Kosova Crisis Center
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- 350 Bodies Found in a Grave Near Peja, the Largest Mass Grave Found So Far (Radio21)
- Protest held in Prishtina for the liberation of Political Prisoners in Serbia (KosovaPress)
- Serbia Maintains a Strangle Hold on Kosova (KP)
- KFOR stops Albanians to cross the bridge over Ibri river in Mitrovica (Radio21)
- Peja: An Albanian child dead in a mine explosion (Radio21)
- Two beheaded Albanians found in Malisheva region (Radio21)
- KFOR probes new report of mass grave near Peja (CNN)
350 Bodies Found in a Grave Near
Peja, the Largest Mass Grave Found So Far (Radio21)
KFOR spokesperson, major Jan Josten, confirmed the existence of a mass grave with more
than 350 bodies of Albanian civilians in the village of Lybeniq of Peja. This region is in
the Italian sector.
Protest held in Prishtina for the liberation of
Political Prisoners in Serbia (KosovaPress)
Prishtina, July 9, (Kosovapress) In Prishtina today, the Society for Political Prisoners
and leaders of the Independent Student Union staged a protest in front of UN headquarters.
Hundreds demanded the release of men taken from Kosova by Serb forces and who are interned
in Serb prisons. Among the many signs accompanying the protesters, one read: "Free
the Albanian Prisoners" another "Free my father, he is not a terrorist,"
"Where is my son?" "This is Ukshin Hoti" and a photo of the well-known
accademic accompanied the message. Ukshin Hoti in particular was highlighted since he was
a very popular professor and political personality in Kosova.
Attending the demonstration with the director of the organization that put together this
weekly rally, Shukrije Rexha, was Barbara Davis, on the administrative council of the
UN’s executive board in Prishtina.
Barbara Davis, spoke to the demonstrators, confirming the international concern for the
plight of these men and that the international community is doing what it can to free the
prisoners. She emphasized that the UN and the demonstrators had a shared interest in
getting information about the status and health of those men locked up in Serbia.
Serbia Maintains a Strangle Hold on Kosova (KP)
Prishtina, July 9, (Kosovapress) With the cessation of bombing and the arrival of KFOR
troops the western world congratulated itself for a bloodless victory and the citizens of
Kosova confidently returned in their hundreds of thousands. There remains an air of KFOR
domination. In Prishtina in particular, this presence is felt with the round-the-clock
foot patrols and the proliferation of UN or KFOR related offices. But just beneath the
surface, as the days turn into weeks, journalists and aid workers are beginning to sense a
serious administrative shortcoming. Grumblings are emerging among NGOs of the lack of
organizational imagination of the UNHCR and food distribution agencies. Many communities
are not receiving anywhere near what they need and there seems no institutional knowledge
of this need. The just published Kosova-wide assessment demonstrates to many just how
poorly planned the operation to feed, rebuild and refurbish Kosova actually is and the
questions raised by the press-corps is beginning to reveal this concern.
Indicative of this problem is the inability of KFOR and the UN to deal with the
administrative needs of Kosova. The infrastructure of civil society, for the last ten
years in direct control of Belgrade, seems to have changed little. The same administrators
of Europe’s only apartheid system, seem largely in place. Belgrade is adequately
represented in all major administrative institutions in Prishtina with UN officials
proving not up to the task of removing them from their positions. Kosovar citizens who
were thrown out of their jobs by the Milosevic regime ten years ago must contend with the
same regime as they demand from the UN that their former positions be returned, positions
which are still held by Serbs who moved to Kosova to administer Serbia’s colony. To
many of the frustrated Albanian radio sPejaialists wishing to go to jobs they feel is
rightly theirs, it is the UN’s failure to acknowledge the nature of the governmental
system that existed before bombing ended last month, that has given de-facto legitimacy to
this super-structure of apartheid which is largely still intact in Prishtina.
Serb officials still hold all key positions in the radio-television complex in Prishtina,
and they hold all the positions in the vital PTT centers which control all
telecommunications in and out of Kosova. Electrical services, water supply, office space
and other organizational networks are under the control of Serb administrators who have
kept their jobs despite the fact they represent a state and a regime that has been
universally condemned for crimes committed against humanity. Prishtina is suffering from a
particularly acute telecommunications problem with all lines controlled by the PTT in
Prishtina turning on and off. As the staff is entirely Serb and all lines run through
Belgrade, Milosevic has a virtual strangle hold on Kosova. The policy the UN is pursuing
is leaving Serb administrators with virtual veto powers over all asPejats of civil society
and making Kosova’s inhabitants hostage to Milosevic.
The grumbings of locals over the policies of the UN in dealing with their ex-colonial
tormentors add fuel to an already dangerous mixture. French soldiers are publicly seen
fraternizing with Serb paramilitaries in Mitrovica bars, sons of paramilitaries are hired
as guards in OSCE offices and Russian troops are being deployed in areas where no Serbs
lived in the past. As basic issues of food distribution and supplies for the
reconstruction of homes become more urgent with shrinking budgets and less political will
in the West, some fear that this will be the time for Belgrade’s servants to apply
their formidable pressure on a system they have control. As journalists frantically search
for an alternative means of communicating with the outside world and KFOR negotiated with
Serb employees of the PTT, Belgrade will remain a dark shadow over the lives of Kosovars
for many years to come.
