PRISHTINA, Dec 22 (KIC) - The Serbian police killed today (Tuesday) morning Jahë Sali Kabashi (30) in Zahaq village of Peja ('Pec'), LDK sources said.

Heavy Serbian forces sealed off the houses of the Kabashi family compound at 6 o'clock in the morning, raiding many of them.

Quoting eye-witnesses, the LDK chapter in Peja said the police raided the houses of Sali, Avdi and Arif Kabashi before taking Jahë Sali Kabashi (30) from his house and executing him by shooting in front of his house, in the full presence of his family. The family were even ordered to not dare touch the body of the killed Jahë before police came back.

During the two-hour raid, police beat up family members and smashed up furniture. Avdi, Shefqet, Naim, Valdet and Bashkim Kabashi were arrested.

The KIC has been unable to obtain further details surrounding the incident, as the village was reported sealed off by Serb police.

Back to top

"Bujku" Newspaper has Not Appeared for Four Days, Walker Condemns Serb Threats to Albanian Media

PRISHTINA, Dec 22 (KIC) - The oldest Albanian-language newspaper in Kosova, Bujku, an outlet that has replaced for years now the banned Rilindja daily, has ceased publication since last week amidst Serbian regime threats and blackmails.

Ambassador William Walker, head of the OSCE Kosova Verification Mission, said in a statement today that developments around the Albanian-language media in recent days "give OSCE/KVM renewed cause for anxiety and worry about the status of the freedom of expression" in Kosova.

Last week Albanian-language papers received warning letters from the Serbian Minister of Information, threatening punishment under Serbian law if they did not change their editorial policies, Ambassador Walker recalls. Bujku language has not appeared four publishing days in a row, he said, adding that electricity to the office of the paper has been cut, "and there are reports that employees have been denied entry to the building."

This action is detrimental to KVM efforts to "create peaceful conditions for a political solution of the conflict in Kosova", Ambassador Walker said, concluding that threats to the freedom of the press are in fundamental contradiction of the Helsinki Act of 1975.

The Albanian-language Rilindja daily was closed down and banned in August 1990 by the Serbian occupation authorities. These authorities illegally took over the property of the Rilindja Publishing Company in 1993, forcing Rilindja employees to set up Bujku and pay rent for their own offices.

There was an OSCE observer mission to Kosova back in 1993 when all this happened.

Back to top

Serbian Forces Head for Podujeva, Albanian Families Raided

PRISHTINA, Dec 22 (KIC) - Fresh Serbian military forces left Prishtina for the northern town of Podujeva today, LDK sources said.

A convoy of Serbian troops, involving 20 tanks and scores of other vehicles, traveled the Prishtina-Podujeva roadway before turning towards the Batllavë village in the municipality of Podujeva, sources said.

It is presumed that the convoy ended up in Dumosh village, where 60 Serb military vehicles were deployed on Saturday. These forces violated the cease-fire Monday in villages north of Podujeva, launching artillery and machine-gun fire for a couple of hours.

A number of Albanians households were raided by police in the town of Podujeva on Monday.

LDK chapter sources in Podujeva said police raided today the houses of the brothers Sefedin, Halil and Musa Bajrami, as well as the home of Enver Tahiri. A random passer-by, Latif Oraca, was reported physically abused by police.

Police maintained a huge presence in the town of Podujeva in the past two days, stopping and harassing Albanians in random check-points.

Back to top

Serbian Troops Firing in Prizren, Skenderaj, Vushtrri

PRISHTINA, Dec 22 (KIC) - Heavy Serbian military troops have been deployed in the border area villages in the municipality of Prizren, which have forced a number of local Albanian residents of Lugishtë, Kushnin and Kabash villages flee their homes, LDK sources said.

At 10:30 a.m. today, some 50 Serb army personnel backed up by a number of vehicles, including a tank, left Prizren heading in the direction of Gjakova. Some of them stopped at the Landovica bridge, others proceeded to Krushë e Madhe and Celinë. Serb soldiers deployed in an area between these villages have opened fire in the direction of Kodra e Bellas today. There has been no immediate word on casualties.

Meanwhile, LDK sources in Skenderaj said for a couple of hours last night - from 23:00 through 01:00 hrs - heavy firing was heard coming from the Serb police station in the town and the Game Ammunition Factory in the suburbs of Skenderaj.

Automatic weapons fire was heard in the town center of Vushtrri, at around 19:00 hrs and 22:00 hrs, respectively, on Monday. Firing was heard late Monday evening in the village of Pestovë, too, local LDK sources said.

Back to top

Serbian Police Steps up Campaign of Violence in Peja, Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Obiliq

PRISHTINA, Dec 22 (KIC) - Local LDK sources in Peja offered today additional details surrounding the huge Serb police crackdown on the Albanian population in the second-largest city of Kosova.

