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Subject: [kcc-news] Provisional Government of Kosova and Kosovar Serb Leaders Seek
 End To Violence
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Provisional Government of Kosova and Kosovar Serb Leaders Seek End To
Violence

?

Updated 2:39 PM ET July 2, 1999

By Michael Roddy


PRISHTINA, Kosova (Reuters) - Kosovar Albanian and Serb leaders
negotiating for the first time since the end of NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia issued a joint appeal Friday for an end to escalating
violence in Kosova.


"We urge all Kosova inhabitants, whether of civilian or military
status, to refrain and to actively discourage others from any acts of
violence against their neighbors," the statement said. "Such actions
are unacceptable...those responsible will be brought to justice."


The statement, signed by leaders of an Albanian rebel-led interim
provisional government, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Kosova Serb
opposition Democratic Movement, also strongly condemned Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic.


"Both sides condemn the crimes of the Milosevic regime in Kosova," the
statement said, adding that there was no such thing as a natural hatred
between the peoples of Kosova.


The statement came as the result of what the United Nations special
representative to Kosova, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said was an
"extraordinary and emergency meeting" that he called to bring the two
sides together to address the continuing arson, murder and harassment
in the turbulent southern Serbian province.


After talks lasting some seven hours -- five more than expected -- the
two sides agreed on a joint text which Vieira de Mello said would be
aired on local radio and Albanian television "repeatedly" to try to
scale down the violence.


Some of the flood of returning ethnic Albanian refugees have found
friends and relatives murdered and their houses and businesses burned.
Serbs have either left the province or are trying to carve out
enclaves.


The statement also said that the identities of prisoners who had been
transferred to jails outside Kosova should be made public immediately
and the prisoners should be returned to Kosova.


Ethnic Albanians fear that an estimated 3,000 of the province's men
arrested during the 11-week NATO bombing and believed to be held in
Serbia could be subject to torture or be killed.


In addition, the statement called for an end to the exodus of Serbs and
Montenegrins, thousands of whom have left fearing revenge attacks by
ethnic Albanians, saying: "Peace can only be built on justice, not on
revenge."


Archbishop Artemije, one of the signatories for the church, said the
talks had taken longer than expected because of the upheaval in Kosova
during the bombing.


"After everything that happened in Kosova, especially in the last three
months, and with what is going on now it was not quite easy to reach a
common text," Artemije said.


Hashim Thaqi, a Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) leader who is now the
prime minister of a KLA-dominated provisional government, said the
statement had sought to focus on Kosova's future and not to dwell on
the crimes of the past.


"Today we did not deal very much with the past, as you can see we spoke
more about the present and the future," he said.


"The fact itself that the regime of Milosevic is condemned by the
people of Kosova, not only by Albanians, says quite a lot about this
declaration," Thaqi said.


"And this means that he not only killed Albanians but he also brought
crimes and genocide against other people. Let us see that more than
80,000 Serbian people have left Kosova not under pressure of Albanians
but from the fear that has been created by Milosevic."


Thaqi, responding to questions after the meeting, said he thought there
could be a place for Serbs in Kosova, though ethnic Albanians made up
90 percent of the population before the bombing and the Serb authority
in the province has been largely dismantled.


"Albanians and Serbs have always lived together in Kosova," he said.


"They knew how to live together and they will know how to live again.
They will have a prosperous future in Kosova but of course they will
have to have an internal democratization, to fight revenge and
hostilities and to come together and live together.


"This is the future of both Albanians and Serbs who live together in
Kosova."



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From mentor at alb-net.com  Mon Jul 12 15:28:09 1999
From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana)
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:28:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [kcc-news] Kosova: Deportees being pushed out of East Karadak
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907121527000.550-100000@alb-net.com>

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News at 19:30 http://www.kosovapress.com/english/korrik/12_7_99_1.htm

- Kosovapress continues it`s work in the Press Building in Prishtina
- News from Gjilan
- Russians in Kamenica
- Daily Press Briefing in Prishtina

Kosovapress continues it`s work in the Press Building in Prishtina

Prishtina, July 12, (Kosovapress)
After "Kosovapress" News Agency came down from the mountains where it
operated until June 15, it has finally found a permanent home in the
offices of the Press Building.
The agency has started it`s reorganization in relation to the new work
conditions and the new realities created in Kosova. Some of its measures
include enlarging the number of staff and improving the quantity and the
quality of information.
The Agency now takes the opportunity to express it`s thanks and
gratitude to all it`s correspondents working out of war zones, who, even
on the worst days, sent us accurate and quick information about the
bloody events throughout Kosova, and they helped in strengtening
soldiers morale, representing the blood and sweat of the KLA to both
Kosovar Albanians and the international community.  "Kosovapress"
appeals to all those who worked during the war, who have been at the
same time fighters for freedom and journalists to continue their work,
sending us reports which will be of interest to us as an agency and for
the benefit of the nation.
Please contact us at these locations by phone, fax or E-mail: Tel: 00871
761 844 940, mobile tel: 0041 79 422 15 57, 0041 79 290 12 53, Telfax:
00871 761 844 941,
E-mail: info at kosovapress.com , webmaster at kosovapress.com,
kosovapress at t-online.de

News from Gjilan
Gjilan, July 12, (Kosovapress)

Aid being distributed
Today, a considerable amount of humanitarian aid coming from the
International Red Cross has been distributed in the city's neighborhoods
and in the surrounding vilages. This aid was mainly dedicated to
assisting families who have lost everything and for the deportees
recently coming from Presheva, Bujanovci and Medvegja.

