• It was Albanian civilians, villagers and children in their homes, who bore the brunt of the criminal Serb onslaught
• Attack by Serbs Shatters a Two-Month Cease-Fire in Kosovo (The New York Times)
• Bid to save Kosovo truce (BBC)
• Child Killed, Monitors Threatened In Kosovo

From KLA Representatives...

• DAILY INFORMATION NR.1
• DAILY INFORMATION NR.2

Statements, viewpoints and analysis...

• Serb Attack Deals New Setback to Kosovo Peace Accord (AP)
• State Department Says Serb Attack on a Kosovo Stronghold Was Unjustified (AP)
• Albania Backs Self-Determination of Kosovo (Xinhua)
• U.S. Diplomat Appeals to Serbs

- Serb forces started firing in the direction of Llapashticë village on Friday morning. Serbian military tanks have headed today (Saturday) in the direction of the village of Llapashticë, local sources said.

- Yesterday's Serb onslaught was a retaliatory campaign, in the pattern of 'killing ten Albanians for every killed Serb', just like Serb extremists have been calling for in their recent rallies in Kosova.

PRISHTINA, Dec 25 (KIC) - In a small area, the triangle between the villages of Llapashticë and Gllamnik and the town of Podujeva itself, 30 km north of capital Prishtina, Serbian forces killed yesterday (Thursday) at least nine Albanians in their homes and family house courtyards, local sources told the KIC.

Serbian military and police troops, backed up by scores of tanks and other armoured vehicles, launched Thursday morning a large scale attack on half a dozen Albanian villages in the northeastern municipality of Podujeva. The villages of Obrançë, Llapashticë, Gllamnik, Konushec, Buricë and outlying hamlets on the right side of the Podujeva-Prishtina highway were shelled by tanks and mortar fire. The UÇK (Kosova Liberation Army) put up a strong resistance at Llapashticë, sources said.

Yet, it was Albanian civilians, villagers and children in their homes, who bore the brunt of the criminal Serb onslaught.

In the village of Gllamnik, in the doorstep of their house, brothers Hetem Selmani (48) and Salih Selmani (47), as well as their cousins, Avni Nezir Selmani (24) and Fatmir Dalip Selmani (22) were killed, as well as Mirsad Hakif Abdullahu (17), a neihgbour of theirs, the LDK chapter in Podujeva reported.

In the town of Podujeva, the six-year-old Albanian girl, Albana Safet Hajdari, was killed in her room. At Sekiraçë village, a wedge between Podujeva and Gllamnik, Behxhet Ramiz Maçani (28) was killed yesterday. In Llapashticë village Isa Havolli and a woman, whose body has been laying in the fields since yesterday, were killed. [Isa Havolli was a member of the UÇK (Kosova Liberation Army)]. There has been word on a number of wounded, but details have not been made available to the KIC.

Reports from Podujeva expose Serb regime allegations that they had liquidated members of UÇK - or 'terrorists' as they criminally refer to them - as blatant lies.

Yesterday's Serb onslaught was a retaliatory campaign, in the pattern of 'killing ten Albanians for every killed Serb', just like Serb extremists have been calling for in their recent rallies in Kosova.

LDK sources in Podujeva reported that Serb forces started firing in the direction of Llapashticë village today (Friday) at nine o'clock in the morning. Serb military police forces have been opening fire from their position set up on the left side of the Podujeva - Prishtina roadway, at a car repair mechanic's near the crossroads at 'Qershitë e Llapashticës' in the suburbs of Podujeva leading to the Kosova capital.

Serbian military tanks have headed today again towards the village of Llapashticë, local sources said.

Serb police forces have set up a huge presence in all key communications positions in the town of Podujeva, including the entrance to the town at Besiana motel (the site of the notorious Serb police checkpoint dismantled a couple of months ago), as well as the crossroads leading to the northern village of Kërpimeh.

The funeral of brothers Selmani, killed yesterday in their house doorstep, will take place at their native village of Gllamnik at 14:00 hrs, sources said.

