[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: WHAT HAPPENED IN RECAK? / DEMACI SPEAKS OUT: THERE IS NO TRUST (RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT, Vol. 5, No. 7, 26 January 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

Betreff: RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT, Vol. 5, No. 7, 26 January 2001
Datum: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 11:54:36 +0200
Von: RFE/RL List Manager <listmanager at list.rferl.org>
An: balkanreport at list.rferl.org

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_____________________________________________________________
RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT
Vol. 5, No. 7, 26 January 2001

A Twice-Weekly Review of Politics, Media, and Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty Broadcasts in the western Balkans.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
HEADLINES
        * WHAT HAPPENED IN RECAK?
        * DEMACI SPEAKS OUT: THERE IS NO TRUST
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

WHAT HAPPENED IN RECAK? 

Several German-language newspapers have recently run highly
controversial articles about how to interpret the latest findings of a
Finnish forensic team in Kosova. The Finns conducted an autopsy of 40
bodies believed to be of Albanians killed in the massacre of Recak on 15
January 1999 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 January 1999). The "Berliner
Zeitung" claimed on 17 January that the forensic experts prepared a
report that "does not contain any proof of the alleged massacre." The
original report is due to be published in an upcoming issue of "Forensic
Science International."
        In a commentary on 19 January, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung" suggested that the "Berliner Zeitung" journalists grossly
misrepresented the Finnish report. The Frankfurt daily suggested that
they are helping "faithful supporters of the conspiracy theory,
according to which bellicose NATO -- instigated by the U.S. -- launched
the air war against Yugoslavia, deliberately and by misleading the
public." It also linked the "Berliner Zeitung's" account to the recent
debate about NATO's use of ammunition coated with depleted uranium (see
"RFE/RL Balkan Report," 9 January 2001).
        Then on 20 January, the Frankfurt daily dismissed the account by
the "Berliner Zeitung" outright. It said that "the report of the Finnish
forensic experts does not...rule out the possibility that the Albanians
were victims of a massacre." The daily added that the Finnish report
"only describes the circumstances and methods of the investigation and
draws some possible conclusions, taking into account, however, the
difficulties of the experts' work."
        The arguments of the "Berliner Zeitung" certainly do seem
questionable. The daily argued that the Finnish team was unable to
confirm that the bodies it investigated did indeed come from Recak. The
team could neither clarify the events before the autopsy, nor precisely
where each of the victims was killed. The daily also claims that nobody
looked into the possibility that some of the victims may have been
Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) fighters, as Belgrade maintains.
        But the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" pointed out that the
chain of events is easy to reconstruct. On 15 January there were clashes
between Serbian police and UCK fighters, according to sources from both
sides. UCK officials then reported seven UCK fighters killed, while
Serbian police said that they killed "15 terrorists." The following day
the death toll stood at 45, including an 18-year-old woman and a
12-year-old child. OSCE Chief of Mission William Walker reported on 16
January 1999 that 20 of the victims were found in a dried-out riverbed,
while another 25 bodies were spread throughout the village. Apparently
relatives of five victims buried them in Recak, while Serbian police
took the bodies of the other 40 victims from the mosque in Recak to
Prishtina on 17 January 1999.
        There, a mixed Belarusian and Serbian forensic team conducted a
first autopsy and issued a report soon afterwards. They claimed that
there was no sign that the shots had been fired at the victims at close
range. The report also claimed that a paraffin test showed that the
victims had used firearms themselves.
        Those were the same bodies on which the Finnish forensic team
conducted an autopsy later. The first report of the Finnish experts,
published on 17 March 1999, dismissed the findings from the Belarusian
and Serbian paraffin test, arguing that this technology has been
considered outdated since the 1960s. The Finns added that contemporary
tests with an electron microscope did not show traces of gunpowder on
the hands of the victims.
        Because the forensic experts could not verify the temperature
and other conditions obtaining during the transport of the bodies from
Recak to Prishtina, and because they could not investigate the site of
the massacre, they were unable to confirm exactly where the bodies came
from or when the victims died. But in their first report, the head of
the team, Helena Ranta, described the incident in Recak as a "crime
against humanity." She argued that the victims did not carry any
ammunition, and that there were no signs that the corpses had been
looted, since the experts found money in the victims' pockets.
        The "Berliner Zeitung" acknowledges that the bodies showed
between one and 20 wounds caused by bullets. But it interprets the lack
of gunpowder traces in a rather paradoxical way, arguing that "in only
one case did the forensic experts find traces of gunpowder, which would
point to an execution."
        The daily further argues that a massacre did not take place by
quoting an unnamed Canadian journalist, who claims that Ranta raised
doubts about a mass execution in a private conversation. Furthermore,
the daily added that Ranta presented another report to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on 21 June 2000, and that
the report has remained secret ever since. A presentation of her
findings before officials from EU member states in Brussels also remains
secret, according to the "Berliner Zeitung," which added that not even
members of the European Parliament were allowed to see the minutes of
Ranta's presentation. Thus the daily suggests -- but cannot prove --
that Ranta probably raised doubts about a massacre before both the
tribunal and the EU officials.
        The German Foreign Ministry, however, dismissed that theory. It
argues that the findings have not been released to the public pending
the conclusion of investigations by the tribunal, but not to cover up
the truth. And a tribunal spokeswoman told the "Berliner Zeitung" on 18
January that "we have enough proof from different sources...that
civilians were massacred in Recak."
The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," furthermore, recalled that the
NATO air raids did not come as a response to the Recak massacre. After
Recak, the international community made even stronger efforts to obtain
a political solution to the crisis through the Rambouillet negotiations.
The air raids started only after the negotiations failed due to a lack
of Serbian cooperation. The daily also recalls that about 2,000 ethnic
Albanians had been killed in Kosova already in 1998, and that an
estimated 10,000 more were killed during the war of 1999. It concludes
by saying that "everything indicates that during the air raids between
March 1999 and June 1999, [Serbian and Yugoslav forces used] the same
tactics of genocide and expulsion as they had the previous year, just
more intensely. The conclusion that it was genocide -- according to the
definition in the UN Convention -- does not change just because the
entire Kosovar Albanian people was not killed in the process." (Fabian
Schmidt)


