[ALBSA-Info] Serbs Not Concerned With Elections/US Kosovo Report Shows Misconduct/U.S. Urges Albanians Not To Incite Vote Violence/Albania Enters WTO as 138th Member

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1. Serbs Not Concerned With Elections
2. US Kosovo Report Shows Misconduct
3. U.S. Urges Albanians Not To Incite Vote Violence
4. Albania Enters WTO as 138th Member


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#1.
Serbs Not Concerned With Elections

By MERITA DHIMGJOKA
.c The Associated Press

  
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) - A dark red marble marker overlooking 
Kosovo's tensest community stands as a lonely relic of the years when Serbs 
and Albanians fought a common enemy, the Nazis, instead of each other. 

It's a reminder, as Yugoslavia heads into elections Sept. 24 with Slobodan 
Milosevic fighting to stay on as president, that things were once very 
different - that in its communist period Yugoslavia's official credo was 
ethnic tolerance, and many of its citizens actually believed in it. 

Nowadays the memorial to those who ``gave their lives for the freedom of the 
future generations'' is overshadowed by other realities - the antennas and 
radio transmitters set up by NATO and the United Nations charged with keeping 
the peace between Serbs and Albanians. 

Below the monument lies Kosovska Mitrovica, divided into hostile halves. 

The presidential and parliamentary elections include Kosovo, which nominally 
remains part of the Balkan federation despite being under NATO and U.N. 
control. 

But the Serbs of Kosovska Mitrovica have other concerns - the approach of 
winter, and the fear of their Albanian neighbors, still in vengeful mood over 
the Serb crackdown that led to the NATO bombing last year. 

Most of the 200,000-strong Serb minority has fled Kosovo. Those who remain 
are pressed into NATO-protected enclaves, and they are angry - with the West 
for taking the Albanian side, but also, in many cases, with Milosevic for 
causing the war. 

The Yugoslav president rose to power more than a decade ago by promising to 
protect all of Yugoslavia's Serbs. Instead, after goading Serbs into war 
first in Croatia, then Bosnia, and finally in Kosovo, he abandoned them, 
leaving them to the mercies of rival ethnic groups now in control. 

Still, Milosevic seems to hope Kosovo can help him win the election against 
his main rival, Vojislav Kostunica, who is presently ahead in the polls. 

Most of Kosovo's 2 million Albanians, having fought to break away from 
Serbia, will likely boycott the elections. So will many Serbs, according to 
some of their moderate leaders. 

Still, it is feared a boycott will play into Milosevic's hands by allowing 
him to claim the votes of those who stayed away. 

That should be relatively easy. The United Nations and NATO have said they 
will not monitor the voting, and restrict their role to keeping the peace. 
Thus, like elsewhere in Yugoslavia, there will be no independent verification 
of who voted for whom. 

During the last Yugoslav elections four years ago, Kosovo Serbs 
enthusiastically listened to Milosevic's message that a vote for him was a 
vote for continued Serb supremacy in the province. 

Now, people in Kosovska Mitrovica walk on weed-infested pavements past 
boarded-up storefronts, windows plastered with election posters. The mood is 
glum. Dark looks and gestures meet a visitor asking questions about Milosevic 
and the elections. Serbs in this town have a more urgent quest - survival. 

``We are worried about the winter that's coming, about food and power,'' said 
Dusan Drobac, a Kosovo Serb. 

The 20-year-old law student had little doubt Milosevic would manipulate the 
ballot. 

``Why should I vote, if I know who the winner is going to be at the end?'' he 
said. 

Standing by the memorial stone, he pointed south to what is now the Albanian 
half of Kosovska Mitrovica, and sighed. 

``See the white house with the red balcony?'' He said. ``There's where I used 
to live.'' 

Even those lucky enough to have jobs don't seem to care about the election. 