Albanian and Turkiss workers, now in "Bankkos"
The day before yesterday, Albanian and Turkish workers entered for the
first time the "Bankkos" building after being fired nine years ago by
Serb officials who were installed there by Belgrade. Work to organize
the work space and duties began immediately and a board of executives
expected all those who were fired to return to work soon.

Electroeconomia is doing well
Dispite the economic difficulties caused by the war, conditions in
Electroeconomia are changing for the better. Employees are seeking to
return services to the villages of Llashtica, Velekinca, Zheg?r, Zhegofc
and Mal?sis? of Karadaku (Highland of Karadaku), then later in Verbic?,
Kmetofc. Work is reportedly taking place in Kamenica and Viti as well.

Improvement in the health system reported
Health conditions have improved after civil administrators returned to
the area. Work to bring professional doctors and adequate medical
equipment is underway. The resupply of pillaged hospitals and clinics
will go a long way towards providing a regular medical service to the
inhabitants of the area, according to a local official.

Two more victims of the Serb war are buried
Two people killed by Serb forces, were buried yesterday. Both were
killed by a Serb named Mirko, who was the owner of workshop "Tomos"
togather with five other Serbs who collectivly cheered Mirko on as he
killed Naser Azemi (aged 67) and Afrim Gagica (aged 69), and injurying
three others.

Road in Pasjan was Blocked Yesterday
The road from Pasjan was blocked by armed Serbs yesterday, where they
beat three peasants of the Llapashtica village and destroyed a car. US
peacekeeping forces came immediately to the site and according to
information provided by eyewitnesses, there was an exchange of fire
between local Serbs and US Marines. Until now, Kosovapress can not
gather any more information.

Depotrees being pushed out of East Karadak
Sources report more Albanians are being forced out of their homes by
Serbs and are arriving in Gjilan. Violence in the municipality of
Presheva and in particulary in the east villages of Malesi e Karadakut
such as from Gosponica, Maxharja, Buhiqi, Staneci, Seferi, Iliqi,
Runatofci, Caravajka, all next to the Serb border have been reportedly
under attack for the last few days.


Russians in Kamenica

Kamenica, July 12 (Kosovapress)
The day before yesterday, a Russian military unit was placed in Kamenic.
The exact number of Russian peacekeeping troops placed there is still
unconfirmed.
According to information provided by local sources, they will not take
control of this zone but they will be distributed according to the KFOR
commander of the area.

Daily Press Briefing in Prishtina

Prishtina, July 12, (Kosovapress)
KFOR in its press briefing today reported a large operation in the
Italian sector which attempted to located "suspected" KLA "detention
centers," in which, it was accussed, Serbs were being held. KFOR reports
the sites pointed out in Srbica did not produce any evidence of such
detention centers. KFOR also reported another civilian death due to
mines, making the total number of incidents involving mines and
unexploded bombs, resulting in 25 deaths.
On UNMIK?s side, the question of permitting workers to return to their
positions, the policy of creating a "mixed work environment" was
beginning in which 80 Albanians and 60 Serbs were the first stage of a
""staged return from now until September of 400 municipal workers." When
asked by Kosovapress if the ratio of Albanian to Serb workers would
remain at its present level, Kevin Kennedy assured the media that "a
significant majority" of those returning to municipal jobs will end up
being Albanian, emphasizing however that competence, experience and
expertise will remain a criteria for those who are hired.


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From mentor at alb-net.com  Wed Jul 14 11:29:06 1999
From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana)
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 11:29:06 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [kcc-news] Doctor Tells of Life Among Serbia's Captives
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907141127430.556-100000@alb-net.com>

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Doctor Tells of Life Among Serbia's Captives

  By William Booth
  Washington Post Staff Writer
  Saturday, July 10, 1999; Page A01 
 
   POZAREVAC, Yugoslavia, July 9-The most famous prisoner in Serbia shuffled
into the deputy warden's office today, her boots missing their laces and her
hands clasped behind her back. She was pale and her fingers trembled, but
she was defiant and angry.
 
 Flore Brovina, a middle-aged pediatrician and poet with dyed blond hair,
beloved in her native Kosovo but accused of being an enemy of the state by
Yugoslav authorities, is among hundreds of ethnic Albanians who were taken
from jails in Kosovo in the last days of the war last month and moved to
prisons in Serbia.
 
 Brovina is among the lucky ones; she has been found. Most of the prisoners
have yet to be accounted for, and they are among the larger ranks of missing
ethnic Albanians whose fate is one of the great human rights mysteries of
the Kosovo conflict. Over the three months of war, thousands of ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo, mostly men of fighting age, were pulled from their
homes and from columns of refugees streaming into Albania, Macedonia and
Montenegro.
 
 They vanished without a trace.
 
 Some were killed, and only the excavation of graves and forensic
investigations will tell their stories. But many were incarcerated in seven
prisons around Kosovo. Many were held without formal charges, allowed under
a martial law decree that governed Yugoslavia during the war. 
 
 At war's end, as NATO forces advanced into Kosovo province, some prisoners
escaped -- how many is unknown. At least 800 were marched to the Albanian
border and released by Yugoslav security forces. The rest were taken in a
long convoy of buses and trucks to Serbia.
 