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Attack by Serbs Shatters a Two-Month Cease-Fire in Kosovo (The New York Times)

By MIKE O'CONNOR

International monitors said the rebels had used anti-tank weapons to inflict a surprising amount of damage on the government's armored vehicles.

PODUJEVO, Yugoslavia -- A sustained assault by Serbian forces on this area in northern Kosovo province ripped apart a tenuous two-month cease-fire Thursday, as more than 40 armored vehicles and tanks fought through the day with separatist guerrillas.

Leaders of the international monitoring mission intended to help build confidence and spur talks between the government and the rebels questioned whether it was becoming pointless -- and too dangerous -- to stay.

Thursday's attack, which diplomats said was the worst violation since the cease-fire went into effect, came after 11 days of combat and assassinations in which, international monitors say, the two sides have shown that they do not intend to solve their differences peacefully.

"Both sides have gone looking for trouble and they have found it," said William Walker, the U.S. diplomat in charge of the monitoring mission. "If the two sides are unwilling to live up to their agreements, 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 unarmed verifiers cannot frustrate their attempts to go after each other," he said.

The monitors were allowed into Yugoslavia under the threat of NATO air strikes in October. At that time the Belgrade government also agreed to withdraw many of its forces from Kosovo and to stop its attacks on the rebels. The ethnic Albanian rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army agreed to a cease-fire and to enter good-faith negotiations.

The monitoring mission is part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. There are about 600 observers in Kosovo now, and the plan is to have about 2,000 in place by the end of January.

But with Kosovo seemingly racing toward all-out war again, a British major general, John Drewienkiewicz, who is deputy head of the monitoring mission, wondered Thursday night if Europe and America would continue to contribute observers.
"Why should we put the lives of our young men in danger to help people who have not kept their solemn agreements?" asked Drewienkiewicz. "The states contributing forces will not see them caught in a meat grinder. They will pull out instead."

As if to highlight the danger, foreign officials say an observer parked in front of a military barracks Thursday was told by the police that soldiers would shoot him if he stayed more than two minutes longer.

The government said the assault Thursday was part of the investigation into the assassination of a state security official in Podujevo on Monday, a claim dismissed by diplomats. "You don't need 40 armored vehicles, including tanks, for a murder case," a diplomat said.

On Thursday night, fighting continued sporadically in the area around Podujevo, with small-arms fire and what appeared to be occasional mortar rounds.
A senior Western diplomat said fighting would probably pick up again on Friday because it seemed as if government forces had been prevented from taking their principal objective, the village of Gornja Lapastica.

"They are not going to back off," he predicted. "I think they will come back and pound the KLA again. If that happens, all of Kosovo could go up in flames."

International monitors said the rebels had used anti-tank weapons to inflict a surprising amount of damage on the government's armored vehicles. While the rebels had anti-tank weapons during combat over the summer, they had not used them effectively and usually fled from government attacks.

Rebel commanders and international observers say that in recent months rebel forces have received new weapons and more rebels are trained in using them. In Thursday's fighting, monitors said, rebel forces often stood their ground and forced government troops to retreat.

Diplomats point to the rebels' recruitment drive and their rearming as indications they are not interested in serious negotiations.

At nightfall, a long column of government troop transports, armored vehicles and tanks was moving back to its base south of Podujevo. Some of the armored vehicles showed heavy battle damage.

"This is going to make the Albanians feel pretty cocky," a senior Western diplomat said. "They're going to want to keep on going."

Ethnic Albanian civilians said the attack began about 8:30 on Thursday morning with what sounded like mortar or artillery fire directed at the village of Gornja Lapastica.

Villagers said they fled when they saw the tanks coming. They, and perhaps 300,000 other ethnic Albanians, fled government forces over the summer when the police and soldiers tried to rout the guerrillas but ended up terrorizing and radicalizing most of the people in Kosovo.

In houses near the village Thursday, villagers sat and stared with wide, terrified eyes.
"This is like the summer when we spent the whole time trying to escape," said Zade Hoxha, 80.