Police raided scores of Albanian houses, arrested scores of people, and engaged in looting and smashing up of property of Albanians. (It is ironical indeed to credit the Serb police with 'professional performance' in such wanton repression and destruction of Albanian people and their property, as some international observers have done!).

Serb police personnel left Mitrovica for Skenderaj today, LDK sources said, adding that a dozen armed Serb policeman stopped and searched Albanians for an hour and a half today morning near the buss station in Mitrovica.

At around 11:00 a.m. today, Serb police with APCs were stationed in the village of Shupkofc. They reportedly set up a random checkpoint there, stopping cars and people, searching and harassing them.

Five Albanian street cigarette vendors were arrested by Serb police in the town of Vushtrri today morning.

A joint Serb military and police random checkpoint was established Monday morning in the crossroads between the villages of Raskovë, Bakshi, and Besi. Equipped with an APC, Serb soldiers and policemen stopped and checked Albanians thoroughly. A number of Albanian schoolchildren were ill-treated by police in Mazgit village of Obiliq. Serb hooligans ill-treated Albanian schoolchildren in Plemetin village yesterday, LDK sources said.

Back to top

Fresh clashes in Kosova, U.S. talks to guerrillas

By Adrian Dascalu

Prishtina, Yugoslavia, Dec 22 - Serb police shot dead an ethnic Albanian and ethnic Albanian guerrillas opened fire on an army column in Kosova on Tuesday as U.S. officials tried to salvage a ragged truce in the tinder-box Serbian province.

Accounts of the killing differed. Police said they had been attacked by guerrillas while ethnic Albanians sources said the victim had been shot in cold blood.

A spokesman for the hundreds of international monitors deployed in Kosova to oversee a two-month truce said Yugoslav army reinforcements had been sent to a northern town and that the guerrillas had fired on a military column farther south.

Meanwhile Lawrence Rossin, director of the U.S. State Department's Office for South and Central Europe, met guerrilla representatives as part of an intensified international effort to pressure both sides into choosing peace rather than war.

Jakup Krasniqi, spokesman for the general headquarters of the guerrillas, who call themselves the Kosova Liberation Army reiterated to Rossin that the KLA was not responsible for the recent deaths of seven Serb civilians in the province.

"We made it very clear again that the KLA from the very beginning of the conflict, now and in the future will disassociate itself from acts against civilians no matter if they are Albanians, Serbs or others," he told reporters.

"We have nothing to do with the civilians, this is our clear strategy, a war for freedom and independence," he said.

The deaths last week have increased tensions sharply in Kosova, where daily violence has since cut through the truce both sides still formerly adhere to and which was supposed to end fighting in which around 2,000 people have died this year.

The international community fears a resumption of the conflict which drove a quarter of a million people from their homes before NATO threatened air strikes against Yugoslavia in October. Renewed fighting could destabilize the entire Balkans.

"Police killed a KLA (Kosova Liberation Army) member this morning and arrested other six KLA terrorists," an official from the Serb-run Media Center told Reuters by telephone.

The ethnic Albanian-run Kosova Information Center (KIC), quoting eyewitnesses, said Jahi Kabasi, 30, had been killed during a police raid in the village of Zahac, near Pec.

"Police executed Kabasi on the doorsteps of his home, in front of his relatives," a KIC statement said.

The allegations were denied by the Media Center official who said Kabasi had been killed during an exchange of fire between police and the "terrorist group" who resisted arrest.

"Police was shot at and it had to respond with fire. This is how it happened," the official said.

Police had found weapons, hand-made bombs and ammunition in the house where the six KLA members were arrested, the Media Center said in a statement.

A source from the international Kosova Verification Mission in Kosova said Yugoslav army vehicles had headed north from the regional capital Prishtina on Tuesday towards Podujeva, where shooting was reported on Monday.

He said troops based in an airfield near the town had remained in their garrison on Tuesday after conducting what the army had said were training exercises on Monday.

These had included firing tank rounds at ethnic Albanian guerrilla foxholes. There were no reports of casualties.

"The action, in clear violation of the cease-fire accords, renders the overall agreement increasingly fragile," a report by the international monitors said.

The ethnic Albanian Kosova Information Center said police had set up road blocks at entrances to the town, where a policeman was killed on Monday, and were arresting or harassing motorists. On Tuesday, police checked papers on the main road linking Belgrade to Prishtina as army trucks and vans sped by.

Back to top

Walker: The verifiers are being impeded by the Serbs

Prishtina, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Kosova Albanian guerrillas warned of all-out war today unless Serb police pull out of central parts of the province. U.S. officials met with top guerrilla commanders apparently to resuscitate a truce approved in October. Under the deal, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic pulled out some government forces and agreed to allow 2,000 international peace verifiers into the province. But the head of the verifiers, William Walker, today suggested they were being impeded.

