| "Kosova
Press News Agency" and "Free Kosova" radio to start to operate in Kosova
today, KLA sources claim January 4,
1999 - KLA communique number 68.
Prishtinë, January 3, 1999 - Due to the lack of first hand
information, and for the sake of objective information of the Kosova and World community,
on January 4, 1999, the KLA will start to operate the "Kosova Press News Agency"
and the test of the "Free Kosova Radio" will begin. More information about this
will be available later in the day.
The rest of the world is wrong, only Serbia is
right
Yugoslav minister announces return
media offensive (Reuters)
January 1, 1999
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) -- Yugoslav Information
Minister Goran Matic accused foreign media on Friday of waging war against Yugoslavia, and
announced a return offensive for 1999.
"We've learned our lessons from previous mistakes in the
media war," Matic was quoted as saying by Beta news agency.
"We are ready to respond to all manipulation in the
appropriate way. And we've been more ready by the day because we are constantly perfecting
our instruments."
Matic, in an interview for Duga magazine carried by Beta,
indicated that a new federal information law was likely to be tough.
"Given the current political circumstances, the entire
media war hullabaloo and the mercenaries working for foreign paymasters, we must have a
restrictive variant," Matic said.
Matic said the way in which foreign media reported on events
in Yugoslavia-- a reference to Serbia's conflict with ethnic Albanian separatists in the
province of Kosova-- was "the best proof that an unscrupulous war has been waged
against us."
He criticised Western government aid to independent media,
singling out B-92, a prominent Belgrade radio station, and Koha Ditore, an ethnic Albanian
daily in Kosova.
"Add to this the money for the media from the BBC, the
British Embassy, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe, and others. It looks as if our media
are getting more funds (from abroad) than our state directs towards the media," he
said.
He said the funds were intended to promote foreign interests.
"Up to $100 million are being sent to our media through various channels-- where is
that money?" he said.
Several newspapers and a radio station have been closed since
a clampdown conducted as Serbia faced the threat of NATO air strikes over its offensive
against ethnic Albanians in Kosova.
"Nobody has asked the media to support any political
option or political party, only to have a minimum of national responsibility at the moment
when the country is objectively threatened," Matic said.
Matic said a new information law in Serbia, one of the two
republics which make up Yugoslavia, had only prevented "unscrupulous lies" being
presented as full truth.
Government sources have said the new federal law is likely to
cover the work of foreign media, but have not given details.
It also looks set to cover the work of domestic media which
have migrated to Montenegro, the smaller of the two republics.
Two of the three dailies closed by Belgrade have continued to
be published in Montenegro, whose leadership is at odds with Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic and is seeking closer ties with the West.
Rugova requests NATO peacekeepers in
Kosova (AP)
PRISHTINA, YUGOSLAVIA -- An ethnic Albanian leader called on
NATO Friday to defy the Serbs and deploy peacekeeping troops in Kosova, saying it is the
only way to stop the fighting in the province.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has agreed to allow
unarmed verifiers into Serbia's southern province to observe an October truce, but he has
vehemently opposed any NATO ground troops in Kosova.
In a New Year's message, ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim
Rugova insisted that "only the deployment of NATO troops in Kosova can bring about
greater security for all the people, a precondition for a political settlement of the
Kosova problem."
Rugova added, "We are convinced that the [international]
verification mission and permanent NATO attention can calm down tensions."
Kosova was quiet Friday after a raucous night in which
residents of Pristina ushered in the New Year by firing rifles, pistols and shotguns in
the air.
Some of the city's Serbs gathered at hotels to welcome the
New Year. Most cafes, restaurants and nightspots were closed, however, because owners
feared incidents between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
Four days of fighting that ended Dec. 24 after killing at
least 15 people shook the fragile truce and brought rumblings from NATO leaders.
Under the threat of NATO airstrikes, Milosevic agreed in
October to halt the seven-month crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosova,
an operation that had killed more than 1,000 people dead and left 300,000 homeless.
Ethnic Albanians make up the vast majority of Kosova's 2
million people.
