The 73 civilian Albanians massacred by Serbian forces in three separate incidents in a fortnight is the Milosevic regime's response to the international community's 'talk tough - act weak' policy over the Kosova crisis

Fighting in Kosova Kills 23

Filed at 7:34 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Police stormed a village today in southwestern Kosovo, killing 23 ethnic Albanians, international verifiers said. One Serb policeman was also reported killed.

The Serb Media Center said the ethnic Albanians were slain when police entered the village of Rugova after separatist rebels killed a policeman there early today.

The center said rebels began firing from several houses and police killed ``some 20'' of them in the village, about 45 miles southwest of Pristina, the provincial capital.

But the Pristina office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said its verifiers found 23 bodies of ethnic Albanians in the village square.

Eleven of them were in a parked minibus. Three bodies lay in front of the vehicle, five were found in a nearby shed and four were scattered about the square.

All were in civilian clothes, the OSCE said. Some small weapons lay in the area, the group added.

``Obviously, 24 deaths in total is shocking,'' OSCE spokesman Sandy Blyth said. ``We have another incident involving a great number of deaths and we're trying to acertain events as they happened.''

The new incident occurred as Western powers called all parties in the conflict to an international conference Feb. 6 to negotiate a settlement granting ``substantial autonomy'' -- but not independence -- to the majority Albanian province.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, speaking after a meeting of the six-nation Contact Group in London, said he would fly Saturday to Belgrade and Pristina to deliver the invitation to both sides.

The strategy is to pressure the ethnic Albanians to unite their own factious community and force all parties to the negotiating table to prevent the violence from exploding by spring, as is widely feared.

In Pristina, Kosovo's leading moderate politician, Ibrahim Rugova, said he was ready to participate in such a conference, even though its aim is to negotiate an interim formula and not his ``ultimate goal'' of independence.

Without mentioning names, Rugova urged ``all representatives'' of Kosovo's political factions to join at the table under his leadership. That would include the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has opposed Rugova's pacifist strategy.

The KLA, though, has long rejected the idea of a peace conference unless it leads to full independence. A spokesman said this week that the rebels would announce their position on the conference soon, but gave no date.

Serb officials have rejected any talks that include the KLA, whom they brand ``terrorists.''

In the meantime, the Contact Group statement adopted by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia said the Serbs must stop ``all offensive actions/repression'' in Kosovo and promote the safe return of the thousands displaced by the conflict.

But fighting continued today, underscoring the urgency of the diplomatic efforts to end the year-old armed conflict in this Serbian province, where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian.

Contact Group foreign ministers gave both sides until Feb. 6 to show up at an international conference in Rambouillet, France, to be chaired by the British and French foreign ministers, and said a deal must be reached within a week. The foreign ministers said there were only a ``limited number'' of points requiring discussion.

NATO warned on Thursday that if the invitation is ignored, it is ready to attack.

``There should be no doubt about our collective resolve in this matter,'' U.S. Vice President Al Gore said today in Switzerland. ``NATO is prepared to back up its words with action.''

French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair also lent weight to the drive for international peace talks, saying in a joint statement they would commit ground troops to Kosovo as reinforcement for a political solution.

Rugova said such a conference at a neutral venue would give all Kosovo factions the opportunity to participate. But Rugova made clear that he was not prepared to recognize the KLA, whom he never mentioned by name, as an equal partner.

Divisions within the Kosovo Albanian community have delayed talks with the Serb-led government on the future of the province.

In addition, Serb leaders argue that talks should be held in Kosovo and should exclude the rebel KLA.

Milosevic spokesman Ivica Dacic said if world powers want to help the peace process they should ``publicly condemn terrorism, prevent smuggling in of weapons by secret channels and pressure the Kosovo Albanians to enter talks with the state delegation,'' the Beta news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency said about 1,600 people had fled villages in the Podujevo area, 20 miles north of Pristina, to escape fighting this week.

PRISHTINA, Jan 28 (KIC) - The bodies of two Albanians, dressed in UÇK uniforms, presumably in their twenties, were taken to the Gjakova morgue today morning, local sources said.

The bodies were picked up at Ura e Terzive, near the Bishtazhin village of Gjakova, where gunfire was heard last night in what was apparently a firefight with the Serbian police.

Albanian sources suspected there were fatalities on the Serb side, too.

Serbian regime sources said two Serb policemen were shot and wounded.

LDK sources in Gjakova said Serb police blocked the Gjakova-Prizren roadway today.

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In the Wake of Yesterday's Serb Offensive, Llapashtica Village Shelled Today

PRISHTINA, Jan 28 (KIC) - Yesterday's all-day long Serb military offensive against the Llapi region's village on the western side of the Prishtina-Podujeva highway was resumed today by Serb sporadic shelling of Llapashtica village today.

There has been no immediate word on possible casualties today.

Local Albanian sources said two Albanian civilians were wounded yesterday.

Yesterday's was the fourth Serb military offensive in a month against the Podujeva area, north of Kosova.

