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LETTERS OF SUPPORT

SERBIAN MASSACRES

• Serb Civilians throw bombs in the center of Peja (KP)
• Victims of Serb Massacres found in local Water Source
• More light is shed on the Massacre at Poterē tė Epėrm
• Mass Graves Found All Over Kosova (AP)
• DALLAS KOSOVAR YOUTH SEEKS RELEASE OF IMPRISONED ACTIVIST MOTHER WHO IS BEING HELD IN SERBIA
• Serb Secret Service agency behind explosions in Skopje
• US Issues $5 Million bounty on Heads of War Criminals
• NATO Reports 14 Dead As Kosova Still Tense (Reuters)

Serb Civilians throw bombs in the center of Peja (KP)

Pejė, June 24, (Kosovapress)
Yesterday a group of Serb civilians from the forth floor of a building threw a number of bombs on Albanian civilians who were walking the streets below. The attack severely injured Agron Shala (aged 30) from Peja and an unidentified 16 year old who was lightly injured.

According to Dr. Sefedin Burrit, Agron Shala is interned in the Peja hospital and is waiting evacuation to the hospital in Prishtina. From preliminary inspection, the doctor suggested that Mr. Shala may have also been hit by a sniper's bullet. There is no report of whether or not the Italian Forces abducted the Serb's guilty of this attack.

Victims of Serb Massacres found in local Water Source

Gllogoc, June 24, (Kosovapress) For three months in the water pit of the Bajraktara ward near the factory of Ferronik, the bodies of three members of the Bajraktari family lay. These three were executed on March 28 by Serb soldiers and thrown into this water collection area.

According to a family member, Mustafė Bajraktaraj, Hasan and Ekrem Bajraktari as well as Shaban Krasniqi, from Zhilivoda were among those found in the pit.

As of yet, no experts have visited the site which was selected by the Serbs in attempt to hide their crime. Wells are a common place to find victims of Serb policies for they spoil the water source as well as make it difficult to gather evidence against those who committed the crime.

Peja's hospital gets reorganized

Pejė, June 24, (Kosovapress) According to Dr. Sefedin Burrit, chief health care provider for the Peja region, the Peja hospital for the last five days has been fully operational. Many of the Albanian personnel of this hospital who were evicted by Serb forces three months ago have come back, unfortunately, many have also been killed and are missed.

It took several days for the hospital to start to function. There is a need of doctors in particular, now that the hospital is clear of booby traps and is getting some supplies and equipment which were pillaged by Serb officials. The sectors which are now staffed: internal medicine, infective, paediatrics are still in need of specialists. The hospital is operational 24 hours a day. All this service is done using outdated medical equipment that survived the attacks of Serb personnel as they were leaving.

Dr. Burrit told his colleague at Doctors Without Borders, (DWB) that he hopes to establish medical services to all the surrounding villages in the near future with the help of DWB. DWB has provided doctors and has helped organized the initial efforts to establish service. The lack of professional surgeons is reason for concern. Due to this shortage, patients are forced to be transferred to Gjakova. Concerning this shortage, Dr. Burrit appeals to all medical personnel to present themselves to the appropriate officials so that Peja's medical services can be properly organized.

More light is shed on the Massacre at Poterē tė Epėrm

Klinė, June 24, (Kosovapress)
During the Serb offensive on the village of Poterē i Epėrm in the Klina district, they executed 11 Kosovar civilians and three Gypsies. According to eyewitnesses two of the victims were butchered with knifes while the rest were executed by gun shots. This act of cold blooded murder happened on March 29, the following is a list of those killed:


Zymer Haki Shala, aged 14

Milaim Islam Zeneli, aged 16

Nazmi Musli Zeneli, aged 17

Zenel Hajdin Zeneli, aged 21

Xhavit Hasan Smajli, aged 24

Ali Hasan Smajli, aged 29

Nuredin Sahit Gashi, aged 34

Milaim Sahit Gashi, aged 30

Musli Rexhep Zeneli, aged 52

Zenun Kamer Shala, aged 58

Binak Kamer Shala, aged 63

Metė Ymer Quni, aged 33

Ymer Quni, aged 62

Dem Kadria, aged 95

According to eyewitnesses, those guilty of this crime have been identified as the following Serbs: Radovan Kizic, from Poterē i Ulėt, Milovan Stepic, from Drenoci as well as three from the Radojevic family, and Orlanic, from Poterēi i Epėrm.

Mass Graves Found All Over Kosova (AP)

By Ellen Knickmeyer Associated Press Writer Tuesday, June 22, 1999; 2:02 p.m. EDT

IZBICA, Kosova (AP) -- Turn down the wrong road in Kosova looking for a mass grave of 35 ethnic Albanians, and the men there say, no, that's the next village -- but we'll show where we buried seven of our fathers and uncles together.

Ask someone for directions to a field holding the corpses of 142 people who were executed and he says, after that, if you want, I'll show you a grave holding six members of a single family.

Mass graves are everywhere in Kosova: more than outsiders can track down in their first days back in the province; enough to keep war crimes prosecutors busy for years, if they choose.

