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Friday, March 19, 1999, 12:25 PM.
International monitors ordered out of Kosova
Tension mounts ahead of possible NATO attack
OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will
withdraw its 1,400 observers from the embattled Serbian province of Kosova, OSCE chairman
Knut Vollebaek announced on Friday.
"I have decided that the force shall be withdrawn," said Vollebaek, Norway's
foreign minister, citing the increasingly risky security situation.
The observers, from 38 countries, were due to be out of Kosova by the end of Saturday.
Several nations, including the United States and Britain, began evacuating staff from the
Yugoslav capital Belgrade on Friday, while urging their citizens to leave too, because of
the threat of NATO airstrikes.
The latest development came shortly after the British and French foreign ministers
adjourned the Kosova peace talks. They said negotiations would not be resumed unless the
Serbs decided to accept the autonomy interim-accord that the ethnic Albanians had signed
Thursday.
While Russia, a traditional ally of the Serbs, on Friday reiterated that peace was still
possible in Kosova, Belgrade called the Paris peace talks a sham and a fraud.
NATO ready to act
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's continued rejection of the internationally drafted
peace plan -- which included a provision for thousands of NATO-led troops to help
implement an accord -- has now significantly ratcheted up tension in the region.
NATO supreme commander Gen. Wesley Clark told CNN that NATO was ready to act, should the
military alliance be called to do so.
"We are watching with increased concern the spiral of violence as a result of what
appear to be deliberate Serb decisions to move ahead toward a military solution" in
Kosova, Clark said.
NATO has for months threatened to launch airstrikes should Belgrade be the only party to
block a comprehensive Kosova peace accord.
NATO has massed about 12,000 troops in Macedonia to implement the peace agreement if both
sides accept it. The troops are also available to evacuate OSCE monitors.
"We don't have a real deadline (for possible NATO bombing) but things are going to
get very tense in the next few days," chief mediator Chris Hill of the United States
said Friday.
In Kosova itself, Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels exchanged gunfire near the
southern town of Kacanik on Friday, the Serbian information center said.
International monitors also reported automatic gunfire near the village of Laniste, south
of Kacanik. The region is close to the Macedonian border and has been the scene of
repeated fighting in the past days.
Kosova Peace Talks Adjourned without Serbs Agreeing to Peace
Deal
PARIS (AP) -- Accusing the Serbs of trying to "unravel" a Kosova peace deal,
frustrated international mediators adjourned the Kosova talks today and said they won't be
resumed unless the Serbs decide to accept the accord.
With NATO airstrikes looming to force the Serb-led Yugoslav government to agree to a peace
deal, evacuations began for peace monitors in Kosova and Western diplomats in the Yugoslav
capital, Belgrade.
"There is no purpose in extending the talks any further," said a statement
issued by the French and British foreign ministers, who sponsored the talks. "The
negotiations are adjourned. The talks will not resume unless the Serbs express their
acceptance of the accords."
Underscoring the threat of NATO strikes, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe said the withdrawal of its monitors from Kosova would be completed by Saturday,
with the observers leaving the southern Serb province by road for Skopje, the capital of
neighboring Macedonia.
"I am responsible for the safety of approximately 1,400 verifiers from many different
countries in Kosova. I have no other choice in the present situation than to withdraw the
OSCE personnel," Vollebaek said in Oslo, Norway.
Fighting has claimed more than 2,000 lives in the past year in Kosova, a province of
Serbia, which is the dominant of two remaining republics comprising Yugoslavia. About 90
percent of Kosova's 2.2 million people are ethnic Albanians, and most favor independence.
The statement by Britain's Robin Cook and France's Hubert Vedrine came the day after the
ethnic Albanians signed the peace deal unilaterally. It included yet another stern threat
to Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, who opposes a proposed NATO-led force in Kosova to
enforce a peace deal.
"We solemnly warn the authorities in Belgrade against any military offensive on the
ground and any impediment of the freedom of movement of actions of the Kosova verification
mission," it said. "Such violations would have the greatest consequences."
And, in a reference to threatened NATO airstrikes against Serbia, it said: "We will
immediately engage in consultations with our partners and allies to be ready to act. We
will be in contact with the secretary-general of NATO."