A Kosova Liberation Army (UÇK) source said its forces had put up a strong resistance to the attacking Serbian forces, which were yesterday backed up by scores of VJ tanks and heavy artillery pieces.

Meanwhile, an UÇK fighter, Driton Azemi (21), who was shot and fatally wounded last week was to be buried today afternoon in his native village of Bradash, half a dozen km north of Podujeva.

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Heavy Detonations and Machine-Gun Fire in Border Area

PRISHTINA, Jan 28 (KIC) - Heavy detonations were heard about 23:00 CET on Wednesday near the Kushnin village of Prizren, in the border area with Albania, local sources said. Heavy machine-gun fire was reported begun at 2:00 a.m. today (Thursday) in the area.

Early in the morning today, Serb military forces shelled an unspecified number of Albanian villages in the Drini river area and the border area, local sources said, adding that the Albanian population of the villages of Kabash, Kushnin, Lugizhdë, Dedaj, Lukijë and Romajë were fleeing their homes and heading to the town of Prizren and other relatively safer villages.

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Albanian Wounded in Mines Planted by Serb Forces

PRISHTINA, Jan 28 (KIC) - A local Albanian, Halil Trolli (55), was wounded when he ran yesterday in a mine planted by Serb military troops in the Bira mountainous area, namely on the road leading to the Dragaçinë village.

Some areas in the municipality of Suhareka have been mined by Serbian troops, local sources said.

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Albanian Killed by Serb Forces at Novolan on Wednesday

PRISHTINA, Jan 28 (KIC) - Serbian forces killed yesterday (Wednesday) Mehdi Sylë Haziri (42) in the village of Novolan, Vushtrri municipality.

Mr. Haziri, father of five, originated from Druar ('Drvar') village of the same municipality, local Albanian sources said.

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KOSOVA (incident - Kosova-Albanian border)

Five Albanians killed and two Serb policemen wounded

Prizren, 28 January (ARTA) 2130CET --

Five Albanians were killed and two Serb policemen wounded at the Kosova-Albanian border, the OSCE spokesman in Prizren, Simon Gerry, said on Thursday. The incident occurred in the Has border region, where Serb and KLA forces were confronted, in a KLA attempt to cross the border, the OSCE spokesman said.

Heavy detonations were heard on Wednesday near the Kushnin village of Prizren, in the region bordering Albania, local sources said.

Serb military forces shelled several Albanian-populated villages along the Drini river, close to the Kosova-Albanian border, starting from early Thursday morning, local sources reported. There are claims that the inhabitants of the villages of Kabash, Kushnin, Lubizhdë, Dedaj, Lukijë and Romajë, fled their homes, seeking shelter in the town of Prizren and other safer villages.

Witnesses from Has said on Thursday that Serb police and military forces, stationed near the cemetery in the village of Romajë, shelled the outskirts of the village.

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KOSOVA (fighting aftermath - Gjakovë)

Two more Albanians killed

Gjakovë, 28 January (ARTA) 2130CET --

The bodies of two unidentified Albanians, wearing KLA uniforms, presumably in their twenties, were taken to the hospital morgue in Gjakovë on Thursday morning, local sources reported.

The bodies were taken from Ura e Terzive, near the Gjakovë municipal village of Bishtazhin, where gunfire was heard last night in what appears to have been the site of recent clashes between the KLA and Serb police.

Locals claim to have seen Serb police forces, heavily equipped and with APCs, station in the village of Bishtazhin and Ura e Terzive, at around 2200CET last night. The same sources later informed on new police reinforcements coming from Gjakovë. Loud shooting was then heard at around 2300CET in this village, and particularly at the place called Ura e Terzive. The shooting reportedly lasted until 0100CET. At least two Serb policemen were reported wounded in the fighting.

The Serb police blocked the Gjakovë-Prizren roadway today, LDK sources in Gjakovë said on Thursday.

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KOSOVA (casualties - Vushtrri)

One Albanian killed during the crackdown

Vushtrri, 28 January (ARTA) 2200CET --

42 year old Mehdi Sylë Haziri, was killed on Wednesday, when Serb forces attacked the village of Novolan, in the municipality of Vushtrri, LDK sources reported.

Haziri, father of five, was from the Druar village of the same municipality, local Albanian sources said.

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KOSOVA (fighting - Klinë)

Albanian four-year-old girl dies in attempt to hide

Klinë, 28 January (ARTA) 2200CET --

Serb forces stationed near the Bauxite Mine in the village of Sferkë, tried to enter the village at around 1130CET on Wednesday, but were overthrown by KLA resistance.

OSCE verifiers went to the scene immediately after.

Despite Walker's assurances for greater security, 5500 inhabitants of the region, had to flee to the woods alongside river Mirusha. 4 year old Valmira Asllan Gashi died and ten years-old Burim Gashi was wounded during an attempt to hide.

A powerful explosion was heard at around 1700CET on Tuesday, coming from the Serb military basis at the Bauxite Mine in Sferkë. KLA monitoring units in the village, said that a Serb terrain vehicle activated a mine that Serb forces planted themselves. The same sources said that numerous ambulances arrived in the scene shortly after. No information on eventual casualties was available.

