Kosova Crisis Center

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LETTERS OF SUPPORT

SERBIAN MASSACRES

• Ethnic Albanians Rally in D.C
• DOUBT ABOUT HUNDREDS OF KILLED AT THE MOUNTAIN OF DEVIQ, PEOPLE ARE STARVING
• There are suspections for a massive cemetery
• PEN American Center Public Statement on the Crisis in Kosovo
• Ruthless Serb 'Frenkis' clear city of ethnic Albanians
• Replacements of serbian forces in the commune of Istog
• White House hints at support for Kosovo independence
• US says Serbs shelling Kosovar civilians in Malisevo

Ethnic Albanians Rally in D.C

Photo Credit: Washington Post

By Douglas Kiker Associated Press Writer Wednesday, March 31, 1999; 4:31 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As about 2,000 sympathizers rallied outside the White House, American Albanian leaders pleaded with President Clinton on Wednesday to send ground troops into Yugoslavia.

Avni Mustafaj, president of the National Albanian American Council, and his fellow Albanian American leaders met with national security adviser Sandy Berger and other aides. Clinton dropped by the meeting for 15 minutes.

Afterward, Mustafaj said Clinton had stressed the importance of success in Kosovo. ``We cannot lose this. We have to win this,'' Mustafj quoted the president as saying during the meeting.

The Albanian Americans contended Clinton did not rule out the possibility of introducing NATO ground troops into the conflict, but White House officials denied that.

``They want to have ground forces. We told them today that was not our intention,'' said David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council, who sat in on the meeting. ``There was no ambiguity.''

The meeting took place as American Albanian demonstrators rallied in Lafayette Park across the street.

The demonstrators, carrying placards and chanting ``Down with Milosevic'' and ``NATO in, Serbia out,'' burned a Yugoslav flag, but there were no confrontations or arrests.

``We want to show solidarity with Albanians worldwide,'' said Ilir Zherka, executive director of the National Albanian American Council, which helped organize the demonstration. ``NATO cannot afford to lose this war. Albanians cannot afford to lose this war.''

``Our message is also to President Clinton, the American public and NATO: NATO's mission is in doubt. We cannot allow that to happen,'' said Zherka, one of the officials who met with Clinton and Berger.

Safet Biba, an ethnic Albanian who has lived in the United States for 15 years, spoke of his wife who went home to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, a month ago to bury her mother, who he said was a victim of Serb aggression. When the bombings began, she was stuck in Kosovo.

``Last time I spoke with my wife, she told me of how bodies were piled up in the street like garbage,'' Biba said, adding that he has not heard from her in three days.

William Ryerson, former U.S. ambassador to Albania, joined the rally. ``I fear that there are god-awful things going on in Kosovo,'' he said. ``The attitude towards Albania by many Serbs is pathological.''

Ryerson said he thought NATO ground troops would be needed to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into a settlement.

``I have two sons who serve in the military, but I hope we send troops,'' Ryerson said.

DOUBT ABOUT HUNDREDS OF KILLED AT THE MOUNTAIN OF DEVIQ, PEOPLE ARE STARVING

Drenica, March 30. (Kosovapress)

It’s a doubt that in the mountain of Deviq, there are hundreds of killed and hundreds of other massacred people. According to eye witnesses, in this part of Drenica are being located thousands of refuges, who were forced to leave their homes in all parts of Drenica and further.

There is a suspicion that has been conducted a large massacre, especially against young people, of age 15-18 years old. Also the villages of Acareva, Abri, Likovc and Rezalla currently are being burned. In village of Llausha everything has turned into char and dust, also the village of Pollac has been turned into ruins. All these and large concentration of the refuges, has caused the lack of food and people are starving.

There is a serious danger of appearance of epidemics and different dangerous disease, because of the large number of killed domestic animals from the serbian terrorists and barbarians in this region.

There are suspections for a massive cemetery

Hani i Elezit, March 31st (Kosovapress) The dead body of Nuri (Gani ) Bushi, born on 1966, disappeared during the serbian offensive of March 3, in the region of Hani Elezit and Kaçaniku, is being found today, in the village of Pustenik. There are also doubts,that in the village of Kotlinë, a massive cemetery with the 22 albanian dead bodies exist. Serbian military is positioned in the abandoned houses of the villages of Paldenicë and other villages around Elez Han.