British and French officials gave no timetable for possible NATO airstrikes, but Vedrine,
asked if he envisaged such attacks, told French radio: "If we began the process of
consultation this morning, it is because we are indeed at that stage of the process."
U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill underscored who, in NATO's view, is responsible for the
imperiled peace deal, saying the Serbs "had not shown us in these discussions any
glimmer of hope."
"We've been here for five days now and their position today is the same as it was at
the start of the talks," he told The Associated Press.
Western diplomats said it was likely that a high-level European delegation -- possibly
Vedrine and Cook -- would travel to Belgrade in coming days to see Milosevic.
In their joint statement, Cook and Vedrine praised the ethnic Albanians for "seizing
the opportunity" of the Rambouillet talks and accused the Yugoslav delegation of
trying to "unravel" the accords.
There was no immediate reaction to the French-British statement from Serb delegates, who
left the site of the talks near the Arc de Triomphe without speaking to reporters.
The Albanians, meanwhile, were already dispersing -- some members going to Brussels to
meet NATO commanders, some to Washington and others returning to Kosova.
The second round of Kosova talks began Monday in Paris. They essentially ended Thursday
night when the ethnic Albanian delegation signed the accord giving Kosova's ethnic
Albanians broad autonomy for a three-year interim period.
"We have signed an agreement to bring peace to Kosova," said the top ethnic
Albanian delegate, Hashim Thaci. "We hope that the force of the international
community will make Yugoslavia sign. We say: The violence must stop."
Yugoslav forces appeared to be mobilizing for all-out war in Kosova, despite the renewed
threats of NATO airstrikes.
In Kosova, a spokesman for the province's leading ethnic Albanian moderate politician,
Ibrahim Rugova, said NATO should immediately send in forces to protect the civilian
population.
An OSCE spokesman, Jorgen Grunnet, said there were no reports of fighting in the
rebellious province, where a steady snowfall made movement on the ground difficult.
"But the situation is certainly tense," Grunnet said.
About 25 vehicles rolled out of a U.S. Embassy compound today carrying American diplomats
and their families to neighboring Hungary. Canada, Britain, Germany and others said they
would evacuate "non-essential staff" and dependents over the weekend.
The Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, accused international mediators of "deceit
and manipulation" in trying to impose a "fake document" on the Serbs in
Paris.
The ethnic Albanians "signed a document which they made with their American
friends," Milutinovic said after the signing. He added that the Serb delegation had
signed its own version of a peace plan on Thursday.
Bosnian Serbs Will Not Back Belgrade Against NATO
VIENNA, March 19 (Reuters) - The Bosnian Serb republic will remain neutral in any
confrontation between NATO and Yugoslavia that may arise from the collapse of peace talks
on Kosova, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said on Friday.
"For us it is most important to preserve stability. Our military and police forces
will not participate," said Dodik, in Vienna for talks with western mediators about
the fate of the disputed Bosnian town of Brcko.
The Western military alliance has begun consultations that could lead to the bombing of
Yugoslav military positions in retaliation for Yugoslavia's failure to sign a peace plan
which grants widespread autonomy to Serbia's Kosova province.
The Bosnian Serb republic is one of two autonomous entities which make up Bosnia. Dodik
resigned after an international ruling turned Serb-controlled Brcko into a neutral town
but reversed his decision and is staying on in a caretaker capacity.
Serb hardliners backed by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic are seeking to remove
Dodik, who is backed by the West, and replace him with independent Mladen Ivanic.
U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard said Milosevic was pursuing a determined policy to stir
up trouble in Bosnia as the Kosova crisis escalates but was confident Dodik's assertion
was accurate.
"I feel that the Bosnian Serb army understands its own situation and that the
police... are highly disciplined," Gelbard said.
"On the other hand we have total confidence in SFOR."
SFOR is NATO's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
Serbian Forces Continue their Offensive in Mitrovica and
Vushtrri Area
PRISHTINA, March 19 (KIC) - Serbian military troops shelled today morning UÇK positions
in Zmiq and Kolenë mountains, in northwestern Kosova, local LDK sources said.
Serb infantry forces tried to advance into the area, but were repelled by UÇK units, they
added.
Meanwhile, the village of Beçuk was machine-gunned overnight by Serbian forces, local
sources said.