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KOSOVA (Serb assault - Podujevë)

Llapashticë under Serb artillery fire

Podujevë, 28 January (ARTA) 2230CET --

Yesterday's all-day long Serb military offensive against the Llap region continued today with Serb forces shelling the village of Llapashticë.

A KLA source said its forces had put up a strong resistance to the attacking Serbian forces, which were backed by scores of VJ tanks and heavy artillery pieces yesterday.

According to local LDK and CDHRF sources, there was shooting during the night, coming from the direction of VJ stationing posts in Tabet e Llapashticës, in Lupç i Poshtëm and other posts. Shelling continued today at around 1200CET, 1300CET and later on. Serb police and military forces fired using heavy machine guns and artillery from their positions in Peran, Tabet e Llapashticës and Lupç i Poshtëm. Serb forces in Dumosh, Lupç i Poshtëm, Lluzhan, Tabet e Llapashticës and Peran are in a full state of fighting readiness.

There are strong indications that some 200 people are trapped in the woods of Sallabaja. OSCE monitors tried to gain access to the area, but Serb security forces refused to let them reach the place of their location, sources from OSCE office in Podujevë said.

"We heard about the civilians being trapped in the village of Sallabaj but we were not able to reach the place and confirm it", said Aleksandar Vladimirov, Human Rights official at the OSCE mission.

"We were denied access to the village. There was also shelling from Serb positions in Peran, Tabet e Llapashticës and Lupç i Poshtëm and there is no information on any casualties and other damages so far", he said.

Rakif and Hakif Bici, both obove the age of 60, were wounded by a grenade explosion during yesterday's clashes in the villages of Llap.

The villages Majac, Godishnjak, Sallabajë, Llapashticë, Peran and Bradash were badly damaged during yesterday's shelling.

Serb police and military movements and patrolling in groups have been noticed today. A bus full of heavily armed soldiers with special combat equipment was seen coming from Serbia at around 930CET, as added Serb enforcement was deployed during the day. Serb military and police forces keep the same positions as earlier in Dumosh, Lupç i Poshtëm, Vranidoll, Çuka e Shakovinës, Lluzhan, Tabet e Llapashticës and Peran. The Prishtina-Podujevë highway is now open, as the roadways Podujevë-Kërpimeh, Podujevë-Llapashticë and Lupç i Poshtëm-Popovë are still closed. Serb snipers are poised in their strategic points at the "Besiana" motel in "Silos" and other buildings. After yesterday's offensive of Serb forces, the population fled their homes en masse, thus aggravated the humanitarian situation in this region.

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KOSOVA (mine fields - Suharekë)

Albanian wounded by mines planted by Serb forces

Suharekë, 28 January (ARTA) 2230CET --

A local Albanian, Halil Trolli (55), was wounded yesterday, when he ran into a minefield in the mountainous region of Biraç. These mines were planted by Serb military troops in the region of Biraç, namely on the road leading to the village of Dragaçinë.

Several parts of the municipality of Suharekë were mined by Serb troops, local sources said.

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KOSOVA (unclarified killings - Mitrovicë)

The corpse found in the village of Shupkovc identified

Mitrovicë, 28 January (ARTA) 1945CET --

A corpse was found in the village of Shupkovc, on Wednesday morning. The body which was later identified, appears to be that of Dejan Kostic (22), from Mitrovicë, the CDHRF branch in Mitrovicë reported. According to the CDHRF, Dejan's body was found in the same place that two Albanian bodies were found, some time before.

It seems that Dejan was not killed where his corpse was found, since there were no signs of blood at the site.

On the other hand, the neighborhood of "Vreshta" in Vushtrri, was blocked by Serb forces today morning, local sources claimed.

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KOSOVA (NATO Secretary General visits Prishtina)

Solana and Vedrine in Belgrade and Prishtina on Sunday

Bonn, 28 January (ARTA) 2230CET --

NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana, and French Prime Minister, Hubert Vedrine, are expected to visit the Yugoslav capital Belgrade and the capital of Kosova, Prishtina, on Sunday, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

These two officials will travel to the crisis region to convey a clear NATO message, as well as the decisions the Contact Group will make when they meet in London on Friday, to the Serb and Albanian sides, the spokesman told "Koha Ditore".

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KOSOVA (NATO Secretary General - integral statement)

STATEMENT TO THE PRESS BY NATO SECRETARY GENERAL DR. JAVIER SOLANA

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to make the following statement on behalf of the North Atlantic Council:

1. NATO fully supports the early conclusion of a political settlement under the mediation of the Contact Group, which will provide an enhanced status for KosovA, preserve the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and protect the rights of all ethnic groups.

2. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia authorities must immediately bring the Yugoslav Army and the Special Police force levels, posture and actions into strict compliance with their commitments to NATO on 25 October 1998 and end the excessive and disproportionate use of force in accordance with these commitments. All Kosovar armed elements must immediately cease hostilities and any provocative actions, including hostage taking. All parties must end violence and pursue their goals by peaceful means only.