Sabid Kopalla, who was working in his carpet store in Podujevo when the fighting started, said: "They put snipers on all the tall buildings in town. Then they began firing everywhere, but I think they were shooting to make people afraid and go inside, not to hurt them."

A construction worker, Lytfi Salihu, said the only conceivable response from the rebels was to step up attacks on government forces. "They are ones who attack us, and our people must protect us," he said.

A Serbian police officer was shot to death and three others were wounded in attacks Tuesday. Last week started out with the murder of six Serb youths in a coffee shop and a government ambush that killed 36 rebels trying to smuggle in weapons from Albania. Saturday a Serbian government official was murdered.

The government is faced with a particular problem in this area. Not only are Serb civilians threatening to form vigilante groups to protect themselves, but the town is on the main road to the rest of Serbia.

During the cease-fire, rebels had taken up positions close to the center of the town and along the road, thus threatening the government's ability to control the road, or even resupply its forces in Kosovo.

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Serb Attack Deals New Setback to Kosovo Peace Accord (AP)

AP 25-DEC-98

Petritsch: "Villages close to Podujevo are attacked by heavy artillery and automatic fire."

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Following a Serb offensive against an ethnic Albanian rebel stronghold in Kosovo, both sides are vowing to keep fighting, dealing a new blow to U.S.-led efforts to bring peace to the region.

International peace verifiers said an ethnic Albanian girl was killed in the town of Podujevo by a sniper in the Christmas Eve offensive. They had no other details.

The ethnic Albanian-run Kosovo Information Center said at least nine people, including a woman and a 6-year-old girl, were killed and that a large, unspecified number were wounded. The government action was "revenge aimed at killing 10 ethnic Albanians for one killed Serb," the center said in a statement.

The attack came after U.S. and NATO officials warned both sides against violence, which threatens a fragile Oct. 12 cease-fire. That deal ended most of the fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels seeking independence for Kosovo from Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic.

There were no fresh reports of fighting today. But ethnic Albanians claimed Yugoslav army tanks were headed for the rebel stronghold of Lapastica and that the area was under Serb control.

In an interview with the Serbian independent newspaper Danas, the European Union's envoy for Kosovo, Wolfgang Petritsch, said the international community "will not tolerate an excessive use of force by the Yugoslav army" in the province.
"Dozens of armored vehicles and tanks have been observed deployed in the region," said Petritsch. "Villages close to Podujevo are attacked by heavy artillery and automatic fire."

A statement from the Yugoslav army corps in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, said two soldiers were wounded in a separate clash -- a "terrorist attack" Thursday on a military convoy in northern Kosovo.

The army said the convoy came under automatic fire and hand grenade attacks.
"The Yugoslav army returned fire and destroyed the terrorist group," the statement concluded. Police also said they captured a 24-year-old ethnic Albanian accused of killing a pro-Serb ethnic Albanian this week in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica.
In its Christmas Eve offensive, Yugoslav army soldiers backed by tanks and artillery struck at rebel-occupied villages near Podujevo, 20 miles north of Pristina, purportedly searching for gunmen who killed a Serb policeman three days before.
An Associated Press Television News crew saw the body of one man killed by an artillery shell in the village of Glavnik, and ethnic Albanians said several others were injured.

Hundreds of ethnic Albanians, including women and children, fled the region on foot and in vehicles on snow-covered roads and hills around Podujevo.

In Belgrade, Serbia's ultra-nationalist vice premier, Vojislav Seselj, said "our police must continue to clamp down against the terrorists."

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which is fighting for the province's independence, stopped short of abrogating a separate cease-fire it proclaimed unilaterally just before the October deal was reached.

In a statement issued in Pristina, however, the rebels said they would "not sit idly by" and would "attack with all means available."

"Both sides have been looking for trouble and found it," said William Walker, the American head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's verification force monitoring the October accord. He expressed frustration at the apparent lack of will for a peaceful settlement.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told BBC television that the Serb offensive was in "clear violation of the commitments" undertaken in October by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end eight months of fighting and avoid NATO airstrikes.