Serbian army and police, backed up by tanks and other combat equipment, headed to Beçuk
village today. They fired at three Albanian family compounds - Ahmetaj, Halitaj and
Mustafa - in the village.
The villages of Pantinë and Okrashticë were shelled last night by Serb forces, local LDK
sources said.
Two Podujeva Villages Shelled, Fresh Serb Forces Enter Kosova
Corpses found yesterday in Peran suspected to be the bodies of two local Albanians
arrested by Serbs forces on 9 January
PRISHTINA, March 19 (KIC) - Two Podujeva villages, Obrançë and Katunishtë ('Velika
Reka'), were shelled for some time today morning.
Serb police forces left Podujeva for Peran village, a Serbian military base, at 11:00 CET.
Two Serb army tanks and two lorryloads of soldiers left the Dumosh airfield today morning,
heading for Prishtina.
Fresh Serbian troops and armor - including tanks - entered Kosova from Serbia via the
Nis-Podujeva-Prishtina highway at around 11:30 CET, local LDK sources said.
Meanwhile, local sources said the corpses found yesterday in Peran village were suspected
of being the bodies of Nazmi Azem Ismajli (39) and Ismet Muharrem Beqiri (43), both local
residents of Peran, who were arrested by Serbian forces on 9 January. They have been
unaccounted for since then.
The corpses were found not far from the houses in the village of Peran. They have been
taken to Prishtina hospital morgue for examination.
LDK Activist Found Killed in Bishtazhin, Gjakova Area
PRISHTINA, March 19 (KIC) - Ferid Domi (36), an LDK activist from Gjakova, was found
killed today near the village of Bishtazhin, local LDK sources said. He apparently died of
gunfire.
Ferid's family said he was in his work-place yesterday, and had reportedly left by car
back for his place.
The body of Ferid Domi has been taken to the Gjakova morgue.
Albanians Missing in Prizren, Malisheva and Klina
PRISHTINA, March 19 (KIC) - Local LDK sources in Prizren have publicized today the names
of Albanians who have gone missing for some time now in the municipal villages.
They are Bali Avdaj from Lubiçevë, Nuredin Shala from Jeshkovë, Shemsedin Shala from
Kushtendil, Rexhep Budurri from Hoça e Qytetit, Fehmi Shala from Hoça e Qytetit, Hilmi
Shala from Jeshkovë, Shehadin Gashi from Bilusha, Besnik Kastrati from Dushanovë, Musli
Gashi from Hatmaxhë, Ymer Shala from Jeshkovë and Faik Beçaj from Malisheva, local
sources in Prizren said.
Meanwhile, LDK sources in Malisheva said Mehmet R. Gashi (1961), resident of Suhareka, and
Faik Telaku, resident of Banja e Malishevës, have been unaccounted for for two days now.
Armed and masked policemen rounded up a number of civilian Albanians in Radulloc village
of Klina yesterday. They were driven away in two cars in the direction of Gjurakovc, local
LDK sources said, failing to give their names.
Serbs given seven days before NATO strikes
by Patrick Hennessy in London and Robert Fox in Belgrade
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was today given a week to sign up to a peace deal
over Kosova, or face Nato air strikes.
The ultimatum came as talks aimed at finding a settlement collapsed in Paris. They will
not begin again unless the Serbs signal they are ready to agree a deal.
A joint statement by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his French opposite number Hubert
Vedrine clearly blamed the Serbs for the breakdown in negotiations and warned the West is
"ready to act".
Military action is unlikely before the end of next week. However, Western embassies began
implementing plans to evacuate virtually all staff from Belgrade today as the Paris talks
failed.
There were growing fears that many foreign nationals in Kosova, including the 1,200 peace
verifiers, could become hostages.
Already a 10,000-strong Nato force is on the ground in neighbouring Macedonia, it is not
believed to be capable of mounting a rescue operation. The Yugoslav army is now thought to
have more than 50,000 troops and tanks in the Kosova region. In theory, Nato could launch
attacks on Serbia immediately as the necessary authorisation is already in place. However,
the next few days are likely to see an intensive round of political negotiations between
governments of the six-nation Contact Group.
Britain and the US are willing to take action, but the Russians, traditional allies of the
Serbs, the French and the Italians, from whose bases air strikes would be launched, are
less keen.