3. The appropriate authorities in Belgrade and representatives of the Kosova Albanian leadership must agree to the proposals to be issued by the Contact Group for completing an interim political settlement within the time frame to be established.

4. NATO demands that the parties to the conflict in Kosova cooperate fully with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Verification Mission, ensure the security of its personnel and provide full freedom of movement and lift all restrictions on institutions monitoring the situation in Kosova. We demand that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia authorities fully respect all commitments undertaken in relation to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and ensure that Ambassador Walker is able to continue to carry out his responsibilities fully as Head of the Kosova Verification Mission.

5. NATO fully supports and shares the demands of the international community that the parties must cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia including by granting immediate and unrestricted access to its representatives to carry out their investigation of the Reçak massacre and by ensuring the safety of its personnel. We also demand that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia authorities take immediate steps to ensure that those responsible for the massacre are brought to justice.

6. We reaffirm our support to international efforts to bring peace to Kosova and to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, including by the Security Council of the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, the countries of the region, and the current efforts of the Contact Group. NATO stands ready to act and rules out no option to ensure full respect by both sides of the demands of the international community, and in particular observance of all relevant Security Council Resolutions. NATO is also intensively studying how to support measures to curb arms smuggling into Kosova. It calls upon the international community, particularly neighboring countries, to take all necessary steps to prevent the smuggling of arms and will work with other international bodies to this end.

7. In addition to the measures implemented last week, the North Atlantic Council has decided to increase its military preparedness to ensure that the demands of the international community are met. The North Atlantic Council will follow developments closely and will decide on further measures in the light of both parties' compliance with international commitments and requirements and their response to the Contact Group's demands.

That concludes the statement of the North Atlantic Council.

I would like to add for my own part that we are at a critical turning point in the Kosova crisis. The next few days will be decisive. What we have seen in Yugoslavia during the past decade is that it is very difficult to stop internal conflicts if the international community is not willing to use force -- and when all other means have failed. We may be reaching that limit, once again, in the Former Yugoslavia.

The Contact Group meeting in London tomorrow will launch an important initiative. It will be fully backed by NATO's military capabilities. We are ready to act, if necessary. The parties must seize this opportunity. It is the only way to overcome the Kosova conflict and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. The entire international community has come together to push for a diplomatic solution. You have seen from the visit of the United Nations Secretary General to NATO earlier today that the United Nations shares our determination and objectives. In this endeavor, NATO has a key role to play and will make a full contribution - but the parties must finally face up to their responsibilities. We will keep them under strong pressure until they do so. The North Atlantic Council will be meeting round the clock and we will be ready to take further measures as the situation develops.

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Human Rights Watch investigation finds: Yugoslav Forces Guilty of War Crimes in Racak, Kosovo

(January 29, New York) ? Human Rights Watch today categorically rejected Yugoslav government claims that the victims of the January 15 attack on Ra ak were either Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers killed in combat, or civilians caught in crossfire.

After a detailed investigation, the organization accused Serbian special police forces and the Yugoslav army of indiscriminately attacking civilians, torturing detainees, and committing summary executions. The evidence suggests that government forces had direct orders to kill village inhabitants over the age of fifteen.

The killing of forty-five ethnic Albanian civilians has provoked an apparent shift in western policy toward Kosovo, which the Contact Group is meeting in London today to discuss.

A report in the Washington Post yesterday provided excerpts from telephone conversations between Serbian Interior Ministry General Sreten Lukic and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, who clearly ordered government security forces to ?go in heavy? in Ra ak. The two officials later discussed ways that the killings might be covered up to avoid international condemnation.

Human Rights Watch conducted separate interviews in Kosovo with fourteen witnesses to the attack, many of whom are hiding out of fear for their lives, as well as with foreign journalists and observers who visited Ra ak on January 16. Together, the testimonies suggest a well planned and executed attack by government forces on civilians in Ra ak, where the KLA had a sizable presence and had conducted some ambushes on police patrols.

As has happened on numerous occasions in the Kosovo conflict, once the KLA retreated, government forces moved in and committed atrocities against the residents of the village. While it is possible that some residents may have defended their homes in the morning, most were clearly not involved in any armed resistance. At least twenty-three people were summarily executed by the police while offering no resistance ? a clear violation of the laws of war, and a crime punishable by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Villagers told consistent stories of how government forces rounded up, tortured, and then apparently executed the twenty-three ethnic Albanians on a hill outside of the village. Two witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw these men being beaten by the police and then taken off in the direction of the hill. Local villagers, foreign journalists, and diplomatic observers who saw the bodies the next day said that the victims had been shot from close range, most of them in the head; some of them appeared to have been shot while running away. Four men are known to have survived.

Eighteen other people were killed inside Ra ak, including a twelve-year-old boy and at least two female civilians, as well as nine soldiers of the KLA. At least one civilian, Nazmi Ymeri (76), was executed in his yard. Witnesses claim that Banush Kamberi, whose headless body was found in his yard, was last seen alive in the custody of the police. At least two people, Bajram Mehmeti and his daughter Hanumshahe (20), were killed by a grenade thrown by the police as they were running through the street.