DEMACI SPEAKS OUT: THERE IS NO TRUST. 

The UN administration in Kosova, UNMIK, got a new boss recently: former
Danish Defense Minister Hans Haekkerup. He is the antithesis of his
flamboyant French predecessor, Bernard Kouchner. Haekkerup has been
quick to readjust UNMIK's goals, postponing elections set for the spring
and delaying the return of some 100,000 displaced Serbs until ethnic
violence stops (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 16 January 2001).
        In Prishtina recently, RFE/RL correspondent Jolyon Naegele spoke
with Kosova's leading human-rights activist, Adem Demaci. He was known
during communist times as "the Kosovar Mandela" because of the long
years he spent as a political prisoner. During the recent conflict in
Kosova, Demaci briefly acted as a political spokesman for the UCK.
        Demaci talked to Naegele in Serbo-Croatian about the UN's role
in the province and of the many difficulties still facing Kosova. Here
is Naegele's report:
        Adem Demaci, like many Kosovar Albanians, is sorry to see
Bernard Kouchner leave, and he is wary about what changes Haekkerup will
bring.
        As Demaci puts it, "Haekkerup is a lawyer and a soldier, while
Kouchner is a true humanitarian." But, Demaci adds, while Kouchner
sought to heal the wounds of years of ethnic violence, the time had come
to regulate Kosova's legal system and government. He predicts
Haekkerup's experience bodes well for Kosova's future.
        Haekkerup said recently that he hopes to resolve Kosova's status
in three to four years, while faithfully abiding by UN Security Council
Resolution 1244. That resolution provided the legal framework for the
NATO-led military occupation, establishing "an interim administration
for Kosovo" under which the people of Kosova can enjoy "substantial
autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
        But Haekkerup has indefinitely postponed legislative elections
originally expected in the spring of this year. The international
community, particularly the OSCE, has been wary of elections that could
result in a new assembly declaring full independence from Belgrade.
        Demaci says it's not clear how the Kosova question will be
solved because everything else remains unresolved: "Many forces and
interests divide the international community. Some say Kosova should
gain independence and thereby resolve this crisis in this part of the
Balkans once and for all. Other forces in the West are not interested in
seeing Kosova independent since they are more interested in Serbia. So
these conflicting interests are clashing at Kosova's expense."
        Demaci adds that criminals are taking advantage of the
situation, because the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force and the UN
police "are above the events." He says security forces are not rooted in
society and do not have the opportunity to form their own networks to
track down and apprehend criminals. (That, however, may change with the
development of a UN-supervised local police force, the Kosova Police
Service.)
        Demaci argues: "I say that nothing has been resolved. We have a
situation now in which we don't know who the criminals are. Bombs went
off at the Yugoslav mission in Prishtina [in November]. We've had
murders, and four Ashkali [Albanian- speaking Roma] were murdered.
Albanians from both sides [of the political spectrum] have been killed.
Old [UCK] fighters and politicians are being murdered. We don't have a
real picture [of what's going on]."
        Demaci says uncertainty over Kosova's status is aggravating
matters. He believes that the political temperature in the province has
been rising ever since pacifist Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of
Kosova, or LDK, won a landslide victory in local elections last October.
        Demaci believes that people who fought for Kosova to be free,
who lost family members, and who lost everything else cannot look at
this impassively. And he says that the LDK's people did not suffer many
casualties but rather watched and waited to see how things would turn
out.
        At the funeral of Rugova's murdered media adviser Xhemail
Mustafa in November, Demaci called on those who lost the elections to
accept the result without seeking revenge.
        Demaci served as the political representative of the UCK from
August 1998 to February 1999. He says 20,000 to 30,000 people were
actively engaged as UCK fighters. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovar
families found themselves surrounded, expelled, attacked, or forced to
hide. In the end, he says, almost a million people were affected.
        Now that Rugova's LDK has the majority, Demaci says that many
Kosovar Albanians who suffered think the LDK's victory means they have
lost something. "The political level of our people is quite low, and