The statement from Mr Cook and M Vedrine said the Serbs had to grasp the chance for peace
presented by accords drawn up in earlier talks at Rambouillet which have been signed by
the Kosovan Albanians. The statement said: "We believe there is no purpose in
extending the talks any further. The negotiations are adjourned. The talks will not resume
unless the Serbs express their acceptance of the accords."
The pair warned Serbs not to launch any new military offensive and said any action would
be met with the "gravest consequences". The statement added: "We will
immediately engage in consultations with our partners and allies to be ready to act. We
will be in contact with the Secretary General of Nato.
Albanians in Prishtina were stunned when they were told that the international monitoring
mission would be pulled out in 24 hours.
The monitoring mission, which has been increasingly concerned about its own safety,
started pulling back its units from across the province of Kosova from lunchtime today.
Latest talks failed after the Serbs refused to allow a Nato-led force into Kosova to
police the settlement - a key element of the international peace plan. There were signs in
Kosova yesterday of major Yugoslav troop movements, with anti-aircraft missiles being
installed.
Albanian Houses looted in Raçak
Shtime, March 18 (Kosovapress) Today at around 08.50, Serb forces positioned in Kodra e
Gështenjave, have shot from automatic and sniper guns, at the direction of Albanian
villages. At 10.30, a Serb forces helicopter, has landed in the road that leads to Raçak,
and later on, flew to Prishtinë. Serb police is continuing to loot and destroy empty
Albanian houses in Raçak. At 09.30, a convoy of 15 military vehicles, armoured vehicles,
trucks etc. has passed through Shtime.
Serb forces are planting mines the villages near Qyqavica
Vushtrri, March 18 (Kosovapress) There were occasional clashes today in the villages of
Vushtrri, around Qyqavica. In the villages of Artakoll, and villages Oshlan, Pantinë,
Gurbardh and Okrashticë, Serb forces are laying mines in the houses and other important
buildings. UÇK Units of this region are warning local residents, that they should be very
cautious and that, because of the danger of mine explosions, they should not make any
moves without the permission of competent people.
In the municipality of Peja- arrests, and kidnappings
(Radio21)
Our reporter, Feim Kurhasani, informs the village Radavc in Peja sealed off today by heavy
police forces since 5.00 a.m.
The houses of Mehmet and Selim Gjura and Metë Sadrijaj were raid, while Nezir Gjuraj 30,
and Mehmet Gjuraj 60, were put under arrest.
There is no report of the destiny of four schoolchildren from Peja that were missing since
March 15. They are Dëfrim Tigani, Astrit Dreni, Yll Krasniqi and Artan Berisha, all of
them at the same age.
It is supposed they were kidnapped by unknown authors.
Civil Tribunal in Peja charged Ibër Gërgocin 58, from Kosuriq of Peja, under
"terrorist activity" and punished him on three years imprisonment.
It's NATO Peacekeepers, Not Bombs, Irking Serbs
By CARLOTTA GALL
FUSHE KOSOVE -- "So, is NATO going to bomb us?" As Serbian soldiers and police
officers drank coffee and cognac Thursday in the shabby Cafi Marko on the main street, the
same question kept cropping up.
It was mostly rhetorical. The threat of NATO air strikes has grown familiar over the last
few months and few Serbs seem to think that they will actually happen now. "Anyway,
we don't care," said a policeman, who declined to give his name. "It is not
important anymore."
The issue that is far more important to Serbs living in Kosova province is whether a
NATO-led military force will come to enforce a peace settlement. Serbs are violently
opposed to the plan, which will give ethnic Albanians self-rule in Kosova, and they place
the blame for the idea squarely on the United States.
"We have lived here for centuries," the policeman said. "We don't want any
foreign troops. Your army has nothing to do in my country."
A 21-year-old Yugoslav Army soldier who would identify himself only as Ceda said, "If
necessary we will fight them but we will never accept them."
"We have two armies in Kosova, the Kosova Liberation Army and the Yugoslav
Army," he said, referring to the ethnic Albanian guerrillas who are fighting for
independence and the government forces who are battling them. "We want only our
own."
Civilians living in Kosova Polje, a Serbian settlement several miles outside the
provincial capital, Prishtina, speak in the same way. "We do not need anyone to
defend our people," said Dusanka Bauk, a 71-year-old grandmother who fought with the
partisans in World War II.