Human Rights Watch confirmed that a group of approximately forty policeman, in blue uniforms and without masks, shot from a distance of twenty meters on unarmed civilians who were running through their yards. They killed Riza Beqa (44), Zejnel Beqa (22), and Halim Beqa (12), and wounded two women, Zyhra Beqa (42) and her daughter Fetije (18). It is believed that local policemen from the nearby Stimlje police station participated in this action.

The attack on civilians in Ra ak is one in a long series of war crimes committed by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police during the Kosovo conflict. Since February 1998, government troops have systematically destroyed civilian property, attacked civilians, and committed summary executions, all of which are grave breaches of the laws of war. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has also committed some serious abuses, such as the taking of civilian hostages and summary executions (documented in the Human Rights Watch report ?Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo? available, along with other Kosovo reports, on the web site www.hrw.org). The KLA in the Shtimle and Suva Reka area was particularly known for a high number of kidnappings of ethnic Serbs.

Human Rights Watch called on the Yugoslav government to allow an unhindered investigation by international forensics experts and the war crimes tribunal to determine the precise nature of events. Government authorities, directly implicated in the crime, cannot be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation.

The organization also called on the international community to take resolute action against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his government for brazenly violating international humanitarian law. International inaction in the face of past atrocities, the organization said, gave President Milosevic the rightful impression that he could continue his abusive campaign with impunity.

Finally, Human Rights Watch called on the Contact Group to insist that the Chief Prosecutor of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Louise Arbour, be granted access to Ra ak and other sites of atrocities in Kosovo. Human Rights Watch Report Yugoslav Government War Crimes in Racak

Taps Reveal Coverup of Kosova Massacre

By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, January 28, 1999; Page A1

RACAK, Yugoslavia, Jan. 27 – The attack on this Kosovo village that led to the killing of 45 ethnic Albanian civilians 12 days ago came at the orders of senior officials of the Serb-led Belgrade government who then orchestrated a coverup following an international outcry, according to telephone intercepts by Western governments.

Angered by the slaying of three soldiers in Kosovo, the officials ordered government forces to "go in heavy" in a Jan. 15 assault on Racak to search out ethnic Albanian guerrillas believed responsible for the slayings, according to Western sources familiar with the intercepts.

As the civilian death toll from the assault mounted and in the face of international condemnation, Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister and the general in command of Serbian security forces in Kosovo systematically sought to cover up what had taken place, according to telephone conversations between the two.

Details of the conversations, which were made available by Western sources, shed new light on the attack and its aftermath, which have again brought NATO to the brink of confrontation with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic over his government's repression of separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The calls show that the assault on Racak was monitored closely at the highest levels of the Yugoslav government and controlled by the senior Serbian military commander in Kosovo – a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

The bodies of 45 ethnic Albanian civilians were discovered on a hillside outside the village by residents and international observers shortly after the government forces withdrew.

"We have to have a full, independent investigation of this to get to the bottom of it," a senior Clinton administration official told staff writer Dana Priest in Washington. "Those responsible have to be brought to justice."

In a series of telephone conversations, Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic and Serbian Interior Ministry Gen. Sreten Lukic, expressed concern about international reaction to the assault and discussed how to make the killings look as if they had resulted from a battle between government troops and members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army.

The objective was to challenge claims by survivors – later supported by international monitors – that the victims had been killed in an execution-style massacre and to defuse pressures for a NATO military response.

Sainovic is the highest-ranking official in the Yugoslav government responsible for Kosovo matters and has been present at most negotiations with top Western officials; several Western officials said they understand that he reports to Milosevic on Kosovo issues. "We often see him as the link between the government in Belgrade and the administration down here" in Kosovo, one official said.

Yugoslav army and Serbian Interior Ministry troops have waged an 11-month campaign against ethnic Albanian guerrillas seeking independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs 9 to 1 but Serbs hold all the power. At least 1,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict.

Under an October accord imposed on Milosevic with the threat of NATO airstrikes, the Yugoslav leader agreed to withdraw some of his forces from Kosovo, and the conflict eased as both sides maintained – albeit sporadically – an unofficial truce.

That changed in this farming village when army and Interior Ministry troops converged on the area. As a result of the attack, the village has been transformed into a ghostly place, bathed in dense, damp fog that cloaks ice-covered thickets and leafless trees. Many of its houses were shattered by direct fire from three T-55 army tanks. Now there are only a few dogs, a handful of braying donkeys and scores of other barnyard animals where more than 1,500 ethnic Albanians once lived.

One source familiar with the phone calls between military leaders in Kosovo and officials in Belgrade on Jan. 15 and succeeding days said they show that "the intent was to go in heavy" to find three guerrillas whom government security officials blamed for the ambush of an Interior Ministry convoy on Jan. 8 southwest of Racak in which three soldiers died. "It was a search and destroy mission" with explicit approval in Belgrade, the source said.

