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- Remorseless troops tell of pillaging Kosova
- Yugo's Komercijalna, UMNIK Sign Agreement
- Albright To Visit Kosova
- U.N. and U.S. military trade charges on Kosova
- Dutch secret service: Balkan countries meddling in tribunal work
- Kosova revives beyond orbit of Yugoslavia
- KFOR commander 'encouraged' by KLA disarmament
- Is Kosova under Invasion? (Analysis by Kosovapress)
- The Killing Fields of Vushtrri
Remorseless troops tell of pillaging Kosova
Hundreds of paramilitary troops and police, blamed for much of the killing and looting in Kosova, are openly enjoying the spoils of their ethnic-cleansing campaign.
By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY
JAKOVO, Yugoslavia - It's nearly impossible to walk through Bata's small studio apartment.
Two Sony large-screen TVs, a Panasonic CD player and a National VCR recorder are stacked on the floor. Two black leather sofas are crowded into the living room. Two mini-refrigerators block the entrance to the kitchen.
"These are my trophies from Kosova," says Bata, 32, a Serb paramilitary soldier. "If I am lucky, I will get more soon. There is nothing else I'd rather be doing."
Hundreds of paramilitary troops and police, blamed for much of the killing and looting in Kosova, are openly enjoying the spoils of their ethnic-cleansing campaign. Few, if any, express shame or remorse over their alleged atrocities; nearly all say they would do it again.
In more than a dozen interviews over two weeks, paramilitary troops described their three-month killing and looting sprees as highly organized.
Many laugh as they recall the atrocities and show pictures of themselves standing in front of burned-out homes. Others speak seriously and emphasize that their actions in Kosova amounted to nothing more than a job. All of them share their stories on the condition that their last names would not be used.
The men, most of whom fought in the Kosova cities of Pec and Prishtina, say they were acting on orders from the State Security Department of the Serb Interior Ministry (MUP) and the Yugoslav army.
In return for their service, the men say, the Serb government allowed them to keep 10% of goods they stole. Several paramilitaries produce documents, signed and stamped by MUP officials, authorizing them to enter Yugoslavia proper with their looted goods.
"We had orders to kill Albanian terrorists, so we followed them. It was that simple," says Beli, 36, a self-described boxer, during an hour-long interview in his black BMW 540. "It was very nice and very profitable."
Upon arriving in a village, the paramilitaries say, they were given handwritten lists containing the names, addresses and occupations of wealthy ethnic Albanians living there. They say the lists had been compiled by local Serbs and Yugoslav troops who had been stationed there.
One soldier produces a list for the Kosova village of Ruhot near Pec. It has 14 names on it.
"Names of Albanian people who owned petrol stations or markets were circled," says Miro, a 26-year-old paramilitary. "We went there first."
After army troops shelled the villages, paramilitaries, in teams of four to 12 men, would enter the village shooting. They would order the ethnic Albanians out of their homes, often shooting or knifing the men in front of their families.
A paramilitary named Zonko talks about a 22-year-old ethnic Albanian man whom he accused of being a member of the rebel Kosova Liberation Army. Zonko describes calmly how he made the man dance in a circle as he sang and clapped a Yugoslavian folk song. He says he then shot the man in the head.
Most of the women and children were given 10 minutes to leave their homes. But young, attractive ethnic Albanian women were often pulled out of lines by paramilitary commanders and handed over to the men as "rewards," they say.
Although the men deny they had orders to rape the women or that the practice was common, they say commanders allowed it. Each denies personal participation in the assaults, but several describe rapes in detail.
After forcing the Albanians out of the village, the paramilitaries, aided by MUP and army troops, looted furniture, appliances and jewelry from the homes, they say. The homes were then torched.
The goods were sent on army or civilian trucks to Belgrade, where they were sold on the black market or used to furnish the homes and offices of government officials, the men say.
Most of the men interviewed say they belonged to a paramilitary group known as "Frenki's Boys," led by guerrilla Franko "Frenki" Simatovic. They wore black uniforms, bandannas and cowboy hats and drove around Kosova in four-wheel drive vehicles without license plates.
Others belonged to "Arkan's Tigers," a private army of the indicted war criminal Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic. One man says he was a member of the "White Eagles," led by Serb Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj. Many of the men say they were recruited by group commanders and taken to a MUP base outside Belgrade for two weeks of training with sniper rifles, mortars and other weapons. They say the training was conducted by MUP officers who provided weapons.
The men had worked as drivers, security guards and athletic coaches, but they say their Kosova experience has spoiled them.