In neighboring Albania, the Foreign Ministry called for NATO to intervene to "end the Kosovo drama" and bring peace to the Serbian province, where ethnic Albanians form the overwhelming majority.

In London, a KLA political representative, Pleurat Sejdru, told BBC-TV that the cease-fire "doesn't have any sense to be in place."
About 1,000 people were killed and 300,000 fled their homes in fighting that began Feb. 28 when Milosevic launched a crackdown on ethnic Albanian secessionists.

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State Department Says Serb Attack on a Kosovo Stronghold Was Unjustified (AP)

AP 24-DEC-98

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Serb assault on an Albanian rebel stronghold in Kosovo was condemned Thursday by the State Department as unjustified.

Concerned with increased violence in the Serbian province, the department urged Serbs and ethnic Albanians to act with restraint and avoid escalating the conflict.

Americans were warned, meanwhile, not to travel to Albania, and those living in the eastern European country were advised to consider leaving.

The security situation in Albania remains unstable, the department said. The northeastern area of the country, including the towns of Tropoja and Bajram Curri, and the area near the Kosovo border remains outside effective government control, according to a travel warning.

The U.S. Embassy in Tirana suspended most operations last summer and can offer only emergency services to Americans, the department said.

Brushing aside NATO and U.S. warnings, Serb tanks and troops struck Podujevo, a Kosovo Albanian rebel stronghold, triggering what both sides called fierce fighting and setting back U.S.-led peace efforts.

In a statement issued by a spokesman, Lee McClenny, the department condemned the military action begun Wednesday by combined forces of the Yugoslav army and internal security police near the town.

The statement condemned all breaches of the ceasefire, including provocative attacks committed by elements of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which seeks to pry Kosovo away from Yugoslavia and attach it to Albania.

Belgrade's "disproportionate and indiscriminate reaction, however, cannot be justified," the statement said.

The Clinton administration hopes to persuade the two sides to agree on a restoration of self-rule but not independence for Kosovo, whose population is nearly 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

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Albania Backs Self-Determination of Kosovo (Xinhua)

Xinhua 24-DEC-98

TIRANA (Dec. 24) XINHUA - Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko said Thursday his government supports self-determination by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav Federation.

Addressing a parliamentary session on the Kosovo issue, Majko said the Albanian government "favors the respect of the will of the Albanian people in Kosovo as well as the international principles and rules."

As the situation in Kosovo "continues to be grave," he told legislators, the intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will play a decisive role in resolving the year-long crisis.

On his part, Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta told the parliament session that the rivalry between the Albanian political factors in Kosovo is becoming one of the main obstacles for a quick end to the crisis.

He said neither the Albanian government nor any of the Albanian parties will support such internal rivalry for power.

Also on Thursday, with the absence of the Democratic Party -- the major opposition party, the Albanian parliament discussed a draft resolution calling on the world community to take measures to prevent genocide in Kosovo and all the political factors in Albania and Kosovo to take an identical stand in tackling the issue.

The resolution is expected to be approved on December 28. Deputies of all parliamentary groups called on the Democratic Party to return to the parliament to approve the resolution.

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Bid to save Kosovo truce (BBC)

International observers in Kosovo are holding urgent discussions in an attempt to restore a fragile ceasefire after a fresh Serb offensive.

The head of the international observers, William Walker, told the BBC he was due to start peace negotiations in Podujevo - the centre of the conflict.

He was speaking after the Kosovo Liberation Army abandoned its ceasefire in response to the Christmas Eve attack which involved around 100 Yugoslav army tanks.

Ethnic Albanian sources said at least nine people including a girl of six had been killed during the shelling in the north of the province.

A KLA spokesman told the BBC they were willing to re-establish the ceasefire, but also called on the West to carry out strikes against the Serbs.

Earlier, Mr Walker blamed both parties for escalating the violence which has left the fragile peace on the verge of collapse and revived the threat of Nato strikes.

''Both sides have been looking for trouble and found it,'' he added.

Mr Walker said his unarmed mission run by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was the best chance of peace.