Jelena Sedlarevic makes $70 a month selling nationalist mementos at the 
``Srpska Zemlja'' (Serbian Land) souvenir shop. She wears one of the shop's 
more popular items, a T-shirt displaying the insignia of the ``White Wolves'' 
- the vigilante group guarding the main bridge over the Ibar River that 
divides the city's Serbs and Albanians. 

Customers are few, and much of her time is spent daydreaming of better times 
at home in Dragoljevac, her village in western Kosovo, now occupied by ethnic 
Albanians. 

She produced a mirthless smile when asked how she would vote. 

``Only when I am able to return home can we talk about elections,'' she said. 


#2.
US Kosovo Report Shows Misconduct

By ROBERT BURNS
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Army paratroopers abused and beat civilians in Kosovo after 
their training for a peacekeeping mission failed to tone down their ``combat 
mentality,'' according to an Army investigative report that also blamed the 
soldiers' commanders for ignoring signs of trouble in the unit. 

The commander of the soldiers' battalion, Lt. Col. Michael D. Ellerbe, was 
faulted for pursuing a task - to ``identify and neutralize'' Albanian 
splinter groups - beyond the scope of the peacekeepers' mission, the report 
said. 

That created a situation which invited soldiers to ``step over the line of 
acceptable conduct,'' the report concluded. 

Defense Secretary William Cohen issued a statement Monday, while traveling in 
Asia, that called the incidents described in the report a matter of ``grave 
concern.'' He endorsed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki's decision to 
order a high-level review and to take ``corrective actions as appropriate.'' 

The investigation was ordered after Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi - a member of 
A Company, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd 
Airborne Division - was accused of raping and murdering an 11-year-old Kosovo 
Albanian girl in Vitina last January. Ronghi was convicted and sentenced in 
August to life in prison. 

The investigative report recommended that commanders consider 
court-martialing an officer, Lt. John Serafini, also of A Company, 3rd 
Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, for assault and conduct 
unbecoming an officer and for communicating a threat. He admitted to holding 
an unloaded gun to the head of a Kosovo Albanian man during an interrogation 
and told investigators, ``I was totally wrong.'' 

Several other officers and soldiers were recommended for lesser punishment. 

At the Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters of the 82nd Airborne Division, 
spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman said Monday that in addition to Ronghi, nine 
soldiers received administrative punishment for actions in Kosovo, but no 
others were court-martialed. Tallman would not specify soldiers who were 
punished. 

During his trial, Ronghi's attorneys read into the court record excerpts from 
the investigative report, including descriptions of misbehavior by several 
soldiers from Ronghi's unit. The full report was withheld from public release 
until the Army edited it to remove classified information. 

In a sworn statement to the investigators, Ellerbe defended his actions. He 
said ``neutralizing'' Albanian splinter groups was ``the only task implied'' 
by the U.S. peacekeeping contingent's overall purpose. 

``It was essential to eliminate the corrupt leadership that was suspected of 
committing all of the violent crime in Vitina,'' Ellerbe said, referring to 
the city in southeastern Kosovo for which his unit was responsible. 

``My view is, to be successful at maintaining security in this area and 
policing the area, you have to eliminate the people that were causing the 
problems,'' he said. 

The investigative report, conducted by Col. John W. Morgan III of the 1st 
Infantry Division, interviewed numerous soldiers who said Ellerbe's unit had 
created the impression of being pro-Serbian. This, coupled with Ellerbe's 
emphasis on ``neutralizing'' Albanian splinter groups, made Vitina ``the 
natural focal point for abuses and excessive use of force against the 
Albanians,'' Morgan concluded. 

Morgan said the murder of 11-year-old Merita Shabiju was an isolated 
incident, although he found systemic problems fostered by a ``command 
climate'' that tolerated misbehavior, at least tacitly. He said battalion and 
company commanders knew or should have known of alleged misconduct. 

``It is my opinion that battalion and company-level leadership failed to take 
appropriate action based upon reported allegations of soldier misconduct, to 
include the excessive use of force,'' Morgan wrote. 

