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Tuesday, March 9, 1999, 1:30 PM.
Serb Shelling of Vushtrri Villages Continues
PRISHTINA, March 9 (KIC) - Serbian forces stationed at Druar ('Drvar') village were
shelling Albanian villages at the foot of the Çiçavica massif, local LDK sources told
the KIC earlier in the day today.
A column of Serbian military, including tanks and other combat equipment, left the village
of Bukosh heading towards Mihaliq village today morning.
In the wake of the recent Serbian military offensive in the area, only a few elderly
Albanians remain in their homes in some of the villages, sources said, giving the names of
some of them.
A paralyzed Albanian, Ramadan S. Zeneli (78), died two days ago in his home village of
Resnik. He could not leave the village during the Serbian crackdown there.
The village of Brusnik was shelled yesterday, sources said, adding that Serbian forces
occupied the house of Bislim Shaqiri there.
Meanwhile, sources said Serbian military personnel occupied Albanian houses in Pirç
village of Mitrovica yesterday.
Hundreds of Albanians have fled their homes, leaving behind everything, including their
livestock.
Fresh Serbian military and police forces have been reported arriving in the Mitrovica area
from Serbia in the past couple of days.
Houses of a Family Compound in Shallc Village Reported in Flames
PRISHTINA, March 9 (KIC) - Local LDK sources told the KIC by phone at 15:00 CET today the
houses of a family compound of Shallc village were in flames at the time, adding that many
Serbian armored vehicles were involved in shooting there.
Smoke was billowing also from the houses of the Kollari family compound at Brusnik village
of Vushtrri.
The Serbian police arrested yesterday Shaban Shala (60), Aziz Mehana (52) and Lan Meha
(30), all of them residents of Okrashtica village.
Serbian Military Launches Artillery Attack against Kotlinë and
Pustenik Villages, Southeastern Kosova
PRISHTINA, March 9 (KIC) - The Serbian military has been pounding the village of Kotlinë,
municipality of Hani i Elezit, with heavy artillery since 9:00 CET today (Tuesday), local
LDK sources in Kaçanik said late afternoon today.
At 10:20 CET, Serbian forces started shelling the village of Pustenik, also in the
municipality of Hani i Elezit. There has been no immediate word on casualties.
One UÇK (Kosova Liberation Army) soldier was killed and four others wounded during heavy
fighting with Serbian forces in the neighboring municipality of Kaçanik yesterday
(Monday), the Albanian TV (RTSH) reported.
Heavy Serbian military troops have been stationed just past noon today in two locations,
'Krivarekë' and 'Uji i thartë', along the Hani i Elezit-Kaçanik roadway, local LDK
sources said. Two Serb military airplanes flew over the Kaçanik area today, they added.
In the aftermath of the Serbian military and police offensive operations in Gorancë and
several other villages in the municipality of Kaçanik, some 5.000 Albanians - mostly
women, children and elderly - who have been driven from their homes have been assembled
only one kilometer away from the Kosova-FYROM border at the Glloboçicë village, near the
Jazhincë border crossing, the Prishtina-based Kosova Sot daily said. The Kosova Albanian
refugees have been intent on crossing over to neighboring FYROM in search of safety, but
have been prevented from moving there by the Serb police.
The Kosova Sot sources said 40 Albanians from the villages under Serbian attack crossed
the border on Sunday evening.
Sporadic Fire in Pustenik, Smoke Billowing from Three Kaçanik
Villages
PRISHTINA, March 9 (KIC) - In the wake of the morning's shelling by Serbian forces of
Pustenik village, sporadic fire was heard in the afternoon today, local LDK sources in
Hani i Elezit said.
Smoke has been reported billowing from the Kaçanik villages of Ivajë, Gajre and
Strazhë, which have been the target of Serbian military attacks.
Three Albanians from Gorancë village have been unaccounted for since Sunday. They have
been named as Minir Berisha (70), Hetem Vila (45) and Sylejman Dermjani.
Two Albanians Kidnapped in Kosova Capital Prishtina
PRISHTINA, March 9 (KIC) - The Serbian police abducted yesterday afternoon Adnan Maliqi
(20) in Prishtina. He was driving his Golf car when he was kidnapped near the Students'
Canteen in the center of the town.
Serbian police told Adnan's family he would be released today. He was not released,
though. Meanwhile, eye-witnesses have told the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of
Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) today they had seen Adnan's car near a garbage dumping
ground in Kodra e Trimave neighborhood in Prishtina.
The CDHRF reported that another Albanian, Hajriz Kelmendi (1962), also a resident of
Prishtina, was kidnapped on 5 March. He was driving his Renault 5 car, and was seen last
near the Llapi mosque in Prishtina.