She remembers rescuing two British pilots downed over Serbia during the war. "They
were young and handsome," she said. "One told my father, 'I will come back after
the war and take your daughter.' "
But she remains adamant that the arrival of NATO peacekeepers in Kosova would be bad
because the force would not be a neutral one. "The West supports the Albanians and
they are fighting against us," she said.
The Bauks have lived in Kosova Polje for 60 years. Like every Serb, they cite the famous
battle of Kosova Polje in 1389 against the Ottoman Turks as evidence of their right to the
lands of Kosova.
"This is the heartland of Serbia," said Djura Bauk, Dusanka's husband and a
retired mechanic.
Dragan Bauk, his son, said: "How can it not be important? It represents our history
and our ancestors. We never attack, but we always defend our country."
The Bauk family are strong supporters of Slobodan Milosevic and were there to hear his now
notorious speech in Kosova Polje in 1989, when he first raised the banner of Serbian
nationalism. "Super, it was super," said Dusanka Bauk, nodding firmly.
They support his policy of reversing Kosova's autonomy and his crackdown on ethnic
Albanians in the province. They argue that Albanian villages are only being attacked now
because they harbor rebel terrorists, and they deny that civilians are suffering.
They think little of the peace agreement being proposed at peace talks in Paris and
certainly do not want to see the ethnic Albanians achieve self-rule in Kosova.
"I am here in my own land and I do not need to negotiate with anyone," said
Djura Bauk, the most strident member of the family. He said he would never accept Albanian
rule in Kosova, because it would lead to oppression of the Serbs, who are outnumbered by
Albanians nine to one in Kosova.
The Bauks say that the Albanians are all wealthier than the Serbs in Kosova and own land,
livestock and cars. "They have more money," Dragan Bauk said. "You can see
we do not have money." He quit his low-paying job as a laboratory technician at
Prishtina University and survives from a tiny videotape copying and rental business at
home.
But none of the Serbs in Kosova Polje will countenance giving up and leaving the province.
There is an underlying threat to the ethnic Albanians that surfaces in conversations with
Serbs. Ceda, the young soldier, warned that if NATO bombed, Serbs would take revenge on
ethnic Albanians.
"If NATO bombs us, we will push the Albanians out, because they are guilty," he
said. "We do not want what is not ours, we just want our own territory, to live in
peace and have no one fight us. But the Albanians do not want that."
But amid the threats, the denials and the stock phrases of state propaganda, the Serbs
show a desire for normality.
"What did we do?" Ceda said. "Why does all the world hate us. What are we
in Kosova, aliens or something, that everyone hates us?"
State Department inviting Kosovar Albanians to Washington
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday it is inviting members
of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team at the peace talks in Paris to visit Washington.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sent department spokesman James Rubin to Paris to
issue the invitation.
Albright asked Rubin to meet with the head of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team,
Hashim Thaci, and "convey on her behalf an invitation to the members of the Kosovar
Albanian delegation to travel to Washington, which we expect to happen at the close of
this round of talks in Paris," said deputy State Department spokesman James Foley.
"We want to develop a good relationship with them as they transform themselves into a
politically oriented organization under a Kosova living in peace, under the terms of the
interim accord," said Foley.
Two triggers for NATO strikes
Meanwhile, the White House expressed grave concern Wednesday about large-scale Serbian
troop movements in and near Kosova and warned the Serbs not to launch an offensive against
ethnic Albanians.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser James Steinberg said NATO was "prepared
to take actions" in response, as peace talks in Paris teetered on the brink of
collapse.
Steinberg and Foley said there were two triggers for NATO military action -- a refusal by
the Serbs to agree to a Kosova peace deal, and an armed offensive against the Kosova
Albanians.
"And on both scores, we are seeing increasing evidence that the Serbs are meeting the
criteria for triggering a NATO response," Foley said.
The United States has repeatedly warned Serbia about the possibility of NATO airstrikes,
and its latest threat could fall on deaf ears in Belgrade.
But with large numbers of Serbian troops and equipment giving the appearance of an
offensive being prepared, this time NATO might carry out the threat.