PEN American Center Public Statement on the Crisis in Kosovo

As an association of writers devoted to the defense of literature and the freedom of expression upon which it depends, we at PEN American Center are extremely alarmed at reports from Kosovo province in Yugoslavia of atrocities by Serbian forces, including alleged door-to-door executions of ethnic Albanians, specifically targeting writers, journalists, teachers and other intellectuals. In particular, we wish to express our horror and outrage at reports of the recent killings of Albanian poet Din Mehmeti, writer Teki Dervishi, and Baton Haxhiu, Editor-in-Chief of Koha Ditore, and of Albanian human rights activists Bajram Kelmendi, Fehmi Agani, and Alush Gashi. While wartime acts of violence and brutality directed at civilians are always deplorable, this apparent effort to identify and eliminate writers and other intellectuals, and in effect to decapitate a society and culture, resembles in its tactics the most heinous episodes of genocide seen in the twentieth century. As such it requires the immediate attention and urgent efforts of the entire civilized world.

We call upon President Milosevic and Serbian and Yugoslav authorities, President Clinton, the leaders of NATO, and the international community to employ every available measure to halt attacks upon civilians including writers, journalists and other intellectuals, to prevent further atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and to secure freedom of the press and of free expression in the area, including Serbia.

Ruthless Serb 'Frenkis' clear city of ethnic Albanians

by Matthew McAllester
Newsday

ROZAJE, Montenegro - They're called Frenkis, and they have almost emptied the town of Pec of its tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian inhabitants. The group of bayonet- and gun-carrying Serbian paramilitaries, named after their possibly dead leader Frenki Simatovic, has spent the past few days visiting thousands of ethnic Albanian households in Pec, putting guns to the heads of the cowering families inside and commanding them to leave Kosovo immediately with nothing but the clothes on their backs, according to dozens of refugees from Pec whose stories, told independently, created a picture of a town being ethnically cleansed by a group of organized, brutal paramilitaries.

After lying relatively low in the town for four or five months, the group, called "criminals" by a former interior minister of Yugoslavia, has unleashed its wrath on the majority ethnic Albanian population of Pec. Another former Yugoslavian government official said here Monday night that the Frenkis are a covert paramilitary force ultimately controlled by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Many Frenkis were convicts

The Frenkis, made up largely of former convicts, have experience in ethnic cleansing. Many were involved in the attempted clearing of Muslims from Bosnia during the war there. Their leader, Simatovic - whom some refugees said this week died last year in combat, while others insisted he is still alive - is believed to be head of state security in Yugoslavia and one of the country's leading war-crimes suspects.

Numbering around 2,000, the Frenkis, wearing fatigues of several different shades of green and sporting khaki hats with sideflaps, have separated many of the men and taken them to a sports center in the center of town. None of the refugees, many of them women and children, knew what had happened to the men rounded up and taken to the Karagac sports center, usually a place where the residents of Pec, a town of more than 100,000, play basketball. While some people feared that a massacre of the men in the sports center could take place, one man who has worked with the international monitors who were observing the situation until a few weeks ago in Kosovo said he believed the dead so far numbered 20 to 30.

The primary goal of the Frenkis - whom refugees said are operating with the help of a Yugoslavian army tank division - appears to be to drive every last ethnic Albanian out of Pec, which lies less than 10 miles inside the Kosovo border.

Refugees describe destruction

Interviews with more than 100 of the thousands of desperate refugees gathered in homes and mosques and on the streets and in the bus station of rainy, muddy Rozaje produced a chilling story of the systematic destruction of one of Kosovo's largest communities.

One Pec refugee described how the Frenkis had attacked his neighborhood.

"Three nights ago five paramilitaries in uniform - Frenkis - start to burn the roof of our neighbor," said Arsim Kelmendi, 34, who owns a cafe that was destroyed. "I went out to help him put it out, and they heard me and threw a grenade. One of my neighbors was wounded."

The neighbor had injuries to his head, hands and legs, Kelmendi said.

Starting last week in a heavily ethnically Albanian northeastern part of the town called Kapesnyca, the Frenkis began to go door to door, people said. As recounted by many people, the paramilitaries - many of whom are unemployed Bosnian Serbs - would rob the residents of a house, take away the men of fighting age and force the rest of the family members to leave for Montenegro.