 Today, Brovina took a seat before her captors and announced to her first
visitor since her arrest in April, "I do not consider myself a prisoner, but
a slave."
 
 She said, "I have only one question: Why am I here?" 
 
 For the next two hours, as the deputy warden and a guard by turns grimaced
with shame or anger, disbelief or disgust, Brovina, 50, described her
journey through the Serbian criminal justice system, where she is charged
with being a terrorist.
 
 Serbian Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic said in an interview this week
that his staff has accounted for 1,860 prisoners brought to Serbia from
Kosovo on June 10, the day Yugoslav forces began withdrawing from the
province. The prisons of Kosovo are now empty, and the largest, at Istok,
was bombed into rubble -- and prisoners killed -- by NATO airstrikes in late
May.
 
 According Jankovic, there are 800 of the missing at the prison here in
Pozarevac; 400 in Nis; 330 in Sremska Mitrovica; 180 in Leskovac; 95 in
Prokuplje; and 55 in Zajecar. These cities are all in Serbia.
 
 The minister said he will soon turn over the names and locations, still
being tabulated, to the International Committee for the Red Cross.
 
 The 1,860 -- or more -- brought to Serbia from Kosovo are approximately the
same number of missing prisoners that is circulating among humanitarian
groups and lawyers in Serbia and Kosovo, its southern province. But even
Jankovic acknowledged the final tally may grow. He said that many prisoners
were moved, but their case files and other documentation, including
investigative and trial proceedings, were lost in the race by Yugoslav
forces and Serbian authorities to withdraw from Kosovo. Serbia is the
dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation.
 
 "We're doing the best we can under very difficult circumstances," Jankovic
said.
 
 The Belgrade government released 166 ethnic Albanian prisoners in June.
Jankovic said another 200 would probably be freed soon.
 
 The chief warden here, Stipe Marusic, said he received 647 prisoners from
Kosovo on the last day of the war, of which 579 were ethnic Albanians, most
of whom are not yet convicted of any crime but are listed on his manifests
as "detainees" or "under investigation." Others are simply prisoners
arrested in the last four months by the Serbian special police.
 
 "We expect some to be convicted" of charges of terrorist activities, he
said, "and some to be exchanged."
 
 Human rights activists here and in Kosovo have faulted NATO leaders for not
including in the peace accords more language about what is to be done with
the prisoners.
 
 Brovina said she believed they were being held as "bargaining chips," and
were being "fattened" up in Serbian prisons before some are eventually
released.
 
 For weeks, Brovina's lawyer was not sure where she was. The Serbian
Ministry of Justice could not find her. Confused about her misspelled name,
the authorities said they were looking for a man. Jankovic assisted a
reporter in finding Brovina. Brovina has been in trouble with Serbian
authorities since the early 1990s, when ethnic Albanians in Kosovo began
actively resisting a decree by Slobodan Milosevic, who was then president of
Serbia, to strip the province of its limited autonomy and bring the majority
ethnic Albanian population to heel.
 
 In the purges that followed, Brovina was fired from her job at the hospital
in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, but then founded the League of Albanian
Women, which sponsored protests against massacres and repression. She also
opened a center for vulnerable women and children.
 
 "Our slogan was very simple," she said. "It was STOP." Brovina said they
just wanted peace. But she admitted today that her sympathies clearly lie
with the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, which battled Yugoslav forces
for 16 months in an effort to win independence. "We didn't have anything to
do with the KLA," Brovina said. "But if those were our sons, our husbands,
our fathers, of course we liked them."
 
 Brovina remained in Pristina at the start of the NATO airstrikes on March
24. But on April 20, she was arrested.
 
 She was taken to the prison in Lipljan, on the outskirts of Pristina. She
claims to have seen ethnic Albanian prisoners, arrested under Articles 125
and 136 as terrorist enemies of the state, lying naked on the floor, being
beaten with ropes on the genitals in cells in the Lipljan jail.
 
 She charges that the Yugoslav army erected an antiaircraft battery at the
prison. "We were not prisoners," she said. "We were made targets." 
 
 Brovina said the prisoners at Lipljan were forced to say "Long Live Serbia"
before they were allowed to use the toilets. Many complained about the food
and the stingy rations, but Brovina and her warden agreed that the whole of
Kosovo was doing without.
 
 At the prison here today, two men held in Lipljan gave differing accounts.
Neither saw an antiaircraft battery or soldiers, but one man, Hajdari
Mursel, 63, a retiree, said he spent two weeks at Lipljan, where the guards
"screwed with us," and "beat people with rubber hoses."
 
 All the prisoners at Lipljan said that conditions there were much worse
than in their new Serbian jails. Indeed, several prisoners went out of their
way to say that they were well treated here at Pozarevac.
 
 "They have not harassed me in any way," said Becir Bilalli, 44, the owner
of a small shop. "I have only one problem now, that I am away from my
family, and these charges against me."
 
 Bilalli said that he was arrested at a checkpoint outside Kosovska
Mitrovica in Kosovo last August. He is charged with terrorist activities.
The reason, Bilalli said, is that like many in Kosovo he stood duty with a
rifle on his shoulder outside his village at night.
 