"We fought for money, and we're ready to do it again," Bata says. "It's an easy way to get rich quick."
Yugo's Komercijalna, UMNIK Sign Agreement
The president of Komercijalna banka, Ljubomir Mihajlovic, is believed to have close ties with the Yugoslav leadership including President Slobodan Milosevic, whom a U.N. war crimes tribunal has indicted for alleged atrocities his forces committed in Kosova
BELGRADE, Jul 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) A private Yugoslav bank has signed an agreement in Prishtina to service the financial transactions of United Nations institutions in Kosova, the bank said on Wednesday.
"Under the agreement the U.N. Civilian Mission in Kosova, U.N. humanitarian organizations and individuals will be able to conduct all their payments and money transfers in Kosova, Yugoslavia and abroad through Komercijalna Banka," the bank said.
The president of Komercijalna banka, Ljubomir Mihajlovic, is believed to have close ties with the Yugoslav leadership including President Slobodan Milosevic, whom a U.N. war crimes tribunal has indicted for alleged atrocities his forces committed in Kosova.
"This agreement is a continuation of good relations between Komercijalna Banka and the U.N., dating back to 1992 when the U.N. Protection Force decided to do business with our bank," Mihajlovic said.
It was also agreed that UNMIK would propose to the U.N. headquarters in New York that all missions of U.N. affiliates and organizations operating in Kosova do business with Komercijalna Banka.
Members of UNMIK and KFOR soldiers will be able to conduct their payments through Komercijalna Banka in Yugoslav dinars or the currency of their preference, both within Yugoslavia, including Kosova, and abroad, the bank said.
Komercijalna Banka has six branch offices in Kosova. It will place two cash machines in the UNMIK headquarters in Prishtina and issue special payment cards available to all UNMIK and KFOR members.
((c) 1999 Reuters)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright plans to stop briefly in Kosova July 29 and visit with U.S. peacekeeping forces in the battle-scarred province.
Albright is due to fly to Bosnia-Herzegovina with President Clinton the next day for an international conference on economic reconstruction in the Balkans.
The announcement was made today by State Department spokesman James P. Rubin as Albright flew to Alaska on her way to a meeting with Asian leaders in Singapore.
U.N. and U.S. military trade charges on Kosova
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 - Responding to U.S. charges the United Nations was moving too slowly in Kosova, a senior U.N. adviser said it was up to NATO to restore law and order and public safety.
John Ruggie, an assistant secretary-general, told reporters on Wednesday the United Nations was moving at "unprecedented" speed to get an international police force on the ground and set up a civilian administration.
"It was never planned that the United Nations would be fully operational within six weeks of the Security Council's adopting a resolution. That would have been humanly impossible," Ruggie said.
The council on June 10 established the military and civilian mission hours after NATO ended its 11-week bombardment of Yugoslavia.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that NATO-led troops were performing too many tasks the United Nations should be doing.
"I think that the U.N. and associated institutions have been slow off the mark," Cohen said.
"The more we do, the less incentive there is for the U.N. to come in and assume that burden," he added.
Expecting criticism, U.N. officials nevertheless were surprised it came so soon after they had begun to set up operations in the province.
Their tasks include creating a civilian administration, resettling refugees, providing basic services and recruiting international police until a local force is established.
The 3,100 police force has proved difficult to recruit, finance and deploy, with 41 nations volunteering officers but not necessarily sending them immediately.
Ruggie noted that the task of maintaining order and a "secure environment" rested with the troops, known as KFOR, according to the council's resolution.
"It was never intended for the U.N. police to assume full responsibility for public safety until a security environment has been established by KFOR," he said.
"It's the conditions on the ground that will determine when the United Nations can fully assume its policing responsibility," he added.
Ruggie noted that NATO still had not deployed all the soldiers it intended, with some 34,000 troops in the field, 16,000 less than planned.
"If heavily armed soldiers cannot restore peace and security in Kosova, what will even a full-staffed 3,100-member lightly armed police force be able to do?" he said.
To date some 156 police officers have been sent to Kosova, borrowed from the U.N. police force in Bosnia.
Starting next week, he said the United Nations would be able to train and send 100 police officers to Kosova every five days. In August it would be 200 officers a week until the full contingent was in place by November.
In the meantime, he said 700 international staff had been sent to Kosova, helping 700,000 refugees resettle, feeding 650,000 people and trying to create a transitional council with both Albanian and Serbs.