As tank and artillery fire and the chatter of machine-guns echoed off the hills surrounding Racak, Sainovic called Lukic from Belgrade, according to Western sources. Sainovic was aware that the assault was underway, and he wanted the general to tell him how many people had been killed. Lukic replied that as of that moment the tally stood at 22, the sources said.

In calls over the following days, Sainovic and Lukic expressed concern about the international outcry and discussed how to make the killings look like the result of a pitched battle. Their efforts to cover up what occurred continued, the Western sources said.

One measure Sainovic advocated in his calls was to seal Kosovo's border with Macedonia to prevent Louise Arbour, a top U.N. war crimes investigator, from entering. Arbour was turned back. Another was to demand that Interior Ministry troops fight to regain control of the killing site and reclaim the bodies. Serbian forces launched a second assault on the village Jan. 17, and the following day they seized the bodies from a mosque and transferred them to a morgue in Pristina, the provincial capital.

A third was to explore whether the killings could be blamed on an independent, armed group that supposedly came to the region and attacked the residents of Racak after government troops had left. Sainovic was told that making this claim was not feasible.

Shortly after the attack, a Yugoslav government spokesman said that the bodies found on the hillside were armed, uniformed members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The account was challenged by international inspectors and journalists who arrived on the scene Jan. 16 and found dozens of corpses on the ground, all in civilian clothes.

Government officials later alleged that some of the victims were accidentally caught in a cross-fire between security forces and the rebels or were deliberately slain by the guerrillas to provoke international outrage. But survivors, diplomatic observers and rebels who were in the area at the time of the killings say that little shooting occurred inside the town early in the the assault and that no battle was underway at around 1 p.m., when most of the victims are said to have died. These sources say that Kosovo Liberation Army forces were not deployed near a gully where at least 23 of the bodies were found, and that none of the trees in the area bore bullet marks suggestive of a battle.

A team of forensic pathologists that arrived in Kosovo from Finland last Friday, a week after the killings, has found nothing to contradict these accounts, according to a Western official. "A picture is beginning to emerge from the autopsies, and it is a tragic one," said another source, explaining that the types of wounds on the victims indicate that they were "humiliated" before being fired on from several directions.

The last of 40 autopsies were to be completed today, and the Finnish pathologists say their final report will be ready by next week. But their preliminary conclusion is consistent with an account given on Jan. 16 by Imri Jakupi, 32, a resident of Racak who said he escaped death by running into the woods. He said that he and other men had been rounded up by security forces in house-to-house searches and ordered to walk along a ravine before troops "started shooting from the hills at us. . . . Firing came from all over."

According to Shukri Buja, 32, the commander of guerrilla forces in the area, Racak was home to many rebels, as government security officials suspected. But he said that most of them were driven into the hills early Jan. 15 by a wave of artillery and tank fire. "We were shot at from three sides . . . and they moved their forces during the day, so it was very hard for us to come down into the village," Buja said.

Villagers told inspectors and reporters at the scene on Jan. 17 that many of the dead were last seen alive in the hands of Interior Ministry troops, who said they were under arrest. Many of the troops involved in the operation wore black ski masks, but survivors said they recognized some local policemen and Serbian civilians in uniforms.

Jakupi and another Racak resident, Rem Shabani, told reporters that they overheard some of what the troops were saying on their walkie-talkies as two groups of men were being led away from the village.

"How many of them are there?" one soldier asked. When the reply came back as 29, Shabani recalled, the order given was: "Okay, bring them up." Yakupi said he then overheard another order: "Now get ready to shoot." He fled before the shots rang out.

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Annan Backs NATO Military Threat Over Kosovo

By Douglas Hamilton

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday voiced strong backing for a threat to force a political settlement in Kosovo as NATO readied a solemn warning that talks must start or air strikes may begin.

On the first official visit by a United Nations secretary-general to NATO headquarters, Annan said NATO and the U.N. must further refine ``the combination of force and diplomacy that is the key to peace in the Balkans.''

In a speech to NATO ambassadors, Annan recalled ``the lessons of Bosnia,'' where NATO's protection force and the U.N. were bogged down for three years with a limp mandate, until a decision to launch air strikes brought the war to a halt.

``The bloody wars of the last decade have left us with no illusions about the difficulty of halting internal conflict by reason or by force -- particularly against the wishes of the government of a sovereign state,'' he said.

``But nor have they left us with any illusions about the need to use force when all other means have failed.''

The world may once again be reaching that limit in the former Yugoslavia, Annan said.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana was expected to issue a solemn warning to Yugoslavia later Thursday that the alliance is prepared to launch air strikes against military targets if Belgrade does not comply with its commitments to restrain its troops in Kosovo and engage immediately in peace negotiations.

Solana declined to give details in advance of a news conference scheduled for 1600 GMT. ``At this very moment...a new political initiative is going to take place. We hope it will give new momentum to the peace process in Kosovo.''

It was ``a global initiative,'' he said.

