Serb Military Attacks Reka e Keqe Villages Overnight, Local Sources Claim

PRISHTINA, Dec 12 (KIC) - On Friday night, there was Serb artillery fire in the Reka e Keqe region, municipality of Gjakova, LDK sources said. The few residents of the villages of Botushë and Molliq, who had returned to their homes, were forced to flee again. The LDK chapter in Gjakova quoted eye-witnesses as saying Serb military forces had assaulted a number of border villages, including Babaj i Bokës and Duzhnje. There has been no immediate word on casualties. Heavy Serb military and paramilitary forces arrived in the town of Gjakova in the past couple of days, the LDK said. Three busloads of Serb soldiers and a number of armoured vehicles and APCs arrived in the Gjakova barracks Friday afternoon, they added. Meanwhile, LDK sources in Prizren reported a heavy Serb forces' presence in the Kosova-Serbia border area. Around midday Friday, heavy police forces patrolled the Prizren- Gjakova roadway as well as the communications with Rahovec. In the village of Piranë, near a local gas station, an armoured vehicle and a "Praha' vehicle of the Serb army were stationed on Thursday. The next day, the windows and doors of the gas station had been smashed.

Serbs Hold Local and International Humanitarian Workers Hostage for Hours in Nerodime

PRISHTINA, Dec 12 (KIC) - On Friday, local Serbs in the village of Nerodime, municipality of Ferizaj ('Urosevac'), held hostage for hours humanitarian activists with the Kosovar-run Mother Teresa and the German Cap Anamur nongovernmental organizations. Mr. Nedim Golesic, head of the Office of the Cap Anamur in Prishtina, told the Deutsche Welle radio, he and Mother Teresa workers were heading for Jezerc village of Ferizaj Friday with two lorries of aid, mostly food. The Serb police had stopped the convoy first, not allowing them to proceed for Jezerc, citing security reasons. The convoy made it to Jezerc eventually. On their way back, the humanitarian workers were stopped by a group of Serb civilians, who threatened them and told they would have to return to Jezerc to negotiate the release of two Serbs, who were allegedly held captive by the Kosova Liberation Army (UçK). Mr. Golesic was told he would have to go to do the job, whereas the others would be held as hostage till the Serbs had been released. It seems the intervention of KDOM observers resulted in Serb police dispersing eventually the Serb group and allowing for the humanitarian workers to get back.

Xhafer Qorri, Member of the Serbian Police, Suspected Killed by Serb Forces, CDHRF Says

KOSOVA (tense situation – Malishevë)

Movements of Serb forces aggravate the situation in Malishevë

Malishevë, 12 December (ARTA) 1700CET --

Although the international observers and verifiers are managing to keep the cease-fire between the sides in the conflict, the presence and the Serb force movements themselves, are keeping the situation in this zone in great tension, the "KD" corespondent informs.

No classes have started in the schools in Kijevë, Leçan, Bubavec, Tërpezë, and Malishevë, because of the presence of 7 Serb police\military checkpoints in the territory of this municipality.

The "KD" corespondent informs about frequent Serb police\military vehicle movements on the Kijevë-Balincë line.

On the other hand, according to CHO "Mother Theresa" chairperson in Malishevë, Bahti Thaqi, 90 tons of humanitarian assistance arrived for the endangered residents of this municipality.

This assistance was dedicated to 20 villages of the municipality and was first distributed in Lladroc, Gurbardh, and Pagarushë.

 KOSOVA (situation deteriorated – Mitrovicë)

Arresting in town - Serb police movements in the direction of Skënderaj

Skënderaj, 12 December (ARTA) 1600CET --

Three Serb policemen arrested Musli Fazliu, from the village of Vidishiq, municipality of Mitrovicë, temporarily sheltered in Tuneli i Parë, in the open market in Mitrovicë, on Saturday morning, CDHRF, and "KD" sources from Mitrovicë, notify. There are reports that Musli Fazliu is still being held at the police station in Mitrovicë. The reason of his arrest remains unknown.

On the other hand, Albanian sources claim that on Saturday, at around 0900CET, two Serb police officers and one civilian, posted near the "DES" enterprise in Mitrovicë, stopped many passers by, and raided their vehicles. Whereas, at around 1000CET, four vans with Belgrade registration plates, loaded with civilians headed in the direction of Skënderaj. In the meantime, seven terrain vehicles filled with Serb policemen, departed from Mitrovicë, and headed in the direction of Skënderaj.

KOSOVA (IDP issues – Gjilan)

"I came to seek help, flour..."

Gjilan, 12 December (ARTA) 1800CET --

The winter has additionally increased the uneasiness of the dislocated and poverty-stricken Albanians families. The snow, which is constantly falling, and the low temperatures forced the needy to rush, and secure, the elementary items for living and facing the bad weather.

In Gjilan, the CHO "Mother Theresa", states that 238 dislocated families are currently sheltered in the houses of Albanian families in Gjilan and the surrounding villages. A day before, word had spread in town that there is no more room for sheltering the dislocated, and that the local LDK branch had estimated so. However, at the LDK branch Solidarity Commission and at the commission for sheltering and taking care for the dislocated families, it was said that all the dislocated that arrive in this town will be accepted and systemized.

"We have sheltered 4 families on Thursday alone, and we will find room for all of those who have had the courage to come to our town", said Ismail Kurteshi, chair of the Municipal Council for Emergency Aid.

On the other hand, the CHO "Mother Theresa" chairman, Ruzhdi Rashiti, said that this association has registered "233 dislocated families, which they provide with the items necessary for existence".