KFOR stops Albanians to cross the bridge over Ibri
river in Mitrovica (Radio21)
Hundreds of Albanians gathered today in Mitrovica and tried to cross the bridge over Ibri
river, into the northern part of the town held by Serbs.
French KFOR didn't allow Albanian citizens to cross the bridge. Serbs do not allow
Albanians to return home in that part of the town in Northern Kosova.
OSCE to establish a Police Academy in Kosova (Radio21)
OSCE chairman in office, Knut Volebaek, confirmed today in Prishtina that work is under
way to establish the Police Academy in Kosova and 1 million DEM are going to be spent on
that. He also confirmed that negotiations are being done for the restart of Radio
Prishtina.
90 per cent of Kosova refugees left Ulqin, Montenegro
UNHCR is going to start next week the repatriation of the Kosova refugees from Mitrovica
and Skenderaj, actually in Ulqin.
UNHCR representative, Shpend Haskaj, confirmed that 400 Kosova refugees returned home
today, refugees will return tomorrow in Istog and after tomorrow in Peja. 90 per cent of
the refugees left Ulqin in the last 20 days and some 5 thousand Kosova Albanians are still
there.
Peja: An Albanian child dead in a mine explosion
(Radio21)
An Albanian child died in a mine explosion yesterday while playing in a hill in the region
of Peja.
Albanian sources say, Serb forces heavily mined the region of Peja.
An Albanian soldier was wounded in a mine explosion within the territory of Albania
Wednesday. UNHCR and NATO warned the citizens in north and north east Albania for the
danger from mines.
Two beheaded Albanians found in Malisheva region
(Radio21)
The beheaded bodies of two Albanian men were found yesterday close to the villages of
Dragobil and Bubli, in the region of Malisheva. Both were massacred and there is no
information yet for their identity. There is information for massive and individual graves
in the area.
KFOR probes new report of mass grave near Peja
(CNN)
From staff and wire reports
PRISHTINA, Kosova (CNN) -- Italian peacekeepers in Kosova were investigating an apparent
mass grave site in western Kosova on Friday that local residents said could contain as
many as 350 bodies.
Peacekeeping troops will be joined by investigators from the international war crimes
tribunal to examine the site, located near Peja in the Italian sector in western Kosova.
They will not be able to confirm the number of bodies until the investigation is complete,
said Maj. Jan Joosten, a spokesman for the KFOR peacekeeping mission.
During the 11-week NATO air war against Yugoslavia, allied countries that now make up most
of KFOR accused Serb-led Yugoslav troops of carrying out a campaign of "ethnic
cleansing" to rid Kosova of its majority ethnic-Albanian population.
If the site near Peja is determined to be a mass grave, it would be the largest of about
100 found in Kosova that are believed to contain the bodies of ethnic Albanians.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate leader of Kosova's self-proclaimed government,
said he will return to the Yugoslav province next week and urge reconciliation between
ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
"There were massacres, but we must start a reconciliation with the Serbs and create
conditions for their return," Rugova told the French daily Le Monde.
Rugova pushes for elections
Rugova was elected in an unofficial ballot to lead the Serb province of Kosova toward
independence. He left Kosova for Italy during the war, and his long stay abroad and
wartime meetings with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic have drawn criticism back
home.
Now in Rome, Rugova told Le Monde he wants to hold discussions with all factions in
Kosova, including his rivals, the Kosova Liberation Army guerrillas.
"I am going to meet everyone, including the KLA, to find out what they think,"
Rugova said. He contended he has wide popular support as Kosova's leader, and promised to
push for elections.
He delayed his return because many Serbs and KLA rebels were still armed despite the
deployment of NATO peacekeepers, he said.
KLA leader Hashim Thaqi said Tuesday that Rugova should return by the end of this week, if
members of his Democratic League of Kosova want to take their seats in the provisional
government in Pristina, Kosova's capital.
Rugova said independence for Kosova remained his goal, which he said could be achieved
after a roughly three-year transition phase.
Kosova in worse shape than expected
Meanwhile, the U.N. agency in charge of resettling hundreds of thousands of Kosovars who
fled during the war said earlier reports of damage in the province were
"over-optimistic."
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees surveyed 141 villages around the province and
found conditions were worse than earlier thought. The survey found that 40 percent of the
water supply is of poor quality, sometimes polluted by human and animal corpses.
Only 12 percent of the health facilities that existed before the NATO bombing still exist,
60 percent of the schools have been damaged or destroyed and crop and livestock losses
have been severe, UNHCR said.
The relief agency said 49 percent of available food was coming from humanitarian aid
programs, and UNHCR was struggling to fund its work. In addition, many Serbs in Kosova
have been fleeing from returning ethnic Albanians out of fear of reprisals -- fears that
have sometimes come true.
But they are finding little help in the remainder of Serbia, the dominant republic in the
Yugoslav federation. Yugoslav authorities may be driving the refugees back into Kosova, a
UNHCR spokesman said Friday.
Kris Janowski said there had been "some organized movement of Serbs back to
Kosova," and "We have very, very, very strong suspicions that this movement was
coerced."
"Perhaps they were not physically forced to go, but they were put under duress and
pressure to do it," he said.