 "Everybody was on guard in Kosovo," he said. Bilalli, like the other
prisoners, said that he has not communicated with his family since the NATO
air war began, and that he does not know where his wife and sons are. They
do not know he is in prison in Serbia.
 
 On the eve of the final withdrawal of all Yugoslav army and security forces
from Kosovo on June 10, Brovina and hundreds of other prisoners were loaded
onto buses and driven to other parts of Serbia. They were ordered to keep
their heads down, Brovina said, and told not to look out of the windows.
 
 "We did not know where we were being taken," she said. Some prisoners
feared they would be taken to a field and shot. Others wore all their
clothes so that in event they were beaten, the blows would not be as
punishing. There were few women in the prison convoys, Brovina said, but all
the young ones feared they might be raped. They were not.
 
 Many of the 579 ethnic Albanians taken to this prison came from Dubrava
prison in the Kosovo town of Istok. Before the war, the Istok prison was the
largest, and most modern, in Serbia. Built on the Swedish model, the prison
had recreation rooms, a motel for conjugal visits, saunas and a decent
library.
 
 Enver Ramadani, 21, who was convicted of racketeering before the war, and
acknowledged today he was indeed guilty of the crime, was at Istok. He
called the prison "super." 
 
 But that was before the NATO bombing. In late May, Istok prison was hit for
five days by NATO airstrikes. The exact numbers of dead and wounded are
still unknown. What is known is that the site was filled with prisoners,
many of them ethnic Albanians detained in the last weeks of the war. 
 
 Initially, Serbian officials said that 44 prisoners and guards were killed.
Jankovic, the Serbian justice minister, said his latest information is that
only six were killed, and 196 wounded, 20 seriously. 
 
 Ramadani said that he saw 30 dead bodies in the prison yard, covered from
the sun by blankets. For five days, he said, NATO bombed, and he described a
scene from hell: The guards fled into the woods, leaving the prisoners to
fend for themselves. They raided the kitchens. They fled from the bombs down
manholes and hid in the sewers, packed like rats, waiting for the
concussions to end. He said that many were wounded and were treated by
"so-called doctors" among them, who did the best they could. There was blood
everywhere.
 
 Ramadani did not see prisoners executed by Serbian security forces,
although reporters who returned to Istok saw bullet holes in the walls and
mattresses bloodied where heads would have lain.
 
 Jankovic said that for the five days of the bombing, his people were not in
charge. He does not know what happened during the bombardment, and seemed to
suggest that if any atrocities occurred, it was others -- special police,
paramilitaries -- who were responsible.
 
 NATO officials stated that the site was a legitimate military target. "That
was a military barrack, and we attacked it twice," said NATO spokesman Jamie
Shea after the initial bombings. "Whether the Serbs were using it to house
other people -- that's a different thing." 
 
 Husnija Bitic, an ethnic Albanian attorney working in Serbia and Brovina's
newly appointed lawyer, said that one of the most disturbing things he has
uncovered is that during the war, Serbian prisoners in Kosovo were moved
north, deeper into Serbia, while ethnic Albanians incarcerated elsewhere in
Serbia were moved to Kosovo. He does not know why.
 
 Natasa Kandic, a human rights attorney based in Belgrade, said that she
initially feared that many of the missing were dead. Now, she believes they
are in prisons around Serbia. That is not good, she said, but it is better
than the missing being found in mass graves.  
  
? Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company


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From mentor at alb-net.com  Tue Jul 20 11:12:55 1999
From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana)
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 11:12:55 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [kcc-news] MILOSEVIC AND UNFPA 'TEAM UP' TO TARGET KOSOVARS (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907201048120.508-100000@alb-net.com>

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http://www.pop.org/briefings/milosevic.html

13 July 1999

Dear Friend and Colleague:
 
The Population Research Institute was concerned about the UNFPA's
"reproductive health" campaign that the UNFPA is waging against the Kosovar
refugee population. PRI sent veteran journalist Austin Ruse to investigate.
The startling revelations contained in this Weekly News Briefing are based
on the report which will appear in the upcoming issue of the PRI Review. 
       
                                        -- Steven W. Mosher, President
 

MILOSEVIC AND UNFPA 'TEAM UP' TO TARGET KOSOVARS
"Stealth" Ethnic Cleansing to Continue with Help of UNFPA, and US Tax
Dollars
 
(WASHINGTON, DC / KOSOVO) --- Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic invited
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to target the Kosovar population
in a "reproductive health" campaign, according to a just-issued report from
the Population Research Institute (PRI). Milosevic's goal is to engage in
ethnic cleansing by reducing the Kosovars' high birthrate.
 
The report cites an interview with Sterling Scruggs, UNFPA's head of
external communication, in which Scruggs admits that the UNFPA was invited
into Kosovo by Milosevic to conduct a reproductive health "needs assessment"
among the Kosovar population. In addition, Scruggs confirmed, the UNFPA will
conduct regular "reproductive health programs" in Kosovo in the coming
months, as the persecuted ethnic group returns home (Interview with Sterling
Scruggs, PRI Review, "Kosovar Refugee Women 'Just Say No': Milosevic Invites
UNFPA to Target Kosovo Population Upon Their Return Home," June / July 1999,
9).
 