Some time later, Yugoslav army tanks would come and shell the house from short range, often starting a fire that would spread to other houses.

Witnesses reported that half of Pec was on fire or had been burned since last Wednesday.

A town of relative wealth

Pec is a relatively wealthy town, with many ethnic Albanians making considerable money from the town's traditional gold jewelry business. Other ways of making a living include farming - the soil is said to be very rich in the surrounding area - and working at the brewery or a large shoe and leather factory.

Now that town, refugees said, is in ruins.

Edita Studenica could see "150 houses burning" from the window of her house in the northwestern neighborhood of Pec called Puhovac, which is separated from Kapesnyca by the Bistrica River. The young woman sat in a packed living room of a house in Rozaje on Monday, feeding her 15-month-old daughter, Albina, who was wet because Studenica had no more diapers.

The people of Pec, with no alternative, are now on the move.

Replacements of serbian forces in the commune of Istog

Istog March 31st (Kosovapress) There are reports on replacements of serbian forces in the territory of the Commune of Istog. Actually they are positioned inside the Primary School of Dubrava, inside the company Standard and inside the middle School of Gurakovc. The population of six Villages of the environs of Rakosh, is still placed in the mountains, a part of it hasn penetrated in Drenica, where they feel a little more secured. The 200 hostages in the factory (Vëllezërit Kariq), are expelled in Albania by the serbian criminals. There are reports on burnings of albanian houses from the serbian forces in some villages of Istog.The unit of the KLA military police, has carried out some important actions in the region of Gurakofc and Banja. The Command of the Brigade 133 "Adrian Krasniqi" is advising the population not to remain under the pressure of panic and to move towards the free zones. KLA guarantees full security for them.

White House hints at support for Kosovo independence

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia entered a second week Wednesday, the United States planned more aid for refugees, evicted diplomats from the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington and suggested it might favor a policy shift that would support independence for Kosovo.

The White House announced President Clinton has authorized $50 million in new U.S. emergency assistance for Kosovo's ethnic Albanians who have fled their homeland under what Washington considers a campaign of "ethnic cleaning" by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Half of the aid money will come from an emergency refugee and migration account, while the other half will be delivered in the form of services and supplies from the Defense Department, said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.


Clinton has authorized $50 million in new aid for refugees streaming across Yugoslavian borders

State Department spokesman James Rubin said more than 580,000 Kosovars have been displaced from their homes, including many who remain within the province, during the past year and the refugee situation is "is not getting any better."

He said 85,000 people have crossed into Albania, 20,000 into Montenegro and at least 14,000 into Macedonia.

"The number of internally displaced persons in the countryside is again believed to be in the hundreds of thousands, but it's difficult to get an accurate assessment right now," he added.


No confirmation of policy shift

U.S. policy prior to the airstrikes had been to oppose independence for Kosovo while pressing for the kind of autonomy the Serb province enjoyed until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic forcibly abolished it 10 years ago.

But Rubin said Wednesday that because of Serb "atrocities," Milosevic now risks losing international support for his claim to Kosovo, which Serbs consider a key part of their national identity.

"The more this campaign (against Kosovars) goes on," Rubin said, "the less likely the world is going to support an outcome that President Milosevic would like to see."

"This is an analytical fact," he said, avoiding any official declaration of a U.S. policy change. "I'm not to speculate and be specific on any terms of our international lexicon."

Milosevic's claim on Kosovo is "jeopardized ... by the severity of the atrocities his forces are committing in Kosovo," Rubin said.

Moments later, Lockhart described the U.S. position in similar terms. "As the president and others said (on Tuesday), keeping Kosovo as part of Serbia is what Milosevic needs the most. By his actions, he is putting that at risk," Lockhart said.

President Clinton publicly hinted at a policy change on Tuesday as he described NATO allies as "united in our outrage over President Milosevic's atrocities against innocent people."

Clinton said, "For a sustained period, we will see that his military will be seriously diminished, key military infrastructure destroyed, the prospect for international support for Serbia's claim to Kosovo increasingly jeopardized."