In his message, Rugova urged ethnic Albanians to "join
forces and accomplish freedom and Kosova's independence" in 1999. Western diplomats
cite divisions within the ethnic Albanian community as a major obstacle to peace talks
with the government.
Rugova, who heads the biggest ethnic Albanian party, was
elected "president" of the self-styled Republic of Kosova in 1992 and again in
March. But Serbian authorities outlawed the new state, and he never served.
He advocates pacifism in pursuit of independence for Kosova,
at times causing tensions with the Kosova Liberation Army, which has led guerrilla
fighting against Serb-led Yugoslav troops.
War Clouds Kosova
Adversaries' View of Future:
Shattered Cease-Fire Signals New Year of Conflict for Ethnic Albanians and Serbs
(Washington Post)
(Washington Post) By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign
Service Friday, January 1, 1999;
LLAPASHTICA, Yugoslavia, Dec. 31—Sitting behind a black
desk at the Kosova Liberation Army headquarters here, a 27-year-old rebel commander known
as Remi lit his Dunhill cigarettes with a camouflage lighter and issued his grim
prediction for 1999.
"In the next year I expect to win and lose a lot of
battles," said Remi, who buried two of his fellow ethnic Albanian soldiers today.
"But in the end, we will win the war."
A couple of miles away in the town of Podjeva, Milovan
Tomcic, the Serbian mayor, sounded just as bleak.
"I am convinced 1999 will be as hard as '98,"
Tomcic said after leaving a meeting in the town hall with local men who have sent their
wives and children to other parts of Serbia because of the recent clashes here in the
north of this Serbian province.
The guns that over Christmas shattered a two-month truce
between Kosova's separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serbian government forces have
fallen silent. But as celebratory New Year's Eve gunfire rang out across Kosova tonight,
there was little optimism on either side that renewed warfare can be avoided.
"I think there has been enough blood spilled and
killing," Tomcic said. "But the situation is very tense, very difficult."
Serbian civilians have fled villages around Podjeva in recent
days and local officials have called on the government in Belgrade, capital of both
Yugoslavia and its dominant republic of Serbia, to guarantee their security. "We have
asked our country to intervene," Tomcic said.
The ethnic Albanian Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), which began
as a ragtag, peasant resistance movement, has after eight months of fighting become a
high-tech, mobile guerrilla force and, come spring, it expects renewed heavy conflict.
"The Serbian regime will attack us again," said
Adem Demaci, the group's general political representative. "But the KLA has become a
sophisticated force. They are working very energetically to prepare themselves."
Near here, on roads bathed in dense fog, the general sense of
foreboding found apt expression.
A column of Serbian tanks and trucks carrying troops moved
along the main roads between Pristina, the Kosova capital, and Podjeva, 15 miles to the
north. Serbian police, accompanied by armored vehicles, manned roadblocks at the entrances
to Podjeva, which teemed with people moving about the streets before nightfall.
Down a small side road, about 200 yards from where the
Serbian column passed, ethnic Albanian rebels wearing black uniforms and carrying
automatic weapons and sniper rifles stood guard warily.
And in a stark vista in Pristina, heavily armed Serbian
police moved along the main thoroughfare past children lined up to sit on the lap of a
Santa Claus perched under a "Happy New Year" sign.
"I would assess the situation as still tense, but at the
moment the agreement is holding," said Sandy Blyth, a spokesman for the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which negotiated an end to fighting between
the warring parties on Sunday after four days of clashes.
About 700 unarmed OSCE personnel have arrived in Kosova to
monitor an October cease-fire agreed to by U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. By early in the new year, a full force of 2,000
OSCE monitors is expected.
Today, the OSCE's orange jeeps were visible in this area,
sometimes parked down the street from Serbian police checkpoints.
But in the rebel stronghold here, the war that ripped Kosova
apart this summer, leaving more than 1,000 dead and tens of thousands of people homeless,
seems only in temporary abeyance. Most victims of the fighting were ethnic Albanians, who
outnumber Serbs in the province 9 to 1.