they are not in a position to take account of things the way they
should. They think they have lost something. Among all of the people,
you'll always have a tiny group of fanatics who cannot restrain
themselves. There were slogans scrawled in towns around Kosova showing
how upset these people were after the elections -- slogans like 'Oh my
nation! I will not forgive the blood I shed for your freedom.'"
        Demaci suggests that ethnic Albanians may not be the only ones
behind the wave of killings. "There is a 20 percent possibility that the
Serbs have been doing [the killings]. But I tend to think the fault lies
on the Albanian side because -- this factor is very important -- the
people who suffered the least for Kosova's freedom have come to power,
and the lack of accord continues" among the Albanians themselves.
        Last June, on the first anniversary of the end of the NATO air
strikes and the capitulation of Serbian forces, Demaci -- along with
various former UCK commanders -- spoke at a mass gathering in
Prishtina's sports stadium. But when Demaci called for tolerance toward
Kosova's Serbs, the stadium erupted in whistles and jeers. "Do not
forget the Serbian people who have decided to stay in Kosova. They are
in a difficult position. It is our duty and obligation to open up
prospects for them. Not even the Serbian regime is interested in their
fate. Help them. They are depressed and scared and it is up to you to
create safe conditions for them."
        Demaci says that young people protested in the stadium because
they could not understand how Albanians could live together with those
who not so long ago tried to kill them, burning down their homes and
destroying their property. In his words: "We will need quite a lot of
time before we are able to soften our stand."
        Demaci, who is 64 years old, spent 28 years in communist
Yugoslav prisons between 1958 and 1990 for his human rights activities.
He subsequently chaired the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and
Freedoms for five years. This non-governmental organization still
occupies most of his time.
        He says his mission in life is to set an example to Kosovar
Albanians of mercy, forgiveness, and not forgetting -- since, as he
phrases it, "forgetting only leads to history repeating itself." Demaci
says that Albanians will not let themselves become slaves to the past:
"We Albanians suffered so much from this domination, discrimination, and
destruction by the Serbian authorities for 100 years. We know more than
anyone what destruction means and we know that it is important to create
an atmosphere in which others can live, too. There can be no freedom
solely for Albanians, just as there could not be freedom just for Serbs.
The Serbs tried to do that, but they lost everything. So we cannot
repeat the same mistake."
        Within a month after the Milosevic regime fell, Demaci traveled
to Belgrade as the first Kosovar Albanian to meet openly with the
Serbian public. No other Kosovar Albanian activist has done so since.
"Here is the problem. I was recently in Serbia. I had some good,
interesting meetings, but I have no illusions that I succeeded in
convincing the Serbs there that they should lay off those old projects--
which call for domination and discrimination [against the Kosovar
Albanians]."
        Demaci believes Serbs could greatly ease matters by promising
never again to resort to hegemony, domination, discrimination, or
destruction. But he says Serbs still harbor hopes that they will one day
take back Kosova or somehow disarm the province.
        Demaci says this is just a pipe dream. He says the Serbs should
decide whether to co-exist with the Albanians or go their separate way.
"There is no cooperation, no community without trust, and the Serbian
regime for the past 100 years has only deformed, damaged, and squandered
this trust to the point that no Albanian trusts the Serbs. [Albanians]
still kill people for speaking Serbian. It is still dangerous to speak
Serbian [in Kosova]. Trust has shrunk to zero."
        Demaci says that he suspects new Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica, Serbian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Djindjic, and federal
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic all harbor strong nationalist feelings
toward Kosova and cannot be trusted by Kosova's Albanian majority. "Deep
down," he says, "the new leaders are all hegemonists, children of the
old regime" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 17 October 2000).
        As Demaci sees it, the new leaders in Belgrade failed to stand
up to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. In his view, they
spent too much time fighting among themselves for power and not enough
time dealing with substantive issues (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 1
December 2000). (Jolyon Naegele)