Dutch secret service: Balkan countries meddling in tribunal work
THE HAGUE (AP) -- Secret agents working for Balkan governments are trying to undermine the work of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, the Dutch secret service said. "The Yugoslavia tribunal in The Hague was targeted by a number of Balkan intelligence agencies" that tried to interfere with its work, according to a report by the Dutch Internal Security Service, known as the BVD. The BVD, which is responsible for providing "an environment in which the United Nations court can function securely and safely," declined Thursday to elaborate on the charge made in its report about its 1998 activities. Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale also refused to comment on the report, saying they do not comment on security matters. The BVD report also said it frequently provided extra security following the transfer to The Hague of suspects arrested in Bosnia by troops with the NATO-led Stabilization Force. The agency said tight security would continue, especially if prominent suspects go on trial. "The possibility of attacks or attempts to liberate (a suspect) must be taken into account," the report said. Set up in 1993 by the UN Security Council, the tribunal, headed by Canadian Louise Arbour, has indicted dozens of suspects believed to have committed atrocities in wars that have raged in the Balkans since the 1991 breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Most recently, the court indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his senior aides for allegedly ordering massacres of ethnic Albanians in Kosova. All five men remain at large. In addition to the BVD, the tribunal is patrolled by armed UN guards.
Kosova revives beyond orbit of Yugoslavia
July 22, 1999 Web posted at: 7:52 AM EDT (1152 GMT)
Prishtina, Kosova (Reuters) -- To appreciate how Kosova is spinning out of Yugoslavia's orbit, take a look at the car licence plates. The Yugoslavian red-white-and-blue flag, or the Yugoslav communist red star etched onto older registrations, is vanishing under stickers of the black-and-red Albanian flag. Whoever made them is doing a roaring trade.
Check out the road signs. Yugoslavian Cyrillic names have been effaced on most, leaving only the Albanian version.
Most of the Serbs who once lorded it over an ethnic Albanian community nine times their size are bottled up in a few ghettos, afraid to show their face outside them.
Kosova is still a province of Yugoslavia according to international law. In fact, it's a crude ethnic Albanian statelet, its rough edges smoothed over by a NATO-U.N. mission given the task of bringing democracy to a European backwater that has never known it. They are starting virtually from scratch.
There are no police, courts or schools and very few fire-fighters, garbage collectors or civil servants, in part because there's no money to pay them. No government, because the Serbs who ran the old one fled.
There is no public broadcasting -- crucial to informing inhabitants about the way ahead -- because of disputes over the future of Serb staff at Radio-Television Prishtina.
The only law is that of the jungle. Some ethnic Albanian refugees who returned to find homes in ruins have seized Serb dwellings and evicted the occupants, if they were still there.
Telephones work only spasmodically. Much of Kosova's housing was destroyed or damaged by Yugoslavian shelling and arson that caused a biblical exodus of more than half the province's 1.8 million Albanians over the 15 months ending in June.
Reeking mountains of rubbish pock the landscape. All this might seem like a spectacle of misery, decay and chaos.
But what strikes the foreign visitor is a vibrant surface normality -- bustling markets and social life no longer chilled by omnipresent Serb police -- in a region that was in flames and purged of people only weeks ago.
More than 600,000 ethnic Albanians have driven cars or tractors or just walked home since mid-June in what may be the fastest mass return of refugees ever -- unassisted by a flatfooted international humanitarian bureaucracy.
Many thousands of ethnic Albanians have set about re-roofing, re-walling and re-flooring their homes on their own.
Some villages have turned into big construction sites with new orange bricks stacked outside gutted housing.
Inveterate small traders, they have reopened countless groceries, restaurants, cafes, clothing, home appliance, farm equipment and car repair shops -- even travel agencies -- as soon as the new paint has dried.
Most of the tools of trade and reconstruction have been breezily smuggled in from Albania or Macedonia. Customs controls once handled by Serbs do not exist, for now.
Aside from small-time commerce, there are no jobs. But few Kosova Albanians seem too bothered by that at present.
Many in this clan-based society survive in part on money from family or friends living in western Europe. And it's high summer, so cafes and restaurants are full.
"Whatever the destruction and the hardships, we rejoice at the fact we are free for the first time in our history. Life is sure to get better," said fruit-and-vegetable vendor Hajdin Mazreku, 21, in the flattened central town of Malisevo.
"For the first time, we can walk out of our door in the morning without worrying whether we'll ever come home at night."
The most striking single change in Kosova daily life is the disappearance of the paramilitary Yugoslavian Interior Ministry (MUP) police who, in petrol blue fatigues with cocked automatic weapons, roamed the streets around the clock.