But he revealed his monitors had been turned back at gunpoint by Serb forces during the violence - which he said was a clear breach of United Nations resolutions.

Mr Walker's comments were echoed by the US which condemned the Serbian offensive, but also criticised what it called "provocative acts'' by KLA elements.

Nato warning

Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana said Nato's activation order on Yugoslavia remained in force, allowing military operations against Yugoslavia if the situation deteriorated.

Mr Solana described the KLA's cancellation of its ceasefire as "a tremendous mistake".

But he warned that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must keep to his promises regarding the deployment of soldiers and police in the province.

"I would like to ... make a clear appeal to both sides to comply with ceasefire that they had agreed and continue towards the only solution ... which is the political solution," he added.

But in Belgrade, Serbia's ultra-nationalist vice premier, Vojislav Seselj, said the police ''must continue to clamp down against the terrorists".

'We liquidated terrorists'?

Serbian authorities described Thursday's operation as a "limited-scale search" for suspects in the killing of a policeman.

Serb police said they encountered "fierce fire" but "liquidated" several "terrorists" in the rebel stronghold of Lapastica.

Ethnic Albanian sources said the Serbs had torched houses, civilians had come under fire and scores of refugees had fled into the mountains

KLA counterstrike

Rebel fighters said they had destroyed seven tanks and 12 armoured vehicles and inflicted numerous casualties.

A BBC correspondent says the KLA is known to have been importing sophisticated anti-tank weaponry in recent months.

The KLA was never a signatory to the deal agreed by President Milosevic and never abandoned the armed struggle for an independent Kosovo, where 90% of the people are ethnic Albanian.

The rebel army declared a unilateral ceasefire, but retained the right to retaliate if fired upon.

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U.S. Diplomat Appeals to Serbs

By VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press Writer

LAPASTICA, Yugoslavia (AP) - The American head of international monitors in Kosovo ventured to the center of a new outbreak of fighting Friday, appealing to rebels and Serb forces not to return to full-scale war.

William Walker met with an ethnic Albanian rebel commander during a lull in the second day of renewed fighting in northern Kosovo, and Yugoslav army tanks on a nearby hill pointed their turrets at the rebel-held village.

Walker said he also hoped to talk with Serb commanders as part of his bid to end the latest Serb offensive, which poses the gravest threat yet to the Oct. 12 agreement that halted months of violence between Serbs and guerrillas trying to gain independence for the predominantly ethnic Albanian province in Serbia.

``This is the tensest period since the agreement was signed,'' said Walker, head of a team of unarmed peace verifiers organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Walker said the monitoring force - now 600-strong and set to be increased to 2,000 in the coming weeks - would not be pulled out in the face of increased danger.

``More verifiers are the answer to violence,'' he told reporters.

A day after the Serbs launched their crackdown just west of the northern town of Podujevo, the rattle of gunfire echoed through the area.

OSCE spokesman Jorgen Grunnet said there was a lot less activity than Thursday, when Serb forces backed by artillery and dozens of tanks swept into the area in what they said was a response to the killing of a policeman earlier in the week.

The attack by Serb troops and tanks against six villages north of the province's capital, Pristina, sent hundreds fleeing into snow-covered hills. The ethnic Albanian-run Kosovo Information Center said at least nine people were killed and many others wounded Thursday.

Two columns of Yugoslav military vehicles, each consisting of several tanks and armored personnel carriers, returned to their base late Friday, Grunnet said, although it wasn't clear if the clashes were over.

The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army said late Thursday it would ``not sit idly by'' and would ``attack with all means available.'' However, the KLA regional commander Walker met with insisted that his forces were not firing unless fired on.

Army tanks could be seen filling in trenches dug by the KLA around Lapastica, the village that houses the rebels' regional command post.

Bozidar Filic, the spokesman for Serb police in Kosovo, said the renewed fighting was against rebels in the Lapastica region ``who have built up a whole system of fortifications, used for their attacks against police and the civilians.''