The UNFPA/Milosevic campaign will consist of the indiscriminate distribution
of "reproductive health" supplies to the largely Muslim Kosovar population.
These supplies include abortifacient "morning after" pills, crude IUDs no
longer used in other Western countries, and "manual vacuum aspirators"
(MVAs) used for early term abortions. While the UNFPA falsely claims that
such MVAs are only used to remove the products of incomplete abortions, the
PRI report cites first-hand documentary evidence that Albanian doctors and
health care workers are being trained to use MVAs exclusively as abortion
devices. The report also cites the testimony of a Kosovar refugee who
received an abortion without informed consent.
 
The PRI report, based on interviews with dozens of Kosovar refugee women,
confirms that there is virtually no demand among the Kosovar population for
"reproductive health" services; and that claims of widespread rape,
promiscuity and male oppression were largely fabricated to justify shipments
of "reproductive health" supplies to the region. "The Kosovar women are
outspoken and strong," the report concludes, "The Kosovars are uninterested
in 'reproductive health' supplies." In fact, the Kosovars pride themselves
in having one of the highest birthrates in dying Europe.
 
"Milosevic has been forced to withdraw his troops from Kosovo," the report
concludes, "but, aided by the UNFPA, a new form of ethnic cleansing will
continue under the guise of 'reproductive health'." "Shame on UNFPA for
cooperating with a war criminal like Milosevic," said Steven W. Mosher of
PRI. "This is nothing less than ethnic cleansing by other means. The
Kosovars are proud of their children and their country, and Milosevic and
UNFPA want to deprive them of both." At a time when the US Congress is
considering restoring $25 million in US taxpayer dollars to the UNFPA,
Mosher added that "We should not be violating the rights of Kosovar women or
subsidizing the genocidal plans of war criminals."
 
--
The Population Research Institute is committed to ending human rights abuses
committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive
social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation."
 
  PRI
  P.O. Box 1559
  Front Royal, Virginia USA 22630
  Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
  Email: pri at pop.org <mailto:pri at pop.org> 
  Media contact: Scott Weinberg
  (540) 622-5227 
 
 ? 1999 by Population Research Institute of all contents at this Web site.



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From mentor at alb-net.com  Mon Jul 26 10:29:08 1999
From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana)
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 10:29:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [kcc-news] Prime Minister Thaci on the killing of Serbs: This act was against
 Kosova, its people, the international community and it only helps Milosevic
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907261026550.14705-100000@alb-net.com>

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? Prime Minister Tha?i on the killing of Serbs: This act was against Kosova,
  its people, the international community and it only helps Milosevic
? Jackson orders manhunt after killings of Serbs
? Serb War Criminals who are still in Kosova are waiting for Russian troops
  to escort them out of Kosova; Not to Hague, but to freedom in Serbia
? The Provisional Governent of Kosova is Concerned About Future Banking
  Operations in Kosova
? Serb Minister: Serbs Should Admit Defeat In Kosova

Tha?i Condemns attacks in Lipjan

Prishtina, July 24, (Kosovapress)

In a press conference given yesterday, the Prime Minister of the
Provisional Government of Kosova, Hashim Tha?i strongly condemned the
murder of 14 Serbs close to Lipjan. He called the reports unfortunate for
both Albanians and the international community. He added the event was
truly tragic and impacted both internal and international leaders. The 14
killed Serbs, according to Tha?i represented the death of 14 Kosovars who
decided to stay in Kosova and seek a democratic life in Kosova. This act
of "madness" is strongly condemned both by the Provisional Government
and by Tha?i personally. Tha?i said "this act, unfortunately, was
predictable, one that only intensifies intercommunal conflict in Kosova."

"We still do not have the details of the event, it is under investigation;
this will make, no doubt, the situation that much more difficult for us, right
at the point when things were beginning to normalize. This act of violence
ended on the day the second phase of the KLA?s demilitarization, a
process which ended successfully and which offended those who do not
wish to see the Serb and Albanian communities work towards better
relations, " added Tha?i. "This act was against Kosova, its people, the
international community and it only helps Milosevic. So we must cooperate
closely with the international community to assist in the investigation that
will lead to the capture of those who are guilty of this act. We have to,
once and forever, convince all in Kosova that we will not allow anarchy
and extremism prevail. In Kosova, democracy will reign. This act?s only
goal was to disrupt the work of the Transitory Council of Kosova. We had
begun to cooperate with the whole Kosovar Albanian political spectrum
and with UNMIK, we were prepared to sign the declaration to work
towards a harmonious coexistence, tolerance and understanding between
national groups. We have begun to visit each other through the offices of
UNMIK." Tha?i believed this act of violence was aimed in particular at
disrupting this progress. Tha?i added, "The KLA since the very beginning
has refused to target civilians in its struggle for freedom, its primary
objective was the creation of a democratic order in Kosova, a multiethnic
and pluralistic life in Kosova. We, as members of the Provisional
Government of Kosova strongly condemn this act. This act has nothing to
do with progressive democratic forces in Kosova, it is simply a reflection
of those who have no interest in seeing Kosova democratic and free. I use
this opportunity to once again to plead to Serbs who are living in Kosova
not to leave and not to be afraid of Albanians, but get closer, to help and
respect each other and to integrate and build a modern civil society."

""All those who seek to destabilize Kosova are badly mislead. Kosova is
now more than ever determined to follow a democratic path towards
creating a free civil society which is open, multi-ethnic, pluralistic and
equal to all citizens of Kosova."