Annan said that in situations ``where horror threatens,'' the international community must display it has learned from Bosnia about the ``credibility, legitimacy and morality of intervention and non-intervention.''

The only way to do that was to apply those lessons ''practically and emphatically'' he told the NATO Council.

In Kosovo, he said, horror was no longer a threat but a reality. ``And now, Racak has been added to the list of crimes against humanity committed in the former Yugoslavia,'' he added, in a reference to the Kosovo village where 45 ethnic Albanians were slaughtered earlier this month.

Annan told reporters he was ``pushing very hard'' for a political settlement in Kosovo, where some 2,000 people have been killed and a quarter of a million made homeless in the past year.

In Bosnia, NATO threats alone to bomb Bosnian Serb forces ultimately proved ineffective. Only the fact of air strikes changed the course of the conflict.

Asked if NATO could intervene in Kosovo with the express approval of the U.N. Security Council, Annan said: ``Normally, the approval of the Security Council for the use of force is required. I have always said that.''

But in what appeared to be a pointed signal to NATO allies not to back off, he told NATO ambassadors: ``Let me ask only that we all - particularly those with the capacity to act - recall the lessons of Bosnia.''

The Atlantic alliance maintains that existing Security Council resolutions provide sufficient legal authorization for the use of military force in the conflict.

Permanent Security Council members China and Russia would have the power to veto any specific further request for authorization were it to come before the Council.

Russia and the five major Western powers in the Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia are due to meet in London Friday morning to make a formal call on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders to attend an international peace conference in the next two weeks.

Annan said he expected a call for ``full and unconditional respect for the human rights of all citizens in Kosovo; full and unconditional acceptance of peaceful negotiation as the only way to resolve the conflict in Kosovo; and full and unconditional respect for the authority of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal'' throughout all of former Yugoslavia.

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NATO Increases Preparedness On Kosovo

Photo by Benoit Doppagne/Reuters

LONDON - NATO announced Thursday it was increasing military preparedness in response to the Kosovo crisis and warned the warring parties they must agree to peace proposals to be issued by the major power Contact Group.

"The appropriate authorities in Belgrade and representatives of the Kosovo Albanian leadership must agree to the proposals to be issued by the Contact Group for completing an interim political settlement within the time frame to be established," NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told a news conference in Brussels.

The Contact Group on former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, France and Italy -- is to meet in London Friday.

Solana said in The Hague earlier that, after the Contact Group meeting, "we will have, if you will allow me to use this terminology, a sort of political ultimatum to the parties."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in Bonn that Western powers would discuss giving Serbs and independence- seeking Kosovo Albanians a one-week deadline to meet for peace talks.

He said the peace talks would be held in France.

Ivanov Flies To Paris

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, whose country remains implacably opposed to armed intervention in the southern Serbian province, meanwhile flew to Paris for talks with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine later Thursday.

A foreign ministry spokesman said in Moscow that the focus of the Contact Group meeting would be "the start of political discussions between the sides."

"The question is what status Kosovo would have within the Yugoslav Federation, and deciding this with forceful blows is impossible," he said.

As the diplomatic shuttling continued apace, the Serbian Media Center in the Kosovo capital Pristina said two Serbian policemen were wounded and two of their attackers, believed to be ethnic Albanian separatists, were killed in overnight violence in the province.

International monitors were investigating reports that Yugoslav army border troops had ambushed a column of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas as they crossed into Kosovo from neighboring Albania.

Hit-and-run attacks by the KLA and vigorous Serbian army and police retaliation, carried out despite the cease-fire agreement, are complicating the quest for peace in the province.

The threat of Western air strikes prompted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end an offensive against the KLA last October.

Annan Supportive Of NATO Action

In a speech to NATO ambassadors at their Brussels headquarters, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recalled "the lessons of Bosnia" and said the international community must use the "combination of force and diplomacy that is the key to peace in the Balkans."

The world community should have "no illusions about the need to use force when all other means have failed," Annan warned. "We may be reaching that point once again in the former Yugoslavia."

Fischer said the Contact Group "should agree on a 'convocation' proposal... that the parties would come together in a week."

They would then be given two weeks to agree on a transitional solution to the disputed status of the predominantly Albanian province, he said.

A Yugoslav official, meanwhile, dismissed as a CIA plot a U.S. newspaper report saying intercepted phone conversations showed Belgrade had ordered the Racak massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in mid-January.

The official, who declined to be named, said the authorities would never have been so stupid as to order a massacre of ethnic Albanian civilians knowing that NATO was poised to bomb Yugoslavia.

UN war crimes investigator Louise Arbour, who was turned back at the Yugoslav border when she tried to travel to Racak, expressed doubt that diplomatic efforts so far were the best way to deal with the crisis in Kosovo.

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Friday January 29, 1:05 AM

UK And France In Troops Plan To Win Kosovo Peace

Britain and France could send ground troops into Kosovo to enforce any new peace settlement in the war-torn region, Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac said.

After dinner between the two leaders in Downing Street, a statement released by Number Ten said: "The French President and the British Prime Minister, with their partners and within the Atlantic Alliance, are willing to consider all forms of military action, including the dispatch of ground forces, necessary to accompany the implementation of a negotiated agreement.