The United States wants Milosevic to agree to a peace deal reached at Rambouillet, France, earlier this year in which Kosovo would have wide autonomy for a three-year period, backed with a NATO-led peacekeeping force.


Rubin says Milosevic's claim to Kosovo is 'jeopardized'


Russia naval protest 'not helpful'

Rubin said Russia's decision to protest NATO raids by sending a warship to the Mediterranean and putting others on standby was "not a helpful gesture."

The United States has assurances the Russians have no intention of entering the conflict, Lockhart said.

While U.S. officials hinted at a policy change on Kosovo independence, Russia seemed certain of it.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Wednesday Russia had "reliable information" that the United States was considering a plan to let Kosovo break away from Yugoslavia or to divide up the province.

He told a news conference such a plan would also involve deployment of a land force, and suggested NATO was already preparing for a ground operation.

"Carrying out this plan allows not only for reinforcing KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) detachments, but also for carrying out a ground operation. NATO is currently preparing for such an operation," Ivanov said, giving no further details.

Russia, which has traditional ties with its fellow Orthodox Christian Slavs in Serbia, has urged Belgrade to sign a deal allowing autonomy for Kosovo but has said Yugoslavia must remain whole.


U.S. takes over Yugoslav Embassy

In Washington, meantime, State Department and Secret Service agents early Wednesday took over Yugoslav diplomatic facilities in the U.S. capital.

An hour after a midnight deadline that the United States had given Yugoslav diplomats to vacate their embassy and nearby chancery, U.S. officers arrived to clear and secure both buildings.

Several people were seen leaving in night clothes after the federal officers took over.

Yugoslavia announced last Thursday it was breaking diplomatic relations with the United States because of the NATO attack on the country. It also broke ties with Britain, France and Germany because of their participation in "armed aggression."

The United States closed its embassy in Belgrade last weekend and had evacuated remaining diplomats prior to NATO airstrikes.

Although windows on the building have been broken by protesters, it has not been taken over by the Yugoslavs.

US says Serbs shelling Kosovar civilians in Malisevo

WASHINGTON, March 31 (AFP) - Serb forces are launching artillery attacks against tens of thousands of Kosovar Albanian civilians in one district of the troubled province, the US State Department said Wednesday. As reports of atrocities and ethnic cleansing continued to pour in to NATO and its member states and refugees flooded out of Kosovo, spokesman James Rubin also said Washington was seeking an additional 25 million dollars in aid for those who have fled.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart later confirmed that President Bill Clinton had authorized that request and another similar sum for a total of 50 million dollars in aid for the refugees.

Eight-and-half-million dollars was set aside for refugee assistance on Friday.

"The situation obviously on the refugee side is not getting any better," Rubin said, adding that Kosovo Liberation Army commander Hashim Thaci had informed him Wednesday of a new "tragedy in the making" in Malisevo district.

Rubin, noting that the United States believed the "basic information about the situation in Malisevo is accurate," said between 50,000 and 75,000 civilians were being attacked by Yugoslav military, police and paramilitary forces.

"They are being shelled -- these are civilians -- by artillery and tanks, entire villages are empty and they are being burned," Rubin said.

"There is a fear on the part of the Kosovo Liberation Army, because of their inability to confront the Serb forces, that these 50,000 to 75,000 people may be captured by the Serbs."

Rubin again warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that until and unless his forces ended such atrocities, which Washington was attempting to document, that NATO air strikes against his positions would continue.

And, he said that the alliance had on Tuesday expanded its target list to include sensitive sites in Belgrade in part as a response to the growing number of disturbing reports coming from Kosovo.

"There should be no doubt in anybody's mind that there are terrible, terrible things going on in Kosovo, with men being executed, women being raped, and hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly removed from their homes," Rubin said.

He downplayed the fact that much of the information coming in about the atrocities was not independently confirmed, saying it was clear from the amount of anecdotal evidence from refugees that war crimes and a potential genocide were occurring.

"Our own information is rather dramatic about this whole situation," he said, saying the US government had information that the Serbian tactics being employed in Kosovo were harsher than they have been in the past.

"This activity is not only more extensive than Serb destruction last summer. It is more thorough," he said.

"Many settlements are being totally destroyed in an apparent attempt to ensure that the Albanian population cannot return."