Prime Minister Tha?i called an immediate press conference to address the
international media after the report of the discovery of 14 Serbs killed
near Lipjan last night. While the motive and the identity of those who
committed the act are still in question, many in Prishtina are concerned
this will create a chain reaction, leading to a series of attacks on each
community.

The Provisional Governent of Kosova Concerned About Future
Banking Operations in Kosova

New York, July 24 (Kosovapress) Representatives of the PGK in the USA
responded with an immediate press release to troubling news about a
UNMIK agreement with Yugoslav Komercjalna Banka to allow it service all
the financial transactions of the UN in Prishtina. Although the news were
denied by the office of the spokesman for the UN, lack of further
knowledge about ongoing talks regarding the future of banking operations
in Kosova part of which are private Yugoslav banks believed to have close
ties with the criminal Serb leadership, such as Komercjalna Banka, the PGK
is closely following up with the issue. A July 22, 1999 PGK press release
states the following: The Provisional Government of Kosova has learned
with deep regret and indignation that the UN institutions in Kosova have
signed an agreement with the Yugoslav Commercial Bank with
headquarters in Belgrade. According to this agreement, the UN civilian
mission in Kosova, the UN humanitarian organizations and individuals acting
within the UN system will conduct all their financial transactions and
payments in Kosova, Yugoslavia and abroad, through this Yugoslav bank.
It is utterly incomprehensible, to say the least, that the UN, which has
adopted resolutions and sanctions against Yugoslavia should get involved
with a financial institution operating in Yugoslavia. This is all the more
so when it is well-known that the above bank and its President have
well-established connections and close ties with the Yugoslav leadership,
including Slobodan Miloshevic, whom the UN War Crimes Tribunal has
indicted for atrocities and genocide that his regime has committed in
Kosova. The UN cannot be a reliable partner for the Kosova people if it
chooses to cooperate with those that have a dubious role in the Kosova
conflict, and violating its own resolutions and sanctions. The PGK believes
that the right way for the UN to proceed in the reconstruction of Kosova,
is to rely on the indigenous Kosova banking institutions which have a great
deal of expertise and a sound reputation in handling transactions of this
kind. The PGK expects the UN institutions to take the appropriate
measures to correct this blatant infringement of its own resolutions.

Jackson orders manhunt after killings of Serbs
By Julius Strauss in Gracko

SIR MICHAEL JACKSON, the Nato commander in Kosova, yesterday
launched a manhunt for the killers of 14 Serb farmers, describing their
deaths as "a cowardly act of brutal and cold murder".

In the worst incident since Nato peacekeepers deployed in the Yugoslav
province six weeks ago ethnic Albanians shot 13 men and a boy of 15 as
they worked in fields at Gracko, 10 miles south of the Kosova capital
Pristina. The dead farmers were found on Friday night after a Gurkha patrol
heard a sustained burst of automatic fire. Seconds later Serb villagers
used a special hotline to alert a nearby British base to the shootings.

The killers had already fled when the soldiers arrived on the scene minutes
later. The troops found the bodies of 12 men and the young boy lying in a
circle. A fourteenth victim died on his tractor 150 yards away.

General Jackson rejected accusations by a villager in Gracko that Kfor was
"complicit" with Albanians in "this tragic and murderous attack". He said:
"It is plainly absurd and it's rather insulting. We are here to maintain
public safety. We will leave no stone unturned to get hold of the murderers."

As word of the killings spread across Kosova, tension between Serb and
ethnic Albanians rose to fever pitch, threatening to usher in a new wave
of ethnic blood-letting. Major Ian Seraph, a spokesman for British troops in
the area, said yesterday: "I'm sure they'll remember the day for the rest of
their lives. They saw 13 bodies killed in cold blood lying next to a combine
harvester.

"The harvester was still running. About five minutes later they found
another body on top of a tractor. They were all killed in a most horrible
and gruesome manner." One of the first soldiers on the scene, Lt Col Robin
Hedges, said: "It cannot be called a war crime, it is mass murder."

Nato sealed off the scene of the killings which were near a track in a
maize field and took the farmers' bodies to a morgue in Pristina. Forensic
experts combed the area yesterday.

Leading Serbian Orthodox church officials travelled to Gracko yesterday to
reassure the villagers. Father Sava, a young priest, said after talking to
villagers: "We must not let the people down by allowing one repression to
be replaced by another. We've had enough of Milosevic's crimes here. We
mustn't let Albanian extremists do the same thing."

Throughout Gracko, a tidy village with white-washed houses built around a
large square, the Serbs were in deep shock. They gathered in small
groups, some with heads in their hands or with tears slowly running down
their worn cheeks. Three members of a family sat quietly on a short
wooden bench at one end of the village.

Dusko Vujecic, the father, said: "Before the war it was all right. We had no
problems with the Albanians in the next villages. Even now we get on
okay. We always greet each other in the streets. Sometimes we talk in
Serbian, sometimes in Albanian. I worked with Albanians for 20 years in a
factory. They are good people. But after this, we don't know what to think
anymore. Perhaps we should leave, although I don't know where to."

A little further down the road a group of elderly ladies in black dresses
cried openly. One woman Stanimir Djekic, whispered: "My brother was with
them. Now he is dead."

As British soldiers serving with REME looked on, Slobodanka Ristic, 58, told
how her 75-year old husband, Nikola, had been missing for nine days,
feared kidnapped by ethnic Albanian guerrillas. She said: "We don't feel
safe with Nato. The Albanians are just killing us."