The report focused attention on whether the 3rd Battalion of the 504th 
received proper training in peacekeeping tasks, such as crowd control, in the 
several weeks before the unit went to Kosovo in September 1999. It concluded 
from interviews with soldiers that they misunderstood their purpose. 

One soldier, whose name was not disclosed, told the investigator: ``I don't 
think we were prepared for what we came into when we got down here. We 
expected to get fired at and things like that. We didn't expect things to be 
so calm and laid-back. I actually thought it would be more like combat.'' 

Said another: ``I would say what we were trained on and what we actually saw 
when we got over here were two different things. I think the soldiers came 
over here expecting to lock and load or (be) ready for ground combat.'' 

Because they were not adequately trained for the full range of peacekeeping 
tasks, some soldiers ``experienced difficulties tempering their combat 
mentality,'' the report said. The investigator concluded that the unit's 
overly aggressive tendencies were manifest in its slogan: ``Shoot 'em in the 
face.'' 

On the Net: Peacekeeping force: http://www.kforonline.com 

3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment: http://www.bragg.army.mil/3-
504pir/home.htm 


#3.
U.S. Urges Albanians Not To Incite Vote Violence
 
TIRANA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The United States urged Albanian parties on 
Friday to avoid inflammatory language that could incite violence before local 
elections on October 1. 

The polls will be Albania's biggest political test since the Socialist Party 
ousted Sali Berisha's Democrats in 1997 in snap national elections that 
helped end months of anarchy caused by the collapse of pyramid investment 
schemes. 

U.S. ambassador Joseph Limprecht said that Albania had an historic chance to 
make the election, one of many in the troubled Balkans this autumn, the most 
free, fair and peaceful in recent history. 

``It is unacceptable for political parties or leaders to create an atmosphere 
that might put at risk the work of the OSCE or other monitoring 
organisations,'' Limprecht told a parliamentary committee. 

The 54-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will 
monitor voting in the impoverished and often violent country. About half a 
million guns looted during the 1997 anarchy are still in private hands. 

Limprecht urged voters to take advantage of an extension in the registration 
deadline to make sure they are on the list. The opposition has accused the 
government of manipulating the voter roll. 

Separately, Arben Loka, executive director of the Society for Democratic 
Culture, said the use of aggressive language by some political leaders might 
discourage some voters. 

But the campaign was more open than in 1997 because candidates have been able 
to travel freely across the country and take advantage of growth of private 
media outlets to spread their messages, he said. 


#4.
Albania Enters WTO as 138th Member

GENEVA, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Albania on Monday became the 138th member of the 
Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO), a move the body's chief said 
could help foster greater stability in the Balkan region. 

Albanian government officials have said membership will also help the country 
overcome its acute economic and social problems. 

The Balkan state's entry was automatic as it completed negotiations on 
admission terms earlier this year and presented its formal notification that 
the entry accord had been ratified by its parliament a month ago. 

Apart from agreeing to observe all the WTO's open trading accords with 
immediate effect, it also signed up to separate agreements opening up its 
government procurement market to foreign firms and on trade in civil 
aircraft. 

Welcoming the new member state, WTO Director-General Mike Moore said its 
entry ``promises a more prosperous future and raised living standards for all 
Albanian citizens.'' 

``I also believe that by encouraging trade links between countries, the WTO 
can help foster greater peace, stability and development in southeastern 
Europe,'' the former New Zealand prime minister declared in a formal 
statement. 

The former communist country, which for 45 years after World War Two 
maintained a strictly state-controlled economy and largely isolated itself 
from the international community in the 1980s, is the second in the Western 
Balkans to join the WTO. 

Slovenia is already a member and Croatia, like its northern neighbour 
formerly part of the old Yugoslavia, is due to come in shortly. Bosnia and 
Macedonia are also negotiating entry.