Serb reinforcements seen moving into Kosova
"We're obviously very concerned about what we're seeing in terms of military
movements by Serbia," Steinberg told reporters. He said U.S. concern was conveyed to
the Serbian government by American diplomatic personnel in Belgrade.
The State Department said international monitors reported the Serbs continued moving
reinforcements into Kosova overnight and that just outside Kosova, the Serbs had
positioned 18,000 to 21,000 troops.
Significant troop movements were reported along the Albanian border, on the road to the
Macedonian border and near Prishtina, Kosova's capital.
International monitors for the Kosova Verification Mission observed a train Tuesday
bringing into Kosova a large Serb armored element, including seven T-72-type tanks.
They also said additional tanks were positioned near Podujevo, indicating that two armored
brigades had deployed in the province, said Foley.
Accountability warning
He called the troop movements a clear violation of an agreement last October with Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic that headed off NATO airstrikes at the time.
Steinberg said Milosevic "just needs to understand very clearly that if he continues
to use massive repression against the people there, that NATO has authority to act."
David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council, said, "If their
intransigence or continued aggression undermines the peace process or a political
settlement, they will be held accountable."
Serbs' Killing of 40 Albanians Ruled a Crime Against Humanity
(NY Times)
By CARLOTTA GALL
PRISHTINA, Kosova -- The 40 ethnic Albanians killed in the village of Racak in January
were all unarmed civilians, and their slaying amounted to a crime against humanity, the
head of a Finnish forensic team that examined the bodies said Wednesday.
The team leader, Dr. Helena Ranta, whose group performed autopsies on the victims,
announced the findings here in Kosova's capital after handing her report to the Serbian
authorities. She called for a criminal investigation of the killings and prosecution of
the perpetrators.
The report sharply contradicts the official Serbian version of the incident. And just as
Belgrade has stepped up its military campaign in Kosova and effectively stonewalled peace
talks, it also turns the spotlight on Serbia's conduct in its southern province.
"This is a crime against humanity, yes," Ranta told a news conference.
She said the report would be submitted to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The
Hague.
The Racak killings represented a turning point in the war. Upon hearing of the killings,
William Walker, the American leading the observer mission sponsored by the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the Serbian security forces had massacred the
Albanians.
Walker was threatened with expulsion, and Serbia was threatened with NATO air strikes,
setting off the chain of events leading to the first peace talks between the two sides.
Serbian authorities had said at the time that their forces had killed the people in a gun
battle or in crossfire and that the dead were members of the separatist Kosova Liberation
Army that is battling the government forces.
But the Finnish team concluded that "there were no indications of the people being
other than unarmed civilians." Among those examined, there were several elderly men
and one woman, Ranta said. Their clothes bore no insignia of a military unit, and there
was no sign that badges or insignia had been removed, a summary of the report stated.
No ammunition was found on the victims, and a test for traces of gunpowder was negative.
"It is most likely there was no fight," Ranta said.
The report also said that the clothes of the victims, marked as they were with bullet
holes and congealed blood, could not have been changed or removed. This contradicts the
official Serbian suggestion that the Albanians had removed the guerrillas' uniforms and
dressed them as civilians to stage an apparent massacre.
Ranta emphasized that the 22 bodies found in a narrow gully above the village had not been
moved, although most had been turned over when villagers first found them. "They were
most likely shot where they were found," she said, further discounting Serbian
accusations of a setup.
The dead were all killed by shooting and by more than one bullet, she said. One body bore
wounds from 30 bullets, Ranta said.
Despite the exhaustive documentation, Ranta refused to draw conclusions as to the manner
of death. She said it was not her role as a scientist to ascertain whether the killings
were a massacre.
She said she had not visited the gully herself, which lies 25 miles southwest of
Prishtina, and so could not judge the distance from which the victims were killed.
Interview of Mr. Hashim Thaci, head of the Kosova delegation
given to the International Conference in France with "Kosovapress" news agency
Paris, March 16,1999 (Kosovapress) Mr. Hashim Thaci, head of the Kosova delegation and the
mandate-carrier for the formation of the Provisional Government, in an exclusive interview
for the "Kosovapress" news agency throws light on various aspects of the work
and commitment of our delegation in France on the document to which this delegation has
given its consent to sign, on the problems and the difficulties related to its
implementation etc.
