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Kosova Crisis Center

French Troops Working Towards Division of Kosova
ATV: What KFOR is doing in Mitrovice is 'barbarism'
Why Mitrovica?

French Troops Working Towards Division of Kosova

The Associated Press Monday, August 9 1999 08:22 AM EDT

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - French peacekeepers threw up barbed wire to keep ethnic Albanians from crossing a bridge into a predominantly Serb area today, the third straight day of unrest in a town north of Pristina.

About 500 ethnic Albanian youths stormed the bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica but were met by 40 French members of the NATO-led peace force, witnesses said. The French, backed by armored personnel carriers, then erected a barbed wire barricade across the span.

Today's confrontation was a repeat of Saturday and Sunday's attempts by ethnic Albanians to cross the bridge over the Ibar River to see homes left behind in the other side of town. About 150 ethnic Albanians were held off by the French on Sunday, while on Saturday, a crowd of 1,000 tried to force their way across.

Tafil Jusufi, one of those on the bridge today, accused the French peacekeepers of ``creating a new border'' to keep ethnic Albanians out of the Serb-dominated part of Kosovska Mitrovica, 20 miles north of the provincial capital, Pristina. Kosova is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

``They are killing Albanians on the other side, and the French are sleeping,'' he said. ``We come here because we want to go to our houses. We haven't been there for three months.''

Another man had a bleeding wound on his face. He said he and several others were injured by soldiers pushing at them with their rifles.

A senior U.N. official, Mary-Pet Silveira, suggested there was the potential for serious violence if the ethnic Albanians were allowed to cross.

``We believe there are people on the other side that are not part of Mitrovica,'' said Silveira, the deputy chief U.N. administrator of Kosova, indicating that Serbs from outside had gathered to resist any ethnic Albanians crossing over. ``There is a sense of danger.''

Kosovska Mitrovica, a mining center valued by both Serbs and ethnic Albanians, is divided by the river into predominantly Serb and ethnic Albanian communities. Since the end of the Kosova war, the central bridge has become a symbol of confrontation, with Serbs preventing ethnic Albanians from returning to live north of the river.

French Lt. Col. Philippe Tanguy said putting up the barbed wire was the ``only solution'' to keeping the situation under control.

ATV: What KFOR is doing in Mitrovice is 'barbarism'

In Mitrovice today, the members of the French peacekeeping forces, who unfortunately came to the most sensitive point in Kosova, in Mitrovice, physically maltreated in the most barbaric way many Albanians, regardless of age and gender.

This was done for no reason at all, just because the Albanians attempted to cross the bridge on the Iber river and settle in their dwellings from which they were violently evicted five months ago by the Serbian military, paramilitary and police forces, who are currently being loyally substituted for by the French army and police.

Among the many wounded who were forced to seek medical assistance and who were taken to the hospital, we can name 42-year-old Pesire Sejdiu, 44-year-old Veton Hamdi Baruti, 18-year-old Musa Tahiri, 22-year-old Sami Sadiku, 36-year-old Naser Palloqi, 24-year-old Hamdi Seremeti, 38-year-old Sherif Merolli, 33-year-old Agron Avdyli, 28-year-old Afrim Arifi, 32-year-old Hajrulla Sheremeti, 51-year-old Ramadan Istrefi, and many others who were kicked in the genitals by the French soldiers.

Such cases in Mitrovice are reported daily, and it is precisely the French force that has divided the town in half.

Nowadays, many of the French soldiers greet the Albanians with three fingers (a orthodox gesture Serbs started using in the last 10 years).

Why Mitrovica?

Trepca mining complex (Tregu i vjeter), located in the northern part of Mitrovica is worth about $5 billion as a piece of real estate. Earning potential, however, is a different matter.

While under Serbia's control, a $519 billion contract with Greece was signed and it obligates the mining facility to deliver one third of the minerals it produces over five years to Mytilinaios SA, the Greek mining company. This suggests that the remaining two thirds of minerals produced over five years could be sold at a comparable price to other mining companies. The grand total would be $1.56 Trillion - paid to the owner of the mining complex - for minerals produced over five years.

The amount of $1.56 Trillion would be wholesale cost, without considering the mark-up.

Mining companies like Mytilinaios SA will sell minerals produced from the mine - lead, zinc, cadmium, gold, silver - to the international market at a marked-up price. If the mark-up is 200 percent, the net profit would be $1.56 Trillion.

''There is over 30 percent lead and zinc in the ore,'' said Novak Bjelic, the mine's beefy Serb former director in an interview to "The New York Times" a few months ago. ''The war in Kosova is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbia's Kuwait -- the heart of Kosova. We export to France, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia and Belgium..."

The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is worth at least $5 billion and has made millions of dollars for the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, according to his critics.

This just proves that Religious Shrines are not the real reason Serbia wanted Kosova. It was Kosova's wealthy mines.