighting, there have not been losses from the ranks of KLA. Meanwhile it is known that the
number of the killed civilians is huge, while a number of them have been captured and are
being kept from the serbian police. Today, though fighting have not taken place, the
situation is very grave, almost all the quarter of Ēabrati has been burnt, while the
other quarters are still burning. From the serbian sharpshooters every street of Gjakovė
is under control; nobody seems to move in these streets. Ēabrati is being kept under an
ironed encirclement.