But the paltry hope that the future has for the Serbs of Gracko,
surrounded by mostly hostile ethnic Albanian communities, was summed up
best by one old man. As he surveyed the village, he said: "I know where I
was born and where I live now. But I have no idea where I am going to
die."

Serb War Criminals who are still in Kosova are waiting for Russian
troops to escort them out of Kosova; Not to Hague, but to freedom in
Serbia

SUSPECTED Serb war criminals in an ethnic ghetto in southern Kosova
could escape justice if Russian peacekeepers are allowed to take control
of their town under a plan being discussed between Moscow and Nato.

Ethnic Albanians fear that the Russians will protect the former Serb
paramilitaries and help them to safety in Serbia if the Dutch, who run the
town of Orahovac, are forced to hand it over. There is evidence that
hundreds of Russian mercenaries fought with the Serbs against the ethnic
Albanians during Nato air strikes.

Orahovac became the epicentre for a wave of massacres in early March
when Serb forces rampaged through the area killing men, women and
children. Two of the largest mass graves found in Kosova are within a few
miles of the town.

Last week the Supreme Allied Commander of Nato, Gen Wesley Clark,
visited the town to try to reassure ethnic Albanians that they would be
safe in Russian hands. He was given an ecstatic welcome by hundreds of
Kosovars who see Nato as their liberator. But they chanted: "Nato yes,
Russia no!" and carried banners saying "We don't want Russians" and
"Russians killed us". A 25,000-signature petition was handed in calling for
the Russians to be kept out.

Ethnic Albanians fear that if the Russians take over, Serbs in a ghetto in
the town will become emboldened and intimidate them. Dozens of
suspected war criminals could escape a net that has been drawn around
them by German and Dutch troops. At present Serbs wishing to leave the
enclave are screened by Nato soldiers to see if they are among suspected
war criminals.

Hivzi Gashi, a military policeman with the Kosova Liberation Army in nearby
Malisevo where Russians are already patrolling, said: "Why do you think
the Serbs are demanding a Russian escort out, not a German or Dutch
one? It's because they think that way nobody will have to check them."

Igor Antic is one such suspected war criminal living in Orahovac. Local
ethnic Albanians say he was a paramilitary responsible for the deaths of at
least five of their number, including two children.

For Mr Antic the prospect of the Russians taking control of his city is his
only lifeline. When I told him that they might soon arrive, his eyes lit up.

But even if the Russian troops fail to protect indicted Serbs from Nato
snatch squads, there is always bribery. The Russian army is rife with
corruption and contingents are engaged in black market activities and
smuggling people.

In the central town of Malisevo the Russians are greeted with whistles and
jeers. Milazim Kastrati, a former teacher, runs a small food market there.
He said: "We don't like Russians because they took part in this war on the
Serb side. We don't trust them." On the main road at the southern end of
Malisevo, Russians soldiers have taken over a large checkpoint from
German soldiers.

A Nato official said: "The Serb war criminals may think that the Russians
will help them out, but I can assure you it will not happen. Once they are
indicted, even if the Russians refuse to act, we can send our people in to
get them. They won't escape." But few ethnic Albanians believe that.

Serbs Should Admit Defeat In Kosova-Minister

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's outgoing information minister Aleksandar
Vucic said Sunday that Serbs should be told the truth and face up to the
fact that they had not won in Kosova.

``Objectively speaking we have undergone a disastrous political defeat,''
Vucic, a member of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, said in an
interview with the independent daily Glas Javnosti.

``We must do what the Japanese did in 1946 (capitulated after WW II) --
tell the people where we stand. We must say we did not win in Kosova
and that we must start moving forward on some new energy that must be
created among Serbs,'' he said.

The Radical party, headed by Vojislav Seselj, formally left the government
in June in protest against Milosevic's agreement to let NATO troops into
Kosova after 11 weeks of bombardments by the alliance.

But its ministers are staying on until September when parliament will
resume its normal work.

In what seemed to be the start of lobbying in an undeclared election
campaign Vucic presented the Radicals as a party always ready to be
truthful no matter how hard this might be.

He criticised the government, disregarding the fact that the Radicals were
de facto still part of it, and the opposition parties which have been
leading a campaign of protests against it.

He said both had initially welcomed the idea of NATO troops in Kosova and
then lamented that the agreement under which they arrived was bad for
the Serbs.

Serbs have been flooding out of Kosova over the past month fearing
revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians who had themselves fled in their
hundreds of thousands before the NATO-led KFOR peace force entered the
province.

The Serbs' uncertain future in Kosova was underlined Friday when 14
farmers were found shot dead by unknown assailants in a field.

``Now these opposition leaders are wandering from rally to rally and
saying the KFOR has not done its task. That is not true, the KFOR has
accomplished its task -- there are practically no Serbs in most of Kosova,''
Vucic said.

The opposition umbrella group Alliance for Change and the opposition
Serbian Renewal Movement have been organizing gatherings throughout
Serbia over the past few weeks demanding changes in the leadership,
including Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

All sides, the government, the opposition parties and the Radicals have
said they are ready for early elections.

Vucic did not call for Milosevic to step down but said he did not think it
would be a disaster if he did.

``I do not think there would be a cataclysm if there was a change at the
top in Serbia,'' said Vucic, adding that it was up to the people to choose a
new leader in elections.