Beatings in the street, arbitrary checkpoints and arrests, knocks on the door in the dead of night, were the hallmarks of MUP rule, ethnic Albanians and human rights groups say.
The Yugoslavian presence has receded from Kosova with dizzying speed, but vestiges remain.
Yugoslav dinars remain legal tender, although the German mark is taking over as the currency of choice. Mobile phones with Yugoslav chips still work in Prishtina.
Ancient Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries survive. In fact, two senior Orthodox clerics belong to the new U.N.-led Kosova Transitional Council to boost the faint chances of inter-ethnic reconciliation here.
KFOR commander 'encouraged' by KLA disarmament
Prishtina, Kosova -- The disarmament of Kosova Liberation Army guerrillas has moved smoothly, but NATO peacekeepers need more time to thoroughly take stock of the weapons turned in, the commander of the Kosova peacekeeping mission said Thursday.
A planned meeting of the Joint Implementation Commission, set up to monitor the KLA's demilitarization, was put off until Saturday to allow KFOR to determine whether the rebel group had complied with the agreement reached after NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia ended in June.
The KLA was required to give up anything more powerful than pistols or rifles, plus 30 percent of its machine guns and submachine guns, by midnight Wednesday.
Troops from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission have watched as the rebels turned in their anti-tank and anti- aircraft weapons, grenades and other explosives.
All the weapons will be kept at designated storage sites. The group must disarm completely by September 19.
KFOR's commander, Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson, said he was not concerned over the delay of the meeting, after which there was to be a joint KLA-NATO statement on compliance.
"I am encouraged by the quantity of weapons that have been handed over in the past few days. What is needed now is the time to ensure that the accounting process is completed correctly," Jackson said in a written statement.
"We will do as our headquarters instructs," one KLA officer told CNN on Wednesday. "But we will never work against the interests of the Liberation Army and the Albanian people."
KLA leaders said they would like to remain organized in some form, and KFOR has promised to give "consideration" to the idea of a Kosova National Guard -- something the KLA insisted upon in the June 21 disarmament pact.
"Kosova cannot be imagined without a defensive force," KLA political leader Hasim Thaci said.
Reconstruction could top $333 billion
As the task of rebuilding the war-ravaged province moves ahead, the humanitarian aid bill for the year for the areas of the former Yugoslavia affected by the air war will be at least $900 million, said Dennis McNamara, the area's envoy from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In addition, the cost of rebuilding Kosovar homes and infrastructure and restoring necessary services could top $333 million. Early rebuilding costs may run as high as $50 million, the head of the World Bank said Wednesday.
"The fabric of civil government needs to be put together, because it is nonexistent," World Bank President James Wolfensohn said.
Aid and finance officials have been touring the Kosova province in recent days in preparation for meetings next week on reconstructing the Balkans, which is still struggling with the effects of a decade of ethnic and political strife since Yugoslavia began to break up in 1991. The summit will take place in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
A quarter of Kosova's buildings have been destroyed, perhaps more, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. Basic local services -- police and fire protection, schools and garbage collection -- have yet to be restored.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians were forced out of Kosova during a Yugoslav army campaign against the KLA and 11 weeks of NATO bombing aimed at ending the Yugoslav offensive.
A village buries its dead
Meanwhile, the Kosovar village of Celine buried its dead Wednesday, interring 68 ethnic Albanians killed in a reported massacre early in the Yugoslav conflict.
The killings at Celine are included in the war crimes indictment against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other officials. The international war crimes tribunal found that Yugoslav forces surrounded and shelled the village before systematically looting houses.
"After marching the civilians to a nearby village, the men were separated from the women and were beaten, robbed and had all of their identity documents taken from them," the tribunal's indictment says, in a scenario that is becoming grimly familiar across the province.
The victims were slain March 25-28 in a massacre being investigated by the tribunal. The burials took place even as investigators from the tribunal began digging up another reported mass grave site, one that may contain as many as 20 bodies.
Local residents said those killings took place between April 18-22 as Serb paramilitary forces gunned down villagers who had fled from the Podujevo area and were caught near the village of Makovc.
Forty-year-old Vehbi Ahmeti found human skulls in his house when he returned to Kosova to search for his brother, who was kidnapped April 21.
"I haven't been able to get any information on him since then," Ahmeti said. "I found these skulls in my house so I think he may have been killed at the same time."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Prishtina, July 22, (Kosovapress)
As tensions rise all along Kosova´s border areas with Serbia and most Albanian
inhabitants in the area are forced to flee into larger towns such as Mitrovica and Gjilan,
KFOR has admitted that it does not monitor the Serbia-Kosova border with the same vigor as
the so-called "international boundaries." Answering a question posed by
Kosovapress, a KFOR spokesperson stated Serbia´s border with Kosova are not treated the
same way as other countries bordering Kosova. While Albanian civilians are routinely
stopped at roadblocks and searched for weapons, according to KFOR none of the secondary
roads leading from Serbia into Kosova are permanently manned by KFOR forces.