QUOTATIONS OF THE WEEK.

"Until our country is stabilized and democratized to the full, legal
actions could turn into a mockery of justice and mere revenge. If one
wants to destabilize the situation in this country, one might behave the
way Carla Del Ponte behaves." -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
to the "International Herald Tribune" of 24 January.

"Political change has happened both in Washington and in Belgrade, and I
truly believe the changes are for the better. I think Washington's
attitude towards Yugoslavia and the Balkans will be colored more by
economics than politics. Good business and investment plans are far more
beneficial than any hasty peace plans and quick solutions, which came
too late in the past." -- ibid.

"I would like to see [in the U.S.] more understanding of the realities
of the Balkans. For example, much has been said about a multiethnic
society in Kosovo, but we are far away from that, and have many
displaced Serbian people, [as well as] much terrorism and violence that
has been brought from Kosovo to Serbia." -- ibid.

The Clinton administration "was paying too much attention to us, and we
are facing the consequences, which should be faced by the Americans as
well." -- ibid.

"We should keep an open ear to what the world is saying." -- Serbian
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, quoted in the "Guardian" of 24 January.


*************************************************
Copyright (c) 2001. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved. The "RFE/RL Balkan
Report" is prepared by Patrick Moore based on sources including
reporting by RFE/RL's South Slavic Service.
Direct content-related comments to Patrick Moore in Prague at
moorep at rferl.org or by phone at (4202) 2112-3631.
Technical queries should be emailed to listmanager at list.rferl.org For
information on subscriptions or reprints, contact Paul Goble in
Washington at (202) 457-6947 or at goblep at rferl.org. Back issues are
online at http://www.rferl.org/balkan-report
NEWS BROADCASTS ONLINE
Listen to news for the South Slavic region daily at RFE/RL's 24-Hour
LIVE Broadcast Studio on the RFE/RL website:
http://www.rferl.org/realaudio/index.html
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Send an email to balkanreport-request at list.rferl.org
with the word subscribe as the subject of the message.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE
Send an email to balkanreport-request at list.rferl.org with the word
unsubscribe as the subject of the message
_____________________________________________________________
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC


Na dërgoni vërejtjet dhe sugjerimet tuaja, që QIKSH Albeuropa të jetë më e pëlqyeshme, më efikase dhe më e dobishme - në shërbim të Mërgatës, të mbarë kombit dhe të atdheut tonë - Shqipërisë Etnike.

Nëse e sheh të arsyeshme dhe të dobishme, dërgo shkrimet e ALBEUROPËS në E-mail-et e miqve tuaj dhe i regjistro ata në:

albeuropa-subscribe at egroups.com

Nëse don të çregjistrohesh nga ALBEUROPA, dërgo një Email në:

albeuropa-unsubscribe at egroups.com