Apparently fearing just such prosecution, Serb soldiers, paramilitary, police and civilians cremated many of their ethnic Albanian victims, or returned to exhume corpses for burning or reburial in single graves, survivors say.

But while the 2 1/2-month war was time enough for killing untold thousands, it wasn't enough time for cleaning up afterward. The signs of slaughter abound:

-- A Kosova Liberation Army guerrilla with a bandana tied over his nose pulls on a rope snaking from the ground, lifting out the head of one of 10 people buried there. The cord that strangled the victims is still around the neck.

-- Outside Djakovica, an Italian soldier points his foot at a human ribcage in a gravel pit that villagers say holds the bodies of 86 people massacred in the southwestern city. ``A boy,'' the soldier guesses.

-- A woman's skull rests among the charred bones of 26 people who were shot and then had their house burned around them in the village of Cara Luka, 22 miles southwest of the capital, Prishtina. Hair intact, head tilted back, her mouth is wide open. ``As if she's still screaming,'' people studying the scene tell each other.

In some cases, as at Cara Luka, residents are waiting for investigators from the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to come before they properly bury the dead. FBI investigators are to aid U.N. war-crimes prosecutors in examining the sites, NATO says.

At least one investigator with the war crimes tribunal is touring mass graves by helicopter, flying into one site for a quick initial survey and pictures, then flying on to the next one.

On the ground, villagers are scrupulous in telling the stories of the massacres, even -- or especially -- if traces of the killing are few. They tally the dead, providing estimates on the number of bodies buried hastily under the mounds of earth.

``The world will know about these,'' said Sadik Xhemajli, a KLA officer in the village of Izbica near the northwest city of Mitrovica.

Xhemajli has painstakingly written, and laboriously reads, an account of Serb killings of 142 people at his village from March 28 to May 10.

The dead include 119 people executed at once, and an 88-year-old woman and a mentally ill, paralyzed man shot because they were unable to walk to the Serb-guarded convoy that was to deport them to Albania, the ledger says.

In all, seven of the victims were women. Two were children. Ninety-eight were men older than 50, up to the age of 102, Xhemajli recites.

Villagers buried the bodies in a field. Serbs came back from June 1 to June 3 with a backhoe, digging up the corpses and carting them off in a truck -- villagers suspect for burning at a factory in Mitrovica.

Spy cameras flying overhead caught the sight, and the Pentagon cited it June 9 as a sign of ongoing Serb atrocities in Kosova.

Serbs took away the bodies ``just to lose the evidence,'' Xhemajli said. ``To escape The Hague.''

Xhemajli, at a village a long, bumpy ride down a mud road, somehow has gotten word to authorities of the killings. He awaits The Hague.

DALLAS KOSOVAR YOUTH SEEKS RELEASE OF IMPRISONED ACTIVIST MOTHER

Nick Brovina of Richardson, TX worries that his mother will not survive the torture and lack of medical attention she has suffered at the hands of the Serb army. The treatment of humanitarian activist Dr. Flori Brovina is being protested by the national office of Amnesty International, the Red Cross, and Pen International (an international writer's organization).

Dr. Flori Brovina was arrested in Kosova two months ago by Serb troops, was held in prison there and tortured for an extended period. When the peace talks began, she was transferred to a prison in the Serbian town of Pozharezc. Dr. Brovina is partially paralyzed and suffers from increasingly poor health as a result of her treatment. Without medical care it is feared that she will not survive. Dr. Brovina's case has received intensive coverage in the Serb and Albanian media, where rumors of a death sentence are circulated.

"My mother is being held because she is a witness to countless incidents of brutality who will not be afraid to speak the truth to the media and courts of justice," says her son Nick Brovina. "We are requesting fair treatment for her according to the rules of the Geneva convention. She needs medicine and access to a physician, and to be able to communicate with her family."

Dr. Flori Brovina from Prishtina, an author of 4 books of poetry and a pediatrician, was president of the non-political National Women's Organization of League. She is deeply respected as one of the leading humanitarians in Kosova. Her group provided humanitarian assistance to women and children during the recent 15 year period when most Kosovars were removed from their jobs, and families lived on the charity of Albanians living abroad.

When thousands of women and children were internally displaced by the military actions that began in March of 1998, she set up a Rehabilitation Center that provided emergency assistance, blankets, and food to the destitute. She also established a humanitarian Nazmi Gaffuri, a medical service for internal refugees supported by Oxfam, International and Doctors of the World provided assistance to the latter organization.

During the recent invasion by Serbian troops and forced evacuation of much of the civilian population, each day Dr. Brovina led teams of women into the forests where people were living in hiding. They also canvassed the villages near Prishtina, offering treatment to the wounded and traumatized. There is no doubt that her efforts saved countless lives and gave hope to others.

For further information, please contact:

Anne Marie Weiss-Armush Coordinator,
Dallas Kosova Refugee Committee
aweiss@airmail.net
972-458-7007

Serb Secret Service agency behind explosions in Skopje

Shkup, June 23, (Kosovapress)
The explosion that took place in front of NATO's headquarters in the Macedonian capitol, was organized and carried out by Serbs who were assisted by Serb Secret Service agents, reported Macedonian Interior Minister in a news conference yesterday. The Serbs who exploded a device in front of NATO headquarters came from the village of Mershic in Skopje, and some were guards at the "Gazelle" shoe factory located in Skopje. The guards were ex-officers of the Yugoslav Army, had married Macedonian citizens and were actively recruiting Serb locals to conduct subversive acts throughout Macedonia.

