Kosova Crisis Center

Kosova Crisis Center

Updated at 4:45 PM on March 30, 1999

Independence now an option (Sydney Morning Herald)
Residents cower from dirty war on Prishtina's streets (LA Times)
Serbian criminal bands, wherever they go, they only kill
Citizens of Prishtina expelled by the serbian criminals
The price of freedom
Very grave situation in Drenica, meanwhile KLA remains unbreakable
Attacks and combats in the commune of Deçan

Independence now an option (Sydney Morning Herald)

By ROBERT MAHONEY in Bonn

Western leaders are still loathe to pronounce Rambouillet dead but the peace agreement they negotiated with one side of the Kosovo conflict is in tatters, Balkan experts say.

"I think the Rambouillet agreement is so much waste paper," said Mr Matthias Karadi, of Hamburg University. "We need to get a second round of negotiations going in which we discuss whether Kosovo can remain part of Yugoslavia."

Other analysts said independence for Kosovo, although not on the Western agenda, looked a possibility.

Mr Wolfgang Petritsch, the European Union envoy on Kosovo, warned against early international recognition of independence for Kosovo and suggestions that the West should arm the Kosovo Liberation Army. "But I must say with regret that everything is now moving in the direction of independence for Kosovo because it is difficult to imagine that the Albanians will be willing to remain in a state with the Serbs after the massacres," he told a Vienna newspaper.

European analysts said NATO, which began air strikes last week, realised it could not bomb Mr Milosevic to the negotiating table. It had now started the second phase of its campaign in Kosovo, which was to halt ethnic cleansing in the predominantly Albanian province. But the analysts all questioned whether the alliance had clear political and military aims beyond the bombing.

"NATO is stuck in a dead end with air strikes," said Dr Berthold Meyer, of the Hesse Peace and Conflict Research Centre in Frankfurt. "The hope that Milosevic will comply is tiny. On the contrary, since the start of the air attacks he has tried to create facts on the ground by conquering territory."

Analysts argue that the West's original aim of autonomy for Kosovo within Serbia can only be achieved with the overthrow of Mr Milosevic and the introduction of democracy in Yugoslavia.

"If this doesn't happen," said Mr Jens Reuter, of Munich's Southeast Institute, "and if Milosevic stays in power like Saddam Hussein, then really the only possible and thinkable outcome is the breaking away of Kosovo from the Yugoslav Federation through military means, and independence."

Residents cower from dirty war on Pristina's streets

By PAUL WATSON in Pristina

As a pall of black smoke poured from police headquarters in Kosovo's capital, ethnic Albanians saw it as a sign to hide indoors or get out of town.

They knew that by striking at the heart of the police operation that has turned much of Kosovo to ruins, NATO had further enraged the Serbs. In recent days, a dirty war in the capital's streets has left at least five more prominent Kosovar Albanians dead. NATO said that among them were Mr Fehmi Agani, one of the Albanians' representatives to failed peace talks, and Mr Baton Haxhiu, the editor-in-chief of an Albanian-language newspaper that Serb authorities considered to be a mouthpiece for the guerilla army. NATO's air strikes hammered central Pristina into the early hours on Monday, destroying the police headquarters and engulfing the complex in flames.

The blaze spread to a barracks where Serbian policemen lived with their families. More than 20 families living in the barracks were now homeless, the police said.

Massive explosions also struck a Red Cross building and the city's dental clinic. Far from demoralising police patrolling the capital's streets, the destruction only hardened them.

In Pristina's ethnic Albanian neighbourhoods, hardly anyone dared go outside after Monday morning's blitz. People standing in a bread line on an otherwise empty street turned and scattered down back alleys when two patrolling Serbian police with AK-47s walked towards them. With international monitors out of Kosovo and NATO keeping a safe distance overhead, ethnic Albanians have little protection.

An ethnic Albanian woman said: "If ground troops don't come here, there will be a big catastrophe, believe me."

But there are only about 10,000 NATO troops on standby in the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Western politicians continue to focus on their bombing campaign rather than introducing ground troops, and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's own forces have massed along the Macedonian border, wiring bridges and mountain tunnels with explosives.

As they listen to radio reports in Pristina that Serbian forces are driving up to half a million people from their homes elsewhere in Kosovo, ethnic Albanians ask: will we be next?

NATO confirmed that Mr Agani was killed on Sunday, another victim of Pristina's death squads, after leaving the funeral of Mr Bajram Kelmendi, Kosovo's leading human rights lawyer, who was found murdered along with his two sons, aged 16 and 31, last Friday.

Serb civilians walk freely around Pristina, or race around in stolen cars, and police do nothing to rein them in.

Members of Serbia's security forces have ordered some ethnic Albanians from their homes in the capital's Dardania, Kolovica and Sunny Hill districts then moved in themselves, a Pristina resident said. The biggest fear in ethnic Albanian neighbourhoods is that Serbs will bring the full force of their campaign to the capital. An ethnic Albanian woman said: "We don't have any arms, nothing, so everyone is afraid." - Los Angeles Times

Serbian criminal bands, wherever they go, they only kill

Pejë, March 30th (Kosovapress) In the city of Peja,even those albanian people who were still there, now they are leaving.Many outskirts of this city are completely burnt, by serbian barbarism. These assassinator bands in Peja are leaded by a serbian police officer, called Shanipuri police serb. This criminal together with his band, has executed many albanians in the presence of their family. To one family with the surname Nikqi,this terrorist band, after killing first the father and the son, they have asked from his mother 10.000 DM, as compensation to save her 16th year daughter.