"So far we have distributed flour, kitchen oil, hygienic items, stoves, wood for heating, as well as clothing, to these families", explains Rashiti.

According to its chairman, besides the 233 dislocated families, the CHO "Mother Theresa" has also registered 673 families in Gjilan, who live on the aid they receive from this association. The needy were moving in and out of the "Mother Theresa" premises, picking up different items, but what they usually needed the most, was food.

Kosovo Grave Exhuming in Question

By DAVE CARPENTER Associated Press Writer

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Plans to exhume massacre victims from a grave in a rebel-held part of Kosovo province may be dropped because of Serbian police resistance, a forensics team member said Saturday.

A Finnish team was blocked Thursday from starting work at a hill near Gornje Obrinje that is believed to contain the bodies of 22 ethnic Albanians massacred by Serb troops in September. Serb police in armored vehicles said digging couldn't be carried out without their presence.

Talks between the experts and government authorities have yet to resolve the dispute, team member Tino Lahelma said. ``Anything can happen, but I do think we have an impasse with Gornje Obrinje,'' Lahelma said.

If the situation persists, he said work at the site will not be possible. However, exhumation efforts would continue at five other sites where authorities also gave the team permission to dig. ``We don't want to give up,'' Lahelma said.

The top government official for Kosovo, Zoran Andjelkovic, insists the Finns are not being prevented from doing their work. But Lahelma said it's unrealistic for police to insist on escorting the Finns and the Serbian legal team accompanying them to the site in rebel-controlled territory.

Tension remains high despite a 2-month-old truce, and the Kosovo Liberation Army of ethnic Albanian separatists has said police are not welcome in the central Drenica region, heartland of the guerrilla movement.

``We don't want to risk our lives'' by bringing police into a KLA-controlled area, Lahelma said.

Nato warns Serbs of military action

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

NATO intensified the pressure on Belgrade yesterday with a warning from a French commander that immediate military action will be taken if Serb troops put the lives of international monitors in Kosovo at risk.

French troops are in the process of being deployed to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to set up Nato's 1,800-strong "extraction force" which will be ready to rescue the 2,000 "verifiers" from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Operation Joint Guarantor, codename for the French-led multinational force, began functioning yesterday.

Lieutenant-General Emile Sabathe, Armed Forces deputy operations chief, said the force would sweep into Kosovo in helicopters and armoured vehicles in an emergency without needing the approval of Belgrade.

He said there was no agreement with Belgrade over the deployment of Nato troops on the border with Kosovo. "But United Nations resolution 1203 says we can use any means to ensure the security of peace verifiers in Kosovo, and that is what we will do."

He added: "If they want to send planes to try to prevent helicopter or other operations, we will react."

Britain is sending about 600 troops to Macedonia along with 14 Warrior armoured combat vehicles. The British contribution consists of a company group of just under 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion King's Own Border Regiment, 1st Battalion The Highlanders and 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment. They will be supported by about 250 engineers, signals specialists and members of the Royal Logistic Corps.

General Sabathe said there would be no complicated rules of engagement. "If our people are shot at, they shoot back. It's self-defence and that's it," he said.

British observers avert Kosovo clash

TOM WALKER

The mettle of British ceasefire monitors in Kosovo was tested yesterday as, armed with nothing but their wits and bright orange Land Rovers, they cajoled a crowd of 1,000 Serbs into abandoning a plan to march into the Kosovo Liberation Army's central headquarters.

The Serbs, mostly civilians but with a menacing and heavily armed police escort, had set off from the town of Orahovac in mid-morning, to walk eight miles over a mountain pass to the KLA stronghold of Dragobilje. Carrying placards with messages such as "Free our people" and "Stop terrorism", the protesters said they wanted news of the dozens of Orahovac Serbs taken hostage by the KLA in the summer.

After a feeble attempt by the police to stop the march as it crossed the pass and began the descent towards Dragobilje, the local British contingent of monitors with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) effectively took charge.

"The situation was changing by the minute and we had to keep one step ahead," said Ian Mcleod, a retired brigadier with the parachute regiment who is now the "director of co-ordination" for the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission in Orahovac.

His contingent of 16 British monitors was bolstered by some colleagues from the European Union and American Contact Group missions in Kosovo, and the teams fanned out in the Land Rovers - affectionately known as "pumpkins" by their drivers - around the column of Serbs, which was headed by local politicians and an Orthodox clergyman, and flanked by a provocative Serb police presence.

Within about one mile of Dragobilje, the chances of a peaceful resolution to the afternoon looked bleak, as a hardcore of 150 Serbs seemed bent on reaching the village centre. Brigadier Mcleod, aided by his colleague Tony Hunter-Choat, a former brigadier in the Royal Gunners, found themselves acting as the thin orange line.

In Dragobilje itself, a special KLA unit ran up the track linking the village with the main road, and crouched in position behind a stone wall, ready for the Serbs. Brigadier Hunter-Choat dashed to the centre of Dragobilje in his Land Rover, and persuaded the KLA that they should send a negotiator, whom he drove back up the track to a wrecked petrol station to which Brigadier McLeod brought the Serb Mayor of Orahovac.

"We've got two leaders to talk about their missing as a humanitarian, rather than a political, issue, and it's a big step for them," said Brigadier Mcleod.

Little progress was actually made in the petrol station talks, where the Albanian negotiator, Luli Pacarizi, simply told the Serb mayor, Andelko Kolasinac, that his missing people were not in Dragobilje. "You've come to the wrong place," he said.

"We are seeking the truth and we come as citizens," said Mr Kolasinac, who after shaking hands with Mr Pacarizi was harangued by fellow Serbs, who accused him of being too soft on the Albanians.