For two miles along a barely passable dirt road, knots of
guerrillas, some wearing wool hats with the letters FBI emblazoned across the front, stood
on ridges and emerged from abandoned farmhouses toting their weapons.
Further along what at times becomes a track across fields,
stood a two-story, cream-colored house, the regional Kosova Liberation Army headquarters.
It was this dwelling that government forces, with tanks and armored vehicles, attempted to
take in a two-pronged attack on Christmas Eve that was repulsed by the rebels.
For days after, the guerrillas and Serbian forces exchanged
fire, leaving at least 14 people dead, including Serbian and Albanian civilians.
Each side blamed the other for starting the clashes, but
William Walker, the U.S. ambassador heading the OSCE verification mission, said both were
spoiling for a fight.
In his second-floor office, Remi, the guerrilla commander,
held forth today on the rebels' growing military strength.
"We have everything," said Remi when asked if the
rebels had used 120mm mortar in the recent clashes with Serbs. "And we are getting
weapons from everywhere."
He stood up and walked over to the corner of the room pulling
out a hand-held 44mm mortar from under some fatigues. "This is from Ireland, Northern
Ireland," he said, but he couldn't say from exactly whom it had been procured.
Beside him, as he spoke, sat a satellite phone on which he
occasionally took calls. Downstairs, the headquarters held computers, fax machines and its
own electric generating system. Outside, off-terrain vehicles had Kosova Liberation Army
license plates.
Demaci, the rebels' political representative, said that in
recent months the guerrilla group has recruited ethnic Albanians who fought in the Bosnian
war and now 70 percent of its volunteers have military experience -- up from 30 percent in
the summer. Remi said he fought with the Yugoslav army in Croatia, smiling wryly at the
irony of being trained by his enemy.
He said the Kosova Liberation Army, which once took all
comers, has become selective in creating its force.
"Three months ago I got a list of 370 students from
Pristina who wanted to fight," said Remi, who sits behind pictures of four rebels who
have been killed in action. "We only took 60."
The atmosphere around headquarters is tense and, fearing
renewed fighting, Remi said there would be no celebrations at midnight. "We have
forgotten about New Year's Eve," he said.
Among the Serbs of Podjeva, the air is just as poisoned.
"Half the Serb population of this area has fled,"
Tomcic, the mayor, said. "Seven villages have been ethnically cleansed of Serbs.
People are afraid for their lives.
"Nobody is celebrating New Year's Eve," he
continued. "We have nothing to look forward to."
KLA releases three detainees in
Kosova: OSCE (AFP)
PRISHTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 1 (AFP) - The separatist Kosova
Liberation Army (KLA) has released three Albanians it had been holding, the OSCE
verification mission reported Friday. "We have been informed that three Albanians in
the hands of the KLA have been released following a KLA decision," said Sandy Blyth,
spokesman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE.)
The KLA is fighting for the independence of Kosova from rule
by the Yugoslav government in Belgrade. The population of the Serbian province is
nine-tenths ethnic Albanian.
The OSCE spokesman was unable to say why or where the three
Albanians had been held. The KLA is frequently hostile to those among its own ethnic
Albanian people whom it suspects of subservience to the Yugoslav regime.
A Serb briefly held by a KLA unit last week at its stronghold
at Lapastica reported having seen 11 Albanians in KLA captivity. Lapastica was the target
of major operations by Yugoslav government security forces just before Christmas.
The OSCE also spokesman reported that Kosova had remained
calm overnight after last week's upsurge of violence in the northern part of the province.
"New Year's night was calm, the ceasefire was respected," Blyth said.
There had been "an easing of tensions" in the
Podjeva region, where security forces attacked the KLA last week.
The KLA fought an eight-month war with Serbian security
forces last year before Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, threatened with NATO air
strikes, agreed to a ceasefire in October.
While the rebels continue to hold large parts of the
countryside, the United States is trying to mediate a political settlement that would give
a high degree of autonomy, but not full independence, to Kosova's ethnic Albanian
majority.
In his New Year address, Milosevic said he hoped for a
political settlement to the Kosova crisis during 1999, but ruled out independence for the
province. |