"If an early political agreement proves impossible, the two leaders believe that all options will be need to be considered."

The statement was issued ahead of a meeting of ministers in the Kosovo Contact Group in London.

It came just hours after Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told Kosovo's warring sides it was time to come to the negotiating table.

Mr Cook's statement came ahead of a working dinner with American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Ministers of the six nation Contact Group - comprising the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Russia - are expected to finalise the plans for an intense series of peace talks.

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Envoy Says EU Wants Kosovo Peace; Serbs Balk At Talks

By Michael Roddy

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A European Union envoy told Yugoslav and Serbian leaders Thursday the international community was determined to have peace in Kosovo, using whatever means were necessary to forge a political solution.

Serb nationalist politicians, meanwhile, balked at holding talks outside the country with ethnic Albanian rebels.

Special EU envoy Wolfgang Petritsch, meeting Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ratko Markovic, said the world had resolved ``to bring about an early political dialogue and the implementation of an agreement on an interim status of Kosovo,'' a statement released by the Austrian embassy said.

Petritsch, Austrian ambassador to Yugoslavia, added that the international community was ``firmly committed to a speedy resolution of the Kosovo conflict and is prepared to make use of all means available to bring both sides to agree on a political settlement.''

He met Sainovic and Markovic the same day NATO announced it was increasing its military preparedness in response to the Kosovo crisis and warned the warring parties they must agree to peace proposals to be issued by the major power Contact Group.

The Contact Group meets in London Friday and is expected to summon Serbs and ethnic Albanians, fighting for independence in the majority ethnic Albanian province, to an international peace conference. This is likely to be held in Paris.

But two leading Serbian political parties, at separate news conferences, rejected holding peace talks outside Yugoslavia as a matter of national sovereignty.

``It is out of the question that the fate of Kosovo be discussed outside (the country),'' Vojislav Seselj, the head of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), said.

``There are things that cannot be given up -- the constitutional order of Serbia, the territorial integrity of our country and the principle of non-interference in our internal affairs,'' he added.

``Not even at the price of being bombed will we allow Kosovo to be separated from Serbia's constitutional order,'' said Seselj, a deputy prime minister in the Serbian government.

He said any decision about attending a conference had to be made at the federal level but added: ``Any government which would accept anything like that would immediately fall.''

Ivica Dacic, the spokesman of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), echoed the objection, saying:

``There can be no talking to terrorists (the Serbian term for Kosovo rebels); no international conference was ever held with terrorists, how can Yugoslavia and Serbia be an exception?''

``Kosovo is an internal question and can only be the subject of an internal political dialogue of all national communities,'' he added.

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Serbian troops said they pushed back rebels in fighting north of Pristina

The verifiers said only a few hundred meters were gained by the serb army

MAJANCE, Yugoslavia, Jan 29 (AFP) - Yugoslav federal troops and Serbian police pushed back separatist guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army in fighting north of the provincial capital of Pristina Thursday, OSCE observers said. Early in the day Belgrade's army took possession of snow-covered hilltops near Majance, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Pristina, after seizing villages on the hillsides Wednesday.

The action, accompanied by cannon and machine-gun fire, removed the immediate threat to the main road linking Pristina to the rest of Serbia from the KLA, which is fighting for the independence of the largely ethnic Albanian-populated province.

But an observer of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Belgrade's forces had gained only a few hundred metres (yards), or at most two kilometres (1.2 miles) in some places.

Soldiers barred a number of roads leading to Majance and the neighbouring town of Pjupce to the orange vehicles of the OSCE and to journalists covering the fighting.

"You cannot come between us and them," a lieutenant said.

According to the Serbs the offensive followed a KLA attack on a police post on the main road, but the headquarters of the separatists at Lapastica, six kilometres further north, denied this.

"It's a pretext," said spokesman Ismet Cakiqi. "They clearly wanted to move us away from the road. We have indeed withdrawn 300 to 400 metres at Majance, but this is normal, it is our usual tactic."

Cakiqi said the balance of forces had not changed. "The Serbs hold the road and the adjoining territory. They send infantry from Pristina to attack us and frighten the population, then they go away."

He said that only two guerrillas and two civilians had been slightly wounded.

In the nearby valley some 15 women and children of the Ismaili family were not reassured as they huddled against each other round a wood-burning stove which had gone out, in a house which had been abandoned by its occupants.

"We fled the bullets and shells, then in the night the tractors got bogged down and we carried on in the snow on foot," said Emin Ismaili. "Thank God, the people from Dubnica came to get us."

In Dubnica, eight kilometres (five miles) from Majance as the crow flies, Ali Miftari, a rescue worker, said 216 refugees had been taken in on Wednesday and Thursday.

Fitore Ismaili, a women in her twenties, said amidst her tears, "The police came to threaten us two weeks ago, They shouted 'Go back to Albania, where you came from. We did not come from Albania. They are the ones that have occupied Kosova'"