Back to top

50 Journalists Killed in 1998

By The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Norbert Zongo was a leading journalist in Burkina Faso, Igor Lykov denounced corruption in Russia, Afrim Maliqi criticized Serbian policy towards the Albanian population of Kosova.

All three were killed by gunmen and were among 50 journalists -- including one photographer -- slain this year, the International Federation of Journalists said in a report published Tuesday.

Of the 50 victims, 30 journalists and the photographer were killed for reasons tied to their work, IFJ general secretary Aidan White said. The IFJ is still investigating the other cases.

The highest death rate was in Colombia, where 10 journalists were killed in 1998, followed by Mexico and Russia, where six and five journalists were slain, respectively.

Central and South America remained the most dangerous regions, with a total of 22 journalists killed in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Guatemala.

``In certain countries, it seems to be accepted that if you kill a journalist you won't get caught,'' White said, denouncing the ``lack of commitment at political level to trace the killers of journalists.''

``In some countries, the situation is improving,'' White said, noting that for the first time in several years there were no casualties among the press in Algeria.

Last year, as in 1996, 47 journalists were killed in the world.

White said the IFJ based its findings on local sources, as well as testimonies from the colleagues and relatives of the victims.

Back to top

Sadako Ogata urges Milosevic to release prisoners

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, has urged the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, to fulfill his promise to grant an amnesty to detained ethnic Albanians from Kosova.

Speaking after talks with Mr. Milosevic in Belgrade, Mrs. Ogata said the humanitarian situation in the province has generally improved, but more confidence-building measures were needed.

She said there were still fears among ethnic Albanians of detention and restriction of movement.

Mr. Milosevic promised to release ethnic Albanians accused of terrorism as part of a deal to end a military offensive against militant Albanians fighting for independence.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Back to top

Violence persists as peace envoys and relief workers visit Kosova

By Misha Savic, Associated Press

Prishtina, Yugoslavia (AP) — Kosova Albanian guerrillas warned of all-out war Tuesday unless Serb police pull out of central parts of the province, where new violence left one ethnic Albanian dead.

U.S. officials met with top guerrilla commanders in Kosova's rugged countryside on Tuesday apparently to resuscitate a truce increasingly frayed by bloodshed and pave the way for negotiations on the Serbian province's future.

The Serb-run Media Center reported that police who were pursuing suspects in recent shootings killed one ethnic Albanian and arrested six others. The source said police encountered gunfire and killed the ethnic Albanian when firing back.

The head of U.S. peace monitors in Kosova, Shaun Byrns, and State Department official Larry Rossin met top commanders of the Kosova Liberation Army in a remote village in central Kosova.

The U.S. officials declined comment after three hours of talks. But KLA commander Jakup Krasniqi said, "We hope that American and European diplomacy will show more understanding for the KLA and that they will support the Albanian people.''

The KLA has been stridently opposed to any plan for Kosova that stops short of independence for the Albanian-majority province, which is part of Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia.

In the province's capital, Prishtina, guerrilla spokesman Adem Demaçi warned police to leave central Kosova and said they are not welcome in parts of Kosova where there is no Serbian population.

"We promise, unless they withdraw from those areas, that they will be attacked everywhere by our forces,'' Demaçi said.

Nearly all ethnic Albanians, who outnumber Serbs in Kosova 9-to-1, demand independence. Hundreds have died and nearly 300,000 people were forced from their homes when ethnic tensions erupted into a war this year.

The worst violence ended when Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic — under U.S. pressure — pulled out some government forces and agreed to allow 2,000 international peace verifiers into the province.

But the head of the verifiers, William Walker, suggested they were being impeded, telling independent B 92 radio Tuesday that the Belgrade "authorities are generally uncooperative with the mission.''

He said that most of the mission's requests to authorities "have drawn a negative response,'' according to B 92.

Walker also blamed ethnic Albanian rebels for breaking the cease-fire agreement and acting "irresponsibly by carrying out provocative missions.''

Diplomatic efforts, and apparently the latest U.S. meeting with the guerrillas, are currently focused on bringing the KLA closer to moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.

The ethnic Albanian camp needs to be united before meaningful negotiations can begin on Kosova's future. However, the Serbian government refuses to deal with the KLA, calling it a "terrorist group.''

And the Serbian stand — no more than limited autonomy for Kosova — is far removed from the independence demands voiced both by the KLA and more indirectly by the Rugova camp.

In Belgrade, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, fresh from a fact-finding trip in Kosova, said that some 175,000 people have still not returned to their homes, although they have found shelter.

On Monday in Belgrade, heads of Yugoslavia's Serb-led army met with NATO's top commander in Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeated warnings that the alliance might intervene if fighting between Serb security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels continues, sources close to the talks said on condition of anonymity.

Milosevic averted threatened NATO air strikes when he signed an October agreement promising an end to the military campaign against the separatists in Kosova.