Kosovapress: The Kosova delegation has reached a consensus about the signing of the
agreement. What is the next step in Paris? Mr. Thaci: The Kosova delegation has reiterated
its principled "yes" and has expressed its readiness to sign the 3-year interim
agreement on Kosova. These days in Paris the Kosova delegation is working on the
implementation annexes to this agreement on the military annexes in particular. All this
has to do with the modes of realization of the peace process in Kosova.
Kosovapress: The French foreign minister Hybert Vedrin together with the British Foreign
Minister Robin Cook, have stated today that there could eventually be some change or some
technical details added to the agreement. Could you please say what is this all about?
Mr. Thaci: The conclusion of the agreement will take place in a few days, if the Serb side
also accepts it. It is understood that such conclusion will occur in the presence of the
US Secretary of State Mrs. Madelyn Albright. The additional details pertain to technical
aspects of the implementation of the agreement. This in no way means any change in the
contents of the various drafts of the agreement.
Kosovapress: In case the Kosova delegation signs the agreement and the Serb do not sign it
then will Belgrade suffer the consequences of it?
Mr. Thaci: In this regard I reasonably optimistic.
Kosovapress: In a declaration to the media you have stated that for the agreement to be
implemented, a greater commitment is needed on the part of the International Community,
especially of the United States and the European Union. Could you elaborate on this?
Mr. Thaci: If the International Community is not committed more seriously and concretely
then it will be difficult for this agreement to be implemented in Kosova as Serbia is
interested in continuing the war and we will be forced to fight in self defense.
Kosovapress: Could it be that in case the International Community does not deploy troops
and does not keep its word, the Kosova delegation would declare the signing of the
agreement invalid?
Mr. Thaci: I think that much will depend on how the process goes on which means on the
approaches and the actions of the International Community, on how much resolved it is to
carry out the agreement through to the end.
Kosovapress: How do you see Kosova after the expiration of the transitional period, in
three years?
Mr. Thaci: Personally I see the situation in Kosova in progress.
Kosovapress: What are the elements that make you optimistic?
Mr. Thaci: These elements are both political and military. We will now form the Kosova
Provisional Government, which will function in Kosova. The military element is related to
the KLA. We will strengthen and modernize our Army.
Kosovapress: You speak about the strengthening of the KLA, but let us recall that the
draft document of the Contact Group speaks about a process of partial transformation of
the KLA into Kosova’s Police Force. Your comment about this?
Mr. Thaci: The KLA has the Army Police Force included in it. This Police Force may be
transformed whereas the KLA as an army representing the entirety of the armed forces in
Kosova will preserve its status as a defensive force, but the transformation process
implies also its modernization.
Kosovapress: So the KLA will preserve its status. Could it be said that what you have just
stated has met with the approval of the International Community?
Mr. Thaci: The important thing is that it has met with the approval of the Kosova people
and of the political and military mechanisms in Kosova as well as with that of our
International friends.
Kosovapress: Supposing that after Paris the process of the implementation of the interim
three-year agreement on Kosova will begin, what is your forecast of the developments in
Kosova during the coming nine months until the free elections?
Mr. Thaci: I think these will be nine difficult months of this process, but we must be
prepared to face up any situation.
Kosovapress: Until a few days ago, various Albanian and foreign quarters criticized you
about your stubbornness not to sign the Agreement while at Rambouillet. What is your
comment to this?
Mr. Thaci: I have insisted not to sign the agreement at Rambouillet because I have deemed
it as very important to first consult with the people of Kosova and after getting the
Kosovar opinion we have come to a common position towards signing the agreement. This is
also the position of the General Staff of the KLA. Thus, at present, we have a common
united stand. A cohesion of the Kosova delegation and the Kosova people to attain the
agreement.
Kosovapress: Recently there have been speculations about International Community’s
proposal to the KLA to transform itself into a political Party. Could it still be
speculated that such a thing is not out of question?
Mr. Thaci: KLA is an army and it will continue to preserve this status.
Kosovapress: There have been speculations that after you were assigned the mandate carrier
of the Kosova Provisional Government, some members of the General staff of the KLA have
allegedly shifted onto political life. Could you please clarify this matter?
Mr. Thaci: The KLA has its own political program and it will strive through our mechanism
to accomplish this program. |