Two policemen killed while three others wounded in Gjakova
municipality
(Radio21)
Media Centre informs of two policemen killed, and three others wounded in areas between
Smonicë and Stubëll villages yesterday afternoon. Names of killed policemen are Zoran
Sllavkoviq and Sllavolub Stankoviq whereas Kristijan Paceka, Vladimir Obradoviq and Zoran
Markoviq badly injured. It is said that they ran into an anti- tank mine as they were
patrolling the village.
A dead youth found in Prishtinë- Pejë roadway
(Radio21)
Serb informative sources inform of an twenty year - old Albanian shot dead in his car,
early this morning.
Albanian sources in Prishtina made known that yesterday at about 1.00 p.m. policemen put
under arrest Adnan Maliqi. After some members of Adnan's family insisted to be introduced
with the case the authorities said he will soon be released. Meantime, some citizens said
they have seen Adnan's car near city's dump place.
Tense situation in some separate villages in Hani i Elezit
(Radio21)
Albanian sources in Kaçanik inform of tense situation in some separate villages in
Kaçanik. According to them there were heavy serb force shelling preceding the attempt of
infantry units entering Pustenik and Ivajë villages. No other reports given except some
description of Ivajë village where over than 1.500 inhabitants sealed off by serb
military forces.
Analysis: Rising star of Kosovar politics (BBC)
By South East Europe Analyst Gabriel Partos
Hashim Thaçi (right) and Albanian Foreign Minister
Paskal Milo.
Hashim Thaci, the youthful rising star of Kosovar Albanian politics, is a secretive man.
As the US waits for an ethnic Albanian answer to the international peace plan, Mr Thaci's
whereabouts are unknown even though his assent is essential for KLA agreement.
He was named as prime minister designate of the ethnic Albanian provisional government by
the Kosova Liberation Army a week ago.
But what is Mr Thaci's background and how did the 29-year-old hard-liner rise to such
importance in such an apparently short time?
Little was known about him outside the KLA before he was nominated, along with four other
KLA members, to join the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team for the peace talks at
Rambouillet in February.
A dramatic shift in the balance of ethnic Albanian forces quickly came to the fore when Mr
Thaci - rather than long-standing leader Ibrahim Ruguova - was chosen as the Kosovar
Albanian negotiating delegation's co-ordinator.
In other words, Mr Thaci emerged as the de facto leader.
That was not the only surprise the head of the KLA's political directorate produced at
Rambouillet.
On 20 February, the day which was supposed to be the last day of negotiations before the
deadline was extended, Mr Thaci appeared outside the building and declared that the
Albanian delegation, and himself in particular, had been blackmailed.
"I have had pressures," he said. "I have had threats by the Serbian
delegation, I have had threats from 'above' - through my picture being taken, through
insulting me - that if I don't sign the agreement I would be killed."
The Serbian side denied the allegations.
Lone stand
The Albanian side did not sign the interim agreement presented by the six-nation Contact
Group - reportedly because Mr Thaci, alone among the 15-member negotiating team, held out
against it.
Mr Thaci's hard-line stance at Rambouillet was a logical continuation of his long
involvement in the Kosovar Albanians' struggle for independence.
He was born in the Drenica region, stronghold of the current and previous ethnic Albanian
revolts.
He was a student activist during between 1989-91, when ethnic Albanians tried to resist
Belgrade's abolition of Kosova's autonomy through peaceful protests.
Soon afterwards he went underground to join the KLA, which was formed in 1993.
During the mid-1990s he also spent time in Switzerland, a centre for radical Albanian
emigre circles, where he pursued post-graduate studies in politics.
Mr Thaci has been credited with reorganising the KLA after the setbacks it suffered at the
hands of the Serbian security forces last summer.
He is on the KLA's general staff and is its most influential political official.
Though he is a hardliner, Mr Thaci is prepared to be pragmatic at times. He ignored the
recommendation of the KLA's political representative, Adem Demaci, that the KLA should
boycott the Rambouillet talks.
The disagreements have since continued, and Mr Demaci has now resigned from his post
following the apparent failure to consult him about the setting up of the new government
which Mr Thaci is set to lead.
Mr Demaci's resignation will improve the prospects of the Kosovar Albanian side signing up
to the deal now on the table.
If anyone can deliver the ethnic Albanian signature, it is almost certain to be Mr Thaci
who is trusted by the KLA leadership.