Five of the accused have relations to the Serb Nationalist Party in Macedonia while a guard of the Shoe factory, who made the phone call claiming responsibility to the attack to local police, is on Macedonia's most-wanted list. The names of the accused have not been provided by the Ministry but it is understood they are all Serbs. The Macedonian Interior Minister said officials arrested 10 people from Mershic and two others from the factory. Upon being arrested in their homes, it is reported police found 6 automatic weapons, 24 hand grenades, 13 cartridges and 586 rounds of ammunition.

Minister Trajanov said that the arms were of Yugoslav make and were taken from Serbia to Macedonia as often has been the case in the past such as a resent discovered cache of two anti-tank mines, two "Zola" 4 automatic guns, detonators, and explosives that all have the finger print of Serb secret services for their make. It is known Serb agents in Macedonia received training to use these weapons.

Among the activities of this terrorist group was to distribute arms and explosives to others inside Macedonia in order to conduct attacks against NATO forces in Macedonia. The latest attack, said the minister, did not have any connection to anonymous phone calls made by a woman who claimed to be a member of the "Makedonaska Zora" organization.

US Issues $5 Million bounty on Heads of War Criminals

Washington D.C., June 24, (Kosovapress)
United States State Department Spokesperson James Rubin reported the initiation of a State Department program to offer up to $5 million towards the capture of war criminals in the Former Yugoslavia. Rubin, reading a written statement from Madeline Albright, US Secretary of State, which annouced a reward to anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest of any indicted war criminal who would then be brought to trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. The US State Department declared its determination to bring to justice those responsible for the massive number of atrocities committed in Kosova over the last year.

In a related matter, KFOR troops arrested today in Kosova a Serb suspected of taking part in the murder of dozens of Kosovar civilians last month. A KFOR official promised that this is the first of many arrests in the near future as a local police force begins to take shape.

NATO Reports 14 Dead As Kosova Still Tense (Reuters)

By Shaban Buza

PRISHTINA (Reuters) - Kosova remained tense Friday despite NATO's huge presence, as ethnic Albanian refugees flooded back and NATO reported that an Italian soldier and 14 local civilians had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Late Thursday, NATO peacekeepers arrested five people after a food shop run by a Serbian woman was broken into in Prishtina but calm was restored Friday and NATO forces were on patrol.

In Bonn, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said at least 40 mass graves had been found in the German sector of the war-shattered Serbian province.

A NATO spokesman in Prishtina said an Italian soldier was wounded ``accidentally'' when a weapon was fired. He died in hospital in the Kosova capital Thursday night.

The civilian dead included three Serbs whose bodies were found at Prishtina University Thursday morning.

Two people died in a hospital, one of them of wounds and one who was killed there. A nurse was wounded in the hospital.

The bodies of the other civilians were found in the city, the spokesman said, but he declined to give their nationalities -- a typical NATO practice to avoid stoking ethnic tension in Kosova. ``They were all Kosovans,'' he said.

Similarly, NATO officials did not disclose the nationalities or identities of those arrested in the overnight looting incident in Prishtina.

All goods from the shop were loaded onto two vehicles of the KFOR peacekeeping force and taken to KFOR headquarters.

In another incident late Thursday, a car was set on fire in an underground garage in the center of Prishtina. KFOR cordoned off the area and about 200 people were evacuated from flats in the building above the garage.

Announcing the discovery of 40 mass graves by German troops, Scharping told journalists in Bonn that Serb forces had not buried bodies together but spread them over wide areas and sought to destroy the evidence by setting bodies alight.

This meant it was difficult to give a definite figure for either the number of graves or of people killed, he said.

Elsewhere in the southern Serbian province, a Reuters photographer saw a house burning Friday morning in the center of Urosevac about 30 km (18 miles) south of Prishtina. U.S. soldiers in the peacekeeping force were in the area.

As ethnic Albanian refugees returned, many Serbs fled, fearing revenge for Serb forces' atrocities.

Adding to the turmoil and confusion, NATO sources reported that thousands of Gypsies were fleeing their homes in the province because of revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians who accuse them of collaborating with their Serb oppressors.

In Moscow, Russia's upper house of parliament Friday gave the green light to participation of Russian peacekeepers in the international security force.

RIA news agency said the first contingent of 50 would leave Moscow within hours. About 200 Russian troops are already in Prishtina, having driven there from Bosnia in a surprise thrust ahead of NATO forces after NATO halted its bombing campaign.

Outside Kosova, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic faced unrest from unpaid troops and emboldened political opponents.

The United States Thursday offered a reward of up to $5 million to anyone providing information leading to the capture of alleged war criminals in Yugoslavia, including Milosevic.

A random survey of people in Belgrade Friday found that many Serbs had not heard of the reward, since it was not reported by local media.