He also said he did not think it would be good if those who presented
themselves as a democratic alternative were to come to power, alluding to
the Alliance for Change. However if the people elected the Radicals were
ready to ``shake their hand,'' he added.


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From mentor at alb-net.com  Tue Jul 27 18:36:49 1999
From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana)
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 18:36:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [kcc-news] Kosovo Atrocities Recounted In Detail: Glogovac Report by HRW
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9907271834020.557-100000@alb-net.com>

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Kosovo Atrocities Recounted In Detail

(New York, July 27, 1999) -- Human Rights Watch today released a detailed
report on how Serbian and Yugoslav forces besieged and terrorized the
ethnic Albanian population of Glogovac town and the surrounding villages
in Kosovo.

Human Rights Watch urged the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia to locate and interview the police officer identified
in the report as "Lutka," who may have valuable information about the
identities of those who committed summary executions and other
atrocities in the area.

The twenty-five-page report describes summary executions, including a
massacre of twenty-three  children, arbitrary detentions, regular
beatings, widespread looting, and the destruction of schools, hospitals,
and other civilian objects during the Serbian government's three-month
campaign of "ethnic cleansing" from March - June 1999. As a stronghold
of the KLA and an area of constant fighting with government forces, the
Glogovac municipality was particularly hard-hit between March 19, when
international observers (the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission)
withdrew from Kosovo before the NATO bombing campaign, and June 15, when

Serbian and Yugoslav forces withdrew from the region.

The most serious atrocities documented in the report took place in two
villages near Glogovac: Staro Cikatovo and Stari Poklek, both places
where the KLA was active.  In Poklek, the police blocked a group of
ethnic Albanians -- mostly members of the extended Muqolli family --
from fleeing their village and forced them into the house of a relative.
After a few hours, the owner of the house, Sinan Muqolli, and another
man were taken outside, executed and thrown into the family well.

Shortly thereafter, a grenade was thrown into the room holding at least
forty-seven persons, including twenty-three children under the age of
fifteen.  One man in uniform raked the room with automatic gunfire, a
survivor said, killing everyone inside except six people.  A member of
the Muqolli family is a local commander of the KLA.

A Human Rights Watch researcher visited Sinan Muqolli's largely burnt
house on June 25, 1999.  The room where the killing took place had
bullet marks along the walls and bullet casings from a large-caliber
weapon scattered on the floor.  The basement below the room
had dried blood stains dripping from the ceiling and walls and a large
pool of dried blood on the floor.  Surviving family members displayed a
cardboard box containing some of the bones allegedly collected from the
room and showed the nearby well where they claimed some of the bodies
had been dumped.

In Staro Cikatovo on April 17 the police attacked the village and
separated the men from the women and children.  By the end of the day,
twenty-three men from the Morina family had been killed.  Another four
were still missing as of June 25 and presumed dead by their families.
The survivors from Staro Cikatovo insist that none of the dead men were
involved in the KLA, although several members of the family are KLA
soldiers, including two who were wounded in the assault.  As in Poklek,
this may be one explanation for the executions.

Human Rights Watch visited Staro Cikatovo on June 25, 1999.  Between 40
and 50 percent of the approximately one hundred homes had been badly
damaged or destroyed. Most houses had been burned from the inside,
indicating that they were purposefully burned rather than damaged in
combat.  Several structures had also been demolished by bulldozers.

The actions in the Glogovac municipality were clearly coordinated
between the regular Serbian police, the Yugoslav Army, and
paramilitaries, whom witnesses identified as having long hair and
beards, with colored bandanas on their heads and sleeves.  While the
police were responsible for many of the beatings in Glogovac, as well as
the organized mass expulsion, it is the paramilitaries who are
implicated in most of the serious violence, such as in Poklek and Staro
Cikatovo.

The only person identifiable by witnesses was a deputy police chief from
Glogovac known as "Lutka," a known policeman in the town.  Residents
said that he did not behave brutally, unlike many of the paramilitaries,
although he was involved in thefts, and he was a principal organizer of
the forced depopulation in early May, telling Albanians that they should
"get on the buses or go to Albania by foot."

It should be noted that these abuses are hardly the first war crimes
committed by Serbian or Yugoslav forces in the Glogovac municipality.
Since February 1998, the Drenica region has been the sight of numerous
executions, arbitrary detentions, beatings, and the systematic
destruction of civilian objects, such as schools, medical clinics, and
mosques.

Human Rights Watch called on the international community to support the
work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) by guaranteeing ongoing financial and political support to the
Tribunal, assisting the Tribunal to identify witnesses and evidence, and
working closely with the Tribunal to secure evidence and ensure the
protection of witnesses.

The organization also urged the international community to provide the
Tribunal with any intelligence information obtained that relates to the
commission of war crimes, including the identification of specific units
engaged in operations in areas in which abuses occur, and to convey
relevant satellite intelligence information to the Tribunal.

For more information please contact:
In Pristina, Ben Ward: +32-476-495-453
        Fred Abrahams: +32-755-288-90
In New York, Holly Cartner: +1 212 216-1277
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz:+32-2-732-2009
In London, Urmi Shah: +44-171-713-1995

*For a copy of the report, please call Skye Donald at (212) 216-1832 or
Alexandra Perina at (212) 216-1845. The report is available on the web
at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/glogovac/


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