Albanian Rebels to Accept Peace Plan
By JOVANA GEC Associated Press Writer
PRISHTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Amid continued fighting in Kosova, ethnic Albanian rebels
were inching toward signing a U.S.-backed peace deal.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill was told Monday by leaders of the rebel Kosova Liberation Army
that they accept the agreement and he urged them to take the next step and sign the deal,
Hill's spokesman said.
The Serbs have continued to oppose the deal, and the ethnic Albanians signing a deal would
mean NATO could strike Serb-led Yugoslavia to halt the violence in Kosova.
With moderate Kosova Albanian politicians already on board, efforts have focused on
nailing down KLA approval of the deal, which would give autonomy to the ethnic
Albanian-majority province of Serbia, but not full independence, for a three-year period.
``We expect a signature shortly,'' Hill's spokesman, Philip Reeker said after Monday's
meeting.
Hill is expected to return to Kosova today from neighboring Macedonia, where he is the
U.S. ambassador, for more talks.
In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said key rebel leaders gave their
blessing to the plan. But he stopped short of declaring it a breakthrough, mindful that a
promise to sign Sunday never materialized.
Earlier Monday, a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rebels
objected to several details of the agreement, including Russian participation in a
NATO-led peacekeeping force and the requirement that the guerrillas surrender weapons.
The KLA has also been pressing for guarantees of a referendum on independence after three
years - a condition rejected by Yugoslavia as well as the United States and major European
powers.
The Serbs have long refused to accept the deal because it calls for 28,000 NATO
peacekeeping troops in Kosova, a southern province of Yugoslavia's dominant republic,
Serbia.
In Belgrade, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic shrugged off the threat of NATO
airstrikes and stood firm Monday in his opposition to any foreign troops to police the
proposed settlement.
During a first round of peace talks last month in Rambouillet, France, ethnic Albanian
negotiators said they needed time to sell the plan to the rebel rank-and-file. Hill's
mission is part of a Western diplomatic offensive to win the rebels' signature before
peace talks resume in Paris next week.
In the southwestern village of Jablanica, a key rebel commander, Ramush Hajredinaj, told
The Associated Press that the KLA will never give up its weapons and that disbanding the
force ``would be a big mistake.''
Without the rebels, moderate ethnic Albanian politicians will not sign the deal. And
without full cooperation from all Albanian factions, NATO cannot follow through on
military threats aimed at forcing Milosevic to agree.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke was expected in Belgrade Wednesday to press Milosevic to
accept the peace plan.
As diplomats sought a solution, international monitors reported new clashes Monday near
the village of Kacanik near the border with Macedonia. The rebel Kosova Press news agency
reported at least one killed and four wounded ethnic Albanian fighters and an unspecified
number of casualties among Serbian security forces.
The ethnic Albanian-run Kosova Information Center said Serb forces had attacked several
villages in the northern Podujevo area for a second straight day, burning at least eight
Albanian houses. The report could not be independently verified.
More Fighting Reported in Kosova
By JOVANA GEC Associated Press Writer
PRISHTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Cannon fire reverberated through the hills outside Pristina
today while U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke arrived in the Yugoslav capital to pressure its
hard-line president to accept a peace plan.
The ethnic Albanian-run Kosova Information Center reported fighting near the Macedonian
border - a flashpoint in recent days - and around the Vucitrn area northwest of the
Pristina.
International monitors said artillery fire could be heard near Vucitrn today and that
government forces were apparently trying to push Kosova Liberation Army rebels away from
five Serb villages in the area.
Elsewhere, the Serb Media Center said two Serb policemen were killed and three were
wounded Monday when their vehicle hit a land mine near Djakovica, about 45 miles southwest
of Pristina.
Holbrooke, who negotiated last year's Kosova cease-fire and the agreement that ended the
1992-95 Bosnian war, today arrived in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, according to the
U.S. Embassy.
He and another American envoy, Christopher Hill, were expected to meet with Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic, possibly Wednesday.
On Monday, Hill met with four KLA leaders who told him that they approved of the peace
plan for Kosova and authorized him to notify Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of
their decision.
Hill, who has been spearheading thorny U.S. diplomatic efforts with the ethnic Albanians
for months, said it was too early to declare victory: ``I think I will conclude that the
agreement has been signed when it's been signed.'' Other sources said the signatures were
expected before the end of the week.
In a statement by its news agency Kosova Press, the KLA headquarters later conditioned
their signing on a halt to all Serb military activities in Kosova. ``Talks will
continue,'' the KLA statement said.
KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi told the Albanian-language newspaper Koha Ditore that the
signing will take place once all rebel leaders are back in Kosova.
That includes Hashim Thaci, a rebel commander who headed the ethnic Albanian delegation at
peace talks last month in Rambouillet, France. The talks are to resume Monday in Paris,
and Thaci has been in Albania for several days.