Filic reiterated the claim that the Serb attack was launched to hunt for the killer of a Serb policeman. ``The terrorists attacked us, and we responded in an adequate manner, liquidating a number of them,'' he said.

The United States, France and the European Union have warned both sides not to continue the violence.

In an interview with the Serbian independent newspaper Danas, the EU envoy for Kosovo, Wolfgang Petritsch, said the international community ``will not tolerate an excessive use of force by the Yugoslav army'' in the province.

In October, NATO prepared airstrikes against the Serbs as punishment for their crackdown, but the attacks were put on hold after the cease-fire was reached and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic pulled out some of his forces.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Friday warned the West against using force to halt the latest violence in Kosovo, and the Foreign Ministry called on both sides in the conflict to exercise ``maximum restraint.'' Russia has steadfastly opposed attacks against the Serbs.

Also, the OSCE said it had sent a ``very strong protest'' to Yugoslav authorities after a Serb policeman told a team of verifiers Thursday he would shoot if they didn't immediately leave the area outside a military barracks in Podujevo they were watching.

The Yugoslav government has pledged to ensure the protection of the verifiers force. A NATO force of 1,800 soldiers is stationed in neighboring Macedonia to rescue them if needed.

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Child Killed, Monitors Threatened In Kosovo

By Adrian Dascalu

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Serb forces threatened unarmed international monitors Thursday during a clash with separatist rebels in northern Kosovo which killed a child and seriously violated an October peace deal.

Ethnic Albanian sources accused the army of launching a widescale offensive backed by tank fire against several villages around the northern town of Podujevo and said one person had been killed.

The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said police had killed a number of guerrillas during an operation to arrest the murderers of a Serbian policeman shot in the town Monday.

William Walker, head of the international Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), said an ethnic Albanian child had been killed in the crossfire.

``He was killed by a bullet coming from a site between a policeman and a sniper,'' Walker said.

He declined to comment on the origins of the violence.

``Both sides had been looking for trouble and they have found it,'' he told a news conference.

But he said there were too many forces involved for a routine police operation and that a request from the monitors for the security forces to withdraw had been turned down.

``They told us that they are going to capture a terrorist. It always surprises me when they have to take tanks to look for what they call criminals,'' Walker told Reuters.

Walker, mission chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers, said earlier an OSCE group was threatened by the security forces when it tried to reach the area -- an incident he described as ``extremely serious.''

``Their (OSCE) vehicle was stopped at gunpoint and they were told, 'Either you go or we will shoot','' Walker said, speaking after an opening ceremony for an OSCE regional center in the western Kosovo town of Pec.

The OSCE has said Yugoslav forces, pulled back from Kosovo under threat of NATO air strikes in October after a quarter of a million ethnic Albanians had been driven from their homes, has been deploying again under the guise of training exercises.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana warned Wednesday that the alliance remained ``fully vigilant and ready to act.''

A Walker aide said 40 assault vehicles, including tanks were involved in the clash which an OSCE statement said had taken place in the village of Gornje Lapastica and involved heavy machine gun fire and mortar rounds.

When asked to withdraw, army officers said they only took orders from Belgrade, Walker said.

Tanjug said it was a police operation.

``Serbian police, who this morning mounted an action to arrest the murderers of Podujevo policeman Milic Jovic, liquidated...a number of terrorists, who had attacked police using various weapons,'' it said, quoting Pristina police. The statement said police continued the search.

Sources from the ethnic Albanian community, which accounts for 90 percent of the province, said guerrillas had fired on the Serb forces and prevented them from advancing on Lapastica after it came under Serb shell fire.

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret said Serb action was ``disproportional and contrary to Belgrade's international commitments,'' adding ''provocations by the KLA over the past two weeks...were unjustifiable.''

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook urged Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to show ``the utmost restraint.'' ''Action by the KLA is no excuse for his failure so far to cooperate fully with the Kosovo Verification Mission,'' he said in a statement issued Wednesday.

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KLA DAILY INFORMATION NR.1

Information Service Prishtinë, 24.12.1998

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