Citizens of Prishtina expelled by the serbian criminals

Prishtina, March 30th (Kosovapress) The situation in some parts of Prishtina is very grave. The invaders have expelled albanians citizens from their houses in all the peripheries of Prishtina. In the quarter of Proleteri, the çetnik criminal serbian gangs are dividing the men expediting them to the city stadium. Thousands of albanian citizens are gathered in the streets Jastrebci and Vardari, which are sieged by the serbian police. They have been told to remain there until the buses come to expedite them to Albania.

The price of freedom

March (Kosovapress) The most recent ground news confirm a new phase of the serbian crimes towards albanians. Tens of albanian intellectuals of different professional spectrum, almost every day, wherever captured from the çetnik gangs, are massacred and terrorized and then killed. The names of prof. Latif Berisha, Fehmi Agani, Bajram Këlmendi and tens other intellectuals are already known to the opinion as victims of this massacre and terror. There are doubts that the same fate has had Ibrahim Rugova (according to a finlander news agency). Meanwhile, there are many speculations in the opinion about other names as Academic Rexhep Qosja, Bajram Kosumi and some other intellectual or political albanian distinguished personality.

Seen in principle, the prosecution and liquidation of the intellectuals as is already happening to the albanian intellectuals of Kosovo, is a logical consequence of the actions of all criminal and occupator serbian regimes, because their main purpose and target is to cause fear, panic and confusion to the population in order to keep it subdued and to put into reality his dream for continuing the domination. The massacres, killings and massive moving of population is just another form of the crime in function of this purpose. Nevertheless, this is also e sign of the rage, fear and loss of the control of the occupator in front the change of reality before its eyes, in front of the slide of Kosovo from the claws of this kind of monster; the bigger the slide is, the greater the rage of the enemy is.

KLA, in cooperation with NATO and its western allies, NATO, USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, etc, is determined to lead till the end the battle for freedom and independence, naturally keeping in mind also the price we have to pay generally as population or particularly as intellectuals. The freedom has an expensive price, but as often declared by the high level representatives of KLA, there is no price that our people we won't pay to get free once and for good from the claws of this beast.

Very grave situation in Drenica, meanwhile KLA remains unbreakable

Drenica, March 30th (Kosovapress) Today, Gllogovc with its suburbs in general is in flames, there is also a concentration of police serbian forces in the villages of Gllanasellë, Polac, Tërnavc of the commune of Skenderaj. A big mass of population banished from the parts of Mitrovica can be seen, coming in the direction of Skenderaj and the villages around, which have no shelters because everything is being burnt in this zone. Yesterday, in the village of Tërdevc, the veteran teacher Daut Halilaj (65) from the village of Tërdevc has been killed, defending the civil population. Both his two sons, members of KLA have been killed the previous summer. We have information that besides Daut Halili, there have been found dead: Xhevat Halili, member of KLA, Tahir Vrellaku, (75) from Baica, Brahim Hoxha from Krejkova, Sadri Buzaku (60) from Krejkova, Hamit Gashi (65) from Arllati, Hasan Ibrahim Krasniqi from Gllanasella massacred in Fusha e Mollës between Qirez and Vërboc, Rizah Tirku (65) from Tërsteniku also massacred in Tërstenik, there are also three old men from Prekazi i Ulet, the quarters of Kodrat, Avdullah Kodra, Jonuz Kodra and Zeqir Kodra.There are also tens of wounded. Therefore the Commander of the Operative Zone of Drenica, is requesting from the relevant factors to intervene urgently to avoid hunger, des eases and many other factors that put in danger the population of this region. There is a very heavy situation in Drenica, knowing also the danger of attacks from the çetnik and terrorist gangs of Milosheviq to destroy KLA.

Attacks and combats in the commune of Deçan

Deçan, March 30th (Kosovapress) The situation in Deçan and environs as well as in all Dukagjin and Kosovo is very dramatic. Even today, bombardments with heavy artillery in the positions of KLA have taken place in this territory and fierce combats have taken place between KLA units and serbian forces. According to in formations coming, the resistance is very powerful, as concerning consequences and losses we have no information about.During yesterday combats, Elez Ramë Geci, from Lluka e Poshtme and Magjum Berisha from Prapaçani, have fallen heroically. Last night in Isniq, serbian terrorist groups have executed the brothers Tahir and Hajdar Lokaj, Tahir and Shkurte Dervishaj. There are doubts that Hajdin and Zekë Dervishaj have been killed too. In Prejlep, Qazim Osë Ulaj has been killed from the serbian forces, but there are doubts for more other persons killed. Nezir Vishaj is gravely wounded too. Today the serbian forces have set on fire villages of Lluke e Epërme and Beleg. In Isniq and in Strellc të Poshtëm, there are concentrated more than 20 thousand fled civilians, whose situation is very grave.