He is wanted in Yugoslavia for the alleged murder of Serb policemen.
The peace proposal would give the ethnic Albanian-dominated province autonomy - but not
full independence from Serb-led Yugoslavia - for a three-year period.
The KLA has been pressing for guarantees of a referendum on independence after three years
and for NATO troops, including American forces, to police the deal. Ethnic Albanians form
90 percent of the province's 2 million people and sentiment for independence is strong.
In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said key rebel leaders gave their
blessing to the plan. But he stopped short of declaring it a breakthrough, mindful that a
promise to sign Sunday never materialized.
Earlier Monday, a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rebels
objected to including Russians in a NATO-led peacekeeping force and that guerrillas must
surrender weapons.
The Serbs have long refused to accept the deal because it calls for putting 28,000 NATO
troops, including up to 4,000 Americans, in Kosova.
About 2,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a year of
clashes in Kosova.
NATO nearly intervened in Kosova with attacks on Serb targets last October before a
last-minute pact with Milosevic averted airstrikes. NATO remains on standby for airstrikes
but Milosevic has shrugged off the threats.
N.Y. BOXER: MY DAD FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT VS. SERBS (NY POST)
By JACK NEWFILED
ELVIR MURIQI is a skilled boxing prospect: a 1998 Golden Gloves champion, now 19 years old
and unbeaten after four pro fights.
His trainer is Teddy Atlas, the Michelangelo of the gym who trained Mike Tyson as an
amateur.
Elvir's father is a boxing fan, but he has never seen his son fight as a pro. The father -
Ramiz - is a commander in the Kosova Liberation Army, a volunteer from New York, driven by
patriotism to risk his life.
Elvir's father is somewhere in Kosova, where each day there are new murders, kidnappings
and massacres in an unfathomable cycle of revolution, criminality and personal revenge.
The province of Kosova is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, but is under Serbian control.
"My father is fighting to create a nation," Elvir told me. "He is proud to
be Albanian. If he gets killed, I know he died for his country.
"I wish I could be with him," the young fighter added, "but he says I can
do more for my people by winning the championship, by having Albanian flags wave in
Madison Square Garden."
There has never been a world boxing champion of Albanian heritage.
Elvir's father is not your average guerrilla fighter. He was once a wealthy businessman in
Kosova, owning several restaurants and a large house.
When the civil war began, the Serbs put a contract out on Ramiz, looted his home and
kidnapped his driver, holding him hostage until Ramiz surrendered.
"We can make a house again," the son said with a touch of poetry. "But you
can't make people again if they get killed."
The young fighter, naturally, misses his father, who is another kind of fighter. He sends
the father tapes of his bouts, and has seen him for only six days in the last 14 months.
"My last match was on an Army base in Augusta, Ga.," Elvir said. "I was
riding in a van to the ring and saw tanks and soldiers all around. That made me think I
was going to see my father.
"My brother is only 5 years old," he continued, "and asks me all the time
when Dad is coming to see him. It's hard to explain to someone 5 years old."
With Ramiz absent in a remote war, Teddy Atlas, 42, feels himself becoming the surrogate
father to the sensitive teen-age fighter.
This development has the symmetry of a movie, since Atlas adopted the mythic Cus D'Amato
as his own substitute father when Atlas was struggling through a two-felony adolescence,
trying to get his father's attention. Atlas also won the Golden Gloves - in 1976.
Dr. Theodore Atlas, who died in 1993, was a real hero to his son, just like Ramiz is
Elvir's real hero.
Dr. Atlas got up before the sun every day, put on a truss because he had a double hernia,
and made house calls in the Staten Island projects.
He treated sick people for free. He drove patients home in his beat-up car.
Dr. Atlas had a code of conduct he lived by. It was based on making sacrifices, accepting
responsibility, never complaining, doing what you say you're going to do and honoring the
purity of work.
This is the code that Teddy Atlas is trying to pass along to Elvir Muriqi each day in the
Rocky Marciano gym.
It's a code for all professions and all people.
The day Teddy Atlas buried his father, he went to the gym to train Michael Moorer to win
the heavyweight championship - because that was what was expected of him.
I asked Elvir how Atlas became his trainer.
"I was a detective," he replied. "I knew Teddy had trained Tyson. I found
out Teddy's wife is Albanian. I figured he must like Albanian people.
"Teddy tells me to be the ocean, not the log," the fighter said. "That
means I have to control my opponent like the tide."
Elvir Muriqi yearns to hug his father and worries about his safety.
But he has Teddy Atlas, who knows all about fathers and sons and is teaching him to be the
ocean at 19. |