Aside from the major highways guarded at the border and monitoring done in and around those entrance points, Serbs are basically allowed free access to Kosova. With the growing number of weapons in Serb hands, with the rising number of reported sightings of known paramilitaries in Mitrovica´s cafes, KFOR´s policy not to enforce a more vigorous surveillance of Serbia´s border may prove to be Kosova´s death notice. It is impossible to know just how many of Milosevic´s murderers are moving back into Kosova, but there is little doubt a weapons pipeline has been established. As Pentagon officials vent their frustration at UN foot dragging and US running into more and more sniper fire, it may be time to reconsider KFOR´s policy. With the KLA handing in their weapons, there are fears that Serb paramilitaries will take full advantage of the situation, testing once again, the resolve of the West to halt murder with force.
The Killing Fields of Vushtrri
July 23, (Kosovapress)
As one approaches Vushtrri from any direction, one notices at once something is wrong. A sizeable city, itself largely in ruins after a year of Serb attacks, is surrounded by untended to fields. The wild flowers swoon with the light summer breezes that fail to bring relief to the villagers who are trickling back to their devastated homes. The rolling hills which anywhere else in Europe would attract bus loads of picture taking tourists, in Kosova creates an aura of mourning. Among the patchwork of villages that cling to the hills surrounding Vushtrri, unspeakable horrors took place not much more than a month ago. Driving towards this part of Kosova, one is subconsciously preparing for the inevitable. The silent demeanor of the untended fields prepares the rare visitor for the horrors that still haunt this land.
A series of vicious offensives by Serb military, paramilitary and special forces drove out the villagers of the area. They herded them like cattle into concentration zones where they selected men, boys, and pretty women from the tens of thousands, committed their crimes and sought to hide the evidence. Some well known dates in recent history, May 22 for instance, will be forever etched in stone as investigators from the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague are carefully examining sites such as at Studima in which well over a hundred bodies were buried. Driving out of the city, through the hills of Vushtrri, however, one gets the sick sense that there are more waiting.
The ambiance does not hide anything. A new mass grave has just been discovered in an old graveyard. It will be added to the list of 200 mass graves KFOR claims to have identified so far. To reach it, one must cross through, once again, untended to fields, drive along a dirt track cut by streams, themselves littered with souvenirs of genocide: piles of clothing, shells of family automobiles, gutted washing machines. In familiar fashion, Serb murderers discard any respect for human beings here. At the newest mass grave, Serb gravediggers (it is hard to tell if the killers and the grave diggers are the same) tore away the crude fence which respectfully divided the grounds of the local graveyard with the dirt track. Set on the slope of a hill, the ripped soil of the graveyard with the tracks of large dump trucks serves as the near perfect metaphor for the crimes committed. The violation of tradition sits heavily in the air. It is the stench of death.
The whole world seems to be silent with the exception of the swarming of flies, feeding on the carcasses of once laughing human beings. It is almost oppressive and the surrounding countryside heaves with each soft breeze. It is not enough to clear the air of death.
The earth is violently disturbed, indicating, even after a month and a half, just how quickly those who worked this deed wanted to finish. They are not anonymous, these grave diggers, they leave behind footprints, and discarded gloves worn down to the point that holes peep through the palms and thumbs. These men were prepared to dig graves. Metal tracks are scattered about, clearly brought to provide traction for the heavy vehicles carrying their evil load. Canvas stretchers, the gloves and 28 wooden stakes with cardboard plaques mark the crudely dug graves. The mess the gravediggers left behind speaks of their own superstitions, their own guilt.
The cardboard tags end with the number 51, suggesting somewhere nearby, lies at least 23 other graves. In Cyrillic, the cynical objectivity of the act is neatly written: Novolan, June 3. The hill on which the graveyard sits faces a valley, across which one can see the emplacements of a Serb rocket battery and artillery emplacements. NATO´s bombs never made it to this part of Kosova. Those who administered genocide were allowed to ravage the region over and over again, pushing people into these nameless pits of decay. Another known site is one the other side of the valley. It is suspected that one only needs to follow the smell of death in this part of Kosova and they will doubtlessly find one more reason why the fields of Vushtrri remain uncut.